Each time autumn rolls around, it brings with it a significant list of exterior property maintenance items. To set up your Hamden rental property’s yard and exterior ready for winter, you may have to look closely at the lawn to figure out whether or not it requires to be dethatched, leaves cleaned up, and trees and plants made ready to weather the cold temperatures.
Now, tenants do so much of the cleaning and the simple repairs. They are, after all, the people who live in the property. So it cannot be denied that they have an extremely huge role in the upkeep of a rental home. However, there are some types of tasks that they shouldn’t attempt to do. These are tasks that either requires technical expertise or tasks that have a large element of risk. For these tasks, tenants are better off not doing them. So, with regards to seasonal yard maintenance there are certain duties that should not be a tenant’s burden. Heedless of whether you need to be sure that the responsibility is accomplished properly, or the job would put your tenant’s safety and security at risk, these forms of maintenance activities are better cared for by those who know how to work on them well and carefully.
A rental property’s lawn is a principal piece of the entire appeal and value of the home. Routine lawn maintenance should be a priority for both you and your tenant, as should other seasonal lawn maintenance tasks such as aerating and dethatching. As time passes, the soil underneath a lawn will grow to be compacted with dead grass and other debris. This collected material is called thatch. While a healthy lawn will benefit from a little bit of organic material, when thatch builds up too much it can prevent water and essential nutrients from penetrating the ground and reaching the roots of your grass. This can make the lawn to turn brown and stop growing, at once giving rise to a landscaping eyesore. But when you reduce the amount of thatch, you’re allowing the roots of the grass plants to receive more water, air, and nutrients. This would encourage them to thicken up, be stronger, making them less susceptible to disease.
There are two ways to address the thatch problem: dethatching or power raking and aerating. For modest lawn spaces, it is doable to eliminate thatch with a dethatching rake. The tines of the rake are devised to draw the thatch upward, loosening it and separating it from the soil. To dethatch a lawn by hand, the lawn should be mowed to half of its normal height and then raked thoroughly. The loosened thatch can then be removed with your next mowing. To aerate a small lawn, you can rent an aerator machine that will remove small plugs of soil.
Just in case you are planning to perform this yourself, be sure that you clearly mark all sprinkler heads or utility lines because you don’t want to run over and damage them. You’ll moreover have to obey the instructions really carefully to be certain that the aerator doesn’t damage your lawn in the process. There are, additionally, professionals who offer these services that you may desire to consult and discuss with.
On the other hand, if your rental property has a larger yard, these tactics will be challenging to implement and not to mention time-consuming to do on your own. You could rent a dethatching or power raking machine to help with that task, however, similar to aerating, you’ll need to be heedful not to damage your irrigation system or various parts of the yard. Lawns that have been aerated or dethatched must additionally be maintained rather carefully from then on, or risk more and more damage. Proper watering and fertilizing are steps that should be taken after a dethatching or aeration, to both protect your lawn and encourage the roots to grow.
Even though your tenant may seem proficient, it is not a good idea to expect them to perform dethatching or aeration on your property’s lawn. If they don’t do a decent job or don’t know what they are doing, they could possibly cause extensive damage to your rental home’s yard, irrigation system, even septic or other utility lines. The equipment required to perform these maintenance tasks is not something most tenants possess or will have used before, greatly maximizing the chances that something will go wrong and that they could even harm themselves in the process.
Setting your tenant’s safety at risk is never a great idea, as it could result in you being held liable for their pain and suffering. You could do lawn maintenance on your property yourself but, depending on the scope of your rental home’s lawn, you might prefer hiring a professional company to turn up and bring about these important lawn maintenance tasks for you.
In lieu of wasting your time on seasonal maintenance tasks, assess the benefits of working with Real Property Management Southern Connecticut to watch over them for you. As a real estate investor, your time is practically money. Unleash your time by choosing us to manage your rental property for you. Our property maintenance services will be sure that important seasonal tasks are being performed generally on schedule and appropriately, keeping your Hamden rental property in good shape year-round. To find out more, contact us online or call us at 203-821-7303 today.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
