Squatch This Land Management

5 / 5

from reviews

Steven McLendon

October 11, 2024

I will refer to them as STLM for brevity Long review so TL;DR: 1. What STLM tells you / what you request may not be what they actually do 2. As of this review date, STLM is not skilled or resourced to handle large / dangerous tree work 3. People skills / customer service is lacking The details: - I had a signed contract for them to start work on 9/11/24; they did not. They stated that it was looking like they would be able to start first thing Monday morning, 9/16. Since I had planned around the stated date in the contract (9/11), the new timing didn't work for me, so we moved it to a start date of 10/7/24. So the contract was broken before they even began work. - When Brian quoted the job, he stated that they would bring a spider lift to cut limbs off of a large oak tree before trying to cut it. The tree was leaning towards my front yard / house and all of the limbs were on the side it was leaning towards. They did not bring a lift or attempt to cut any limbs off of that tree. On 10/8, they attempted to cut that tree and only had their skid loader set up to try to push it over to the opposite direction of the way it was leaning (pic) - unsurprisingly, this did not work. They added chains and ropes after this to help hold the tree and try to pull it over using their truck + the skid loader. But their ropes were too small for the job (I know they broke at least one of them). When I asked why they didn't bring a lift to cut the limbs first, I was told "the lift wasn't available today." After 6-7 hours of them being stuck on that tree, my neighbor graciously offered to contact someone to come bail them out; STLM accepted that offer. After about an hour, a separate crew with the know-how and correct equipment showed up, rigged the tree and pulled it over. By this point it was almost dark so the tree was pushed far enough out of the road to make it passable. Before STLM left, I told them that they could come clean that oak up in the morning but that would be all I needed from them since they took a very foolish and unnecessary risk that could have seriously damaged my home. I didn't trust them to take down any of the remaining large trees. STLM offered no apologies, only defensiveness. - This one is minor, but an example of them not following directions. There were oak logs and poplar logs. My neighbor said he would take the oak logs. So I told STLM the following morning (10/9) to put the oak logs on my neighbor's side of the road and move the poplar logs to my side. After they cleaned up the mess, they put all of the logs on my side. Before they left after the cleanup, I mentioned that I had requested the oak logs be left on my neighbor's side. The response was "well, I just figured I'd get them out of that guy's way." Well, that's not what I requested you do. - Also minor, I found that my mailbox was broken after they left. It looked normal, but the mailbox was just sitting on the post - the board securing it was broken loose and the post was loose as well. Guessing the skid loader backed into it or maybe it happened when they were messing with the ropes and trucks. Idk. It wasn't broken before the work started. - It looked like they were about half done overall, so I paid them less than half to account for the hours of wasted time on the large oak, but was told "this number won't work." They thought that an additional $1,400 was a fair price. I said that I could pay them less that that and "keep my opinions to myself", but Brian told me to "have at it" so I paid him what he wanted and they left. I'm guessing this review will cost STLM more than $1,400, but apparently that extra cash at the time was more important to them. - STLM states they offer lots of services. They're probably fine if you need dirt work, brush clearing, and maybe stump removal. I can't speak to work on foundations, retaining walls, septic installs, driveways, SOD, or lawn maintenance. But for certain, if you need serious tree work done, look elsewhere. Hire a crew with the experience and correct equipment to take down your trees safely.

Paul Goraj

March 25, 2023

Brian and crew did an amazing job prepping my yard for seed. I had taken down roughly 20-30 trees and needed stumps ground, topsoil brought in and the yard graded. Squatch this handled it all! From planning to finish product, Brian was a pleasure to work with. Professionalism, punctuality, excellent communication and quality work at a fair price! Whatever you need Squatch This can handle it!