Tricky Turf - FOCUS: Mowing Tricky Areas

At the same time, what is a chore for some is a challenge for others, noted Brad Hjort, vice president, K & H Lawn Services, Fairfax, Va. Along with the satisfaction of completing a challenging mowing job, he wins customer praise, which often justifies the time and energy spent maneuvering mowers on tricky areas, he said.

“Some people like the challenge of a tricky mowing job, and others dread it,” Hjort distinguished. “I used to enjoy doing tricky areas, and it always made me feel good when a customer would remark that their lawn looked great. I looked at these jobs as a challenge, and I would try to do them as efficiently as I could so they would look the best.”

Call this perspective the “glass is half full” outlook. Hjort calls it a job prerequisite. Training, practice and the right equipment can ease challenges, but tuning up a technician’s mental game to make sound judgments when assessing tricky spots will ensure efficient, effective service, Hjort stressed.

A CHALLENGE COURSE. “As far as tricky, we call them high-maintenance areas - anything that’s not a straight run or requires special equipment outside of a walk-behind mower or tractor unit,” described Lindsey Purcell, landscape maintenance manager, Becker Landscape Contractors, Indianapolis, Ind. “Anything greater than a 3 to 4 percent slope, anything that presents a hazard to our guys,” he continued, trailing off with a list of popular “tricky spots,” including berms, slopes, strange bed lines, sharp angles and pool sides.

The most common high-maintenance hazards Purcell confronts are berms and slopes, he noted, adding that most contractors or landscape architects who install or design these features consider them aesthetic additions, not maintenance obstacles.

“A lot of people don’t design with maintenance in mind,” he said. “They don’t build berms with the idea that they’re going to need mown. The slope angle is much too sharp or the top is not wide enough to support a mower, so when a mower goes over the area you end up scalping the turf.”

Manuel DeSouza, owner, N.D. Landscaping, Topsfield, Mass., stressed the role customer communication plays in justifying the higher prices of tricky areas, adding that these discussions with customers can be opportunities to land additional sales. Most clients are unaware of landscape features that present challenges when they are choosing the design and uneducated about the extra time and effort these areas demand for proper maintenance.

“For the most part, only about 10 percent of customers will ask questions like, ‘How would you mow that tricky area by the pool,’ or, ‘How would you mow around that waterfall?’” DeSouza said.

Purcell uses client communication as a key tool for selling work. When identifying mowing barriers on a property, he points them out to the customer and suggests solutions to permanently mend the problem - adding mulch to a bed to eliminate thin fingers of grass or leveling a steep grade, for example. He views challenging areas as an opportunity for an enhancement sale, and like Hjort, welcomes the challenge of redesigning or conquering tricky areas.

“I feel like it’s my responsibility to point those areas out to the customer,” he added, stressing that communication helps clients understand why their properties might be a costly mowing job. “You have to prove to your customer that it’s not just a mow and blow - it will take some additional manpower and equipment to negotiate the tricky area.”

This is why examining a property, locating potential problems and defining a solution to successfully master mowing obstacles are key points to review prior to accepting a job, Purcell added. “Tricky areas are only undesirable if you don’t evaluate and price them accordingly.”

For example, challenging properties might hike a price up 20 to 30 percent based on a system Purcell uses that prices properties for every thousand square feet of mowing. After evaluating the site as easy, medium or difficult, he determines how much more to add to the estimate. Mowing considerations carry over to the scheduling process, where extra time is allotted for complicated accounts, he said.

“The more difficult a property is, the less coverage you get per hour,” Purcell explained. “With some properties you can mow upwards of 70,000 square feet per hour, but when you get to more challenging areas, your productivity might run down to 12,000 square feet an hour, so that’s why it influences your price structure.”

CROSS TRAINING. If judgment drives whether or not tricky mowing areas are handled responsibly or with haphazard negligence, contractors are wise to invest time in training their employees to tune in to potentially dangerous situations, advised Rick Kier, president, Pro Scapes, Syracuse, N.Y.

He emphasized sound on-the-job decision-making after experiencing several cases where safe mower use was not practiced, he noted. “We’ve had employees tip over mowers and we had one case where an employee fractured an ankle - he should have used a walk-behind mower and instead he took a rider on the grassy berm,” he described. “It was too steep of an incline and the center of gravity was not where it should have been, so the machine tipped.”

These lessons motivated Kier to institute a safety training program, he added. A combination of videos and discussions that identify problem areas educates his employees.

“You can’t be out there holding their hands and telling them how to use a mower in a particular spot,” Kier pointed out. “You have to train them to have the knowledge to make their own decisions in the field.”

Kier accented the importance of responsible choices with digital photos one of his former employees e-mailed him. In this picture, the damaging effects of tipping a mower are clearly depicted and serve as a warning to workers, he noted.

“On his own time, he tipped a mower and just about cut his hand off,” Kier described. “He sent me some photographs that I’m using as training aids that illustrate the accident graphically. I think it hits home and my employees get the idea.”

To sharpen these images, Kier implements additional safety training by discussing how technicians should mow potentially dangerous areas so they can identify these pitfalls while they are servicing an account and assess the safest, most efficient way to handle them. In addition, a work form specifies tricky areas so when crews are dispatched to a property they are aware of its challenges, he noted.

“We try to have the person who sold the job meet the crew there on the first mowing,” Kier said. “The crew won’t feel like they’re up against an unknown and they will know what is expected of them.”

After the estimator identifies difficult areas on a property and the customer agrees to the proposal, Hjort passes the responsibility of informing technicians of challenges to the supervisor, he said. “Nine times out of 10, when a supervisor is notified, he can go out on the job the first time with the technician and the problem is taken care of,” he noted. “Problems occur when the area is not identified initially and a crew is sent out without a supervisor and might do it two to three times before the problem is identified.”

This is why training is necessary, especially in a tight labor market with many employees new to the trade. Inexperience requires education, Hjort said.

“There is no substitute for teaching and training and getting the people doing the work to understand your philosophy and how you want the job done,” Hjort explained. “Our philosophy is quality, so we need to train our laborers to get mor information in their hands in all cases.”

SPEEDY RECOVERY. Safety dictates sales for Kier, who has rejected jobs because the risk factor outweighed the value of retaining the account.

“We had a situation where the builder put in new condominium units and planted grass on a slope that was too steep and could not be mowed,” he described. “We went to the builder and said it was too dangerous - build a retaining wall, terrace it, it’s too difficult to mow.”

Liability limits some jobs, but just as there are tricky areas, there are tricks technicians perform to manage these traps. Using the right mowing angles is one method of hurdling obstacles, suggested Purcell, who recalled an incident where a mower slid down a steep slope into a nearby pond. Running mowers on slopes presents an element of danger, he noted, and tipping or sliding can occur if grass is wet.

Belt-driven mowers might be more likely than gear-drive mowers to slip on steep grades, Hjort added, warning that these mowers can raise off of the ground, spin and cause turf to tear. “Eventually, you end up with ruts if you’re mowing the property the same way every week,” he described.

Hjort recommended contour mowing to avoid wear and tear from over-used patterns. Constantly changing the mowing pattern will allow for easier long-term mowing because the equipment won’t fall into a pre-existing track, which can increase chances of slippage on slopes.

“I try to set up two patterns to start with and I never mow over the same line,” Hjort explained. “I usually set up one at a slight angle or have the technicians off-set the tire tracks to avoid damage and keep the turf in good condition. The better the turf is in a situation like this, the easier it is to mow and the less long-term damage you get.”

To maintain productivity when mowing challenging spots, Purcell assigns one man on each crew to a string trimmer and another to a 20-inch mower, so that each crew is prepared with equipment to manage obstacles efficiently. This way, the larger equipment can move freely on the property and finish large land tracts, he said.

Besides technique and equipment, Purcell insists there is “better living through chemicals.” Growth regulators allow his company to mow on a bi-weekly or monthly basis, which provides a pricing economy, he added.

“We’ve used growth regulators for 15 years and they reduce the need for string trimmers,” he said. “Twenty to 35 percent of your time is spent on string trimming or blowing, so when you can decrease that you decrease your time on the site.”

This solution isn’t always ideal for high-profile spaces, such as front entries, however, as plant growth regulators can result in yellowing turf that customers find unappealing in visible areas. But growth regulators can serve as an effective maintenance tool for around ditch lines or severe slopes near ponds - “the back 40, so to speak,” Purcell described.

However, no matter which strategy a contractor implements to master mowing challenges, practice makes perfect. A combination of equipment, training and sound judgment form a winning combination to defeat tricky areas, Hjort stressed.

“If you have the proper machinery, there should be no damage or injury that occurs,” he said. “Second is training or teaching your guys how to handle these situations when they are on site, whether it be something like a specific pattern - there’s always going to be some sort of judgment there. Making sure the operators are trained and know what to do in all types of situations and have the right piece of equipment in their hands - that’s really what it all boils down to.”