Founded in 2017
16+ years in the trade behind the crews
Members of BCLNA and PAMA
Certified irrigation and hardscape technicians
Liability and WorkSafe insured
How Tandem became a strata company
It started as passion for the work
Our logo represents passion for landscaping; we built this company on genuine passion for what we do and the understanding of what goes into horticultural excellence. This is why we are fortunate enough to work with like-minded people, clients and employees alike.
Having communication and cultivating strong connections with the people we work with, we as a company, have the power to make exceptional change happen.
We love what we do! Landscaping has become a lifestyle and couldn’t see it any other way.
Then the vision shifted
We started in 2017, thinking that simply doing good work would grow the company. What we learned is that the real key is building long-term relationships and making property managers’ jobs easier.
Property managers are busy and juggle multiple locations. At the very least, we can take one location fully off their hands and support them in a bigger way than a general landscaper would. That is where the vision shifted, and along the way we took on a larger mission: elevating the landscaping industry itself.
Today that mission is the whole company. Strata corporations, strata councils and commercial property managers are the only people we work for, and every part of the operation, from the contracts to the crew structure, was rebuilt to suit them.
Milestones
Tandem is founded, with more than 16 years in the trade already behind the people running it.
Good work alone does not grow a company. Long-term relationships do, so the contracts and the reporting were rebuilt around them.
A few properties have now been with us nine years or more. Most of our sites are past the five-year mark.
Strata and commercial properties only, across Vancouver, Burnaby, Langley and Richmond.
Landscaping is a profession, not a trade where the cheapest bid wins
Landscaping gets lumped in with general construction and is often seen as a low-skill, bottom-of-the-barrel trade where the cheapest bid wins. That is simply not true. Cleanliness is one of our top priorities, and the expertise behind good landscaping genuinely affects the long-term health and value of a property.
We want to change the perception. We want landscaping to be seen as a professional trade and a real career, not just summer work, and we want the bar for entry to be higher, so the whole industry stops being devalued.
Cleanliness first
One of our top priorities on every site, every visit.
Expertise that shows
Good landscaping affects the long-term health and value of a property.
A higher bar
Raise the standard for entry and the whole industry stops being devalued.
In Maks’s words
We’re not a random mom-and-pop operation. We’re a professional trade and a profession worth stepping into.
We treat landscaping as a career, not summer work
Skilled crews are the only way any of the above is true on the ground, so we put real money and structure behind training. It is also what keeps mistakes down and lets supervisors communicate deficiencies and property needs clearly in our reporting.
Sponsored schooling
We offer incentives for our people to go to school. We sponsor them and cover the cost.
Internal Tandem courses
Tandem-specific courses our people can take, built around the way we actually run a property.
Structured on-the-job training
Structured training on site, on top of the classroom work, so the learning lands where the job happens.
Supervisors run the systems on site
Our supervisors are trained to run these systems on site, which keeps our crews skilled, minimizes mistakes, and improves efficiency.
Managers on site for quality checks
Our managers come on site regularly to check quality and make reports where needed.
Clear communication is trained too
Supervisors are trained to communicate deficiencies and property needs clearly, so what they see on site reaches you.
How we pay
We value our team and we want people to see landscaping as a career, so we pay above the industry standard. It is the same reason we sponsor schooling and run our own courses.
Accredited, insured, and aiming higher
Every claim below can be checked. It is also the standard we bring a property up to first, alongside the year-round services we run for every site.
Memberships, certifications and insurance
Member of the BCLNA, the British Columbia Landscape and Nursery Association
Member of PAMA
Certified in ornamental maintenance
Certified in softscape installation
Certified irrigation technician
Certified hardscape technician
Liability insurance
WorkSafe insurance
The goal, not a trophy
Working toward the BCLNA Award of Excellence
One of our goals is to win the Award of Excellence for landscape maintenance in the coming years. We have not won it yet. We are telling you what we are working toward, because it is the standard we hold the crews to in the meantime.
What building managers and councils say
Reviews come straight from Google, in the reviewer’s own words, with their role and their city attached.
Where we work
Vancouver, Burnaby, Langley, and Richmond, and the surrounding Metro Vancouver area. Our crews handle 10 to 12 properties every week, which is the number that lets us be on each site weekly and still know it properly.
Who we work with
Strata corporations
Strata councils
Commercial property managers
We do not take residential work. That is a deliberate choice, not a capacity problem: our contracts, our reporting and our crew structure are all built for multi-unit and commercial sites.
Our horticulturists are directly responsible for scheduling, production, and quality control. As a result, they will react quickly and efficiently to your request.
Book a site walkthrough
Tell us about the property and we will come look at it, ideally with council members there too. You will get our read on its condition and what we would do first, whether or not you hire us.