Frequently Asked Questions

GENERAL:

Lawn Doctor is the highest rated national lawn care company, based in New Jersey. Lawn Doctor of The Woodlands-Magnolia-Tomball is a franchise location based in The Woodlands, TX. Lawn Doctor of The Woodlands-Magnolia-Tomball is family owned and operated. Continued growth every year since 2013 lead to an expansion in 2018 allowing Lawn Doctor of The Woodlands-Magnolia-Tomball to become the premiere lawn care company in the area.
We are based locally in the Woodlands and actively provide services to customers in the greater Montgomery County area. This includes; The Woodlands, Spring, Magnolia, Tomball, Montgomery and Conroe Areas.
Quite frankly we believe we are the best in the business and take a personal interest in the customers’ lawn and landscape. We will assess your lawn in person and explain any recommendations for service along with answering all your questions before you decide. Additionally, the customer has direct access to the owner of the company should there be a question or concern. Our commitment is to respond to customer inquiries in a very timely basis. We still believe in good old fashioned customer service! Finally, we never require contracts, commitments or pre-payments.
We are very serious about customer service and producing results for your customers. Our reviews reflect that commitment. Check out our online reviews in Google, Yelp, Home Advisor and our website.
Never hesitate to call, text or email us with questions or concerns about the service. If we can’t answer your question via phone or email we will stop by to assess the concern in person.
Very simply, we ask you to contact us if you have any concerns regarding our services. We will do our best to overcome any challenges. If we cannot satisfy a customer then we will refund the cost of the most recent service and cancel any future scheduled services.
No way! We would never expect a customer to pay for a service they weren’t expecting or didn’t approve. If we think an additional service is needed we will communicate the need in advance with cost information so the customer can decide.
Actually it is! Lawns produce great amounts of oxygen, absorb pollutants and dust, sequester carbon, help reduce runoff and cool the surrounding areas. Yes, lawns require water but the benefits greatly outnumber the drawbacks so we should want to strike a balance with the pros and cons.

TERMS:

Payment is due upon the service completion via autopay. As a courtesy, payment reminder emails are automatically generated when late. If payment is not received by the next scheduled the service will not be applied. Furthermore, if payment is not received by the subsequent scheduled service, the service will not be performed and the account will be submitted for collections.
Easy! We accept all forms of payment including checks and all major credit cards. Checks should be left for the technician to collect on the day of your service and all credit cards will need to be on auto-pay. You can set up auto-pay, through your online portal using our customer website.
Never! We do not require any contracts, commitments or prepayment of services. Instead we choose to earn your continued business with results and excellent customer service. We do offer a 5% pre-payment discount if you do decide you would like to pre-ay for 12 months!
Absolutely! Since we do require a credit card on file to service your lawn we do not keep credit card numbers electronically which could be subject to hacking. Instead the encrypted information is stored in the secure system database. You are always in control of the billing and can change or cancel the payment status at any time.

SERVICE SCHEDULING:

Good question! It may help to know that we operate a high volume business and can’t be everywhere at once or anywhere specific at any given time. We make an average of approximately 20 stops per service day. With that in mind, we have established routes that cover certain areas of our territory on certain days. Each customer will be assigned a route after their first service. We do our best to accommodate customer desires regarding scheduling but sometimes cannot.
Unfortunately with the volume of business we do it would be nearly impossible to schedule services for specific days and times. See also – How are services scheduled?
Our system can automatically send service advisement via email or text message the day prior to the scheduled service. These notices cannot indicate a time frame. Please call/email/text us if you desire to know a general time window for the service. We will do our best to provide the information. Sorry, we cannot place individual phone calls for this purpose.
No, never a need to be home and we don’t want to bother the customer anyway. We try to leave everything just as we find it so no worries as long as we have access so please be sure to unlock gates as necessary. Please keep all pets inside as well.
We will always leave an invoice at the front door and send you an after service email. These contain the same information.
It is important that we have easy access to any treatment areas. Please be sure to unlock gates, remove/move any hindrances to the walkways and pick up toys and/or pet items and waste off the lawn.
Frustrating, but it does happen occasionally. In that event we will not complete the service. We will do our best to return at a later date to complete the entire service.

SERVICE INFORMATION:

Lawn Doctor’s Lawn Maintainer Care service is everything a lawn needs to be healthy and attractive. It starts with proper fertilization along with weed control and prevention. We can also address just about anything that arises affecting the lawn such as insect and disease damage with one of our many other programs!
All lawns need proper care whether the customer does it, gardener does it or Lawn Doctor does. We just think we do it better than anybody. Why wouldn’t the customer want the best?
Not likely! The State of Texas requires a special license for what we do. Ask to see ours! We have all the necessary commercial applicators licenses to operate and apply in the state of Texas. It is very rare for a gardener to go though the time, expense and continuing education required to maintain the necessary licenses. Accordingly, there would be a lack of knowledge, experience and access to the proper products to maintain the healthiest possible lawn. Most Lawn Doctor customers have gardeners for the lawn and landscape maintenance and us for the lawn care services. We complement each other very well with no or very little addition to overall cost.
Yes! Other services include: lawn aeration, soil improvement and moisture retention, grub control, lawn insect control and disease control, fire ant and mosquito treatments along with landscape tree and shrub services.
This is a very important question! Any product we may apply to your lawn is highly tested and regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and subject to additional layers of scrutiny by the Texas Department of Agriculture. Laws mandate we adhere to product label instructions. These laws are designed to protect product applicators as well as consumers. Most labels instruct people and pets to stay off surfaces during treatment but may re-enter after any spray has dried. In our experience this is usually about 4 hours after the treatment has been applied.
In a word, yes. However, these options generally come with reduced results and added cost. Our goal is always to produce the best results with minimum use of chemicals at a reasonable cost. We prefer to have a conversation about your goals for the lawn and your understanding of these products. With that we can share the facts along with pros and cons of the services options to customize a program that meets your needs.
No! The vast majority of our products are non-staining plus we blow off driveway and hard surfaces for a professional completion to the service.
There are a lot of factors involved in the health and appearance of any lawn. Weather, soil composition and nutrients, irrigation along with the wear and tear all affect the lawn. Our goal for each lawn is there is none better on the block and we are really good at delivering that goal. If a lawn isn’t reaching its full potential we work with the customer on steps needed to make improvements.
As green as we can make it depending on the type of grass and growing environment. Every lawn is better off with Lawn Doctor services. Also see – Can you give me a perfect lawn?
Usually a lawn starts greening up and weeds start dying in approximately one week. Some lawns require longer build up than others but they all start looking great before long.
Nature is very good at spreading weed seeds and no lawn is exempt. Also, weeds germinate at varying seasons and cycles. You can rest assured that Lawn Doctor will keep weeds at a minimum and be on the lookout for invasive weed species.
Maybe! Even so, nature is even better at spreading weed seeds around. Whatever the source, we will keep weeds to a minimum.
Perhaps never! Please refer to our Lawn Evaluation Form where we state “it takes up to two years to make a lawn 90% weed free”. There are annual weeds, biannual, biennial and perennial weeds. We need to work through seasons and cycles to see everything possible. Rest assured the greatest progress is made early on so you can be loving your lawn again soon. However, please be a little patient and know we are looking out for your lawn and will adjust treatment as needed going forward.
Watering recommendations for the spring: (FEB – APRIL) This time of year, because we have not been experiencing consistent hot weather yet, and we are still experiencing cool nights we don’t recommend regular watering yet.

If we go a stretch like 10-14 days with no rain and it’s hot, and you start to see the lawn looking stressed, you can certainly run a cycle in the morning. A lawn will recover quicker from getting dry and then getting watered than it will from being too wet and getting brown patch or leaf spot

Watering recommendations for the summer (APRIL – AUGUST): When daytime temperature are consistently over 80 degrees your lawn needs 1 – 1 1/2 inces of water per week. This should be split into watering about 2-3 times per week for about 15-20 minutes per zone. During this time of the year the lawn needs more deep watering to help it with the summer heat.

Watering recommendations for the fall (SEPTEMBER – NOVEMBER) Watering should be cut back when night time temperatures are consistently below 70 degrees and daytime temperatures are below 80 degrees. Only about once a week should be sufficient. You want to cut way back in the fall. If you are home and not traveling, the best thing is to just run it once you start to notice it looking a little dry. St. Augustine will rebound quite well after being dry, but not so much to being over wet and getting brown patch.

Watering recommendations for the winter: (DECEMBER – FEBUARY): Water 1 inch every 2-3 weeks. Usually there is enough rainfall to satisfy.Most treatments can be watered in with the next rain.

Quite possibly! Feedback from customers indicate we can achieve 10%-15% water savings with getting the lawn healthy and following our recommendations. Of course, if a customer is under irrigating to begin with then extra savings aren’t likely. Be sure to ask about our moisture retention programs that can achieve 30% – 50% savings in lawn irrigation.
Cultural practices are a very important component of any lawn maintenance program. These practices include mowing, trimming/edging and irrigation. If any of these practices are wrong the lawn will not achieve its full potential. We will advise each customer of deficiencies in any cultural practice so it can be corrected.
Absolutely! As a rule we find lawns edged way too aggressively. A popular method of edging seems to be “tapering” in which a lawn is trimmed at an angle from the inside of the lawn to the outside. Often this leads to lawn size reduction and exposed soil around the edges. The result is increased weeds and moisture loss. Neither is healthy for the lawn. The proper way to edge is vertically at the outer edges/hard surfaces.
It depends of the type of grass. The majority of lawns in our area are St. Augustine grass. We find these lawns often mowed too short. The proper mow height is 3 inches. There are several reasons for this. 1) The taller mow height encourages deeper roots. 2) The taller grass plant becomes thicker by producing more grass blades. 3) The taller and thicker grass plant shades the soil which reduces moisture loss and helps compete against weeds. 4) The grass plant is greenest at that mow height so the lawn is more beautiful. Perhaps the best way to verify mow height is to compare to the index finger which is approximately 3 inches. Easy!
Unfortunately this is not a service we provide. However, we are happy to help assess the sprinkler coverage on your lawn. We very often discover irrigation problems during the service and make a note to inform you so you can arrange for repair. We also have very good sprinkler repair referrals, if desired.
Grasscycling or mulching lawn clippings simply means a bag is not used during mowing to capture and throw away the clippings. Most modern lawn mowers have the capability to recycle the grass clippings where they can return nutrients to the soil, reduce waste going to landfills and eliminate that smelly mess out of the green waste containers. Unfortunately most gardeners seem to bag these clippings so the customer can see their work. There are only benefits to grasscycling so we do recommend it and suggest customers require gardeners to adopt this practice.
Good question! We have found that many customers initially think they have crabgrass when it is actually any number of invasive grasses and weeds. It seems to be a “catch all” label for undesirable things in the lawn. In reality, crabgrass is an annual grassy weed that germinates during spring, matures during summer then dies during fall after dispersing seeds. Those seeds become the following year’s crabgrass. It gets worse and worse until stopped. Lawn Doctor service automatically controls crabgrass.
Another good question! Similar to crabgrass, lawn disease or fungus seems to be a “catch all” diagnosis for brown spots in a lawn. Interestingly, a lawn disease has to maintain certain conditions (i.e. high humidity and high night temperatures) to flourish. Once the conditions change, the disease can cease naturally. Disease can be caused by sprinkler coverage or irrigation system deficiencies as well.
Nutsedge is one of the most difficult invasive weeds to control in a lawn. What makes it such a challenge is an underground network of tubers called “nutlets”. These tubers are connected with horizontal stems called rhizomes. They cannot be physically removed and the extensive underground network makes chemical control a long term process. Fortunately some nutsedge plants are easier to control than others so we need to identify to determine the prognosis. While we can’t guarantee a quick solution or even complete eradication we can make great improvement over time and usually keep nutsedge from completely overgrowing your lawn.
Most likely! Lawn aeration will loosen compacted soil and allow nutrients and water to get into the root system. We highly recommend an aeration every spring. We will always offer a service for the greatest need and We find that lawns that are aerated will provide the greatest result for your lawn.