What Landscapers Should Handle During & After Your Installation Project

Amid all the excitement of your big landscaping project, you might have some worries.

How big of a mess will it be? Will the landscaping crew clean up before they leave? Will they leave tools or equipment at your house? Is your antique bird bath safe? What should you expect from the final project walkthrough?

Keep reading to learn more about landscape contractor expectations, including:

• Daily Cleanup
• Daily Walkthroughs
• Plywood Protection
• Keeping Irrigation Systems Safe
• Gate Patrol
• Skid Steers & On-Site Equipment
• Paver Protocol
• Sod Safety
• Final Walkthrough
• How Homeowners Can Help
• What to Expect? Check Your Contract

A reputable landscaping company will have a project checklist to ensure things stay on track and tidy.

From daily walkthroughs and cleanup to policies and practices to keep your landscaping safe, make sure your contractors follow the following landscape practices during your installation project. 

Daily Cleanup

Landscaping can make a mess, from grass clippings left from routine maintenance visits to piles of dirt as part of bigger paver projects or irrigation or sod installation.

Debris on your driveway, sidewalks, and patio isn’t cool. So expect crews to tidy up, including blowing off hard surfaces to remove lingering clippings, dirt and debris.

Landscaping Project Checklist: Daily Walkthroughs

On big landscaping jobs, a supervisor should walk through the project in the morning and afternoon to ensure everything is on track.

They’re ensuring messes are cleaned up, tools are stowed away, material deliveries land where they’re supposed to and no crew members left their fast food lunch wrappers littering your driveway.

Walkthroughs keep crews and supervisors on the same page, ensuring good communication.

Plywood, Please

Why would plywood be on a landscaping checklist? If landscaping crews are worried about potential damage to your property, they’ll cover it with plywood.

Plywood can cover and protect turf from track machines and other heavy equipment. It also helps prevent unsightly tire marks on your paved surfaces and can even prevent cracking and chipping at pavement edges.

Ground Source crews recently covered a customer’s paver driveway with plywood to ensure heavy equipment wouldn’t loosen or damage the pavers.

Protecting Irrigation

Watching irrigation crews digging around your precious irrigation system can be a nail-biting experience. Yikes, don’t sever those lines!

No worries. Protecting your irrigation system is on the landscaping checklist.

Ground Source crews will flag your sprinkler heads and valves to avoid damage.

Gate Patrol

Maybe you have pets who can’t wait to bound out into the backyard or young children who need to stay safe.

As part of your landscape contractor's expectations, you can plan for landscaping crews to secure all gates before they leave each day.

You want your yard secure even if you don't have pets or kids. There is no need to invite critters to wander in or make your home look unprotected.

Even while work is ongoing, you should expect privacy and security. If your project requires temporary fence removal to allow large machine access, your landscaper should explain this before work begins so you can plan accordingly.

Skid Steers on Site

Big landscaping jobs require big equipment, from skid steers to loaders and even some specialty equipment.

If leaving these machines on-site for multi-day projects is possible, you should expect your landscaper to keep the machines on the job until they are no longer needed.

Crews typically leave these machines at your home during multi-day jobs, but should take care to leave them out of your way, not blocking your walkways or driveway.

(And while they look fun, do your best to resist the urge to hop on for a midnight cruise through the neighborhood.)

Paver Protocol

Nobody wants a brand-new, dusty paver driveway. Plan on having your paver patio or driveway power-washed after installation and then sealed.

Sealer is the all-important top layer of your paver patio and a key part of a landscaping checklist. It locks in the sand between each paver for a tight fit, keeping your pavers in place.

It does all kinds of cool stuff, too, from preventing fading to deterring weeds and ants to repelling dirt.

There might be pavers left over after your project is complete. Do you want to keep them at your house in a tidy stack? Use them for a giant Jenga game? Or would you rather we take them away? We’ll ask you.

Pro tip: it’s smart to keep a few pavers on hand in case you need to replace any that might get damaged over time. If a paver gets chipped or damaged, it can easily be replaced — if you have a few originals stashed away.

Sod Safety

Some paver installers pack up and drive away with the pavers installed just fine — but with the edges of your sod torn up.

That’s no good. Your landscape contractor checklist should include sod repairs.

You shouldn’t have to nag your landscaping company about shoddy work. You want to stroll out to your new patio, kick off your sandals and admire your new patio perfection.

Sod, turf and even planting beds can be damaged when job sites are active and landscape construction requires the use of multiple machines and laborers. 

When all the material and machines are off the job and your landscapers are about to leave, a final look at softscapes and turf should ensure that any damage is repaired.

Final Walkthrough Landscaping

Who ensures everything is right once landscaping crews have packed up their trucks?

Expect your project supervisor or the company owner to do a final walkthrough of your property once the work is complete and before you see it.

They’ll inspect all details with an eagle eye, looking for everything from dirty fingerprints on your fence to stray empty water bottles tucked behind plants. (Crews get thirsty in the Florida heat. Water bottles sometimes get left behind.)

Details matter.

How Can Homeowners Help?

Worried about your antique bird bath, your holiday yard decor, your swan statue?

Take a few minutes before the first landscaping crews arrive and stow away anything fragile.

If you know where your irrigation heads lie, you can mark them in advance (crews will do this if you can't). Treasured plants should also be marked.

If you have a list of specific requests, share these with your project manager or account manager ahead of time, so they can prepare their crews accordingly. 

It's better to be safe than sorry.

What Should Your Landscape Contractor Expectations Include? Check Your Contract

Expectations should be spelled out in your bid or contract. Take a close look and make sure you know exactly what you’re getting for your money.

Take a paver project contract, for instance. At Ground Source, your paver project bid will include:

• the removal of your old concrete and soil/sod excavation (including hauling costs)
• cleaning up and disposing of excess material
• rinsing off of paver dust from plants
• stacking of excess pavers in a specified location

Your contract may or may not include pressure washing of nearby surfaces, and it likely won’t include irrigation modifications. Take a look before you sign.

While you can't anticipate everything that comes with a landscaping project, your contract should help cover common contingencies and answer many of your questions before work begins.

Let Ground Source Exceed Your Landscaping Expectations

Not sure what to expect when your landscaping crews show up for your big project?

Talk to us. Open communication is key to a successful landscaping partnership.

We’ll answer your questions, ease any worries and assure you that we’ll respect your property as if it were ours.

Be confident about your landscape installation in Central Florida, from start to finish and all the steps in between.

We’re big landscape project experts, but our skills don’t stop there. We’re with you every step of the way as you plan your perfect outdoor space.

Sod, irrigation, landscape design: let us transform your yard into a place you can’t wait to come home to.

Are you ready to enjoy the vibrant, impressive yard you've always wanted? Request a quote today! We’ll help you review your options and then transform your property.