Get Quotes from Top Lawn Care Companies in Denver, CO
Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Lawn Care Company in Denver
Over 8,000 children visit the emergency room every year due to lawnmower-related accidents. Hiring a professional lawn care company in Denver may be a wise step not only to save you the civil penalties for violating the municipal code on a tidy lawn but also to save your family from the hazards of using delicate lawn care equipment. Similarly, a good lawn care program will spare you the time and expense of ineffective DIY lawn care, enhances your landscape, and improve your property value by up to 267 percent return on investment on resale.
However, it is important to verify that the workers of the lawn care company you intend to hire are certified, insured, experienced, and have the necessary equipment to keep your grass in top condition before signing off on the contract. To do this, ask the following questions:
- How Long Have You Been in the Lawn Care Business in Denver?
- Do You Hold Any Professional Qualifications Relevant to Lawn Care?
- How Much Do You Charge Compared to Other Lawn Care Companies in the City?
- What Is Included in Your Lawn Care Program?
- Do You Provide Organic Lawn Care Services?
- Do You Offer a Warranty for Plants Installed?
- Do You Carry the Necessary Insurance Policy for Lawn Care Companies in the City?
- How to File a Complaint Against a Bad Lawn Care Service in Denver
How Long Have You Been in the Lawn Care Business in Denver?
It is best to search for reputable lawn care companies in Denver when seeking lawn care services. Lawn care businesses typically hire landscapers with training, experience, and a track record of success, ideally no less than two years. Compared to less experienced landscapers, these professionals often have a deeper understanding of native grasses and garden plants and more knowledge of how to care for them. The following native grasses, ground covers, flowering plants, and garden plants can be found in lawns all across Denver:
- Blue grama.
- Buffalograss.
- Cosmos
- Crested Wheatgrass
- Daffodils
- Dragon Wing Red Begonia
- Dwarf Irises
- Echinacea Cheyenne Spirit
- Fine fescue.
- Geranium Rozanne
- Junipers
- Kentucky bluegrass.
- Knock Out Shrub Roses
- Lavender Phenomenal
- Lilacs
- Lupine Gallery Mix
- Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry
- Perennial Ryegrass
- Poppies
- Portulaca
- Rocky Mountain Columbine
- Sedum
- Tall fescue.
- Yellow Alyssum
- Zinnia
Hiring lawn care providers with a solid reputation has another advantage: they are less likely to be complicit in home renovation fraud. The Consumer Federation of America reported that in 2021, customer complaints concerning home improvements ranked third place overall. Your chances of falling victim to these frauds are significantly reduced if you pick reputable, long-lasting lawn care service providers.
Regardless of how long a company has been in business, you should always obtain and check references of previous clients from any lawn care company you wish to use. You may research a company's business history and client testimonials on websites like the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, and Google Reviews.
Do You Hold Any Professional Qualifications Relevant to Lawn Care?
Finding out if your lawn care professionals have professional certifications in lawn care specialties related to the services you need is a foolproof approach to evaluating their proficiency. However, depending on the services they aim to offer, Denver-based landscapers and lawn care providers may be expected to follow specific municipal and state regulatory standards. There are no occupation-specific licensing requirements for these professionals.
If your lawn care professional is operating as a pesticide applicator, ensure they have a commercial pesticide applicator license from the Colorado Department of Agriculture, Division of Plant Industry. An applicant who wants to get this license must:
- Employ or procure the services with the written consent of a minimum of a trained supervisor who is licensed to conduct the application category or subcategory,
- Show proof of the necessary insurance.
- Submit a correctly filled out application together with the $350 application fee,
- Provide a Certificate of Good Standing from the Secretary of State,
- Provide a citizenship/immigration status form (for sole proprietors) and a copy of the FAA certification.
Also, if your lawn care professional offers arborist or tree care services, ensure they have a Tree Service License from the Office of The City Forester in Denver. Licenses are distributed in two classes, and the applicant's company's service offerings will decide the class for that particular business. The license categories are as follows:
- Large tree classifications
- Ornamental
Both scheduling and passing a written exam will be necessary for applicants who wish to obtain this license. A score of at least 70 percent is necessary in order to qualify for the license. The written test results are valid for six months. If all standards are not met, the application is invalid, and the test must be retaken. After passing the written exam, candidates must also undergo a field test. The practical work competencies and worker/worksite safety are covered in the field exam.
A Denver tree service license costs $25 annually plus a $25 application fee. Every year, on December 31st, all brand-new tree service permits come to an end. The license will be renewed and be good for 12 months. A late fee will be incurred if the tree service license is not renewed within 90 days of the expiration date. Also, the license may also be suspended or revoked. If the license has been out of commission for over 90 days, re-testing will be necessary before reinstating.
In addition to getting licenses and certifications that are required by the state or the city, a lot of professional landscapers and lawn care specialists in Denver frequently also pursue voluntary certifications from organizations like:
- The Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC)
- The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA)
- The Irrigation Association (IA)
- The National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP)
- The Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS)
It should be mentioned that it is essential to confirm any claims of voluntary certification made by a lawn care company you desire to engage by asking for paperwork and checking it with the proper body. This will help you avoid hiring a lawn care professional that won't do a good job.
How Much Do You Charge Compared to Other Lawn Care Companies in the City?
Finding out how much your preferred lawn care firms charge for their services and coming to an agreement on these rates are important steps to take to ensure that you receive satisfactory lawn care services in Denver. The following price models are typically used as the foundation for rates by city-based lawn care businesses:
- Per Hour: Using this simple pricing scheme, the lawn care company will calculate an hourly fee for each hour they spend tending to your grass. These costs could be higher, but generally, they range from $25 to $90 per hour, depending on the complexity and size of the project.
- Per Square Foot: With this pricing model, consumers are charged for each square foot of grass a lawn care company maintains. Typically, this construction's price per square foot will range from $5 to $10.
- Per Visit/Per Project: With this pricing model, the lawn service provider assesses a set fee for either particular services it offers or for a range of services delivered over a predetermined period. Fees could range from $50 to $1,000 per service.
Denver's prices for lawn care services are impacted by a number of variables, including the ones listed below:
- Obstacles on your lawn include sharp hills, trees, fences, and rocks.
- The amount of personnel required to deliver the required services
- The nature and extent of the essential services
- The particular equipment and tools needed for the job
- The regularity of the necessary lawn maintenance services
- The size of your yard
- Where you are in the city
It is always wise to get and compare price quotes from many companies before making your final hiring decision when looking for the best lawn care company to handle your lawn upkeep and other landscaping needs. This offers various advantages, such as:
- It helps you get a sense of what the market price is for the services you need.
- It assists you in avoiding getting overcharged for services by dishonest businesses.
- It makes it easier to spot dishonest lawn care businesses.
Lawn care contractors in Denver earn an average wage of $39,980 every year. The list below compares the average wages earned by these contractors per hour against the average hourly wages of lawn care contractors in other parts of Colorado and also in other locations across the United States:
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What Is Included in Your Lawn Care Program?
Interested parties in the city can make their choice from a variety of lawn care services provided by Denver's lawn care businesses, including but not limited to:
- Flower services
- Garden cleanup and debris removal
- Irrigation system maintenance and repair
- Landscape design
- Lawn aeration
- Lawn fertilization
- Lawn mowing
- Lawn seeding
- Leaf blowing
- Mulching
- Pest control
- Retaining wall installation
- Shrub and hedge trimming
- Shrub and tree planting
- Tree trimming
- Weed control
Ask prospective local lawn care providers what services they plan to include in your lawn care program before employing them. While fully knowing that these customers will eventually require more intensive and frequently more expensive services, some lawn care firms try to entice potential customers with incredibly low-cost lawn care plans in the hopes that they will sign up for their services. You may avoid misunderstandings with your lawn care provider later on if you insist on knowing the precise nature, scope, and cost of your intended lawn care program up front, especially if you intend to sign up for recurrent lawn care services and treatments.
There are generally two primary sorts of packages that many reliable lawn care businesses in Denver offer:
- Basic Lawn Care Treatments: Rather than focusing on your lawn's overall health, these procedures aim to enhance its appearance. Services including lawn mowing, leaf blowing, hedge and shrub trimming, and garden upkeep are usually included in basic lawn care programs.
- Full-service Lawn Maintenance: This entails procedures that enhance the look of your lawn and its general health. Standard lawn care services as well as extras like lawn aeration and fertilization, tree trimming and pruning, weed control, and treatment of grass diseases, are commonly included in full-service lawn care plans.
Below are price ranges for typical lawn care services covered by Denver's lawn care programs:
Do You Provide Organic Lawn Care Services?
Organic lawn care entails maintaining a healthy lawn without using superficial techniques, artificial substances, or harmful chemicals like pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. The grass is instead maintained using natural, eco-friendly substances, including potash, compost, leaf mulch, seaweed, bone char, worm castings, and animal or plant manure. In addition to providing a chemical-free outdoor environment suitable for kids and dogs, organic lawn care frequently aims to reduce the volume and amount of chemicals discharged into the atmosphere.
It is usually a good idea to find out if your desired lawn care provider offers organic lawn care services, especially if you have young children or animals who will be playing in your yard frequently or if you respect the environment. This might drastically reduce the number of pesticides and other potentially dangerous lawn care chemicals that these kids and dogs are exposed to.
It is worth noting that maintaining an organic lawn requires more effort than maintaining a typical lawn, and this could increase your expenses. However, there are numerous advantages to employing this method of lawn care, such as:
- Animals and children can both feel safe on your lawn.
- It makes your soil less vulnerable to diseases and pests.
- Biodegradable materials are employed.
- It improves root growth.
- It is impossible to apply too much.
- It leaves your lawn in great condition.
- It reduces water and soil contamination.
- You save money over time.
- The photosynthetic process is aided by it.
- Your lawn's ecosystem is restored.
Do You Offer a Warranty for Plants Installed?
When selecting lawn care providers, plant warranties should be taken into account, especially if the services in question involve the installation of plants, flowers, seeds, or sod on your lawn. You should be skeptical of lawn care firms that do not give warranties because they are assurances that the plants will grow and thrive once they are put on your lawn.
Always keep in mind that different lawn care firms frequently offer different plant installation warranties with different specific terms and coverage. However, a lot of reputable Denver lawn care businesses only provide plant warranties that are good for a year and do not cover things like:
- Damage caused by animals.
- Damage resulting from the client's negligent plant maintenance and care
- Damage from natural disasters and vandalism
Many lawn care businesses also include limitations in their plant guarantees that must be followed for the warranties to stay in effect because of the biological nature of plants and flowers and the requirement for regular care and upkeep. Typically, these include:
- Watering schedules
- Schedules for mowing and permitted mowing heights
- The requirements for fertilization
In any event, make sure to carefully review the terms and conditions of any plant warranty provided by your preferred lawn care service to prevent the guarantee from being nullified.
Do You Carry the Necessary Insurance Policy for Lawn Care Companies in the City?
Verify that the company and any landscapers and lawn care contractors they use are adequately insured before signing any hiring contracts with any Denver lawn care company. Work-related risks include cuts, hand injuries, amputations from tools and equipment, and chemical exposure, which are regularly experienced by landscapers. Lawn care and maintenance jobs have the potential to be deadly. Suppose your lawn care contractors and landscapers are not sufficiently insured. In that case, the occurrence of these injuries or any other unanticipated unpleasant events during your lawn care operation could result in out-of-pocket costs and other legal obligations.
Before entering into any agreements with your lawn care company, make sure to get proof of insurance from them. Have this proof verified by their insurance provider and consider whether the firm's general liability insurance coverage is adequate for the breadth of the services you are requesting.
You must make sure that anyone you hire to take care of your lawn has proper protection, even though Denver does not require lawn care providers to be insured. To avoid being held liable for injuries and accidents that happen during the project, insist on general liability insurance. Additionally, remember that if a lawn care company has one or more employees in Colorado, they are mandated to obtain workers' compensation insurance coverage.
Also note that if your lawn care professional is licensed for tree care work, they are expected to have liability protection for all operations, including the use of vehicles, in the amount of at least $150,000 per person hurt and $500,000 in cases of injuries to two or more people in a single incident, as well as in the amount of at least $500,000 for property damage for general tree licenses and $100,000 for ornamental tree licenses.
For additional information on the insurance, bond, and other financial requirements that landscapers in Denver must satisfy, call the Colorado Division of Insurance at (303) 894-7499.
How to File a Complaint Against a Bad Lawn Care Service in Denver
Denver lawn care providers who provide subpar service are subject to complaints to the Office of the Attorney General of Colorado, which protects Colorado consumers by accepting complaints and prosecuting civil actions in the public interest.
According to Fox 31, a Denver-based news outlet, the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office received more inquiries in 2020 regarding dubious home renovation projects and shady contractors. Even though many lawn care companies in Denver are reputable and provide their services in a professional manner, there is always a chance that you may come across dishonest persons or businesses while attempting to implement a lawn care program for your home. These dishonest lawn care companies and landscapers use a number of strategies to cheat their clients out of their money, including:
- Their contracts contain obscure extra services and unstated fees.
- They start out by providing lawn care services at a reasonable cost but then increase their prices.
- They deliver subpar work while receiving lavish compensation for their services.
- They make a commitment to use more expensive, organic lawn care products but really utilize non-organic ones.
You can successfully evade lawn care con artists when working on your project by taking the following actions:
- Avoid being persuaded into signing up for lawn care plans by unsolicited lawn care firms, landscapers, or unwanted offers of lawn care and maintenance services.
- Ask for price quotes from at least three different lawn care providers and compare them before making a final hiring decision. Ask a lawn care specialist why their estimate is so different from other lawn care companies' estimates.
- Pay only part of the amount upfront for your lawn care services, and be aware of businesses that ask for or demand hefty down payments. Any request that represents more than 10% of the total cost is suspicious.
- Keep copies of all paperwork pertaining to your lawn care approach.
- Make sure any lawn care business you intend to engage with has a solid reputation for providing the best services by conducting extensive research on them. Look up online reviews for nearby landscapers and lawn care providers on places like the Better Business Bureau and Google Reviews.
- Always investigate recommendations from previous customers.
- Verify the insurance coverage of your lawn maintenance service.
- A formal agreement should contain all of the facts of your lawn care program, including its nature and scope, as well as the frequency and price of the required services. Remember that written contracts may be required by state law for any service involving the spraying of pesticides on residential property.
- Watch out for lawn care businesses that promote offers and services that seem too good to be true.
- Be wary of landscaping businesses that provide quotes without first examining your lawn. Most likely, they're attempting to con you.
- Make sure to study any contracts before you sign them thoroughly. Make sure you are comfortable with the conditions before signing any contracts.
Please get in touch with the Colorado Office of the Attorney General if you believe you are a victim of a lawn care scam by sending them an online complaint or stopping by their office at:
Office of the Attorney GeneralRalph L. Carr Judicial Building
1300 Broadway, 7th Floor
Denver, CO 80203
Phone: (720) 508-6000
Table of Contents
- How Long Have You Been in the Lawn Care Business in Denver?
- Do You Hold Any Professional Qualifications Relevant to Lawn Care?
- How Much Do You Charge Compared to Other Lawn Care Companies in the City?
- What Is Included in Your Lawn Care Program?
- Do You Provide Organic Lawn Care Services?
- Do You Offer a Warranty for Plants Installed?
- Do You Carry the Necessary Insurance Policy for Lawn Care Companies in the City?
- How to File a Complaint Against a Bad Lawn Care Service in Denver