Stonehouse Property Care Inc.

I hired Stonehouse Property care last summer to pull out this horrid bush and resod my disaster of a back yard and did a fantastic job!
Andrew and his crew made sure to be on time each morning. They worked hard and were able to finish the job sooner than estimated. They were also very neat and left no garbage or evidence that they were even here.
They did such a great job, I’ve hired them to do my lawn cutting for this spring and summer. I would definitely recommend Stonehouse Property Care to anyone and look forward to having him take care of my lawn this summer.

Contacted Andrew after seeing positive reviews on Homestars. My front lawn had been taken over with Quack Grass and Creeping Charlie, my back lawn had been over run with purple flowers. I hired Stonehouse to tear out all the front/back lawns, replace backyard flowerbeds, lay down river rock and install an irrigation system. Andrew was friendly during the consultation and his crew worked really hard during the job. Then it fell apart. I had a new driveway laid down and had asked for the bin to be put on the street, Andrew put it on the driveway and it missed the plywood, tearing up my brand...new...driveway. The lawn and irrigation system went in well but the black eyed susans I'd asked for arrived wilted and dead while the shrubs completely died soon after. I spent two months e-mailing Andrew asking for the dead plants to be replaced but he was clearly onto other jobs and didn't want to come back. I've had to bring the driveway company back to repave half the driveway and find a new landscaper to finish the job. In fairness to Andrew I deducted most of the driveway repair and the cost of the new plants from what I had held back on the job.

Now in the spring the purple flowers have come back in the backyard!!!!

I treated Andrew and his crew with total respect and paid a large part of the job in cash. I understand that it makes more financial sense to move your crew to the next big job rather than tie up a guy and a truck to finish the last one right but it is terrible business. I can see from other recent reviews that I'm not alone in receiving this treatment. This was an expensive job, I can't believe it ended this way.

No reviews for months?!? That's because we dominated Andrew's time for over 2 months. Andrew and his team did a complete renovation of our front yard, both sides of our house and the backyard. He also found some time in there to build a fence. All of this while having to work under some challenging and stressful situations. But he kept his cool, dug out dirt, laid down patio stones, installed a sprinkler system, added river rock strategically for design, laid down new sod and yes, he built that darn fence with a solid gate. What doesn't this guy do? And you won't find a friendlier, more responsive landscaper in the business. He actually shows up when he says he will. Truly, an outstanding job. We continue to get compliments from family, friends and even strangers who walk by while we're outside. This little review doesn't even begin to describe the transformation around our house or the efforts and results that Andrew and his team have achieved. Andrew, a heartfelt thanks for everything

I hired Stonehouse to build a new front porch for my house, do some power washing and other repairs. The work was incomplete and unsafe. In the end, I had to hire someone else to come and rip out most of the work and re-do it.

I cannot in good conscious recommend that anyone hire Stonehouse, for the following reasons:
1. Andrew Stonehouse is difficult to communicate with: Though he begins friendly and accommodating, he has a poor memory for verbal communication, he is a terrible written communicator, he does not reflect on previous written communications, he does not share his mobile phone number, and never answers his office line.
2. The project was heavily underestimated: Before work was even completed, I was issued an invoice for 20% higher than the estimate. For a project of this scale, 20% equaled thousands of dollars.
3. Project timelines were not met: I was told the project would take just over one week to complete. Almost a MONTH and a half later, the work was still not complete.
4. The work was largely unsafe: Though they used quality materials and ensured the base of my porch was structurally sound, the details were left incomplete or sloppy. Amongst MANY other things, all posts had exposed bolts (protruding an inch+ into the walkway); the hand-rails for my steps were unusable with splintering wood and exposed nails; and the porch had gaping 2-3 inch holes in the floor!?!
5. Ontario Building Code was not followed: The height of the railing were 8” more than code required, the hand rails were build 4” under code and the depth of the stairs were built 2” shallower than code.

Note, this review does not reflect Stonehouse staff, who all proved to be very polite and tidy.

Reliable, on time and professional. I called them last week when my driveway was 30 cms in snow. Andrew was on time and did an exceptional job. I will use them again and would recommend them to friends and family.

Raj.

We actually learned our lesson the hard way when getting our spring clean up and resod done last year. Andrew was one of the many companies to quote us on the work and told us that the estimate given was the best especially since he ensures that the quality exceeded our expectations. But we opted to go for a cheaper company (not Stonehouse Property Care) thinking there can't be much to a clean up and resod and maintenance . We were so wrong! The other company which is listed here on Homestars actually botched everything up. They removed shubbery that they claimed were weeds gone wild but were actually potentilas, didn't actually remove all winter debris and then ripped up our lawn (stomping on perennials in the flower beds) and left our yard lumpy with random slabs of sod everywhere. It was so bad that we ended up calling Andrew and his crew to see if he could re-do everything, that's when we hired Stonehouse Property Care Inc. Not only did Andrew show no hard feelings, but he did such an exquisite job on the damage control. He edged our garden beds so beautifully, evened out the lumps in the yard and properly laid down the sod. Not only did he do that, but he made sure we knew the importance of how to maintain the sod for the first few weeks, we had no idea that OCD watering was required, which is when he suggested a sprinkler system that could be timed and be one less thing for us to worry about. Andrews a great guy, super friendly, knowledgeable and does great work. We're sorry we went elsewhere first! We've been meaning to send him a review to show just how grateful we are for his work but just never got to it last summer. Thanks Stonehouse Team! - Mary

Gentlemen that actually did the work were very nice and worked hard, and my lawn, for the most part was quite decent. I did mention some browning spots on my lawn after it was re-sod but they basically ignored it. I felt like they were trying to bilk more than what they originally agreed on, but they have a disclaimer that they can do that, which I'll explain. I got an estimate for work done, but was billed for considerably more. I asked for a retaining wall and was told that our conversation was based on something different than what was written in the quote, so they had to bill more than the quote. Also, I was told that because they came when it was raining, that it took longer than expected, so I had to pay for the significantly increased number of hours required to finish the job. The issue I have is that I was billed extra for weather conditions I have no control over (and neither do they) but was not offered an explanation nor an option to reschedule the work during better weather. These increases from the original quote were acceptable by them because they have a disclaimer that the quote is just an estimate and that the price may be higher than what was agreed. Personally, I never dealt with a contractor that changed the price of the quote where no change was made to the work requested. Their work itself was very good, but if you decide to go with them, I would suggest you anticipate that you may have to pay more than what you agreed to. I wouldn't recommend them for this reason.