Although March is statistically Calgary’s snowiest time, it’s also the month when winter officially ends. If you’re a commercial property maintenance provider, you’ll want to be ahead of the game when it comes to being prepared for spring.
Get Your Motors Clean and Ready
We bring this up a lot, but only because a surprising number of operators fall behind when it comes to engine maintenance. Keeping your oil, oil filters, and air filters clean will do wonders for the longevity of your equipment. Keep in mind that a motor without an oil filter needs its oil replaced every 25 hours of operation. For motors with an oil filter, that figure extends to 100 hours. Your operating manual will give you specifics; try and be one of the exceptional folks who actually reads it! You’ll do well to maintain a written log of your usage in order to keep your maintenance on schedule. Also, the spring work is dusty, dirty work, so it’s wise to keep an eye on the condition of your air filters. Inexpensive part, very important job, ‘nuff said.
Power Rakes
Spring cleaning work for the commercial operators entails a great deal of power raking and turf aeration. Beyond engine maintenance, the primary wear item on these machines is the drive belt; keep an eye out for cracks or poor tension. After that are the flails; you need to be able to set a raking depth where the flail blades just barely touch a flat surface like a sidewalk or driveway. If they are worn beyond that point, they’ll have to be replaced if you want a satisfactory finish.
Aerators
After engine and belt maintenance, the main concern for an aerator is wear on the coring tines. Like the flails on the power rakes, these tines are consumable parts that must be inspected for wear or damage, and periodically replaced. You’ll get more satisfactory performance and minimize wear on the tines if the lawn is thoroughly watered the day before you aerate.
Have You Tried A Billy Goat?
We really wish everyone knew what superior products Billy Goat manufactures for aerating and power raking. When you consider performance, weight, durability, as well as minimizing vibration that can be hard on the operator, these machines really outdo the competition and provide exceptional value.
One other thing– many customers don’t like the dirt cores on the lawn that an aerator leaves behind, so commercial landscapers will often employ a vacuum designed to pick those up. It’s also the quick way to dispatch the thatch brought up by the power rake, and for leaves in the fall. Billy Goat makes several litter vacuums that can make short work of these tasks.
We Can Help
Give us a call, or stop by Arn’s to talk with any of our top-notch sales and service associates. We have the experience to help you get your landscaping operation working the way you want, and we service everything we sell.