|
Maintenance Articles |
|
Plantasy As homeowner associations age, both structures and landscape wear out. And just like those groovy harvest golds and avocado greens of the 70s, landscape tastes have changed. Fortunately, the varieties of plants available have made the options wonderful and numerous. The best news of all is that creative use of these options coupled with the latest irrigation technology can significantly reduce both maintenance and utility costs. That is landscape news every HOA can use: more is less. Here are few pointers to get the landscape renovation process moving:
Convert Turf to Planting Beds. Tree Thinning and Replacement. Modernize the Irrigation System. For any homeowner association over 20 years old, the time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. But few things are more compelling than landscape renovation. Cut costs, lower maintenance, improve curb appeal and up market values...a true plantasy. BACK
Cause for Clauses Contractors typically present contracts that address what’s most important to them: the money. The scope of work described is usually very general, like "paint buildings". The contract rarely includes the "how" details, which is the part most critical to the HOA. For this, get independent consultants to provide the scope of work. Local paint suppliers, for example, will provide custom specifications to fit your surface and location. They will even provide a free progress inspection service to ensure the work is being done properly so that the material warranty is not voided. Similarly, take advantage of other knowledgeable consultants for complex and costly projects. While they aren’t free, they are generally worth their weight in gold in making sure the work gets done right. They can often steer you to reliable contractors and substantially lower costs.. Below is a list of contract clauses that should be included. Simply attach them as an addendum to your contractor’s contract and make them a condition of acceptance. You should have a knowledgeable attorney review the contract as well.
While the FINE PRINT seems cumbersome and unnecessary, these clauses ensure either performance or consequences for failure to perform. These are clauses with a true cause. BACK
Watering Wisely Compost, mulch and barkdust hold water like a sponge, slowly releasing moisture when plants need it. In this environment, plants grow deep roots, reducing how much and how often sprinkling and fertilizing is needed. If your planting beds are bare dirt, consider an application of these recommended amendments to promote root growth, reduce water consumption and reduce weed infestation. Also leave grass clippings to build up mulched soil that uses less water. Wash your plants. Airborne urban pollution can leave a layer of residue on plants and soil that inhibits water absorption. One easy way to counteract this is by spraying the planting beds and turf down using a hose end sprayer filled with inexpensive liquid dishwashing soap. As strange as it sounds, it actually breaks up the residue and reduces water tension, allowing better water absorption. Sprinkler Tune-Up. Adjust all your sprinkler heads to irrigate living things, not walks and driveways. Replace leaky faucets and broken sprinkler heads. Water turf areas about 1" a week. Sprinkler Enhancements. Install a rain sensor to override the automatic sprinkling system when it rains. Where possible, install drip irrigation systems to trees, shrubs and flowers. Gets water directly where it’s needed. If you are using hoses to irrigate, install hose timers to control the flow. Xeriscape Your Plants. Xeriscape refers to creative, attractive landscaping that provides a diversity of seasonal colors and textures while reducing outdoor water use by 30 to 50 percent. Nurseries carry numerous trees, shrubs, perennials and ground covers which are low water-using. Visit them and ask for suggestions. Wildflower Extravaganza. A typical landscape can be up to 90 percent Kentucky bluegrass lawn. Bluegrass requires 25 to 30 inches of water each growing season. Confine lawn to high traffic areas. Instead of turf, wildflowers and native grasses make excellent substitutes, especially in large open spaces and low use areas. Planting a variety of plants with different heights, colors and textures creates interest and beauty. Watering wisely creates a healthier landscape and reduces one of the community’s most costly budget items. This is one area where your investment will pay BIG dividends. Water on!...rather, water off! BACK
Chimney Primer When wood burns, it never completely combusts. What’s left forms a vaporized residue that mixes with condensation as it cools and sticks to the inside of the chimney. This material, referred to as "creosote", can be very difficult to clean and if allowed to build up, a chimney fire could happen. Chimney fires are one of the most dangerous and devastating types of household fires. Fully engaged, they can roar like a jet engine shooting fire into the sky like an oversized roman candle. Fueled by a dirty chimney, temperatures inside can reach 2000 degrees and destroy an entire home. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, having chimneys inspected annually and cleaned as needed is the best defense against a fire. But while cleaning and inspecting are not do it yourself projects, there are a few things a homeowner association can do to keep an eye on safety between those annual evaluations. Inspect chimneys from the outside to see if any lean or is separating from the building. Chimneys that are separating from the structure can be especially dangerous. Sometimes, the steel straps used to hold the chimney to the structure rust away and leave the chimney vulnerable to a collapse. Next, use binoculars to look for loose bricks or cracks, especially near the top. Freezing weather can cause bricks to deteriorate or loosen up. Any deteriorated sections should be replaced. Check that the metal flashing between the roof and chimney is tight. Loose flashing can cause leaks. Look at the chimney’s crown as well. The crown is the area between the outside edge of a masonry chimney and the liner. Crowns often develop cracks that can lead to leaks and need to be caulked. Look for vegetation at the top of the chimney. Ivy, for example, can grow across the top of the chimney and obstruct the flow of exhaust gases out the chimney. Metal vent pipes can rust or become dislodged from high winds. Look for vents that may have separated at the seams. These may need to be rejoined, and then reinforced so it doesn’t happen again. A Clean Sweep. Dirty flues, the metal or clay liner inside a chimney, are the leading cause of chimney fires. The surest way to check this is from the top of the chimney. That job, however, is best left to a professional. For chimneys that serve the heating system, inspection is equally important. These chimneys can become blocked by bird nests or other obstructions and cause combustion gas to back up into the home leading to carbon monoxide poisoning. Before turning on your furnace or boiler for the season, be sure to have the equipment serviced and the chimney or vent pipe checked for obstructions. In general, all chimneys should be professionally inspected at least once a year and cleaned as determined by that inspection. As a rule of thumb though, a chimney should be swept by a pro once for every "cord" of wood burned. A cord is a unit of measurement for a pile of firewood that measures 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long. Hiring a Chimney Sweep. Because proper care and attention to service can help protect people from unnecessary fires and carbon monoxide poisonings, it is important to choose the professional wisely. Question to ask should include: 1) How long has the chimney sweeping
company been in business?
Floor Squeak Relief While wood flooring is popular among condo buyers, it often causes annoying squeaks in older buildings which drive downstairs residents to distraction. Since the problem is within the units, many HOA boards are reluctant to interfere but, let’s face it, even though the noise may not be malicious, it does disturb the neighbor and the HOA has an obligation to force action if necessary. That said, here’s some helpful advice to deal with this particular problem: The source of creaky floors is usually loose nails. In buildings over 20 years old, it's likely that the subfloor is plywood which is nailed to the floor joists. To avoid squeaky floors, construction adhesive should be applied along with nails. When there is squeaking, the adhesive was probably not used. Foot traffic causes the plywood to flex and loosen the nails holding the subfloor in place. In time, the subfloor will squeak with each step. The noise factor is further compounded because the upstairs floor and the downstairs ceiling are attached to the same joist system which actually amplifies the sound. Fortunately, there is a relatively inexpensive way to solve the squeaking: Renail the floor with 8d finishing nails. Finishing nails have very small heads allowing them to be countersunk and filled. If the offending floor is carpeted, the small head will allow the nail to be driven home through the carpeting, carpet pad and plywood flush with the face of the plywood subfloor. IMPORTANT: The nails must be driven into the floor joists. Insert a nail every six inches along the joist. This should eliminate the creaks in the floor. If your HOA is experiencing this kind of noise transmission, run, don’t walk to distribute this fix. The life you save may be your upstairs neighbor’s. (Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak...Beeeee QUIET!!!) BACK
Deconstructing Carpenter Ants In the Pacific Northwest, most problems are caused by the species known as Camponotus Modoc which commonly nest in standing trees (living or dead), stumps or logs on the forest floor. Buildings built in forested areas are prime targets of well established colonies. When the colony grows larger and needs room to expand or the old nest becomes less suitable, they expand to form satellite colonies. These satellite colonies are located in nearby structures. The parent colony contains the queen, young larvae and workers, while the satellite contains the mature larvae, pupae, workers, and/or winged reproductives. The ants move back and forth from parent nest to satellite nest to feeding areas in nearby evergreen trees like Douglas fir, true fir and cedar. Sometimes they can be seen carrying mature larvae (white and grub-like) or pupae (papery cocoons). The ants usually maintain a trail between the parent and satellite colonies. These trails follow natural contours and lines of least resistance and also frequently cut across lawns. The trails are about 2 cm. wide, and the ants keep them clean of vegetation and debris. Traffic on these trails may be noticeable during the day, but peak traffic occurs after sunset and continues throughout the night, sharply decreasing before sunrise. Reproductive ants (winged males and females) leave the nest anytime from early January through June. Mating takes place in swarms from May to September. Mated queens find a suitable place to live, excavate a small home and begin laying eggs which become workers or queens. By the end of summer either workers have emerged or the larvae from late eggs become dormant. No feeding occurs during the winter months (November, December, January). The dormant phase ends about mid-January, when the queen begins laying eggs again. Most carpenter ant workers are polymorphic which means they are different sizes. Entomologist refer to larger workers as "major" workers and the smaller workers as "minor" workers. Each colony has at least one queen that produces all members of the colony. There may be more than one queen in a colony. When a colony gets very large (6 to 10 years old and has more than 2000 workers), it may produce winged reproductives, called swarmers. They are often produced during the summertime and may overwinter in the colony. The males often emerge first and are smaller than the females. The diet of carpenter ants is quite varied and includes living and dead insects, honeydew from aphids, sweets, meat and fats. Workers leave the colony in late afternoon or early evening, forage during the night and return to the colony in the early morning hours. Carpenter ants carry food back to the nest intact or ingested and later feed it to non-foraging members in the nest. Carpenter ants keep occupied galleries clean. They remove wood in the form of a coarse sawdust-like material, which they push from the nest. This often results in a cone-shaped pile accumulating just below the nest entrance hole. This pile may include, in addition to the wood fragments, other debris from the nest, including bits of soil, dead ants, parts of insects and remnants of other food they ate. To prevent carpenter ant infestations, trim all trees and bushes so branches do not touch the house and correct moisture problems such as leaky roofs and plumbing. Paint and/or seal exposed wood construction before it becomes wet. Replace previously ant or termite-infested wood, rotted or water-damaged wooden parts of the structure and eliminate wood/soil contacts. Remove dead stumps on the property and store firewood off the ground and away from the structure. Stacks of firewood also attract carpenter ants. The longer wood remains undisturbed, the more likely it will become infested. It is better to keep on hand only the supply of firewood you plan to use during one heating season. Store the wood off the ground and away from the house. Spraying of firewood with pesticide to protect it is of little value and is not recommended. Contributed by Alan Luke of Bugaboo Pest Control. BACK
Pool Primer Checklist
While this maintenance list seems simple, the implications for failure to execute it are profound. Pools are sophisticated and labor intensive systems that should only be maintained by knowledgeable, trained and experienced technicians. Information from Gator Pools. BACK
Green Building Renovation 1. The US Green Building Council’s Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED® )
www.usgbc.org/LEED
LEED, Green Globes and NGBS have entire programs or credit categories tailored to existing buildings focused on improved operations and maintenance. In addition, the NGBS focuses primarily on single and multifamily residential homes. Passive House and LBC could be applied to existing buildings but may miss out on the advantages gained by the integrative design process now becoming a requirement of new construction with informed clients. With the exception of Passive House and its energy focus, the rating systems address all of the following categories to some degree:
Two additional categories (Social Justice & Beauty) have been added by the LBC, leading to its claim to be the greenest building standard today. All programs but the LBC use a credit points system to define successful achievement. Compliance and performance is proven either by engineered models or by actual metered results. The trend is towards requiring a year of measured analysis that defers certification until final performance is verified by the organization or a third party review. Importantly, four of these programs offer a limited vision of sustainability. LEED specifically says it is not attempting to offer a definition of sustainability but set the bar for "leading edge" technology and best practices. Green Globes and the Green Building Certification are alternative market responses to some of the more contentious issues embraced by LEED such as the credit requirements focusing on FSC certification for wood products. Passive House is all about limiting energy consumption with exceptional insulation and air infiltration standards. Each program has strengths and weaknesses, but all are intended to advance the science and thinking behind green building. The fifth and newest program, the Living Building Challenge, offers a integrated, sustainable approach to the design of buildings and communities, clearly stating on its website that it provides a "framework for design, construction and the symbiotic relationship between people and all aspects of the built environment." Using the metaphor of the flower, it envisions building design and function that is "informed by its local environment, generates all of its own energy with renewables, captures and treats its own water, and operates efficiently." Petals for Site, Energy, Water, Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty organize 20 Imperatives (no credits, just do it) that must be met and proven by the actual performance of the building. Some buildings may achieve a few petals, others will successfully become full Living Buildings. HOAs can apply any one of these green building programs to their existing facilities with beneficial improvements in operation costs, resource consumption, occupant health and environmental responsibility. But existing conditions may present challenges in meeting all requirements of certification without careful planning, integrative design and budgeting. Community awareness, involvement and enthusiasm is key to success. With the right design tools and advice your HOA can make great strides in achieving sustainability goals within a given budget. By Logan Cravens, AIA LEED AP BD+C - Neumann Sloat Blanco Architects LLP BACK
Lawns vs. Sustainability Lawns are universally vilified in nearly every public forum promoting sustainability. Claims label lawns as toxic dumps for pesticides and chemical fertilizers that ultimately contaminate storm water and, eventually, our rivers are ubiquitous. There are both good and not-so-good things about lawns when it comes to sustainability. In the "plus" column, lawns are actually the best part of the landscape for capturing and holding both water and fertilizer. Lawns are also great at thriving in conditions that are too wet for most plants, and their dense leaf surface is tops at reducing dust and providing a cooling effect against solar radiation. In addition, and surprisingly to most, lawns often require little in the way of pesticides. For instance, even when caring for clean, manicured lawns, we use no more than ½ ounce of selective herbicide per 1,000 sq. ft. annually. On the "minus" side, lawns do require more equipment use, more fertilizer and more water than do planted beds - much more. In our experience, lawns need twice the water of ornamental plantings, and three to four times the fertilizer. Small lawns exacerbate these problems since more "edge" area means more waste. In fact, we urge you to consider the elimination of lawns of less than about twelve feet in width. Why? Fertilizer cannot be efficiently applied to smaller lawns, so when lawns are narrower than this, errant fertilizer pellets go where we don’t want them, contributing to storm water contamination. While the power equipment use, water consumption and fertilizer needs of lawns might suggest the desirability of their replacement, this is a difficult step because there is no financial upside. Surprisingly, the labor needed to properly care for mature landscape plantings actually exceeds that required for lawn maintenance. Further, when the extra cost of water and fertilizer for lawns is balanced against the need for regular bark mulch replacement in beds, the slightly higher costs remain with the bed areas. Replacing lawns with new plantings results in considerable installation costs, followed by on-going maintenance costs that remain the same, or are even slightly higher. Leaving mowed clippings in place on the lawn amounts to the regular infusion of nutrient-rich organic matter which feeds the beneficial organisms of a healthy biotic system. Utilizing organic fertilizers and natural weed control materials represents environmental progress with a modest price penalty. Minimizing water use by employing weather-based "Smart Controllers" and retrofitting sprinklers with new, more efficient designs will make your lawns more sustainable while actually saving money. Employing such methods will go far in moving your lawns higher up the sustainability "plus column". Randy McManus - Willamette Landscape Services BACK
Getting the Lead Out The specific regulations require a new certification, substantial safety precautions and impose substantial fines for non-compliance. The new laws will increase both the cost of HOA repairs and the potential for liability. The following is a partial excerpt from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website: "Common renovation activities like sanding, cutting, and demolition can create hazardous lead dust and chips by disturbing lead-based paint, which can be harmful to adults and children. To protect against this risk, on April 22, 2008, EPA issued a rule requiring the use of lead-safe practices and other actions aimed at preventing lead poisoning. Under the rule, beginning April 22, 2010, contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and must follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination." EPA requires that firms performing renovation, repair, and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in these kind of properties be certified by EPA and that they use certified renovators who are trained by EPA-approved training providers to follow lead-safe work practices. Individuals can become certified renovators by taking an eight-hour training course from an EPA-approved training provider. Contractors must use lead-safe work practices and follow these three simple procedures: 1. Contain the work area. The rule requires that affected contractors provide to owners and occupants of child care facilities and to parents and guardians of children under age six that attend child care facilities built prior to 1978 the lead hazard information pamphlet Renovate Right: Important Lead Hazard Information for Families, Child Care Providers and Schools. The rule affects paid renovators who work in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities, including renovation contractors, maintenance, painters and other specialty trades. The rule does not apply to minor maintenance or repair activities where less than six square feet of lead-based paint is disturbed in a room or where less then 20 square feet of lead-based paint is disturbed on the exterior. Window replacement is not considered minor maintenance or repair. For more, review the EPA's Small Entity Compliance Guide to Renovate Right for a clear (if lengthy) breakdown of all the new requirements at www.epa.gov/lead BACK
Landscape Sustainability 1. Improve soil and plant health While options for sustainability vary in complexity and cost, there are several low-to-no-cost changes your homeowner association can make now to support these goals: Water Conservation. This is the most accessible win-win in the effort to advance sustainability. An investment in Smart Controllers (weather-based watering) and new, more efficient sprinklers can cut water consumption in half. The return on investment is often just one to three years based on reduced water bills. Reduce Electricity Consumption. Quiet, zero emissions, battery-powered landscape equipment is a reality! Find out what options are available. Organic Weed Control. New organic or natural products for controlling unwanted plants are coming to the market like a "fatty acid" for non-selective weed control and another that is iron based for lawn weeds. No organic or natural product is as effective as traditional herbicides, so more time must be spent in their application. Also, there are no effective natural/organic materials for pre-emergent weed control. So, figure on a modest budget increase for this service. Mulching Lawn Clippings. Leaving mowed clippings in place on the lawn is quite beneficial to the health of the turf. It amounts to a regular infusion of nutrient-rich organic matter to the lawn. This organic matter feeds the beneficial organisms of a healthy biotic system. Although this technique should only be practiced when the grass is relatively dry, it should be a part of the plan. Organic Insect Pest Control. The preferred position when it comes to landscape pests is simply to ignore them. Don't spray insecticides to control pests that will rarely become a serious problem. In fact, when pests do become objectionable, it is usually because the site is not suited for the plant species that attracts them. When it becomes necessary to treat for pests, replacing them with better-adapted species is the best route to take. When a pest control application is necessary, there are options which use organic materials and biological controls. Gardens for Beneficial Insects & Pollinators. Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Honey Bees, Lady Bugs and Praying Mantis! Let beneficial insects take care of many common garden pests naturally while allowing pollinators to harvest pollen. With global populations of honey bees declining, it is important to keep them strong and doing their job. There are many native and adapted plants that will attract, harbor and provide the necessary food for all types of beneficial insects and pollinators. Add a few new plants each year to build a better future on a small budget. Work with your landscape contractor to integrate sustainable techniques which either cost little or actually reduce your cost. Your homeowner association and Planet Earth will be better off. Randy McManus, CLP / President - Willamette Landscape Services BACK |
© Copyright
by Regenesis.net
All rights reserved