Do Snowplows Damage your Driveway?

It’s crucial to have a clear driveway in the snowy winter months that allows you to move safely. To ensure this, you need to have a good snow removal plan. An effective plan for snow removal plan can eliminate slip and fall accidents and problems like black ice, thus keeping you safe on your driveway.

However, the condition of your driveway surface also needs to be considered. Your driveway might be a costly aspect of your home based on the material it’s made up of. Driveway repairs can be quite expensive when spring arrives.

While removing snow from the driveway is necessary, it’s also essential to determine the right method to remove the snow to prevent any unnecessary damage. A commonly used method for snow removal is using a snowplow. Using a snowplow for removing snow can help you avoid injury and bodily pain and prevent damage caused by other snow removal methods, like spreading rock salt. However, it’s important to consider whether using snowplows for snow removal can damage your driveway.

Working of Snowplows

Some snowplows are pushed manually while others are mounted to a vehicle’s front side. The snowplow equipment usually has a V-shaped or straight metal blade. The equipment that is mounted to vehicles usually has a width of 6 to 9 feet.

The plow blade’s bottom edge consists of an angled scoop and the remaining portion of it is curved to allow the snow to roll forward and then get out of the way. The blade angle in mounted snow plowing equipment is usually adjusted hydraulically or electrically to collect and roll the snow into non-obstructing snow piles.

Using Snowplows for Driveways – Do Snowplows Damage Driveways?

Depending on how snowplow equipment works, there’s a high potential of a driveway being damaged, since you’re basically just dragging a heavy blade of metal across the area.

In case you’re removing the snow yourself from your driveway or seeking the help of someone who does the job using a plow mounted to a vehicle, make sure that the blade always stays at least a half-inch above the ground. This is the only way of preventing damage like gouging, chipping, or cracking while snow plowing the driveway. Ensuring this can be difficult if the levels of snow are not clear or the surface is uneven.

If you hire a professional snow plowing company for the job, there’s a higher likelihood of the employees having more experience in keeping the plow blade sufficiently high off the driveway surface to avoid any damage. Although there’s a higher likelihood, there’s no guarantee.

There’s also a risk of snowplow damage to the aspects that are hidden beneath accumulated snow, like borders, curbing, and landscaped areas. This is a risk especially when you hire snow plowing services that are not familiar with your driveway’s layout.

Summing Up

To sum up, we can say that although snowplows for driveways may not cause any damage every time it’s used, the potential for damage is high. To prevent any driveway damage caused by snow plowing residential driveways and the resulting repairs, consider using alternative methods of snow removal, as well as hiring snow removal companies that employ safe and effective methods to do the job.

All American Turf Beauty is one of the leading Snow Removal companies based in Iowa that uses safe and advanced snow removal methods, ensuring no damage is caused to your driveway surface or any other area while removing snow. If you’re looking for reliable residential or commercial snow removal services in Iowa, let’s talk today!

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7 Winter Lawn Care Tips and Tricks: Enjoy a Lush Lawn in Spring!

Lawns don’t need as much care in the winter as during summer, spring, and fall, but it’s not wise to ignore your lawn completely in the winter months. Winter lawn care involves certain measures that would lead to a lush and healthy lawn come spring. Here are some handy winter lawn care tips you need to follow.

Effective Winter Lawn Care Tips

1. Aerate Your Lawn

Before the first frost in your area, aerate your lawn. Aeration lets your lawn breathe before the grass becomes dormant. It also helps in relieving any compaction created in the warmer months. For effective aeration, let our lawn care professionals in Des Moines handle the job.

2. Fertilize Your Lawn

Once the lawn has been opened by aeration, fertilize your lawn. Applying fertilizer provides the essential nutrients to your grass that it requires as it prepares for the winter weather. The nutrients are absorbed and stored by the grassroots in the winter months.

When spring arrives, your lawn utilizes these stored nutrients, which help make it lush and green. When you provide proper winter lawn care, you can also keep weeds, diseases, and pests at bay once the weather warms up.

It’s also a good idea to apply a ‘winterizing’ fertilizer to your lawn, which is a slow-release fertilizer. A winterizing fertilizer application is a wonderful way to get well-nourished shoots come spring.

3. Keep Lawn Traffic Low

This is an important winter lawn maintenance tip. When the lawn is dormant or frosted, try avoiding walking too much over it. Even strong turf can weaken if you walk too much in an area.

4. Ensure Proper Treatment of Ice

To have a clear and safe path for walking, try keeping the sidewalks, walkways, and driveways free from snow and ice. All American Turf Beauty’s snow removal service can keep these areas clear, freeing you from the chore of removing snow and ice.

5. Maintain a Clean Lawn

During fall, leaves usually pile up on lawns that could lead to lawns getting suffocated before winter. Leaves left on your lawn can become too wet, inviting diseases.

In case the leaves on your lawn are not too wet or thick, mulch them using your mower into small pieces. This can recycle the nutrients in the leaves back into the lawn. If you have thick, matted down, or wet leaves, it’s better to remove them using a rake.

Additionally, ensure that you remove debris and lawn furniture from your lawn and any spare logs that are left beside the fire pit.

6. Seed with Cool-Weather Grass Seeds

Buy grass seed with the label on the package saying, ‘cool weather’ or ‘cool season,’ like most fescue grass seeds. Seeds can be sprinkled on your lawn with a spreader. Try spreading grass seeds evenly to avoid getting grass clumps later.

7. Be Prepared

Ensure that you’ve prepared your plan for winter lawn care in advance. When the air gets cold, monitor the forecast, and have adequate time at hand to execute your plan before the arrival of the first frost.

Wrap Up

In the winter, your lawn may have to withstand some extreme conditions. Nevertheless, with these winter lawn care tips, your lawn can get the strength to stay healthy over the freezing times and emerge a vibrant and lush lawn once spring arrives. To ensure good lawn health in the winter, consider seeking professional winter lawn care services.

AATB can provide the care your lawn needs in the winter. We offer customized winter lawn treatment according to your location, turf type, and other factors. Our lawn care experts in Des Moines know how to keep grass green in winter and can ensure you a healthy and beautiful lawn come spring.

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Safety First! 11 Christmas Lighting Safety Tips You Must Know

Christmas lights lend that festive feel to our home and surroundings in the holiday season. However, these lights are not devoid of risks. There are real possibilities of electrocution, falls, and shorting.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reports that Christmas lights lead to 44% of fires on Christmas trees. And as per the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), overall Christmas decorations caused over 15,000 injuries that led to an emergency room visit, and in 2012, falls were the highest occurring (34%) among the most frequent holiday decoration incidents found in emergency rooms.

So, to have a happy and safe Christmas, make sure you decorate your home while following all the necessary safety measures. Some of the key holiday lighting safety tips to follow are listed here.

Christmas Lighting Safety Tips to Follow

1. Replace Damaged or Old Christmas Lights

If you want to use Christmas lights from last year, examine them to make sure they’re in good condition before you do that. Check for frayed or cracked cords, sockets without bulbs, and wires poking through insulation.

This might seem tedious but know that damage to the light bulb or cord could lead to an electric shock when it’s plugged in, or worst case, cause an electric fire.

2. Choose LED Lights

If you’re planning to buy new Christmas lights, choose LED lights with epoxy lenses. LED lighting is cool to the touch compared to conventional Christmas lights, and they also consume less electricity, which will keep your electric bill down.

3. Christmas Lights with UL Safety Certification

Some Christmas lighting comes with a UL Safety Certification, which means that the lights are manufactured and designed to meet the industry specifications for safety by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) – an independent organization of product safety certification.

Compared to lights without this certification, lights with this certification are safer to be used in homes. If your current holiday lights don’t have this certification, consider investing in lights that have it.

4. Read the Label when Using Indoor and Outdoor Lights

Christmas lighting is labeled according to their use. They have a disclaimer reading “for indoor and outdoor use” or “for indoor use only”. Ensure that you read the disclaimer carefully as Christmas lights that are for indoor use only can’t be used outdoors.

Indoor-only Christmas lighting doesn’t have insulation like outdoor lighting so they won’t work in the moisture present outside. If indoor Christmas lights are subjected to snow, water, or other outdoor elements, they could become hazardous.

5. Keep the Christmas Tree Hydrated

This is one of the most important Christmas lighting tips. Besides overheated Christmas trees, dry Christmas trees can also lead to fires. A dry Christmas tree is more flammable than a properly watered tree. In case you’re using a real Christmas tree, ensure that you prevent it from drying out by checking the water every day.

Nevertheless, if you’re happy with not using a real Christmas tree, go for the safer option of using an artificial Christmas tree that’s made of fire-resistant materials.

6. Be Careful when Using Ladders

As falls are the highest occurring injury seen in emergency rooms during holidays, knowing how to use a ladder safely while hanging holiday lights off your home’s roof or anywhere else is important.

Make sure you have a spotter accompanying you to hold the ladder for keeping it stable. To save yourself from tipping, don’t ever extend your body further than parallel to the ladder while hanging holiday lights. Additionally, use a fiberglass or wooden ladder when hanging Christmas lights to prevent electric shock.

7. Secure the Loose Light Strands

In case you have a long strand of holiday lights between the outlet and your Christmas tree or are using an extension cord, ensure that you secure all the loose strands of light with an electrical tape to prevent tripping and falling.

For loose Christmas light strands outdoors, use ground staples, which you can find at any hardware store, to secure them. Place the ground staple around the light, and then push as far as possible into the ground or any other soft surface to secure the cord.

8. Instead of Screws or Nails, Use Christmas Light Clips

When you hang outdoor holiday lights on the roof, avoid using screws or nails for securing the lights since the wires can get punctured, leading to malfunctioning of the lights, or worst case, shocking the person who installs them.

For outdoor electrical safety, use light clips instead, which you can find at any hardware store. Light clips are safer to use for holiday lights, and they also cause less damage to the roof compared to screws or nails.

9. Avoid Running Holiday Lights through Doors or Windows

If you don’t have an outdoor outlet to use, lighting up your home may be difficult. Keep in mind that you must not run extension cords or Christmas lights through the doors or windows. When closed on a light strand, doors and windows can lead to wires breaking or fraying due to constant pressure. This can make them a safety hazard that could result in electric fires or shocks.

10. Don’t have More than 3 Light Sets in an Extension Cord

Most manufacturers recommend avoiding plugging in over 3 Christmas light sets into one extension cord to prevent any overheating problems. However, it depends on the wattage of the strand as well as the plug’s maximum watt capacity.

In case you’re not aware of how to check your home’s wattage, use a power strip having an inbuilt circuit breaker rather than your wall outlet. Ensure that you cross-reference your Christmas lights’ wattage to the amount of the power strip prior to plugging it in.

11. Employ GFCI Outlet for your Outdoor Christmas Lights

This is one of the most important outdoor decorating safety tips. For outdoor holiday lights, a specific outlet, known as a Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) outlet, is used. This outlet prevents any electric shock led by electrical systems exposed to wet conditions, such as snow or rain, by serving as a circuit breaker.

This is incredibly helpful when your outlet is located outdoors. Ensure that you safeguard yourself as well as your home from any electric shorts by using a GFCI outlet. If you’re not a pro at electrical work, you’ll need to seek the help of a licensed electrician for installing this outlet.

Wrapping Up

These are some key Christmas lighting safety tips you should follow while decorating your home with holiday lights. For the best results and highest level of safety, consider hiring a professional Christmas lighting installation company to handle the chore of installing Christmas lights for your home.

All American Turf Beauty is a well-experienced Christmas Light installation company based in Iowa. Our lighting installers can expertly decorate your home giving it a brilliant dazzle while ensuring complete Christmas lighting safety.

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