Instant Lawns

My backyard had a major grading problem. Lucas and his entire team went above and beyond to help me. I am extremely satisfied with the finished product - even more with the French drain and attention to detail below to get the grading perfect.

I would highly recommend instant lawn.

Poor management from start to finish... not only was the scheduling process absolutely horrendous, but the delays after delays were more than I could handle. I'm also quite intrigued by the fact that the most recent 5 star google review is from one of their own employees, I know this because I just happened to be speaking to 'Dylan' during my installation (Let's see if his review is removed or name changed after my review is posted :P ). I hired them because of the abundance of good reviews over bad, but now I see that the reviews are not all honest reviews, who knows how many are faked? For a company that markets themselves as more professional than the rest of the contractors out there, they sure left me wishing I had gone with someone more professional.

Very much appreciated that you offer alternatives to the traditional grass lawn. The installation was efficient & quick. Smart to have 7 workers come & complete everything in 1.5 hours which minimized neighbourhood parking challenges.

Super impressed with Instant Lawns Ottawa. Quick responses to client inqueries in a timely professional manner. All work was completed as agreed upon with excellent attention to detail. They did a great job removing the old lawn and we truely did have an instant lawn within a day. Good quality soil and sod with excellent workmanship. We would absolutely have no hesitation in recommending them to friends and neighbours!

Professionally done, very happy with the results. During the work my concerns were addressed in a friendly and professional manner. I will use them again and i would recommend them to all my friends. Thank you for a great job.

The Instant Lawn crew did an excellent job removing my existing lawn, adding new top soil, and installing new sod. The work was done on schedule, with excellence and at a reasonable price. I am a pleased customer.

These guys were great - showed up for estimate when they said, looked very professional and once they gave me the price and schedule date they stuck to it like glue.

Chris
Nepean

Had a tired cinch bug weed covered lawn. From three quotes Instant Lawn was middle bid. Guys came when as scheduled in afternoon, pressed the job and got it done. With watering it took hold and looks great. Only two issues. First is we did not get the fertilizing treatment at 6 weeks. Second several sections of sod myst have been a little old as there were brown patches at end of each roll. 2.5 months out sod took very welk and looks great save 3 patches ill need to dress in spring. All said great crew, good reps, and great service (timely delivery and great cleanup). Would definitely use Instant Lawn again.

We had our septic system replaced which completely dug up our backyard. We needed to replace the lawn and called Instant Lawns based on the reviews. They showed up the same day, gave us a reasonable quote and said they could have the work done at the end of the week. They then called back and said they had an opening in their schedule and could do it the next day. So far things were going very well and so we asked for a quote to also do our front lawn; we accepted it and gave them a deposit.
They installed the back lawn as promised and said we should keep it watered and wait 10 days before mowing to allow the roots to establish. The sod they installed was already quite long so after 10 days our mower could not handle cutting it and ended up tearing some of the sod which had not properly rooted. We had to rent a brush cutter just to get it down to a manageable height. I emailed and called to complain several times and each contact took them several days to respond. We wanted our lawn repaired, the cost of the brush cutter to be reimbursed and we wanted our deposit back for the front lawn. They finally honored all those requests but it took two months of emails and phone calls. I felt like I put as much time into running after them as it took them to install the lawn in the first place....and I was the one paying.
The staff seemed hard working and enthusiastic but I question the quality of the work and frankly it shouldn't take that much of my time just to ensure I'm getting what I'm paying for.
Even now when we just did some raking of leaves the sod was still lifting in places after being installed for two and a half months; I'm tired of dealing with this.

I recognize that my negative review here will stand out from the glowing recommendations (upon which I decided to hire this company). Hopefully, that's simply a matter of the fact that my experience is unusual – and Instant Lawns has treated and will treat other customers better. In any case, Instant Lawns made a number of basic administrative errors that I feel significantly diminished the overall quality of the job. First off, we had trouble communicating. I distinctly remember talking to the company's representative about when to start. We agreed we'd have the lawn installed after another home renovation project was done – and that I'd call to schedule the install. Then about a week later, the company called me to say the crew would come by in just a few days. I called back to straighten that out. Still, it was like no one at the company had remembered that earlier conversation about scheduling. That was the first issue. Next, we had trouble on what was supposed to be the install day. The team was scheduled to arrive at 12 p.m. By 4 p.m., seeing how as no one had come yet, I called for an update. I was told that the crew's truck had broken down and everything was behind schedule. That happens. But I shouldn't have had to call to find out. I expect companies to be proactive and contact customers to warn of delays. In any case, the rep on the phone suggested that the team would still be able to get the job done that day. We eventually decided that the crew would drop the sod off on my driveway and come back the next day to install it. Glad we made that decision, because the next day, the job took about four hours. Had they started the previous evening as the rep had initially suggested, they would have been working well into the night and well past the point of my neighbours' patience for construction noise. I'm surprised the company didn't consider that. Finally, we never did receive the follow-up fertilizer application that came with the package we bought. I called a number of times about it, but here we are, late-September and still no fertilizer. I applied some myself, no big deal. Add all those things up, though, and I'm one dissatisfied customer. I should point out: the lawn installed took just fine and is growing well, so I certainly can't fault the company there. As well, the staff members were courteous and friendly. I get the feeling they really were trying. But the end result simply wasn’t good enough. And finally, I understand Instant Lawns was in the midst of an ownership transition at around the time of my job. Such significant disruptions can throw businesses off their stride. Maybe that's what happened here. If so, I trust the company is working toward finding its balance again. I hope that means mine will be the only negative review on this message board for some time. Nonetheless, I have to be honest: I feel Instant Lawns did a poor job for me.