A Greater Chicago commercial property with its shade trees, vast turf expanses, and gathering nooks surrounded by buildings is a unique environment. Visitors get a chance to conduct business while taking in the outdoors and navigating your site.
Landscaping is a big part in attracting more people to your facility, but, if not maintained properly, it can also detract people from your site.
This means you have to stay on top of landscape-related issues.
Let’s narrow that to-do list of the most common commercial landscape repairs and how you can stay ahead of these issues to prevent bigger, more expensive problems down the road.
9 Frequent Commercial Landscape Repairs
Outdoor areas are not only common gathering areas for people who visit your commercial property, but they are also the entry and exit spaces and the spots that properly guide people to your facility.
Let’s take a look at common landscape repairs you should stay on top of to avoid costly repairs and any liability issues down the road.
1. Standing Water
It’s no big surprise that standing water would become an issue on a commercial property. They are instant trouble spots.
Not only can frequent standing water signal a nearby drainage problem, but water that stands for even only a few days can lead to increased mosquito populations. Nobody wants to hang out on a property with swarms of mosquitoes biting. What’s more, water will drag mud along with it … on walkways and into buildings. These areas basically become unusable.
As with any commercial landscape repair, it can start small and lead to larger problems if ignored. Sometimes it takes some proper grading to fix the problem or manage the water flow. Other times, french drains, rain gardens or even dry creek beds can create a most permanent solution to a spot that tends to over-collect water.
For Greater Chicago industrial properties with lots of hard surfaces, stormwater can’t seep into the concrete so it must run off onto lower spots. For these properties, a solution like a detention pond is necessary to prevent flooding.
2. Erosion Issues
Like standing water, as rain flows on a property over and over again, some common issues can emerge.
If there is a hilly spot that isn’t graded properly or maybe a retaining wall nearby wasn’t built properly or is no longer doing its job, then mud and debris will continue to move and leak onto walkways and create additional issues.
These threats include trip-and-fall hazards, as well as unattractive areas that don’t serve a useful or aesthetic purpose on the commercial property anymore.
The solution to this common landscape repair is to evaluate the cause of the issue and fix it before it becomes a bigger problem.
3. Overgrown Trees & Shrubs
Trees and shrubs that are left to grow wild can get pretty unwieldy. And plants left to their own devices can be a detriment to your facility.
First, they are unsightly to look at, which doesn’t add to a commercial property’s appeal.
But, a bigger issue is they pose numerous safety and security hazards. Overgrown branches can get in the way for people walking on your site. They can also block doorways and windows and create security risks at night as these often turn into areas security cameras and lighting can’t reach.
The solution to this landscape repair is to prune trees and shrubs twice annually: early summer and fall. Additionally, dormant pruning, which is pruning during the winter when the tree is dormant and will experience less stress, can be helpful. Then, we can make larger cuts to help create more vigorous growth in the spring.
4. Dying or Compacted Turf
You have a lot of traffic on a commercial property, so it’s natural that your grass might suffer from compaction or other issues like discoloration.
Compacted turf can lead to increased turf problems, such as weeds, disease and dead patches. An annual aeration and overseeding in the fall can help prevent compacted turf, keeping it healthy and preventing you from having to add costly turf repairs to your budget.
Dead or brown grass is not appealing on your site either. It looks mad and can make your business look bad. Grass that isn’t healthy can also leave bare spots open to weed invasions. For this landscape repair, your commercial grounds manager will want to check your turf for disease or irrigation problems and stay ahead of small fixes before they become bigger, requiring more costly turf renovation.
5. Hardscape Challenges
When pathways buckle or roots grow and disrupt walkways, uneven ground results.
Uneven ground leads to one big liability issue for commercial properties: trips and falls.
The solution to this commercial landscape repair is assessing the issue and deciding what fix would be best long-term. For instance, grading the soil or a walkway or concrete repair may be necessary but other situations may need tree removal and redirection of pedestrian traffic with a new walkway pattern.
Also, it’s important to regularly check hardscape stability to prevent retaining wall failures, maintain walkway cracks and stay ahead of safety issues.
6. Irrigation Head Damage
Whether it’s from a random pedestrian, a mower blade, or just the normal ground swelling, irritation heads can shift or become damaged, no longer working smoothly as a part of your entire irrigation system.
This is when landscape irrigation repair will be necessary on your commercial property. Your grounds maintenance provider will regularly check your irrigation system to look for these damages and watering inconsistencies to stay ahead of irrigation repairs when they are minimal and can be easily fixed.
7. Landscape Lighting System Damage
Just like irrigation heads can suffer from pedestrian or vehicle traffic, landscape lighting fixtures can also result in damage from lots of activity on your site or even weather extremes in Greater Chicago.
That’s why it's important for your commercial landscape maintenance professionals to check your landscape lighting fixtures each year and make the necessary landscape lighting repairs.
8. Excess Trash and Debris
While this may not seem like a commercial landscape repair, per se, excess trash on your property can look back for your business. And if left neglected for even a small amount of time, trash can pile up on your facility landscape. This trash can include twig and leaf litter or even natural debris that can result after a windy or stormy day.
Stay ahead of this landscaping problem by having trash picked up regularly, as well as trash patrol completed throughout the property often to prevent trash and debris from piling up on the grounds.
9. Messy or Unkempt Seasonal Color
Many commercial properties have regular seasonal color changeouts. This is where their annual flower beds and containers are freshened up with the seasons to create regular pops of color and interest on the property.
When done right, flowers are typically installed by a dedicated seasonal color or enhancement crew. Typically, maintenance crews don’t have that same landscape designer eye or attention to detail that these projects require.
Well-designed seasonal color should stand out and have an immediate impact. Trying to just throw annual flowers together last-minute each season usually doesn’t make as much of an impression. And neglecting seasonal color maintenance can result in messy, wilting flowers.
The trick to this commercial landscape repair is to have an expert or dedicated crew draw up the plans and focus on the changeouts during the year so it doesn’t get neglected and is done properly.
Let Us Help You with Your Commercial Landscape Repairs
We know you have a lot of facilities and operations headaches that need your attention. Hopefully, this list helps you target the worst outdoor issues head-on so you can feel confident in how you tackle them.
KD Landscape can assist you by offering a customized, proactive commercial maintenance program. From proper lawn care to mowing/maintenance to trash patrol to spring and fall cleaning and regular pruning, as well as seasonal color boosts and enhancements, we can become an addition to your team. By doing this, we can make sure these commercial landscape repairs are completed in a timely fashion, helping your property look good and helping you stay within your budget.
Want a more beautiful Greater Chicago commercial property? Request a proposal for a customized plan. Together, we can help your grounds – and you – look more polished and professional.
