Essentially, no matter how simple your property landscaping is it will still need trimming, fertilizing, watering, clean up and at times possible disease prevention. The process takes a lot of time and effort and for people who are always on the go it is best for them to hire professional landscape maintenance personnel that can do the work weekly or according to your yard’s needs. The difference between a good landscape and a bad one is marked by how much time was invested on the project and was it tackled properly. With all the weeding, mowing and mulching going on one would beg the question: “Did I do the task in the right manner?”

So, we at Tru-Serve Building Maintenance devised a monthly Landscape Maintenance Checklist for you that can be done throughout the different seasons:

January To April Checklist

January

• Clean up any debris left behind by the winter storms

February

• Prune trees to raise undercarriage. Plants and shrubs will need to be pruned for rejuvenation.
• Based on soil test, apply lime to the lawn.
• During spring and summer months apply dormant oil to shrubs to reduce insect damage.
• Ornamental grass should be trimmed to avoid them looking messy and unkempt.
• Form and finalize your plans for a Spring Landscaping Project.

March

• Begin your spring cleanup chores if the weather breaks early.

April

• If turf is dry opt for a dethatch/verti-cut lawn.
• Remove all leaves, debris and leaves as part of your spring cleanup completion.
• Check if the window wells, catch basins and other drainages are clean.
• Before Forsythias finishes its bloom you should apply the first round of turf fertilizer that has crabgrass pre-emergent. Do not put any crabgrass pre-emergent on areas where the lawn is thin.
• Mow lawn as required by conditions. Try not to remove more than 1/3 of the grass plant a time.
• Fertilize spring bulbs late in the bloom cycle. If you have tulips fertilize them while blooming and after.
• Reestablish and cultivate bed edges. Apply pre-emergent to beds.
• If the soil is not overly wet you can transfer, plant or divide perennials.
• Plant spring pansies for color.
• Ornamental planting beds can be fertilized for slow release of fertilizers. Ground covers should also be fertilized as well.
• Start monitoring the grounds for pests.
• On the first Sunday of April reset your automatic timers on outdoor lighting. Check the bulbs and replace them if necessary.
• On the second week of April you can turn on your irrigation system. You should also check if all zones and/or heads are working properly.
• Hardscapes should be checked for damage from the winter weather. Make repairs as necessary.

May To August Checklist

May

• Mowing should be done as frequently as necessary.
• Weed control can be done during cooler temperatures when weeds grow actively. This should be a perfect time to spray selected areas with herbicide.
• Over-seed the lawn.
• Apply the second batch of fertilizer on the last week of May.
• Prepare annual flower beds and summer annuals. Weed the beds as necessary.
• Hedging plants should be sheared.
• Begin watering the landscape more before temperatures rise. If the greens goes dormant it will much more water to restore it rather than the ¼ that it takes to keep it green.

June

• Mowing should still be continued.
• If temperatures reach mid 80s stop using selective herbicides.
• Fertilize your summer annuals.
• Flower and ornamental beds should be mulch to avoid dryness.
• Perennials should be pinched back, dead headed and staked.
• Maintenance pruning should be done for the ornamental plants.
• Form and finalize your plans for a Fall Landscaping Project.

July

• Skip mowing schedules only if the lawn is either not growing or is excessively dried out.
• Third batch of fertilizer application on the first week of July.
• Perennials should be fertilized for the second and last time for the season.
• Perennials and ornamental beds should periodically be watered in a long, deep, slow watering system for the water to soak deep into the earth.

August

• If there is drought, stop mowing the lawn otherwise continue doing so.
• Prune plants as needed.
• Perennials and ornamentals should still be watered.
• New grass seed should be installed after the third week.
• Form and finalize your plans for next year’s Landscaping Project.

September To December Checklist

September

• The fourth batch of fertilizer should be applied on the first week.
• Selective herbicides can be applied again to the turf for unwanted weeds.
• Install fall annual color by mid-September
• Prune and shear plants for the last time this season.

October

• Continue with the regular mowing schedule.
• Start your fall clean up by removing all leaf, plant debris and diseased plant parts.
• Perennials and other plants that need insulation during winter need new mulch to be installed.
• Water landscapes plants well until the ground is frozen.
• Dig and store tender perennials, tubers and summer bulbs.
• Divide perennials and reduce unwanted plants in bed.
• Prune back roses. Cover root flares or trunks with mulch.
• Drain pipes and blow out irrigation systems.
• Spring flowering bulbs can be installed by the end of the month.
• Spray anti-desiccant on plants.
• Fertilize trees and shrubs by using balanced fertilizers.
• Turn water off to exterior features by the second week.
• Inspect outdoor lights, replace and repair if necessary.
• On the last Sunday of October Daylight Saving Time ends so automatic timers should be reset.
• If you have a pond, it needs to be cleaned out.

November

• You can continue to cut the grass until it stops growing.
• Start installing winter burlap screening to protect plants from the winds and temperatures below 50°F.
• The fifth and last application of fertilizer should be done by the second week of the month.
• Cut down perennial beds after several killing frosts.
• Clear up any leaves left behind in the landscape.
• Check the catch basins, drainages and window wells.
• Soil pH level should be checked.
• Hoses and other gardening equipments should be stored and put away properly.

December

• Clean remaining leaves in the landscape
• Remove fall annual flowers after they have declined.

For more information about lawn care services you can visit at www.tru-serve.com.

More Than Just Mowing The Grass

Taking care of a lawn involves much more than simply keeping the grass mowed. You also need to keep that grass healthy with regular maintenance such as fertilizing, aerating, watering and weeding and, possibly, seeding. In addition to keeping the lawn looking good, there may be trees and shrubs to keep trimmed and safe, planting beds to keep tidy and routine maintenance on any sprinkler systems or equipment you may own.

For some property owners, that’s simply too much work. Either they don’t have the time, the resources, the interest or the know-how to do the job well on their own. Sometimes the property is just too large or there are multiple properties to manage and the job becomes too much to handle yourself. That’s where our service can save you time and money.

What Our Service Can Do For You

In addition to keeping your lawn looking good and staying healthy, we provide many other services. We may:

• Inspect facilities and systems to ensure proper function. This can include inspecting sprinkler systems for leaks and to make sure they are running effectively and making sure the heads are not broken and are pointing in the right direction. A lawn service can also check your outdoor lighting systems for proper function. This is especially important for commercial properties.
• Provide design expertise. Some companies offer design services in which they evaluate the layout and use of the yard for the most effective, attractive and cost-effective design. These companies have experienced landscapers on staff who have seen it all. They can envision a new design or provide tips on maintenance and options.
• Educate you on proper lawn care. A good lawn care service will do as much as they can to educate the property owner about their specific needs, why they are recommending specific treatments, and how to properly care for the lawn and plantings.
• Ensure the proper scheduling of services. A professional lawn care services team will make sure your lawn is fertilized, dethatched, weeded, watered and mowed at the appropriate times to ensure optimum growth.
• Provide fall and spring clean-up services. Cleaning up the lawn in fall and spring is nearly as important as maintaining it during the growing season. Leaf raking and leaf-blowing in the fall will keep the lawn looking neat and tidy even when there’s no snow on the ground. Plus, it will be much easier to get the yard in shape in the spring without heavy wet leaves that have been lying under the snow all winter.

Save Space, Save Money

It’s no secret that taking care of a lawn is hard work. Multiply that by multiple properties or large areas and you’ve got your work cut out for you. Sometimes it’s just not possible to store all of the equipment you need to take care of the lawn on-site. If this is the case you’re faced with storing it off site (and possibly playing to rent the storage space) and somehow getting all that equipment to the right location at the right time.

Our services, on the other hand, have all of the proper equipment on hand and know what equipment will be needed at any given point in time. They can often do a better job of taking care of your landscape than you could do on your own.

Some companies offer a pay-for-service model of billing. This can be a huge money-saver since you’re only pay for the work actually performed. Where some companies charge by the season regardless of how many times they actually come out to mow your lawn or perform needed services, pay-for-service models only charge you for the work they do. So if you enter a dry spell and the grass doesn’t need weekly mowing, they won’t mow it. More importantly, they won’t charge you for it either.

How Does It Save You Money?

• No equipment to purchase and maintain.
• No equipment to store and transport.
• No gas or oil needed to run the equipment (or transport it).
• No need to hire full- or part-time staff to handle your lawn care issues, saving you money in salary, insurance, taxes and, possibly, benefits.
• Your time is money. Your time may be better spent elsewhere, rather than on lawn care.
• Expert service lowers the risk of disease, over-watering, under-watering and poor pruning techniques that could damage or kill your landscape plants. That means you’re less likely to need to replace damaged plantings or turf.
• They can catch problems before they start by performing routine maintenance and inspections of sprinkler systems or other automatic systems in place on the property.

Hiring this kind of service is not as out of reach and many people expect it to be. If you’re overwhelmed by property maintenance you owe it to yourself and your business’s success to look into lawn care services and see if they can save you time or money.

While most properties have some form of exterior lighting, they aren’t always in working order or located in the optimum positions. Spring is a great time to give your exterior lights a check-up and make sure they’re ready to go for the long summer nights ahead.

Exterior Lights Promote Safety and Enjoyment

There are two main reasons we have outside lighting: safety and to extend our time outside. Lighting is very important in parking lots and along walkways from the drive or sidewalk to the house. It helps emergency vehicles see the house number and helps owners fit their key in the door. A well-lit location also has a far lower chance of becoming a target for crime than a poorly lit location. Effective exterior lighting also extends the amount of time we can spend outside enjoying the air and the company of friends and family.

Exterior Lighting Maintenance

Here are some spring maintenance tips you can follow to get the most out of your exterior lighting.

• Replace bulbs. This is the easy one and the most obvious problem with lighting, but a lot of property owners put it off during the winter. They may notice the light bulb has burnt out, but decide it doesn’t need to be replaced right away since they aren’t outside much after dark anyway. Once spring arrives, though, those burnt out bulbs become a much higher priority. When replacing your bulbs, consider switching to a higher efficiency bulb to get more life out of it. Businesses that must light up parking lots, in particular, can enjoy substantial savings by switching to higher efficiency bulbs. Photocells are another option in lighting that can pay off for businesses in the long run. These light turn on automatically at dusk and turn off at dawn with no manual adjusting needed. Be sure to check the wattage of your light bulbs and make sure they are bright enough to give you the light you want or need but not too high for the socket to handle. The last thing you want to do is blow a fuse or circuit simply by replacing a bulb!
• Adjust Your Timers. If you have your outside lights on timers, make sure you adjust them to come on later every month or so as the days get longer (and then adjust it down again as summer fades). If you leave the timers set to come on and turn off at the same time all year, you’re wasting money. It gets dark far earlier in January than it does in June. You can save several hours of lighting expenses by adjusting your timers to turn on at dusk and off at dawn. A simple check of the local news will tell you what time the sun rises and sets each day. You don’t need to adjust the timers every day, once a month is fine.
• Check Your Light Covers. Most light bulbs are protected by some sort of cover. It’s important to check these covers to make sure they are clear of cobwebs and debris that might block the light. You can clean the glass to help the light shine brighter and check to make sure the light cover is still tightly connected to the building. Over time, it may have worked itself loose or pulled away from the building leaving a gap between the house and the light and possibly an entry point for pests.
• Add Lighting. Maybe you’re not happy with the amount of light you have outside. Summer is the perfect time to add lights. You’ll know exactly where you’re spending time and which areas need to be lit up more. Solar or wired path lights can be added around the deck, patio, walkways or yard or you can install motion sensor lights in dark corners of the property.

Fixing exterior lighting problems is a simple way to help you enjoy the outdoors more and keep your property safer at the same time. With your exterior lighting in shape, all you have to worry about are the mosquitos!

Heating and air-conditioning units need regular cleaning and maintenance to perform optimally. Owners of single-family homes are slightly more apt to understand this (but only slightly!) since they can see their compressor units every time they walk out into the yard. Owners of condominium units don’t have this visual cue and may be confused over whether HVAC maintenance is their responsibility or the responsibility of their association.

Who’s Responsible For Maintenance?

In general, condominium associations are responsible for the maintenance of “common” areas such as the exterior of the building, the landscaping, hallways and common rooms such as laundry facilities. If the mechanicals are shared, they are the responsibility of the homeowners association, but more often than not furnaces and air conditioners are not shared. Each unit has its’ own HVAC system. If this is the case, then the responsibility for maintenance of those mechanicals falls to the condo owner.

Spring Maintenance Tips

Once spring truly hits, we are eager to turn off the heat and enjoy a few months of “free” heating and cooling. It’s no longer cold enough to warrant running the furnace anymore, but it’s not so hot outside that we turn on the air conditioner. This in-between time is the perfect time to schedule a maintenance inspection and tune-up on your air conditioner and have your furnace checked for potential problems as well.

• Air Filters. One of the easiest things to check and something most property owners can do themselves is to check the filter. After months of constant use, your air filter can get pretty clogged up with dirt, dust and pet hair. Filters are easy to access and simply pull up so you can take a quick look and see for yourself if it needs to be replaced or not. Doing this while the unit is off, means the filter isn’t currently needed and gives you the time you need to make a replacement if need be. Depending on the type of filter you have, you can rinse it off and reuse it, replace it with a new one yourself or contact an HVAC maintenance company and order a replacement. If you don’t clean or replace your filter, it can force the HVAC system to work harder to get hot or cold air through your house and won’t be very effective at cleaning the air.
• Furnace Shut Down. There’s more to shutting down a furnace than moving the thermostat function from “Heat” to “Off”. A spring check of the furnace is a great time to have the unit professionally inspected for small cracks or damage that could cause problems when you need to start it up in the fall.
• Air Conditioner Check. The A/C can’t be checked until the furnace is shut down. There are some things you won’t be able to do on your own, like check the coolant levels and gauge the cooling function, but you can check around the unit for debris and clear it off. A quick hose down can clear out any leaves or small pieces of debris that may have fallen into the compressor unit over the year. Look for anything that could block airflow around the outside or on top of the unit and then clear it away.
• Hire a Professional. Hiring a professional HVAC installer or maintenance service will ensure your unit gets a thorough check-up and any minor adjustments or repairs made on the spot. Find out if your condo association works with a service provider or can arrange for a group inspection for owners who want to have their units checked. A routine inspection and tune-up shouldn’t cost more than $100 per unit, which is far less than you’d pay if you needed to have major repairs done.

Things To Keep In Mind

Remember, the tips presented here are maintenance tips to help make sure your HVAC system is operating at peak function. The true test of the A/C unit will come when there’s an actual load on the system. That is, when it’s hot outside and you need to cool off the inside of your home. Since tests on the system are typically done in the spring, before the weather gets too warm, you may not get an accurate read on the load capacity of your unit. Routine maintenance will, however, ensure the unit is in its best condition to meet that demand. You’ll be able to see if there are worn or broken parts that need to be replaced before you need to turn the unit on and you’ll have time to make the repairs before you’re sweltering in summer heat.

Routine maintenance will extend the life of your mechanicals, keep them operating at peak efficiency and save you from needing to make those emergency calls to an HVAC repair service at the height of summer’s heat or winter’s cold.

In April and May a building enters a “free cooling” period, or a time when there’s no need to heat or to cool the building. This is the perfect time to inspect and maintain your ventilation system for the warmer months ahead. AC systems require maintenance to continue operating smoothly and efficiently throughout the summer months.

When coils, filters and blower components are dirty they slow airflow and reduce the AC system’s ability to cool, which can impact how efficient the system runs. Airflow problems can diminish the system’s efficiency by up to 15 percent.

A thorough cleaning and tune-up of your air conditioning system should be done annually in the spring. Depending on how much the system is run during throughout the summer months, monthly filter cleaning or replacement may be needed.

Spring is also a good time to clean and make necessary repairs to the boiler too.

Tru-Serve’s Springtime Maintenance Checklist

• Clean the evaporator and condenser air conditioning coils.
• Ensure the circuit breakers to the AC system are working
• Clean or change filters.
• Check belts for wear and replace if necessary.
• Clean and adjust blower components.
• Check the refrigerant level and adjust if necessary.
• Turn the air conditioner on to ensure it is working.
• Properly shut down the boiler.
• Once the hot weather is here, check the filters monthly and adjust the humidity control if condensation appears on windows and walls.

When dealing with large commercial and residential properties, air conditioning maintenance should be done by qualified service professionals. For property managers juggling a number of maintenance activities at once, an outsourced building maintenance team may be the answer. Tru-Serve offers outsourced facilities maintenance services that include air conditioning and boiler maintenance.

Keeping sidewalks clear of snow and ice is the neighborly and safe thing to do in winter.

Depending on the location of your property, you’re likely required to clear sidewalks after the end of a snowfall within a certain timeframe; it could be between four hours and 24 hours. Apartment and commercial building owners are better off removing snow immediately to avoid problems later, especially when rain and heavy snow is involved.

Slip-and-fall accidents can be common during the winter months. Thorough snow removal can help in preventing such accidents, but ongoing maintenance to keep sidewalks and steps dry will help reduce the liability property owners could face.

At Tru-Serve, we see all levels of quality and quantity when it comes to snow removal. Be sure to contact us immediately to remove snow from your properties.

Tips for Snow Removal

• The sooner snow is removed the less likely ice will form
• Shovel snow from sidewalks on all side of the property
• Shovel the full width of the sidewalk
• Shovel to the concrete and remove all ice
• Use salt to melt the ice, if necessary and maintain updated salt logs (i.e. location, date, time, etc.)
• Once the sidewalk is cleared, sprinkling a little sand can help prevent slipping
• Shovel around garbage cans and recycling bins
• Pile snow on the property rather than in the street or the alley
• Use the proper snow removal equipment to avoid back injuries
• Arrange for snow removal during planned vacations

It is also good to keep sidewalks clear throughout the winter to avoid complaints from residents and renters. One complaint could lead to fines from the city and nearly every city has an ordinance declaring snow removal from sidewalks as the responsibility of the property owner, tenant, or both.

If water from a faucet isn’t working, first check all faucets to isolate where the frozen pipe may be. If none of the faucets work, the problem may be with your meter rather than a frozen pipe. The frozen section of a pipe may be frosted or have ice on it; a bulging pipe is close to breaking and should be taken care of immediately.

Tips for Treating Frozen Pipes

Some basic tips for treating these kinds of issues include 1) turning off the main water value to help relieve pressure when the pipe thaws, 2) opening faucets so steam can escape during thawing, 3) using a hairdryer on the frozen area of pipe until full water pressure is restored, and 4) be patient!

Tips for Preventing Frozen Pipes

I recommend taking steps to prevent those pipes from freezing. Before the cold weather hits be sure to 1) insulate outer walls and pipes, 2) eliminate drafts by closing windows and storm windows, and repairing broken or cracked windows, 3) open cabinet doors (under the sink) to allow warmth from room to reach pipes, 4) check that your finance/boiler are working properly, and 5) check that outside water is turned off

If these pipes can’t be accessed, it’s time to bring in a professional. And, if you continue to have these similar problems, you may need to take additional measures to insure that pipes are kept warm.