I've never written a review like this, and have included all of the positive aspects of my…read moreexperience with Kirkwood Home & Landscape. That said, please use caution in hiring them for your next project. We certainly won't.
Kirkwood Home & Landscape came recommended by several neighbors in our area (specifically on NextDoor), and we decided to use them for a major backyard project at our home. This included leveling our yard, removing all grass/sod, re-sodding the entire yard, and re-routing a gutter + sump pump pipe that emptied in the middle of our yard.
The original crew was on time, friendly, and courteous. We thought we had a good thing going, and were fine with our $5,000+ investment for all of the work.
Within a few days, however, we realized the work was not done properly. We had two days of rain, and our yard was positively flooded - worse than before we had it 'leveled' by Kirkwood Home & Garden. We were holding water in portions of the yard that were previously fine. Soon, the sod in the middle of the yard died, despite us following all of the care and maintenance instructions left by the crew.
A few months later, our neighbor behind us reported flooding in his yard. The crew had re-routed our gutter/sump pump drain into a common area, but failed to provide the appropriate grading / drainage solution, so the water was now flowing our neighbor's yard. We asked Kirkwood Home & Landscape if this would happen before they did the work, and they assured us it would be fine and the water would dissipate.
We contacted Kirkwood Home & Garden several times. We felt we deserved more than this for $5,000. Their initial solution was to seed the yard. We agreed as a first (low cost, low effort) attempt to make things right. When the seed failed to take (because the yard was still flooding / holding water), we contacted them again.
The receptionist was fantastic - she heard my concerns, empathized with my frustration, and seemed to genuinely care. I cried on the phone because of how much we stood to lose financially on this project; we have a young son who was being eaten by mosquitoes in our water-filled yard. She was sympathetic and kind. She was the most positive part of this experience, and we thanked her repeatedly for her kindness.
But the owner, Bob Mosby, did not return my call or provide the receptionist with any direction for weeks. Finally, we contacted them again and they re-surveyed the yard. Apparently, the crew installed the drainage solution against code - they never should have routed it to the area of the yard that they did. So not only was our yard worse off than when we started, but now we were at risk of fines from the City of Des Peres.
Bob Mosby said they would fix the drain location, but nothing else. He said they could not guarantee their work and 'we had a lot of rain' and our yard 'was just a fishbowl' that would naturally fill with water. So why did they take our $5,000 and agree to fix a 'fishbowl' with no chance of being fixed? He made sure to make the point multiple times that he was fixing the drain at no cost to us, and he was 'losing money on the project,' as if his crew's out-of-code work was our fault. He was extremely condescending and patronizing to me and was very dismissive of our concerns.
This drain saga took months to remedy. And our yard is still a pond when it rains even the slightest. We would strongly urge anyone considering using this company to 1) Not. But if you do, get in writing what happens if your sod / plants do not take or their work is sub-par. Also, make sure you and their crew are aware of codes in your area. We expected them (as the professionals) to know this, and clearly they did not or just didn't care.
