Tips for Your Home Renovation Projects in St. Thomas

If your carpets are in need of a thorough cleaning, save time and effort by renting a carpet cleaner. We can make your carpet cleaning much easier with the extraction method of cleaning. The hot water extraction method is a thorough method of restoring your carpet to its original beauty and lustre. A special cleaning solution is injected, under high pressure, deep into the carpet to break up and emulsify embedded soil.

Be Prepared

Suspended dirt is instantly extracted by a power vacuum along with up to 90% of the injected moisture. The carpet will dry and be ready for use in a short time. Some Tips for Extraction Method....Be prepared, obtain a household pail or bucket, remove as much furniture as possible, pin up drapes and curtains, cover bottom of legs of all furniture with aluminum foil or waxed paper to prevent rusting. Thoroughly dry-vacuum all carpets and pre-treat all excessively soiled areas with pre-spotter before you begin.

Use the hottest tap water available and an adequate amount of de-foamer to prevent over-sudsing on previously shampooed carpets. Use overlapping strokes to remove maximum amount of moisture. For excessively soiled areas, repeat cleaning method in opposite direction to avoid streaking. Be sure to drain waste tank prior to refilling solution tank.

Do not use conventional detergents or shampoos. Our staff will assist you in the use of the carpet shampooer and can provide you with all the cleaning supplies that will give your carpets a like-new appearance. For other do-it-yourself flooring projects, you can see us for tile strippers, knee kickers, tile cutters, carpet steamers and other quality tools. If you don't see what you are looking for, just ask our staff for assistance.

Thatch is a well-known term to professional turfgrass people such as golf superintendents, greenskeepers, stadium managers, and sod growers. However it's still a relatively new tem to most homeowners. The image that comes to mind immediately, of course, is that of thatched roofs, still very common in many parts of the world.

When straw, reeds or elongated leaves are arranged in thick layers running parallel to the slope of a roof they can be very effective in keeping out the rain. Unfortunately much the same condition can develop at the base of the grass plants on your lawn. When it does, the condition is simply referred to as thatch. Here's how thatch develops and the problems it can cause.

How Thatch Progresses

A healthy, well-fertilized lawn usually produces an excessive amount of leaf growth. Some of these leaves have a tendency to grow outward almost parallel to the ground and others get trampled into that position. As these leaves or blades of grass get thicker and grass clippings or other debris are added, this layer of thatch gets deeper and deeper. Your lawn is robbed of air, moisture and food. As the thatch gets deeper and denser very little air, water, and nutrients get to the roots of your grass plants.

Roots are inclined to stay close to the surface and some grass plants will die because of a lack of water and food. This in turn adds more thatch. You get minimum benefits from rainfall, lawn sprinklers or applications of fertilizer. Water is inclined to lie on the surface and evaporate or run off sloping areas without penetrating the soil. If there is a period of drought your lawn will be severely damaged.

Vertical Cuts Remove Thatch

Likewise, any application of fertilizer is inclined to lie on the surface of the thatch, providing little or no nutrition for the weakened grass plants. This is how you get rid of thatch. Your regular lawn mower simply cuts the tops of the upright grass plants and does not remove any of the grass that lies horizontally on or near the ground. For this you require a machine with blades cutting vertically.

When removing thatch it is best to cut parallel swaths across the area in one direction and then repeat the procedure with swaths at 90% to the first cutting (only if necessary). Do not set the blades too deep. They should just remove the thatch and not the soil. Your rental company will have pre-set the blades for most lawns.

When to Remove Thatch

You can remove some thatch from your lawn at virtually any time of the year if you set the blades at a very shallow cutting depth for minimum disturbance of the soil. Generally it is best to remove thatch in the spring and in the fall to avoid disturbing the grass plants in the hot dry summer weather. Thatch material makes good compost. The thatch material brought to the surface by the vertical cutting makes excellent composting material. Once properly composted this material can be used for mulching or added to your garden soil.

We all want our homes to sparkle. With most modern siding surfaces today it is important that they are cleaned at least once a year to keep elements such as dirt, smoke, dust, wind and rain from causing a rough, dreary appearance. A yearly house wash will also help your paint job last much longer. Pressure Washers are also used to prepare your house for repainting.

Some Tips... Always keep fingers away from the spray tip, and keep children and animals away from the entire area. Wash from the bottom up and rinse from the top down. This avoids streaking. Be sure all windows are tightly closed, cover outside fixtures and electrical outlets with plastic and use masking tape over flush receptacles. Eaves and crawl spaces sometimes have vent openings. Be careful to avoid spraying into them when washing and rinsing.

Soft Water Best for Washing

Soft water will give the best results. In hard water areas, wipe windows with a soft cloth to prevent spotting. When preparing for repainting, use the pressure to get rid of all loose, cracked and blistered paint. Scrape and sand areas where paint has come off and where paint has blistered; edges should be sanded and smoothed out. Remove all loose putty around windows. Large areas of peeling or blistering can mean moisture presence. You may want to install some air vents in the siding, or wedges under some of the clapboards.

Spot prime any bare wood areas and when primer has dries, any needed puttying can be redone and loose joints caulked to prevent water entry. Once you have washed your house, clean your driveway, trash cans and garden tools. It's easy with the right rental equipment and instructions from your professional rental centre.

Virtually any lawn can benefit from aeration twice a year. In spring and fall your lawn is made up of thousands of little grass plants, and how lush and thick your grass grows depends on how healthy and well fed each plant is. Now every plant needs moisture, food and air to survive, and it absorbs these things through its roots. When the earth around these grass plants becomes compacted it's like trying to grow grass on a brick.

Feeder roots can't penetrate it, water lies on the surface and evaporates or runs off and fertilizer can't get to the root zone. Compaction may be caused by many things, foot traffic, children playing, and heavy rainfall. Some types of soil may become compacted for no apparent reason. Aerify to breathe new life into your lawn.

Core Aerifier

There are numerous ways to aerify grass areas, but the most common method for lawns and golf courses is to use a core aerifier. This machine is driven by a gas engine and is equipped with rotating, round hollow tines that lift out cores of earth each time they penetrate the surface. This leaves holes 3/8" to ½" in diameter, up to 3" deep and a few inches apart all over your lawn.

In some cases of severe compaction a second pass over the area may be made to double the number of holes. The holes allow both water and fertilizer to drop directly down to the deep root zone, as well as plenty of air to get into the soil below the surface. These holes also allow room for the earth between to expand and shift allowing more air, moisture, and nutrients to enter.

Get on My Lawn!

Cores left on the surface can be used as a top dressing for your lawn, and the area may be used immediately after aerification. In fact, children playing on the area may well make the aerification even more effective in terms of loosening the soil. Not only will rain or the lawn sprinkler be more effective in getting moisture and nutrients to the grass plants, but moisture held deep in the ground will also become more available because of aerifying. How to get the most from aerification.

Once you’ve aerated your lawn, fertilize and dress with good, weed-free top soil. If your grass appears to be too sparse, but reasonably free of weeds, this is also a good time to spread grass seed.