Planning maintenance for a commercial or apartment property

A homeowner notices their lawn once a week.  A tenant, a customer or a board notices a property every single day, and they notice the edges, the entrance and the litter before they notice the grass.

That changes what matters.  On a home the mowing is the job and the trimming is the finish; on a commercial or apartment property the finish is very often the whole impression.  An entrance bed that has gone over, a curb line that has disappeared under grass, or leaves in a stairwell say more to a prospective tenant than a well-cut lawn does.

It also changes the timing.  A residential visit that slips two days is an inconvenience.  A property with a leasing office, a showing schedule, or a weekend event has days when it must look right, and those need to be known in advance rather than discovered.

And it changes the reporting.  Somebody who is not on site needs to be told what was done and what was noticed, because they are answering for a property they only see occasionally.

The most common reason a maintenance contract disappoints is that it was priced for less work than the property actually needed, and nobody said so at the time.

Ask for the answers in writing and the comparison becomes straightforward.  A cheaper number that turns out to be turf only, twenty-four times a year, with edging as an extra, is not cheaper - it is a different job.

• How many visits, and over what months? Twenty-eight visits and thirty-four visits are very different numbers on the same property
• Is edging every visit, or as needed, or extra? This is where quotes most often differ invisibly
• Are the beds included, or is it turf only? Bed maintenance is a separate service and it is the one that shows first when it stops
• Is pruning in, and how many times a year? A hedge cut once a season and a hedge cut three times look nothing alike
• Is mulch or pine straw included, or quoted separately when it is due?
• Is debris hauled away, or left for the property to deal with?
• What happens when rain moves a day - is the visit made up, or is it lost?

A quote comes together faster when a few things are known at the start, and none of them take long to gather.

Send those through the contact page or call (256) 506-9006 during office hours - Monday to Friday seven until five, Saturday eight until noon - and we will arrange a walk round.  Estimates are free, and we would far rather look at a property than guess at it over the phone.

• The address, and roughly how much of it is actually mowed as opposed to parking or building
• Which services you want quoted - turf only, or turf plus beds, pruning, mulch and cleanups
• The frequency you have in mind, if you have one
• Any dates through the year when the property has to look right
• Access details: gates, codes, dogs, and where equipment can and cannot go
• Anything that has been a recurring problem, so it gets looked at rather than inherited