Landscaping Design Features that Can Cause Maintenance Problems

Well-designed outdoor spaces expand your living areas and endow your house with more curb appeal.

You can do some of this landscaping yourself, including planting annuals, pruning trees, and setting out a fountain. However, some landscape design features may cause you maintenance problems, especially if you intend on tackling more complex efforts such as the following.

Connecting Trellises to Outdoor Siding

Your home’s exterior aluminum, vinyl, or wood siding is designed to beautify and protect, and not to support. If you attach a trellis or other garden structure to your home’s exterior, the added weight could collapse the siding from gravity. This would not only destroy the structure but damage the siding as well.

If you plan on attaching anything to the side of the house, drill the bolt holes into the house framing. Then caulk them before inserting the bolts. The caulk prevents moisture from entering.

Putting a Concrete Slab near the House

A concrete patio provides a flat space outdoors where you can set up a grill and furniture. However, if placed next to the house, it could interfere with the slope of the grounds away from your home.

This slope in the grading of the lawn prevents water from pooling against the foundation and causing cracks as wells as mold and moisture problems in the basement.

To avoid these problems, start the slab pour a few inches into the soil. Then make sure the top of the concrete doesn’t protrude above the original ground level.

Joining Fences to an Outside Wall

You may find it convenient to nail a fence post to an outside wall of your home for additional support and strength. While this can be a good idea, especially if you connect the fence to the house framing, rainwater and other moisture can collect in the space between the post and wall.

The moisture can produce mold and rot both the wall and the post. Leave a gap of at least an inch between the post and the wall so water drains to the ground. The best way to avoid any problems with outdoor improvements is to contact professionals like us.

As your landscaping maintenance expert, we’ll take care of your exterior environment without causing these kinds of issues. Call us today to get the best lawn care money can buy!