My original review was seemingly deleted but three years after hiring Black River, I am still seething with anger and regret. I also continue to hear more and more people complain about them. Do NOT hire them. They have filed for bankruptcy many times and no company will insure them. Perhaps fine for landscaping, but we paid far too much for a patio that could have been done better by toddlers. Our patio is sinking and falling apart. They did a horrible job and Kris is a horrible business owner. Great sales person, but that's where it ends. read more

I couldn't agree with A W more. Spent a LOT of money on a pool project with patios, steps, firepit, and landscape lighting almost 2 years ago, only to have major drainage issues, sinking pavers, chips, etc. It's so disheartening, embarrassing and frustrating to hear from other contractors or masons I've had onsite (since Kris was last here), that I have a set of steps from my house that won't pass inspection, that nothing is pitched properly, that the worksmanship is so piss poor that its the first thing they notice walking into my backyard. Its true, there are barely any clean cuts or straight lines on any of the pavers around the pool. The steps up to the pool is a huge hot mess of an issue. They dumped river rock all over the place without putting any material under to prevent weeds, they ran drainage systems without coverings, etc. I spent close to a 100k, and will spend tens of thousands more having it all excavated and fixed in the future. Excavated because they told me that Kris is notorious for not using concrete footers. All of his workers sit around and look at their phones all day, except for the Latin American guys who bust their ass. I dont want them back to fix anything, we tried that, and it made things worse. Not recommended at all. read more

Black river EXCEEDED our expectations by transforming our unusable yard into a OASIS!! We have a history of excessive water and it caused our yard to ALWAYs Be a mushy mess. Kris and his team provided ideas and recommendations and worked tirelessly to complete a major job. Even when discovering new challenges, they rose to the occasion and found a solution. we can't get enough of our new outdoor now very usable space our kids and pups agree! HIGHLY recommend their services. friendly. fairly priced, knowledgeable and above all GREAT humans! read more

I was very happy at first. Got a referral from a neighbor, called and they came right away for a quote. Never heard from them again. No quote; no response to voice mail or email - nothing. Guess they are not taking new customers read more

BEWARE!! I am the owner of a swimming pool contracting company, we have worked with Kris and Black Rlver landscape Management the on a few projects over the past 2 years. After seeing the way he conducts business I would avoid this company at all costs especially if has anything to do with the area around your swimming pool. There is not enough space here to list the reasons why I would not recommend him and I would suggest looking at my review of him on Facebook but he took the page down shortly after I posted my review. I have had to listen to complaints from customers who I reccomended him to because he would not answer calls to come back and finish work that was not completed or fix work that was improperly done. I have seen the revolving door of employees who have told me they have had very little experience and were thrown on the job with no instruction. I have heard his own employees (the few that seemed to know what they were doing) complain about not being allowed to do the job the correct way because it would cost more. I have watched them quit because they were not getting paid only to be replaced by more inexperienced workers. I have heard complaints from our joint customers in which Kris (the owner) was asking for payments early and in cash so he can pay bills. Most recently (before I knew the scope of his incompetence) I brought him in for a pool / backyard renovation, this project became the largest disaster I have ever seen and remains unfinished 11 months later. On this specific job his team faild in every aspect and managed to not only screw over the customer but cause damage to the pool and work that my company had already done causing me to have to make repairs at my own expense. The final straw before he was fired from this particular job was the morris county sheriff's officers showing up on site with a repo company to repossess his machinery one morning. Finally ontop of all that i listed here (and everything that I have not listed) I did work for Kris on his own personal pool spring of 2018. At the end he suggested that instead of paying me he would take the money off a patio I needed done at my house. I tried to get then out there to do my patio with no success. I finally needed to hire a reputable company to come do the work BRLM was supposed to do. As a customer I would stay far away from them and as a contractor I will never again put my reputation on the line to recommend them for anything. read more

We started with Black River 5 years ago. From the minute we hired them, they took our property on as their own. We were looking for a partner in taking care of our property. Not only cutting grass and clean up, but having the education and experience of the different trees, shrubs, bushes and flowers. They know exactly how to tend to each species and also understand if anything is in jeopardy. We were so pleased with their expertise and friendliness we hired them to grout and clean our blue stone patio. Also, they built a beautiful fire pit area and BBQ for us matching our whole outdoor area. We then worked with them to install lighting and they knew exactly where the light should shine to highlight our yard and house. The guys are always friendly, respectful and caring of our property. They are a class act. I can call them any day of the week and will get a response immediately. So happy we found these guys and highly recommend them for landscape maintenance and design. Our property now looks gorgeous and their standard is to keep it that way. They go over and beyond to ensure they treat our home and property like their own. read more

Short version: signed a contract, charged us for services, never did the work. Would not hire again. Shooter is great - extremely knowledgeable, I was impressed when he came out to see our yard and put together a quote. The quote was reasonable and sent over quickly (fertilizing and fixing some shrubs damaged in the winter storms) so we signed a contract. Black River charged our credit card the day we signed, and a month and a half later no work has been done. We've been in frequent contact with the BRL office manager, and received a number of promises, excuses, written commitments, and even a promise that Shooter would call us to explain what was going on. Meanwhile our damaged shrubs are looking less and less healthy. My feeling is that BRL was hoping our contract would wait around until they hit a slow patch. If I'd known that BRL wasn't actually going to get the work done in a timely manner, we would never have hired them. I would not hire them again. read more

I found Black River Landscape over a year ago and was excited about their work. Unfortunately, I had several issues from beginning to end. I gave the business multiple attempts to correct each situation, but there was little genuine effort. I was trying to do a $40-$50K project in the front, rear, sides, and lower rear yard, and needed to drastically scale back the project due to loss of confidence in the team. Even with the scaled back project, the workmanship and behavior of crew (including lots of alcohol and horsing around) was unacceptable. read more

I had high hopes after meeting with "Shooter". He was very knowledgeable, personable and made Black River sound ideal. We signed up and paid our first "monthly" $207. A month later they still had not mowed our lawn once. Each week came with new excuses and we kept doing the mowing ourselves. Finally, not wanting to be charged the next "monthly" fee, I put a stop on my account, requested they cancel the contract and give me a full refund. And, they showed up to mow! The also canceled the contract and refunded me 3 weeks of my first charge. read more

I waited two years before writing this...Hiring this company was one of the biggest home mistakes we've ever made. We paid over $20,000 for a grading and wall landscape job and over the last two years they came back and put more garbage rocky soil down. We have puddles and weeds and still don't have a proper slope. We will be paying another landscaper the same sum of money to fix the mistake. The only positive was they acted like they wanted to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, by throwing cheap soil, and weed-like grass we don't have a usable yard and we are on year number three that we cannot use it. read more