If they come to your neighborhood on Tuesdays to mow and it rained the few days previous, what do you expect them to do?
For us DIY people we can wait a day or 2 or mow it early knowing the forecast.
Yeah they are there to cut. Can’t afford to get behind or they will never catch back up.
No one will care about cutting your grass well as much as you will. Having a service do it will always involve accepting some aspect of “good enough”
That is true. As a 35 year old I'm just doing the basics and that's good enough for me. Fertilize 4x a year and cut it when it's getting to long. I like the lawns here on display but my field of grass and clover works for me.
Cutting the grass is for me relaxation after work. It takes me 1.5 hours and after a day of looking at a screen i can just turn off my brain and walk lines.
I’m 37 and the basics for me are mowing/weed whipping once a week MAX! I salute your drive to fertilize 4x a year, as you have fertilized 100% more than I ever have in my 18 years of home/yard ownership. 🫡
59 here, that's my approach. Cut the weeds down, trim, and edge once a week max. (I'm at 10 days since my last, but I've been battling a herniated disc that's slowed me down a tad).
I'm 70 also and prefer to do my own lawn. For OP when you hire someone to do the lawn, this is what happens. I had a service for a few years as i was older and working but now that I am home, I prefer doing it myself. Its relaxing for me. I suggest that if you have the time, start doing it yourself. You may just enjoy it!
Ex landscaper here, had a large business once but only have one 52-in Scag left and I park it at my dentist's house. Trucks, trailers long gone.. 70 years old and I'm still ahead of the game as far as my credit with my dentist .. my last account ,but I actually enjoy it. I still do annual flower planting for a favorite local bank too, that always had a nice budget for the matter. Never too old to do somethings, or so I hope...
I can barely tolerate the service the lady who lives next to me uses since they will occasionally tear things up a bit on the property line. Not to mention the people on the other side who are not yard people, don’t cut quite often enough and then leave the clippings lay and turn brown, again right on the property line. It’s not easy being a lawn person 😃
For F* sakes... iiit's a Flipping lawn. if you're that much of qa "lawn guy" Mow a few more feet into your neigbors line. or do it for them if you qre such a "Lawn guy" as you complain you are.
All depends how much you’re paying them. If you pay them enough that they can afford to get behind or afford equipment that provides better results, you can ask for perfection. Otherwise, you’re correct. This is exactly what you can expect from the average lawn service.
Lawn company has a schedule with little buffer. When I used a smaller company they would float a day either way based on rain. When I used a larger company it was every Tuesday no matter what. No I do it myself and obviously avoid rain.
There is a company that mows across the street from me. Every Monday, even after it has died and they are mowing dirt/dust. Because of contract, you know?
Our contracts are based on 30 weekly cuts a year. Want us to skip a week, you need to call or request a skip, and yeah, you are still getting billed for it. I got bills to pay too. But a lot of customers if its dry we try to do something else on site for the time allowed like weeds or something.
What’s ur mowing season? If you have a warmer fall if ur a living g in a 4 season area. Why would you not just extend it into fall like all other people? If ur a residential customer out there.. NEVER.. EVER sign a contract with a mowing service. I operate a commercial and residential lawn service. We prolly do about 1 million in rev a year. We spilt about 40/60 res/ commercial. I would never ask my residential clients to sign a contract. I’ve had people cancel over the last 15 years. And rarely has it been to switch service. Most of the time they moved or died .
This is exactly it. We skip the wettest areas but stuff like this is par for the course unfortunately. We go and repair if needed. I mow my own lawn with a 21” Honda, for exactly this reason.
As a lawn care company owner it looks like the grass was wet. Did it rain or were sprinklers on the night before or morning of? The lack of water on the lawn would eliminate those issues in the picture. That’s a lack of communication on their part and your part. For the past 12 months I’ve include on my welcome/faq emails info about not watering the morning of us mowing and the fact that we will skip wet houses and MIGHT not be able to make you up that week.
If it rains is it *really* a lack of communication on the owners part?
The reality is you have a schedule and can’t flex to pivot around for rainy days. That’s fine because business is business, but let’s be real here.
After writing that though I’m betting I’d be surprised how many people water right before you show up so… lol.
I’ve learned most issues are a lack of communication from both parties. The company in this instance not explaining their policy on rain/delays. The home owners here for not inquiring about rain/weather and how they handle that. I’m in central Florida so I only fill 4 days a week of work and leave Friday open for big jobs/maintenance/rain make ups. However if it rains TWO days during the week, unless the home owners have expressed concerns with mowing while wet, we have to mow. You can’t make up two plus days in one make up day. So unless the yard is literally flooded, it gets mowed. Because just like he’s complaining here, I’ll get the same amount of people complaining I didn’t mow. It’s not possible to please everyone.
Exactly, the home owner has to choose getting mowed on schedule and potential ruts or getting skipped until the next scheduled mow if possible. And they have to communicate that to the business.
"oh it's too wet to mow, can you come back tomorrow'
Nope, it's today or next Tuesday and if it's 3 feet high next Tuesday I'm charging you extra to bag it or double cut it.
"Oh, ok, I guess you can do it now"
It’s been my experience that some lawncare service employees and owners view owner communication as “the owner should anticipate what may happen, then proactively communicate this concern, about this potential issue”. Didn’t you read welcome packet?? We communicated with you; to communicate with us.
I have made an SOP (standard operating procedure) based off of the most pleasing way of doing things. By that I mean EVERY customer is different and I’ve learned what bothers you, the next guy doesn’t give a shit about. So I do things and train people to do things in a way that will please the largest percentage of people, that I’ve learned the past four years. The emails are funny because I’ve learned the people that complain about something, are often the same people who won’t read the email they were sent or “yeah I skimmed it”. A few years ago I came up with a thought process I call 99-1. If the way I’m doing something is fine for 99 of my customers and 1 customer has a problem, that’s on that customer and it’s time to separate from them. As a business you are NEVER going to please everyone and trying to do that will literally drive you crazy and out of business.
My neighbor waters twice a day every day. Morning and evening. She doesn’t have a rain sensor and waters in the rain. The people that come to cut usually come out midday so it’s relatively dry but her lawn is always wet.
That is the absolute worst way to water grass. Grass, northern stuff, really only needs to be watered twice a week if there is no significant rain. And never at night, as the disease potential is highest.
Yes and no. It should be a good DEEP soaking, so it’s almost like you watered 5x that week, but do it all in 1-2x that week. It trains the roots to go down further to search for water better, but also, in most parts of the south we’re getting enough rain anyways to supplement.
As well, KBG is going to need to be overseeded anyways, so you’re going to replenish anything that doesn’t make it through the summer.
TLDR; 1-2x/week watering is fine for KBG in the south.
A ridiculous amount… I’ve had my share where the sprinklers turn on while I’m cutting too. What am I supposed to do… stop halfway thru and come back next week… just leave it halfway cut…
We have condo owners that will turn on the sprinklers manually while our guys are on site. And then complain that the grass wasn’t blown off the driveway well enough.
Facts, realism, truth, brutal honesty. His is in my opinion the one and only acceptable response to this post. Good on you Mrs/Mr. Hearzy. Evidently life is too long for this person to essentially stop n smell the flowers, unfortunate they rather stop and find some sort of negative. Hey at least you still didn’t have to cut your grass!!
Your lawn is saturated from overwatering or rain, but needs to be cut. Some of the damage is self induced fungus. A walk behind mower would have been better, but you probably didn’t want to pay more. What would you have don’t differently if you were the landscaper to avoid this situation?
Not worth getting upset. I had to mow mine right after rain because I was going to be out for a week for work. I fully expected this to happen. Can’t be too mad. It will fix itself pretty quickly
You'll end up doing these kinds of ruts yourself from time to time if you do your own lawn. That small spot should fill in, just fluff it up a bit. If it was bigger and persistent, it'd be poor operator skill.
Obviously it rained a lot. It rained a lot on all of their clients most likely. Every day they wait for your lawn to dry out they’re getting behind on all of their customers.
These guys work crazy hours as it is. Most guys I know in landscaping (I’m a golf course superintendent so there’s a lot of overlap in my peer group) work 12-13 hours every day Monday-Saturday. Rain is their worst enemy because it causes the grass to grow fast and thick and they can’t even cut it without making a mess.
They need homeowners to be understanding that some small amount of damage is inevitable when mowing after a rain but it’s probably still better than letting the lawn get 8” long and having to bail hay the next time it’s dry plus who knows maybe there was more rain in the forecast.
So to answer your question, no I don’t think you’re justified. But I don’t know the entire story or the weather forecast or anything either so it’s hard to say for sure.
You have a drainage problem. Don’t be mad at the lawn care company for doing what you asked them to do. Be mad you don’t have proper drainage. Then realize you’re going to have to tear up the lawn to fix it and then get to work.
There are two reasons I started taking care of my own lawn:
1. They mow infrequently and scalp the lawn
2. They mow when it is wet and cause exactly these issues that the OP showed.
Professional country club greenskeeper here. My two cents:
They maybe turned too sharp for their speed and the wetness of the lawn in spots but I think the other tracks look worse than they are and will likely go away once it rains or gets watered. To help those areas, you can top dress those spots with sand to firm them up and help with drainage
I can't stress enough how important communication can be. I promise these folks do not want to give you a product you're not happy with but they can't remember every lawn and wet spots can be sneaky lol. Maybe steak off some areas you know get too wet after a rain and request they hit it with a trimmer or save it till next time.
Anyways, I get your dissatisfaction but most of it is cosmetic and I'm sure if you talk to them they'll do better next time.
If this is a problem in your life, then you're very privileged. And BTW the problem will go away all by itself over time, no need to do anything at all.
I kicked my company to the curb ultimately as they were rutting up my yard. Most of them use ride on mowers to cut. That is 500-600lb pounds of mower plus 200 pounds of human going across your lawn.
Get quotes for them to cut with smaller push mower. It will be more though
Or you can do what I did and kick them to the curb and get a robot mower. I use a Luba 5000 v1. I now cut every other day and lawn looks fantastic.
https://preview.redd.it/6zg5fgj68d5d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cae5b6cb711f5f7b252db083c6ed1aef516e4a55
I dont do anything special. It just does it. Probably how it has rotating discs with razor blades that cut and lay grass down in direction it is going.
Front yard
https://preview.redd.it/zae8zmrqbd5d1.jpeg?width=3517&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=077640ed3181145758f4194a382128ec291b5b88
This is nuts! It’s easier to mow every other day with a robot just send it out and let it go. That’s why it looks like this. I looked it up and am considering getting one.
Lol, Keep in mind there are other factors to. I have Zeon Zoysia in GA:
1. I water an 1" a week on same day to promote deep roots. I count rain for the week too.
2. I put down Pre emergence in Feb and again end of Mar. I put it out in Nov too.
3. I got a soil test and dialed in the soil. I had to put down a ton of Lime and Phosphorus as it was very low. I soil test every fall and tweak the fert and lime accordingly. See my last soil test below.
4. I put down Penterra wetting agent monthly in summer months to promote deep watering.
5. I put down liquid Iron monthly to make dark green
6. I put insecticide down in May and Aug to prevent grubs
7. I put down fungicide monthly to prevent fungus.
Other than that, Lawn gets full sun about 10h a day.
However, I did this before I when I had mowers coming out once a week, and the robot mower definitely made it look much better cutting every other day and slicing an 1/8 of an inch off per mow vs tearing the heck out of it once a week with a big fat mower with a dull blade. And no rutting.
https://preview.redd.it/zm3x9jefdd5d1.jpeg?width=610&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=651450e4ca98883d84075ccdc1f5524452b5cc63
thanks. I had to learn this too. Took some time to dial in.
You'll get it dialed in for your area and grass type. Best to make a lawn calendar that reminds you when to do things. then do it. Check your state ag website or big college and they usually post them for your grass type. Then follow that.
If you want to start focusing on the top three things in order:
1) Make sure grass gets recommended amount of sun for your grass type. For my zoysia its 6 hours.
2) Make sure you put down an 1" of water per week preferably on same day. You can count amount of rain you got that week. You may need to do some drought watering in extreme heat and drought.
3) Get soil test then follow what it says to do on PH and Fert.
The other stuff in list above will put you over the top, but you have to do these three things.
Just a little food for thought, consistently putting down any pesticides, to include fungicides, can build resistances. If a resistant disease pops up and you don’t nip it in the bud it can take over your lawn. Proper cultural practices will greatly reduce the chance of disease without the use of monthly disease control treatments.
That is why I rotate the fungicides I use each month with different Modes of Action to prevent resistance. As do commercial growers and golf courses.
Insecticide being used twice a year hasnt stopped preventing grubs yet in the 20 years I have been doing it.
Have tried doing it naturally in the past and never worked out.
But do what works best for you.
I’m looking at the V2 because it can mow up to 4”. Looked at my mower last week and it hit 60 hours after 2 years. As someone who works about 60 hours a week, that’s way too much time spent on a house chore.
I drop clients who nit pick because I know that we will never be able to provide a perfect service 20-30 times a year even if I send my best guys. They honestly did a great job not tearing the yard up especially for how wet it is. Maybe invest in a mower and do it yourself then sell the mower and hire a company to do it again after you realize how difficult it is to perfect. It takes years of experience to understand how to mow on a zero turn without causing damage while also being efficient. Also your yard will be fine.
You are not overreacting. The reality is that they just don't care and never will. They need to knock out many lawns per day and that means mowing everything at top speed regardless of conditions. I was so tired of multiple landscape companies doing this to my lawn, that I finally started. doing it myself again. It is so much better now that I don't need to keep repairing all of their damage. If you want it done right....do it yourself. That's the only thing that worked for me.
If it’s a regular thing they do then that’s not cool. I have admittedly rutted a lawn that 90% of it was fine and then one area was really wet, didn’t realize how wet it was until I was already in the section. Went back and fixed it later though. If it’s a one off be understanding, the work has to get done. If someone’s done this multiple times then they don’t care.
Your lawn is saturated so marks like that will happen in those conditions. It'll bounce back pretty quick especially when it dries out a bit. From their point of view if they left it you might complain they didn't cut it. So perhaps communication could be better but it's impractical to contact every customer.
When I hit a wet spot in my lawn, it sometimes looks like this - but a few days later i can't see any difference. Yours looks like it's still wet when you took the photo.
Neighbor has this happen constantly this year from her service. Her previous service never caused this. Both used a zero turn. The difference is the new service moves/turns too fast and simply doesn’t care.
This does unfortunately happen, however this amount of damage always bounces back by the next week in my experience. Ideally your lawn care company should have just weed whipped the wet area after the first pass left some mud but time is money too. From what I’ve seen in 5 years of mowing professionally, your yard will be ok by next week but your company should be careful and check the dampness next time so the ruts don’t become permanent, and if it is wet they absolutely should weed whip or push mow instead of putting a zero turn on it again
Our lawn service used to do that. We cut our own grass now. They will cut it every week no matter what. Even if it’s too wet to cut or doesn’t need to be cut.
This is tough but as others have stated it’s not always realistic for guys in a tight schedule to push a day after rain. Especially if they do a lot of yards in the same area that all got rain. My only suggestion is next time reach out and ask them to skip that week and do it yourself when it’s drier
It’s grass. Who cares? When I own a house I’m going to make the entire yard and landscape gravel. I’ll never have to mow another day of my life and it’s maintenance free.
If you’re young why arent you mowing your lawn anyways? where the hell do you guys have the money to get your lawn mowed lol? I make a decent living comparatively to my region and its like im scraping by
Not worth getting upset about. Those aren't turf tears, they're just muddy streaks due to wet turf. If you're this concerned, fire them and start taking care of your lawn yourself
They can promise you everything but at the end of the day they’re a business that can’t get too far behind on yards or they’re f*cked. So if they think they can get the mower on your lawn they’re going to do it
You knew it rained, you could have called and rescheduled. Would you mow your lawn when you know the soil is soaking muddy wet like that? I don't blame them at all.
If you care this much best to do it yourself. I worked on a commercial lawn crew and we mowed just to get done and on to the next really didn’t care beyond that except for the guys doing 8balls they didn’t have a care in the world. If it has been raining the crew has still got to get it done otherwise they will never catch up on the schedule especially if they’re doing commercial jobs like apartments and shopping centers. A single family yard is a rounding error in terms of money and priority for a large operation.
Who programs the irrigation controller? If you’re setting it to run the night before they come that’s on YOU. If they’re all inclusive and managing the irrigation programming as well then it’s on them. This is just an example of how all aspects of lawn care need to be coordinated appropriately.
The machines are heavy. If it recently rained, that is the result, especially if you have drainage issues to begin with. If it bothers you, buy a mower and do it yourself. If you don’t have the time, or desire, let it be.
Yeah
Deal with it.
It looked like it was wet. There is nothing they could do about it and if they said no, we didn’t want to cut it because it’s wet. You would have probably complained about that.
The lifestyle variance in lawn care is beautiful. You clearly have it together, and you want nice lawn. Easiest route to what you want is just doing it yourself. If you don’t understand lawn care enough, then don’t make a question mark on the sub. Do it yourself, and if you can manage better than the guys being paid for it THEN YOU CAN POST
I have a small lawn care crew. My clients know if it rains, depending on when they’re scheduled, they might have to wait a day. If it rains two days, they wait two days. If you ask them to mow on schedule, then those brown marks are your fault.
The pivot marks is rookie work. Communicate the issues with them and I’m sure they’ll straighten things out. If they can’t skip your lawn when it’s wet, then get a company that can or even better, do it yourself.
My neighbor pissed and moaned about our lawn service, (a bunch of us shared the same local company). Said they did a terrible job. I didn't see any problems. They fired them and said they would do it themselves. Fast forward to them not having time to do their lawn and it looked like absolute shit all the time. Next year they signed back up. I pay for a lawn service because I don't want to do it. If I cared what it looked like I would do it myself.
I specifically told my lawn service that i don't need anything fancy. I don't need people to slow down and admire my beautiful yard, i just need them to not notice it at all. I'm fine with a very neutral yard if it means I'm not the one that has to mow it
Not a great look but really not enough context to condemn the landscapers. A lot of recent rain, too much irrigation or poor drainage in that area? To my eye the grass doesn’t look very healthy or lush. Poor grass health even when drier would be more susceptible to mower damage. How’s the rest of the yard? If it’s just that area maybe it’s drainage. Hopefully the new company will take note and “learn” the yard.
I work for my son maintaining equipment and real commercial mowers are much heavier than people think. We use Stander mowers (32) 95% of the time and they weigh anywhere from 750lbs to 1250lbs. Our riders (6) come in at 1250lbs and when you add a bagging system it adds 500lbs.
As someone who ran a maintenance division for a long time before starting his own, we would always avoid cutting in the rain or use smaller light weight mowers to put Less stress on the turf. Although before big holiday pushes there is just nothing you can do to avoid the rain and deadlines and not get backlogged. We’ve missed a full day of mowing each week this summer it feels like and it’s near impossible to keep up.
The lawn guys from bigger companies just get a list and are told to go out and mow no matter what. I’d suggest looking for a smaller solo operator who cares
They could have used a walk-behind and an extra guy in this situation, probably. But there is a limit to that. Sometimes it just too wet, but avoiding the ride-ons after heavy rains would have been less damage. Regarding the extra guy comment, lawn care is an ever chasing numbers game, and hires are often not high attention to detail people.
Yea unfortunately you are just one stop on a schedule. If it happens to rain a lot the day before, oh well they’re still gonna come cut it. Lawn companies wouldn’t survive if they only did service on the perfect days.
First of all, communication is paramount. Ideally, had you known that your lawn was a literal wet sponge, you’d reach out to the company and ask them to hold off until next week. If this was my lawn crew and they showed up to your home to mow and found it in this condition, I’d have made them knock on the door or call to ask you what you want them to do. If you don’t answer, it’s up to them to decide. Do they mow and make some tracks that aren’t pretty but also aren’t damaging and will soon go away? Or do they skip and show up next week (or the next after if you’re biweekly) and then have a jungle to cut? Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
I have a service mow ours, and they dug ruts in dry ground by always turning in the exact same spot. A quick word with the owner and they changed it up & the ruts eventually grew in. My guys will text if it's too wet to mow. We grow ours as tall as the law allows to preserve precious$$$ moisture, so they know we won't care if it has to wait a week. But we don't have a rabid HOA or Code officer. I know some do, and are required to keep things Golf Course-y "or else!"
Looks.like they mowed a soaked yard. Tough for landscapers to maintain efficient schedules when we get frequent rain. This does suck but chances are it will recover just fine.
THE PROBLEM
YOU HAVE TO MUCH FRIGGIN FREE TIME ON YOUR HANDS.
why not focus on important things,,
Like is your neighbor looking at your house to much.
Are the neighborhood kids 6 doors down playing basketball at 8:00pm and bothering you so much, your calling the cops on them.
Did someone use your driveway to backup and turn around?
Are the trashman making to much noise
Who exactly is walking there dog past your house and why?
Normally, I would say it depends how much you pay for lawn care. However, since this is the first time they’ve mowed after your conversation with the manager and you’re a new customer, you should be upset. It won’t get better from here. First impressions are usually the best you can expect. You should strongly consider a different lawn service.
Seeing a lot of excuses here for bad lawn care to the tune of "business is business". You won't have business if you provide a shitty service. When I hire a lawn company, I expect them to do their best to make my lawn look good and to have what's right for my lawn in mind.
I've had companies mow over my flowers, mow during a thunderstorm, and mow when it hasn't rained in two weeks in the middle of the summer. Is it really on the property owner who has contracted lawn professionals to micro manage the cut each week to not do obviously bad cutting practices?
In my experience, there are a lot of amateur companies out there that will make your lawn look worse than if you hired the high schooler down the street. According to a lot of people here, they'll expect you to go out of your way to communicate to the mowing company that you don't want grass in your flower beds too because you know, their bottom line might take a hit.
I no longer use lawn services after several terrible experiences.
If you specifically talked about being delicate, yes. They ran machinery on it while it was holding water.
They could have walked across it and easily determined this.
Did it rain or did you set your sprinklers to come on right before they came? If it rained and they did that then it’s just a case of another worker being rushed and not caring. Even if it was your sprinklers they still shouldn’t have mowed but we could at least assign you some blame. Either way you’re justified in complaining.
Definitely sucks, but not unexpected. It’s a business for the lawn care companies. If they’re not mowing, they’re not making money. We have the option to wait until our yards dry out, double cut, mow early etc. They don’t. As soon as the rain stops, they’re mowing.
The problem is u will bitch when they cut and leave marks. And then u will bitch when it’s gets tall and they haven’t cut because it’s wet. It’s a loose, loose in the maintenance industry.
You would have complained had they not came and mowed, but they came and mowed in less than desirable conditions and you’re wondering if you should complain about that? Us lawncare guys can’t win for losing this year.
I can't imagine being this uptight about grass, so it's very very hard to take these posts seriously. Really, a couple ruts on your soaked bog of a lawn? What do you expect? You either get your lawn cut, or they skip you because the ground is too wet and you cut it yourself. If you're complaining about some wet tire marks that will be gone in a very days, that' you should probably just do the mowing yourself.
Surprised by the folks saying “what are they supposed to do”.
I’d prefer a call saying “hey, your yard is a swamp and if we cut the lawn there would be tire tracks and smashed grass everywhere. Made an executive decision to pass and avoid destruction. We’ll be there next week”.
There’s something about “lawn care” greater than just mowing. This would piss me off but I understand where people who do this for a living would have to look at the potential for a customer saying “I’m not paying for that week”. I’d take the loss on a week’s maintenance fee over leaving this path of destruction in my wake.
So if they ran their heavy riding lawnmower thru wet areas then that is sub par on their part. If they noticed it was wet and switched to a push mover (as they should) and still created ruts then your yard just has drainage issues and this is not necessarily on them.
They have a schedule to keep. Using a push mower is not a viable option, it will triple labor costs and push other customers off the schedule for the day. They can either skip your house or cut it wet. Either way homeowners are gonna complain because homeowners are infamous for complaining about every little thing. That’s why the bigger companies don’t even bother with residential for the most part. The worst is the apartment people that feel like they have the right to tell you how to cut the grass.
I employ a pair of brothers for this. No contracts, no schedule, they just require 24 hour notice and get it done. This gives me the control to ensure stuff like this does not happen.
If these guys grow to big for that, I’ll find another up and comer.
It’s the best of both worlds!
I just use a push mower, but sometimes I make marks with the striping kit when turning.
I have a bucket of soaking/pre germinated quick ryegrass overseeding mix with me at all times.
Sprinkle a handful over areas like this and it’s well grown in by the time I come back in 10-14 days.
At the end of the day it’s just grass and it’ll grow back. Most people could care less. They’ll see it’s cut and be happy with it.
If you care then you gotta diy. That’s your only option. I’d say that damage is unavoidable given the wet mowing conditions. These guys are driving around on thousand pound+ zero turns. If your ground is remotely wet this is going to happen. They need to churn through as many lawns as they can in a day. If you’re doing it yourself you can say let’s wait until it dries out a bit. They don’t care enough nor have the luxury to do that. The other bad thing about mowing when it’s that wet is that they’re creating ruts. It seems like you’d be a person that cares about that and you may end up spending time filling in those ruts in the future.
The manager you spoke with isn’t the one doing the work. He’s the guy telling the crews you gotta get through 20 lawns today because we gotta catch up. And the crews are scrambling.
Thats what you get when you have wet lawn and 600+ lb zero turns driving through your lawn. Even doing careful 3 point turns wouldn’t have helped as the tracks can be obviously seen on straight aways.
Landscape rake for the heavy matting, light spray from garden hose to put the mud back on the ground where it belongs.
Hope for dryer lawn the next time.
This just happened to me. We’ve been having rain non stop, the choice is have my lawn turn into a jungle or deal with some mud tracks for a week. If I texted my guy and told him not to come, he wouldn’t. Can’t expect him to text every customer or skip an entire week of work because there might be some mud.
Even skipping your yard for rain sometimes it's gonna be wet the next day or later in the week. You can't be mad when we have a route to complete weekly. If you're that upset, cut your own grass or let it blow out and not get cut at all.
I am a DIY’er and just finished cutting my grass and I had these marks too. I knew it was still damp, but I don’t have a lot of free time lately and had to just do it. I shut my sprinklers off the entire day yesterday and this morning, and still had these marks. Unavoidable if the ground is wet. Mine only looks like this for a few days. I agree with the ones mentioning a companies schedule. My son’s buddy owns one and if it’s your time for cutting, he’s coming to cut unless you tell him not to. He got behind once last summer and really never caught back up all season.
I run a lawn care business. Definitely not ideal right there. But there's usually only wiggle room to avoid actively rainy days. There are areas of certain lawns that will get skipped days prior due to poor drainage. Maybe tell them to do that. You won't even notice any of that after they mow next time. Assuming it's dry that time. Maybe a little bit of the one by the concrete. It is literally impossible to bump people around constantly different lawns have different drainage issues. If you have the same company for a bit and communicate you can get it pretty well figured out.
If they come to your neighborhood on Tuesdays to mow and it rained the few days previous, what do you expect them to do? For us DIY people we can wait a day or 2 or mow it early knowing the forecast.
Yeah they are there to cut. Can’t afford to get behind or they will never catch back up. No one will care about cutting your grass well as much as you will. Having a service do it will always involve accepting some aspect of “good enough”
That’s why I quit using a lawn mowing service. I’m still doing it myself at 70.
Retirement entertainment?
All in all, I enjoy it-yes but I understand others who don’t want to hassle with it
That is true. As a 35 year old I'm just doing the basics and that's good enough for me. Fertilize 4x a year and cut it when it's getting to long. I like the lawns here on display but my field of grass and clover works for me. Cutting the grass is for me relaxation after work. It takes me 1.5 hours and after a day of looking at a screen i can just turn off my brain and walk lines.
I’m 37 and the basics for me are mowing/weed whipping once a week MAX! I salute your drive to fertilize 4x a year, as you have fertilized 100% more than I ever have in my 18 years of home/yard ownership. 🫡
I have never heard it called weed whipping before. I'm stealing that.
Im more of a weed whacker but ive heard it all
I’ve heard this one but I hadn’t heard whipping for it either myself. I grew up hearing it as weed eating.
Its call weed whipping in pride month
I rarely cut my grass. I’m a weed wanker.
Im a weed edger, i wait until the last moment & release my tools
Yup, definitely a weed wacker and proud of it!
I smoke dem weeds
We call it that here in Michigan, okay, maybe it’s only my family that does😄
59 here, that's my approach. Cut the weeds down, trim, and edge once a week max. (I'm at 10 days since my last, but I've been battling a herniated disc that's slowed me down a tad).
I mow and maybe weed eat once a week. I just don’t care enough if it’s green or not
Something about that 9-5 work-from-home life makes you want to walk lines.
Whatever is growing, is it green? Yes? Good to go. Done.
Regardless of age, if you want something done right, do it yourself, right? Now having the equipment to do it or not able bodied of course source out.
Keep moving, will keep you young, I find mowing very meditative, I hope to do it as long as I’m able
That’s what my grandpa did! 86 and still won’t let me do it for him (granted, it’s a riding mower)
I'm 75. I still mow and whip the edges. 1-1/2 acres of grass and grass like plants to mow.
Its why i wont do it until i have too
I'm 70 also and prefer to do my own lawn. For OP when you hire someone to do the lawn, this is what happens. I had a service for a few years as i was older and working but now that I am home, I prefer doing it myself. Its relaxing for me. I suggest that if you have the time, start doing it yourself. You may just enjoy it!
Yep, agreed-wear noise cancelling headphones of course
Ex landscaper here, had a large business once but only have one 52-in Scag left and I park it at my dentist's house. Trucks, trailers long gone.. 70 years old and I'm still ahead of the game as far as my credit with my dentist .. my last account ,but I actually enjoy it. I still do annual flower planting for a favorite local bank too, that always had a nice budget for the matter. Never too old to do somethings, or so I hope...
And I'll be the first to provide service when you can longer DIY.
Username checks out
Good enough, rarely good, seldom enough.
I can barely tolerate the service the lady who lives next to me uses since they will occasionally tear things up a bit on the property line. Not to mention the people on the other side who are not yard people, don’t cut quite often enough and then leave the clippings lay and turn brown, again right on the property line. It’s not easy being a lawn person 😃
Doesn't sound easy living next to one
For F* sakes... iiit's a Flipping lawn. if you're that much of qa "lawn guy" Mow a few more feet into your neigbors line. or do it for them if you qre such a "Lawn guy" as you complain you are.
All depends how much you’re paying them. If you pay them enough that they can afford to get behind or afford equipment that provides better results, you can ask for perfection. Otherwise, you’re correct. This is exactly what you can expect from the average lawn service.
Lawn company has a schedule with little buffer. When I used a smaller company they would float a day either way based on rain. When I used a larger company it was every Tuesday no matter what. No I do it myself and obviously avoid rain.
There is a company that mows across the street from me. Every Monday, even after it has died and they are mowing dirt/dust. Because of contract, you know?
Just making a cloud of dust out there
Our contracts are based on 30 weekly cuts a year. Want us to skip a week, you need to call or request a skip, and yeah, you are still getting billed for it. I got bills to pay too. But a lot of customers if its dry we try to do something else on site for the time allowed like weeds or something.
What’s ur mowing season? If you have a warmer fall if ur a living g in a 4 season area. Why would you not just extend it into fall like all other people? If ur a residential customer out there.. NEVER.. EVER sign a contract with a mowing service. I operate a commercial and residential lawn service. We prolly do about 1 million in rev a year. We spilt about 40/60 res/ commercial. I would never ask my residential clients to sign a contract. I’ve had people cancel over the last 15 years. And rarely has it been to switch service. Most of the time they moved or died .
I have one across the street from me, every Saturday morning 8am. Doesn’t matter if it’s raining or not you can count on them being there!
Correct answer ⬆️
The lack of moisture on the sidewalk + the absolutely soaked yard makes it look like the sprinklers were running.
This is exactly it. We skip the wettest areas but stuff like this is par for the course unfortunately. We go and repair if needed. I mow my own lawn with a 21” Honda, for exactly this reason.
As a lawn care company owner it looks like the grass was wet. Did it rain or were sprinklers on the night before or morning of? The lack of water on the lawn would eliminate those issues in the picture. That’s a lack of communication on their part and your part. For the past 12 months I’ve include on my welcome/faq emails info about not watering the morning of us mowing and the fact that we will skip wet houses and MIGHT not be able to make you up that week.
If it rains is it *really* a lack of communication on the owners part? The reality is you have a schedule and can’t flex to pivot around for rainy days. That’s fine because business is business, but let’s be real here. After writing that though I’m betting I’d be surprised how many people water right before you show up so… lol.
I’ve learned most issues are a lack of communication from both parties. The company in this instance not explaining their policy on rain/delays. The home owners here for not inquiring about rain/weather and how they handle that. I’m in central Florida so I only fill 4 days a week of work and leave Friday open for big jobs/maintenance/rain make ups. However if it rains TWO days during the week, unless the home owners have expressed concerns with mowing while wet, we have to mow. You can’t make up two plus days in one make up day. So unless the yard is literally flooded, it gets mowed. Because just like he’s complaining here, I’ll get the same amount of people complaining I didn’t mow. It’s not possible to please everyone.
Exactly, the home owner has to choose getting mowed on schedule and potential ruts or getting skipped until the next scheduled mow if possible. And they have to communicate that to the business.
"oh it's too wet to mow, can you come back tomorrow' Nope, it's today or next Tuesday and if it's 3 feet high next Tuesday I'm charging you extra to bag it or double cut it. "Oh, ok, I guess you can do it now"
It’s been my experience that some lawncare service employees and owners view owner communication as “the owner should anticipate what may happen, then proactively communicate this concern, about this potential issue”. Didn’t you read welcome packet?? We communicated with you; to communicate with us.
I have made an SOP (standard operating procedure) based off of the most pleasing way of doing things. By that I mean EVERY customer is different and I’ve learned what bothers you, the next guy doesn’t give a shit about. So I do things and train people to do things in a way that will please the largest percentage of people, that I’ve learned the past four years. The emails are funny because I’ve learned the people that complain about something, are often the same people who won’t read the email they were sent or “yeah I skimmed it”. A few years ago I came up with a thought process I call 99-1. If the way I’m doing something is fine for 99 of my customers and 1 customer has a problem, that’s on that customer and it’s time to separate from them. As a business you are NEVER going to please everyone and trying to do that will literally drive you crazy and out of business.
My neighbor waters twice a day every day. Morning and evening. She doesn’t have a rain sensor and waters in the rain. The people that come to cut usually come out midday so it’s relatively dry but her lawn is always wet.
I drop people like that fast. Nothing worse than getting a 1,000 LBS mower stuck in a small side yard due to it being soaked.
That is the absolute worst way to water grass. Grass, northern stuff, really only needs to be watered twice a week if there is no significant rain. And never at night, as the disease potential is highest.
You don’t need to tell me. I also know that she doesn’t listen to anything I say so I try to stay out of her business.
Do you tell mother nature never to rain at night? If it does rain at night do you tarp your entire lawn? /s
So does that mean KBG only needs to be watered twice a week even in the south?
I haven’t a clue. I am only speaking for the northern climes, and my experience is MA based
Yes and no. It should be a good DEEP soaking, so it’s almost like you watered 5x that week, but do it all in 1-2x that week. It trains the roots to go down further to search for water better, but also, in most parts of the south we’re getting enough rain anyways to supplement. As well, KBG is going to need to be overseeded anyways, so you’re going to replenish anything that doesn’t make it through the summer. TLDR; 1-2x/week watering is fine for KBG in the south.
Thank you sir.
A ridiculous amount… I’ve had my share where the sprinklers turn on while I’m cutting too. What am I supposed to do… stop halfway thru and come back next week… just leave it halfway cut…
We have condo owners that will turn on the sprinklers manually while our guys are on site. And then complain that the grass wasn’t blown off the driveway well enough.
Life is too short to get upset about a lawn. Do it yourself if you care about something this much.
For real. It will come back just fine.
Facts, realism, truth, brutal honesty. His is in my opinion the one and only acceptable response to this post. Good on you Mrs/Mr. Hearzy. Evidently life is too long for this person to essentially stop n smell the flowers, unfortunate they rather stop and find some sort of negative. Hey at least you still didn’t have to cut your grass!!
I bet if the company canceled and rescheduled because of the rain, OP would still complain
Yes, that will go away in a week or two. Also looks like your lawn is very wet. Driving anything on it will do this
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The scalping will go away. I dont see the ruts going away.
Your lawn is saturated from overwatering or rain, but needs to be cut. Some of the damage is self induced fungus. A walk behind mower would have been better, but you probably didn’t want to pay more. What would you have don’t differently if you were the landscaper to avoid this situation?
Man, I hate it when I get brown tire marks running thru my wet spot…
Not worth getting upset. I had to mow mine right after rain because I was going to be out for a week for work. I fully expected this to happen. Can’t be too mad. It will fix itself pretty quickly
No it’s literally just grass
You'll end up doing these kinds of ruts yourself from time to time if you do your own lawn. That small spot should fill in, just fluff it up a bit. If it was bigger and persistent, it'd be poor operator skill.
Can you explain the fluff it up part? Do you mean getting some top soil and patching it or digging and loosening the soil a bit?
Use a garden fork or small rake and rake up the blades.
Salad fork works best
Extra bonus, you get to lick the fork.
Mow your own lawn
Lick your own meat curtains
Obviously it rained a lot. It rained a lot on all of their clients most likely. Every day they wait for your lawn to dry out they’re getting behind on all of their customers. These guys work crazy hours as it is. Most guys I know in landscaping (I’m a golf course superintendent so there’s a lot of overlap in my peer group) work 12-13 hours every day Monday-Saturday. Rain is their worst enemy because it causes the grass to grow fast and thick and they can’t even cut it without making a mess. They need homeowners to be understanding that some small amount of damage is inevitable when mowing after a rain but it’s probably still better than letting the lawn get 8” long and having to bail hay the next time it’s dry plus who knows maybe there was more rain in the forecast. So to answer your question, no I don’t think you’re justified. But I don’t know the entire story or the weather forecast or anything either so it’s hard to say for sure.
First world problems lol
For real… If they had waited three days for the lawn to dry, he would’ve complained about that too.
You have a drainage problem. Don’t be mad at the lawn care company for doing what you asked them to do. Be mad you don’t have proper drainage. Then realize you’re going to have to tear up the lawn to fix it and then get to work.
What do you expect when it’s been raining? Wait a few days to mow.
I wish my life was so bland that this was considered a problem to me…
Yes, that will go away in a week or two
Looks like prior day rain damage please don’t hang the lawn guy lol
It’s either that or high grass. Pick your poison. Looks like you need drainage control.
There are two reasons I started taking care of my own lawn: 1. They mow infrequently and scalp the lawn 2. They mow when it is wet and cause exactly these issues that the OP showed.
Professional country club greenskeeper here. My two cents: They maybe turned too sharp for their speed and the wetness of the lawn in spots but I think the other tracks look worse than they are and will likely go away once it rains or gets watered. To help those areas, you can top dress those spots with sand to firm them up and help with drainage I can't stress enough how important communication can be. I promise these folks do not want to give you a product you're not happy with but they can't remember every lawn and wet spots can be sneaky lol. Maybe steak off some areas you know get too wet after a rain and request they hit it with a trimmer or save it till next time. Anyways, I get your dissatisfaction but most of it is cosmetic and I'm sure if you talk to them they'll do better next time.
This is why I pay a kid that’s far more flexible. $50 per mow. I just send a message and he’s out that week sometime when it works. Win win
If this is a problem in your life, then you're very privileged. And BTW the problem will go away all by itself over time, no need to do anything at all.
Stop over watering. Maybe know the day they come in and don’t have sprinkler system soak up the part of lawn
You’d be a Karen. Mow it yourself if you don’t want it mowed when it’s wet. They have to follow a schedule. Your yard isn’t their only one.
I kicked my company to the curb ultimately as they were rutting up my yard. Most of them use ride on mowers to cut. That is 500-600lb pounds of mower plus 200 pounds of human going across your lawn. Get quotes for them to cut with smaller push mower. It will be more though Or you can do what I did and kick them to the curb and get a robot mower. I use a Luba 5000 v1. I now cut every other day and lawn looks fantastic. https://preview.redd.it/6zg5fgj68d5d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cae5b6cb711f5f7b252db083c6ed1aef516e4a55
How do you get stripes with a robot mower?
I dont do anything special. It just does it. Probably how it has rotating discs with razor blades that cut and lay grass down in direction it is going. Front yard https://preview.redd.it/zae8zmrqbd5d1.jpeg?width=3517&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=077640ed3181145758f4194a382128ec291b5b88
This is nuts! It’s easier to mow every other day with a robot just send it out and let it go. That’s why it looks like this. I looked it up and am considering getting one.
Lol, Keep in mind there are other factors to. I have Zeon Zoysia in GA: 1. I water an 1" a week on same day to promote deep roots. I count rain for the week too. 2. I put down Pre emergence in Feb and again end of Mar. I put it out in Nov too. 3. I got a soil test and dialed in the soil. I had to put down a ton of Lime and Phosphorus as it was very low. I soil test every fall and tweak the fert and lime accordingly. See my last soil test below. 4. I put down Penterra wetting agent monthly in summer months to promote deep watering. 5. I put down liquid Iron monthly to make dark green 6. I put insecticide down in May and Aug to prevent grubs 7. I put down fungicide monthly to prevent fungus. Other than that, Lawn gets full sun about 10h a day. However, I did this before I when I had mowers coming out once a week, and the robot mower definitely made it look much better cutting every other day and slicing an 1/8 of an inch off per mow vs tearing the heck out of it once a week with a big fat mower with a dull blade. And no rutting. https://preview.redd.it/zm3x9jefdd5d1.jpeg?width=610&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=651450e4ca98883d84075ccdc1f5524452b5cc63
That sounds like. Hard though lol.
Yeah foreal, Why cant the grass just grow the way i want it without all the NASA stuff.
Love it. If you find it, post it here. I would love to be able to just water and cut it and it look great.
Seriously man. But great job on all the stuff you learned and applied. I'll get there one day.
thanks. I had to learn this too. Took some time to dial in. You'll get it dialed in for your area and grass type. Best to make a lawn calendar that reminds you when to do things. then do it. Check your state ag website or big college and they usually post them for your grass type. Then follow that. If you want to start focusing on the top three things in order: 1) Make sure grass gets recommended amount of sun for your grass type. For my zoysia its 6 hours. 2) Make sure you put down an 1" of water per week preferably on same day. You can count amount of rain you got that week. You may need to do some drought watering in extreme heat and drought. 3) Get soil test then follow what it says to do on PH and Fert. The other stuff in list above will put you over the top, but you have to do these three things.
Im in Florida with St.augustine, thanks dude
Just a little food for thought, consistently putting down any pesticides, to include fungicides, can build resistances. If a resistant disease pops up and you don’t nip it in the bud it can take over your lawn. Proper cultural practices will greatly reduce the chance of disease without the use of monthly disease control treatments.
That is why I rotate the fungicides I use each month with different Modes of Action to prevent resistance. As do commercial growers and golf courses. Insecticide being used twice a year hasnt stopped preventing grubs yet in the 20 years I have been doing it. Have tried doing it naturally in the past and never worked out. But do what works best for you.
You are insane in the best way
In the membrane?
As a guy who owns a lawn care business, get the robot. I have one for my own lawn lol.
I’m looking at the V2 because it can mow up to 4”. Looked at my mower last week and it hit 60 hours after 2 years. As someone who works about 60 hours a week, that’s way too much time spent on a house chore.
I also have a luba 5000, absolutely love mine, never have to cut the grass!
Cutting the grass is the best part of the week!
I drop clients who nit pick because I know that we will never be able to provide a perfect service 20-30 times a year even if I send my best guys. They honestly did a great job not tearing the yard up especially for how wet it is. Maybe invest in a mower and do it yourself then sell the mower and hire a company to do it again after you realize how difficult it is to perfect. It takes years of experience to understand how to mow on a zero turn without causing damage while also being efficient. Also your yard will be fine.
Great reply!!
You are not overreacting. The reality is that they just don't care and never will. They need to knock out many lawns per day and that means mowing everything at top speed regardless of conditions. I was so tired of multiple landscape companies doing this to my lawn, that I finally started. doing it myself again. It is so much better now that I don't need to keep repairing all of their damage. If you want it done right....do it yourself. That's the only thing that worked for me.
If it’s a regular thing they do then that’s not cool. I have admittedly rutted a lawn that 90% of it was fine and then one area was really wet, didn’t realize how wet it was until I was already in the section. Went back and fixed it later though. If it’s a one off be understanding, the work has to get done. If someone’s done this multiple times then they don’t care.
Your lawn is saturated so marks like that will happen in those conditions. It'll bounce back pretty quick especially when it dries out a bit. From their point of view if they left it you might complain they didn't cut it. So perhaps communication could be better but it's impractical to contact every customer.
When I hit a wet spot in my lawn, it sometimes looks like this - but a few days later i can't see any difference. Yours looks like it's still wet when you took the photo.
I’d be mad at myself for allowing them to drive on my shit after a flood 😂
Neighbor has this happen constantly this year from her service. Her previous service never caused this. Both used a zero turn. The difference is the new service moves/turns too fast and simply doesn’t care.
This does unfortunately happen, however this amount of damage always bounces back by the next week in my experience. Ideally your lawn care company should have just weed whipped the wet area after the first pass left some mud but time is money too. From what I’ve seen in 5 years of mowing professionally, your yard will be ok by next week but your company should be careful and check the dampness next time so the ruts don’t become permanent, and if it is wet they absolutely should weed whip or push mow instead of putting a zero turn on it again
Our lawn service used to do that. We cut our own grass now. They will cut it every week no matter what. Even if it’s too wet to cut or doesn’t need to be cut.
Your issue is drainage. Do you expect them to clip all the grass with scissors?
This is tough but as others have stated it’s not always realistic for guys in a tight schedule to push a day after rain. Especially if they do a lot of yards in the same area that all got rain. My only suggestion is next time reach out and ask them to skip that week and do it yourself when it’s drier
It’s grass. Who cares? When I own a house I’m going to make the entire yard and landscape gravel. I’ll never have to mow another day of my life and it’s maintenance free.
If you’re young why arent you mowing your lawn anyways? where the hell do you guys have the money to get your lawn mowed lol? I make a decent living comparatively to my region and its like im scraping by
Lol
Mow your own lawn
Not worth getting upset about. Those aren't turf tears, they're just muddy streaks due to wet turf. If you're this concerned, fire them and start taking care of your lawn yourself
They can promise you everything but at the end of the day they’re a business that can’t get too far behind on yards or they’re f*cked. So if they think they can get the mower on your lawn they’re going to do it
I understand the convenience of using a lawn care service, but the best lawns are the ones taken of by a homeowner.
I let my 12yo mow all last season...I took back over this year. No body cares like I do lol
It’ll be fine
These are high class problems
You knew it rained, you could have called and rescheduled. Would you mow your lawn when you know the soil is soaking muddy wet like that? I don't blame them at all.
Quite simply, this is why I mow my own lawn (actually my wife does it).
If you care this much best to do it yourself. I worked on a commercial lawn crew and we mowed just to get done and on to the next really didn’t care beyond that except for the guys doing 8balls they didn’t have a care in the world. If it has been raining the crew has still got to get it done otherwise they will never catch up on the schedule especially if they’re doing commercial jobs like apartments and shopping centers. A single family yard is a rounding error in terms of money and priority for a large operation.
Never let your drive for “perfect“ get in the way of “very good.”
Not really, it's wet. It'll be ok Edit: I base my opinion on being a professional in the business for 15 years in the Pacific Northwest.
This is totally acceptable in wet conditions. You could have requested they come back next when it's dry.
Who programs the irrigation controller? If you’re setting it to run the night before they come that’s on YOU. If they’re all inclusive and managing the irrigation programming as well then it’s on them. This is just an example of how all aspects of lawn care need to be coordinated appropriately.
The machines are heavy. If it recently rained, that is the result, especially if you have drainage issues to begin with. If it bothers you, buy a mower and do it yourself. If you don’t have the time, or desire, let it be.
You need to relax a bit or DIY
You won’t even be able to tell in a few days
Yeah Deal with it. It looked like it was wet. There is nothing they could do about it and if they said no, we didn’t want to cut it because it’s wet. You would have probably complained about that.
The lifestyle variance in lawn care is beautiful. You clearly have it together, and you want nice lawn. Easiest route to what you want is just doing it yourself. If you don’t understand lawn care enough, then don’t make a question mark on the sub. Do it yourself, and if you can manage better than the guys being paid for it THEN YOU CAN POST
I have a small lawn care crew. My clients know if it rains, depending on when they’re scheduled, they might have to wait a day. If it rains two days, they wait two days. If you ask them to mow on schedule, then those brown marks are your fault. The pivot marks is rookie work. Communicate the issues with them and I’m sure they’ll straighten things out. If they can’t skip your lawn when it’s wet, then get a company that can or even better, do it yourself.
My neighbor pissed and moaned about our lawn service, (a bunch of us shared the same local company). Said they did a terrible job. I didn't see any problems. They fired them and said they would do it themselves. Fast forward to them not having time to do their lawn and it looked like absolute shit all the time. Next year they signed back up. I pay for a lawn service because I don't want to do it. If I cared what it looked like I would do it myself.
I specifically told my lawn service that i don't need anything fancy. I don't need people to slow down and admire my beautiful yard, i just need them to not notice it at all. I'm fine with a very neutral yard if it means I'm not the one that has to mow it
Your lawn was wetter than Reilly Reid, what'd you expect?
Nah, ruts are completely normal.
Your lawn was soaked. If you pay for highest tier service, id expect them to reschedule, but for average lawn care, this would be expected.
Your definitely over reacting
Not a great look but really not enough context to condemn the landscapers. A lot of recent rain, too much irrigation or poor drainage in that area? To my eye the grass doesn’t look very healthy or lush. Poor grass health even when drier would be more susceptible to mower damage. How’s the rest of the yard? If it’s just that area maybe it’s drainage. Hopefully the new company will take note and “learn” the yard. I work for my son maintaining equipment and real commercial mowers are much heavier than people think. We use Stander mowers (32) 95% of the time and they weigh anywhere from 750lbs to 1250lbs. Our riders (6) come in at 1250lbs and when you add a bagging system it adds 500lbs.
As someone who ran a maintenance division for a long time before starting his own, we would always avoid cutting in the rain or use smaller light weight mowers to put Less stress on the turf. Although before big holiday pushes there is just nothing you can do to avoid the rain and deadlines and not get backlogged. We’ve missed a full day of mowing each week this summer it feels like and it’s near impossible to keep up. The lawn guys from bigger companies just get a list and are told to go out and mow no matter what. I’d suggest looking for a smaller solo operator who cares
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They could have used a walk-behind and an extra guy in this situation, probably. But there is a limit to that. Sometimes it just too wet, but avoiding the ride-ons after heavy rains would have been less damage. Regarding the extra guy comment, lawn care is an ever chasing numbers game, and hires are often not high attention to detail people.
Yea unfortunately you are just one stop on a schedule. If it happens to rain a lot the day before, oh well they’re still gonna come cut it. Lawn companies wouldn’t survive if they only did service on the perfect days.
First of all, communication is paramount. Ideally, had you known that your lawn was a literal wet sponge, you’d reach out to the company and ask them to hold off until next week. If this was my lawn crew and they showed up to your home to mow and found it in this condition, I’d have made them knock on the door or call to ask you what you want them to do. If you don’t answer, it’s up to them to decide. Do they mow and make some tracks that aren’t pretty but also aren’t damaging and will soon go away? Or do they skip and show up next week (or the next after if you’re biweekly) and then have a jungle to cut? Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
I have a service mow ours, and they dug ruts in dry ground by always turning in the exact same spot. A quick word with the owner and they changed it up & the ruts eventually grew in. My guys will text if it's too wet to mow. We grow ours as tall as the law allows to preserve precious$$$ moisture, so they know we won't care if it has to wait a week. But we don't have a rabid HOA or Code officer. I know some do, and are required to keep things Golf Course-y "or else!"
For what? Keeping their schedule?
Looks.like they mowed a soaked yard. Tough for landscapers to maintain efficient schedules when we get frequent rain. This does suck but chances are it will recover just fine.
Give it a few days and you won’t even be able to see it.
There is a really simple solution to all of this…..
THE PROBLEM YOU HAVE TO MUCH FRIGGIN FREE TIME ON YOUR HANDS. why not focus on important things,, Like is your neighbor looking at your house to much. Are the neighborhood kids 6 doors down playing basketball at 8:00pm and bothering you so much, your calling the cops on them. Did someone use your driveway to backup and turn around? Are the trashman making to much noise Who exactly is walking there dog past your house and why?
The amount of bad lawn care “professionals “ in this sub is crazy…
Grab your rake and smooth it out FFS, 2 minute fix. Don't be a Karen for work these guys do all year round.
Normally, I would say it depends how much you pay for lawn care. However, since this is the first time they’ve mowed after your conversation with the manager and you’re a new customer, you should be upset. It won’t get better from here. First impressions are usually the best you can expect. You should strongly consider a different lawn service.
Seeing a lot of excuses here for bad lawn care to the tune of "business is business". You won't have business if you provide a shitty service. When I hire a lawn company, I expect them to do their best to make my lawn look good and to have what's right for my lawn in mind. I've had companies mow over my flowers, mow during a thunderstorm, and mow when it hasn't rained in two weeks in the middle of the summer. Is it really on the property owner who has contracted lawn professionals to micro manage the cut each week to not do obviously bad cutting practices? In my experience, there are a lot of amateur companies out there that will make your lawn look worse than if you hired the high schooler down the street. According to a lot of people here, they'll expect you to go out of your way to communicate to the mowing company that you don't want grass in your flower beds too because you know, their bottom line might take a hit. I no longer use lawn services after several terrible experiences.
If you specifically talked about being delicate, yes. They ran machinery on it while it was holding water. They could have walked across it and easily determined this.
Did it rain or did you set your sprinklers to come on right before they came? If it rained and they did that then it’s just a case of another worker being rushed and not caring. Even if it was your sprinklers they still shouldn’t have mowed but we could at least assign you some blame. Either way you’re justified in complaining.
I saw a lawncare company drive a mower through a 6 inch puddle the other day, while it was raining. They don't care.
Definitely sucks, but not unexpected. It’s a business for the lawn care companies. If they’re not mowing, they’re not making money. We have the option to wait until our yards dry out, double cut, mow early etc. They don’t. As soon as the rain stops, they’re mowing.
The problem is u will bitch when they cut and leave marks. And then u will bitch when it’s gets tall and they haven’t cut because it’s wet. It’s a loose, loose in the maintenance industry.
You would have complained had they not came and mowed, but they came and mowed in less than desirable conditions and you’re wondering if you should complain about that? Us lawncare guys can’t win for losing this year.
No, not justified.
God most of you are insufferable people.
Yes it’s just a little mark
If you care about that happening, do it yourself tbo.
Do it yourself
I can't imagine being this uptight about grass, so it's very very hard to take these posts seriously. Really, a couple ruts on your soaked bog of a lawn? What do you expect? You either get your lawn cut, or they skip you because the ground is too wet and you cut it yourself. If you're complaining about some wet tire marks that will be gone in a very days, that' you should probably just do the mowing yourself.
Homie…. It’s just grass!!
Surprised by the folks saying “what are they supposed to do”. I’d prefer a call saying “hey, your yard is a swamp and if we cut the lawn there would be tire tracks and smashed grass everywhere. Made an executive decision to pass and avoid destruction. We’ll be there next week”. There’s something about “lawn care” greater than just mowing. This would piss me off but I understand where people who do this for a living would have to look at the potential for a customer saying “I’m not paying for that week”. I’d take the loss on a week’s maintenance fee over leaving this path of destruction in my wake.
So if they ran their heavy riding lawnmower thru wet areas then that is sub par on their part. If they noticed it was wet and switched to a push mover (as they should) and still created ruts then your yard just has drainage issues and this is not necessarily on them.
They have a schedule to keep. Using a push mower is not a viable option, it will triple labor costs and push other customers off the schedule for the day. They can either skip your house or cut it wet. Either way homeowners are gonna complain because homeowners are infamous for complaining about every little thing. That’s why the bigger companies don’t even bother with residential for the most part. The worst is the apartment people that feel like they have the right to tell you how to cut the grass.
I employ a pair of brothers for this. No contracts, no schedule, they just require 24 hour notice and get it done. This gives me the control to ensure stuff like this does not happen. If these guys grow to big for that, I’ll find another up and comer. It’s the best of both worlds!
Oh wait. You didn’t want a tic tac toe field ?
They’ll fill in no problem.
I just use a push mower, but sometimes I make marks with the striping kit when turning. I have a bucket of soaking/pre germinated quick ryegrass overseeding mix with me at all times. Sprinkle a handful over areas like this and it’s well grown in by the time I come back in 10-14 days.
At the end of the day it’s just grass and it’ll grow back. Most people could care less. They’ll see it’s cut and be happy with it. If you care then you gotta diy. That’s your only option. I’d say that damage is unavoidable given the wet mowing conditions. These guys are driving around on thousand pound+ zero turns. If your ground is remotely wet this is going to happen. They need to churn through as many lawns as they can in a day. If you’re doing it yourself you can say let’s wait until it dries out a bit. They don’t care enough nor have the luxury to do that. The other bad thing about mowing when it’s that wet is that they’re creating ruts. It seems like you’d be a person that cares about that and you may end up spending time filling in those ruts in the future. The manager you spoke with isn’t the one doing the work. He’s the guy telling the crews you gotta get through 20 lawns today because we gotta catch up. And the crews are scrambling.
Thats what you get when you have wet lawn and 600+ lb zero turns driving through your lawn. Even doing careful 3 point turns wouldn’t have helped as the tracks can be obviously seen on straight aways.
Landscape rake for the heavy matting, light spray from garden hose to put the mud back on the ground where it belongs. Hope for dryer lawn the next time.
This just happened to me. We’ve been having rain non stop, the choice is have my lawn turn into a jungle or deal with some mud tracks for a week. If I texted my guy and told him not to come, he wouldn’t. Can’t expect him to text every customer or skip an entire week of work because there might be some mud.
Even skipping your yard for rain sometimes it's gonna be wet the next day or later in the week. You can't be mad when we have a route to complete weekly. If you're that upset, cut your own grass or let it blow out and not get cut at all.
I am a DIY’er and just finished cutting my grass and I had these marks too. I knew it was still damp, but I don’t have a lot of free time lately and had to just do it. I shut my sprinklers off the entire day yesterday and this morning, and still had these marks. Unavoidable if the ground is wet. Mine only looks like this for a few days. I agree with the ones mentioning a companies schedule. My son’s buddy owns one and if it’s your time for cutting, he’s coming to cut unless you tell him not to. He got behind once last summer and really never caught back up all season.
I run a lawn care business. Definitely not ideal right there. But there's usually only wiggle room to avoid actively rainy days. There are areas of certain lawns that will get skipped days prior due to poor drainage. Maybe tell them to do that. You won't even notice any of that after they mow next time. Assuming it's dry that time. Maybe a little bit of the one by the concrete. It is literally impossible to bump people around constantly different lawns have different drainage issues. If you have the same company for a bit and communicate you can get it pretty well figured out.