Szczechowicz Landscape Services, Inc.

Fifty-one years in Rowley, and the name on the truck has changed: Szczechowicz Landscape Services now trades as SLS Outdoor Living and Landscaping, with Joseph Szczechowicz as owner and 23 people on the payroll. BBB has accredited the company since 1997 and grades it A+. The work splits in two. One half is design-build hardscape — patios and pavers, walkways, retaining walls, outdoor fireplaces and fire pits, water features, pool landscaping and lighting; the 18 projects on its Houzz page include a Newburyport pool patio, a Byfield walkway and front entrance, a Danvers backyard renovation and a new-build yard in Nahant. The other half is seasonal upkeep: spring and fall clean-ups, mowing, mulch, pruning, fertilisation, irrigation, and snow and ice work for commercial clients only. What customers wrote is consistently decent, and consistently old — the newest of the eight accounts is from December 2012. A homeowner writing in January 2010 with a very high water table said Kevin and his crew came up with creative ideas and plantings to handle the run-off. Another, in July 2009, said the work was completed exactly as quoted despite a spell of bad weather, and cleaned up when done. The most detailed account, from December 2012, is also the most useful. That customer chose the company because it could start soonest, then had to chase the crew when they didn't come back as promised to trim branches scraping a slate roof; a window screen was ripped during the haul-out, which the company took away to repair. The same customer still called everyone courteous and competent and the clean-up "almost perfect". A June 2009 reviewer made a smaller version of the same point: the promised follow-up call at completion never came. Credentials across the directories are self-listed: Massachusetts Certified Landscape Professionals, Massachusetts Certified Arborists, PLANET, SIMA and the Irrigation Association of New England. The 4.7 HomeAdvisor average rests entirely on 2007-2012 reviews, so read it as a record of how the firm worked more than a decade ago. Ask to walk two properties finished in the last year or two, and pin down who supervises your job day to day.