The Cutting Edge is far from being a 5 star establishment. I was fooled by the other 5 star ratings…read moreleft for small scale jobs and have the responsibility to alert anyone considering this firm for a large project to run the other way. I had the misfortune of hiring Michael Karl and The Cutting Edge Landscaping for our backyard transformation project in 2025. We were putting a pool in and hired this firm to complete the hardscaping and landscaping parts of the job. After years of doing business with a competitive firm in the area, we also made the mistake of transferring our recurring grass maintenance service to The Cutting Edge to consolidate all our outdoor service needs under a single umbrella. Michael Karl talked a good game for months and appeared knowledgeable until it came time to execute. Based on our experience, he is the true definition of "fake it till you make it". The first red flags appeared when he brought a third party excavator to preview rough grading work we had hired The Cutting Edge to do and when Michael Karl was faced with our pool professionals at our pre-install alignment meeting. Both firms immediately knew that Michael Karl had zero knowledge on excavation or pool hardscaping matters. They alerted us but unfortunately, by then, we had already given The Cutting Edge our initial $25K deposit and were stuck honoring the commitment in fear of losing such a large amount of money. Execution phase started: The Cutting Edge crew did a terrible job installing our silt fence, not following the measurements that were provided on our Township approved engineering plans, which caused confusion to the other professionals who were following the newly created yard limitations. The Cutting Edge then proceeded to remove trees and came to do the job with hand saws instead of professional tree cutting equipment. Needless to say that they were only able to cut the smallest ones, which amounted to 8 out of 28, left all the stumps, and still invoiced us the full contracted amount of over $5K for a job partially done. In the midst, I had a conversation with our pool contractor about 7" lip copings that Michael Karl instructed us to purchase, just to find out that they were never consulted, although they had a direct line of communication. The coping was incompatible with a liner pool as it would hide the tracks. Unfortunately for us, the coping material was custom and non-refundable. Another $8K wasted due to incompetence. As we were unnecessarily bleeding money left and right due to misguidance provided by Michael Karl and The Cutting Edge, I informed Michael Karl that I would hold off on doing 2 small optional portions of the project until 2026. Without having a single conversation, Michael Karl from The Cutting Edge emailed us a termination of contract due to "service change" that week and was a no show for our weekly lawn maintenance service, which was on a separate agreement, paid, and unrelated to the hardscaping contract. Seriously? Who does that!? The Cutting Edge's termination of contract notice came on Father's Day weekend. Needless to say that by mid-June, most hardscapers and landscapers were already booked for the season. We were left in a pickle and were only refunded a portion of our initial deposit, after deductions for a tree cutting job partially done, silt fence install improperly done, + tax, which shouldn't apply on home improvement projects and were not part of our initial agreement. We were fortunate to find another firm who promptly took over our hardscaping project and did an amazing job in our backyard. Another tree cutting professional and landscaping firm, which we had existing relationships with, also came to the rescue and took care of the 20 trees that remained to be cut and the weekly lawn maintenance for the remainder of the season. We ended up spending a lot more than we initially expected simply because we initially contracted the wrong firm: The Cutting Edge Landscaping. It is to note that every story doesn't have a happy ending like ours. We are well connected individuals who honor our obligations and are therefore highly respected in our community. Based on our poor experience, the stress this firm caused us for months, and the obscene amount of money we wasted due to misguidance, I urge anyone to stay away from Michael Karl and The Cutting Edge Landscaping.

I hired this company to clean out some shrubs on the front of my townhome. They service the entire…read morecomplex throughout the year, so I thought they would be a solid choice, and came at the recommendation of the HOA. I had a smallish bill (under $500) and was making regular payments on it to pay it off as quickly as possible. I received a nasty email from the owner letting me know they don't accept payments on a total, just pay in full immediately. No where is it stated this is their policy. Keep in mind I referred my next door neighbor to them as soon as they did the work. I live in my home town, since 1984, and pride myself on using local business owners to support them. Never again. Perhaps this man needs some lessons on customer retention.