Anatomy of a concrete staining project

The first few days they did demo work, ripping out carpet, wood floors and tile.  The tile was a bear.  There were two guys running jackhammers simultaneously and it still took an extra day.  The mastic was so thick in some areas it was a real challenge to get it out.  They also found various cracks to fill and other uneven areas.  Here are a few before and mid-demo photos:

 

 

 

Entry, before

View of kitchen to family room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living room, before

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tile dust - this is why you use a Predator!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tile demo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the demo they filled in the cracks and bigger problem areas then allowed it to cure.  The next day they brought in a separate contractor to grind the floors.  That took a full day with a diamond grinder to make it as smooth and even as possible.  That completed the first five days, or week one.

The following week they applied what was called a ‘scratch’ coat, to achieve an even surface for the stain to grab and to hide any markings (paint, carpet glue, etc.).  It is actual concrete but in a very thin film.  That had to cure and then be sanded before they put down a skim coat the following day which finishes the process of filling in all the imperfections.   Again, that had to also be sanded.  This whole skim coat thing is something I might do differently if I ever do it again.  Personally I like to see some of the imperfections in the surface but most residential consumers don’t.  If you check out the floor at the Fry’s supermarket on Ray Rd. and N. Ranch Circle, it appears they did not apply a skim coat so you can almost see through the floor to the original character of the concrete.  Plus, if you drop something really sharp you can gouge the stain and see the skim coat beneath.  The skim coat process ended week two.  (I didn’t take any photos of that stage).

After the last skim coat and sanding came the fun part – staining!  All the while the demo and prep work was going on we were still trying to decide on color, locked in debate because I liked one, my hubby another.  So we went with a brown tone that Gary (of BC Coatings) suggested and while it’s a bit darker than I wanted, the depth and richness of color is beautiful.  Gary has done many floors and after spending two weeks with me he knew what we were looking for so I trusted him. 

You can use either acid or water based stain and we went with acid.  It absorbs a little deeper but other than that, they are very similar as far as how they adhere and appear.  The stain is applied using a sprayer (they tape off the bottom three feet of your cabinets and walls).  This is a good time to note that when you do a project like this you should definitely plan on replacing your baseboards at the same time.  They look like crud after you take out the tile and carpet and while the standard 2 ½ inch crummy baseboards we see all over Ahwatukee are OK with tile and carpet, they look weenie once you go down to the concrete.  We made that call late in the game, after they had already taped off the walls to spray so that added a little more time to take all the tape down, demo the baseboards and then re-tape everything.  But I’m so glad we did it, it was worth the extra $1,200 and time to put in new, 3 ½ inch baseboards, all freshly painted and crisp looking.  We also added new, equally wide but more decorative trim around a couple of doorways to make them stand out in our entry way area. 

Close up of stained concrete

Close-up of floors & baseboards

 

After the stain dries (which was the end of week 2) they apply a sealant which is the really toxic stuff.  I can’t believe they can see much less think after spending time around this stuff.  They did two days of sealant and I didn’t want to be anywhere near our home – it was awful.  Finally, after that dried they applied the final touch, two coats of wax.  They were done after 13 working days but we didn’t move back in for another two because of the smell of the sealant.  We had to open all of the windows and even now, after a month has gone by you still get whiffs of sealant when you open cupboard doors and other tight spaces.

 

The end result really is beautiful but not necessarily for everyone.  It’s a very loud home now and we’ve put down many of our wool oriental rugs that I’ve had in hiding for years until we find exactly what we want.  Slowly, as our furniture and décor went back in, more of the sound was absorbed and it softened the feel of the floors.  Ours are what I could describe as rustic (as opposed to industrial or contemporary) because of the floors tonality and how it looks paired with our eclectic furnishings.  The floors are cool under the feet but I imagine I’ll welcome that a little more once summer hits.

It took a while to get used to them but I really love the floors now.  They are very pretty, albeit darker than I wanted, but have really tied the house together.  When looking back to the before pictures I can’t believe we waited so long to get rid of that ugly tile and carpet!

Another shot of the living room (with Trixie & DeeJay)

 

 

 

Contrast of floors to cabinets (not a great photo)

Dining room. I really need to take better pics.

Final considerations before staining your concrete

If you are considering going the stained concrete route in your home, here are a few things to consider before you make your final decision.  Again, these are considerations before doing interior jobs, not exterior.  As you will see from all the photos on the BC Coatings website at http://azconcretecoatings.com/ , they do driveways, patios, garages & pool decks, too.  Obviously those don’t require the same amount of ‘remodeling commitment’ as when you do an inside project.

Before you schedule the contractor, here are a few things to think about:

1. Unless you replace all interior doors, there will be a larger gap between the bottom of them and the floor.  We haven’t found it to be a big deal; unless you’re looking for it, it’s not noticeable.
2. Plan to re-install door guides for all sliding doors like closets, pantry, etc.  You’ll have to drill in to the floor to secure them.  I had to leave when Leonhard did that work.  It pained me too much to see anything drilled in to those beautiful, new floors!  And I have a trick for raising the guides to fit the larger gap between the floor and the bottom of the door.  If you run in to this issue email me, I’ll share what we did to make it look right.  And if you need a great carpenter or handyman, I’d love to share Leonhard’s number with you, too.  He’s very skilled and great to work with!
3. Plan to replace your baseboards from the start.  We made the mistake of trying to keep our originals and right before the staining step had them ripped out – thank goodness.  This cost us time and a little extra money but it would have looked terrible to keep them.  The old baseboards were dingy and marked up from grout and years of abuse.  After the floors were done, Leonhard came in and replaced all the baseboards with new 3 1/2″  boards.  We feared we’d have to do the trim around all the doors, too but we didn’t, it actually looks fine.  We did re-framed the doors to our office and front door using a more decorative 3 1/2″ baseboard because they both open to the main entry area.  But the rest of the rooms all blended in to the new baseboards well.  Go with a cottage white or Navajo white on the paint color, those are standard baseboard colors used by most builders and odds are, you won’t have to re-paint all the existing trim left around your door ways.  We didn’t have to paint ours and it’s fine.  But plan ahead and schedule the baseboards to be done as soon as possible once the floors have cured.  You want to do this before you start moving furniture back in.
4. Same goes for transition strips between surface changes, like carpet to concrete.  I’ve never met a flooring guy that will do this unless their speciality is carpet.  All the hard surface contractors will direct you to a carpet layer to do that work so again, plan ahead. Ours still isn’t done because we plan to replace the carpet in the bedrooms next, so we’re waiting.
5. Plan to move everything out of the house yourself, including appliances.  Don’t expect BC Coatings to do it, they will come ready to work on your floors, not move furniture so be prepared.
6. Look at what currently sits on your existing floor that may be affected by the change in height when you remove it.  We have two large island legs in the kitchen that sat on the tile. They support a very large piece of granite and needed to be raised in order to accommodate the 3/4″ difference that would be left once the tile came out.  Again, Leonhard handled this issue by coordinating with the flooring team and temporarily elevating the legs so the demo team could remove and grind the floor beneath so he could permanently shim them and secure them back down to the concrete. 
7. Make arrangements for someone (or plan to do it yourself) to put your water heater and toilets back in once the project is finished.  BC Coatings is great at doing floors but you’re better off having a handyman do this work for you.  And be sure to replace the wax ring on toilets or they will invariably leak once reinstalled.  
8. Budget to hire someone to help you clean before moving back in.  You’ll need a deep cleaning, including wiping down all the walls, cleaning windows & blinds, wiping out cupboards and cleaning the carpets.  I borrowed my neighbors steam cleaner to clean the carpets but had our regular house cleaner do the rest of the house. 
9. You may want to paint your walls, especially if your new flooring color is a different tone than the original floors.  I thought we’d have to paint but once the baseboards went in they married the floors and walls together well so we opted to skip painting.  If you do need to paint, budget time/money and do it before the baseboards go in – it’s much easier.
10. You will need area rugs now, which can be pricey.  Good places to pick up inexpensive, woven rugs for smaller spaces are Tuesday Morning, Ross, TJ Maxx and TurnStyle consignment.  Thankfully we had several from our days of living with hardwood floors back east so we resurrected them for the time being.  For larger spaces you might want a custom area rug in which case you should give Traci a call at Ahwatukee Carpets http://www.ahwatukeecarpets.net/.  You can pick the carpet and they will make a custom area rug to fit your space.
11. If you do a large area of your home in stained concrete, it will be LOUD.  Area rugs, furniture and other soft materials are essential to absorb some of the sound.  It’s taken some getting used to for us.

Our cost to do the concrete was a little over $5 a square foot which included the demo but not all of the other items described above.  It’s a very affordable flooring solution based on the other options I’ve researched over the years and if you like the look, I would say it’s a great way to go.  You just want to go in to it budgeting all the related expenses beyond just the flooring itself.

So now that you’ve had a chance to consider all of the ins and outs of a project like this, the next post will walk you through the actual process and finished product, including before and after photos.

Preparing your home for a Concrete Staining project

When you remodel a significant portion of your flooring it requires moving furniture, either completely out of the house or from room-to-room as the work progresses.  Because we were doing all but two rooms of our home (we left two bedrooms carpeted) it required removing everything. 

In our case the existing floor was tiled which makes for a super messy demo.  Add to that the fact the concrete would be ground and sanded a few times during the process and we elected to move everything out of the affected areas, including everything off the walls.  I was prepared for lots of dust!  Below is our list of how we prepped the home and it was worth it.  The amount of dust and clean-up was minimal compared to stories I’d heard from others who have removed tile:

• Remove all of your pictures, knick-knacks, etc. from your walls & shelves.  It’s easier to re-hang stuff than try to get tile dust off of and out of your possessions.  It’s like drywall dust; it gets into everything and places you can’t imagine. 
• Move your electronics out of the affected rooms and either bag them with plastic or cover with old sheets.  We learned the garage is a good place for your electronics.  It stayed pretty dust-free while the two bedrooms still took on a fair amount of dust even with the doorways were closed most of the time and draped with plastic.
• Tape off your vents, electrical and light switches.  Again, the dust goes everywhere and what you don’t want is to kick on your heat or a/c the first time after the project and blow out a bunch of dust in to your home.  As a precaution, be sure to run your system for the first time before you spend time cleaning the house.  
• Tape off your kitchen, pantry, laundry and bathroom cabinets with a 4mil plastic you can buy in a big roll at Lowe’s or Home Depot for about $40.  We stayed up late the night before doing this prep work but it was worth it.  Clean up was not as intensive in those areas – we had plenty to clean after the project ended so it was nice to have a few areas that were less affected.
• RENT AN AIR SCRUBBER!  It’s a handy little device that my friend Linda Minde of TriLite Builders told me about.  We rented one from them ($40 a day) during the demo work and I am convinced it is what really made the clean-up easier.  Even our house cleaner said the dust throughout the house was much less than he was prepared for – he’s done clean up on lots of floor remodels and said ours was the easiest.  During the demo, workers move the Predator along with them as they work.  It pulls a significant amount of debris out of the air and captures it in a filter that you wash periodically and eventually replace when needed.  It was a small miracle andI thank Linda for the idea!  You can reach them at http://www.trilitebuilders.com/
• When you wrap your cabinets in the plastic, use blue painters tape.  It won’t pull off finishes, is easy to remove and leaves no residue.  We wrapped our cabinets like big Christmas presents, folded on the sides and taped down.  Seemed fitting since the floors were our Christmas gift!
• Pack as though you’re going on vacation for the duration of the project.  It’s a hassle to run back and forth to get clothes, etc. and there were plenty of days we could not walk on the floors because it was being sanded or in varying stages of curing/drying.
• We put our fridge in the garage, closest to the door and plugged it in.  We did go back and forth just to pull frozen food we didn’t take in the first run.  That worked out well because we could access it by simply opening the garage door.
• Don’t leave any pets at home.  The noise and fumes from the sealant are way too much for them to handle. 
• Everything will smell like sealant when you return and it will take a while to dissipate.  We waited a full 48 hours but ideally I would say budget in three days after the project is completed to return home.  You need to open windows and give it time to air out.  I still get a whiff of sealant in my Tupperware cupboard every now and again and everything was washed twice.
• We had to dump crackers, pretzels and other bags of food that were left in the pantry even though they were unopened.  They tasted like sealant!  So move boxed foods out of the house or plan to trash them afterward.
• This is probably a project best done during our cooler months here in the valley. Your doors and windows will need to be open a lot so you don’t want your a/c running 24×7. 

Below are a few photos of our prep work.  In the next post we’ll go over a few final considerations for you to think about before embarking on a project like this. 

 

Tape off all air vents

 

Tape off your cabinets

Include taping off air return vents

Cover counters, too so they don't get scratched.

Concrete Staining for Residental Floors

Finally, a chance to catch up and blog the latest project; it was a big one and took a good part of December to complete.  I looked back to the last post and it was in late October!  I must get better about posting more consistently.  For this project I’m going to break it out over a few separate blogs, it’s too lengthy to all be in one post.

For years we’ve been trying to figure out our flooring issues.  We live in a smaller home so consistency in the flooring was key; multiple surface changes can make a home feel smaller.  Our biggest problem was the original tile/carpet transitions were cut in a curve.  Since our tile was no longer available, we were stuck with finding a surface that could replace the carpet and adjoin the existing tile in a seamless way.   Nothing would work because there are no options to create decent looking curved transitions.  We finally resigned ourselves to re-doing the entire floor, except the bedrooms which remain carpeted.

Options came down to hardwood, tile or staining the concrete. Carpet was definitely out.  After years (literally) of debate we finally settled on stained concrete, the choice I pretty much wanted from the start; I’ve always loved the look of it in commercial applications.

Sept. – Oct. we obtained estimates, four in total.  Along the way we discovered a vendor who places a coat of concrete right over the existing surface, typically tile.  It proved to be pretty expensive per square foot, (over $9 which included demo) and I also questioned how long it would last before it began to crack or peel since it would be laid over uneven surfaces.   We finally came across a referral for a company called BC Coatings.  They arrived with a four inch portfolio of their work in both residential and commercial applications and explained very clearly what we could and could not do, not what they thought I wanted to hear.  After another few weeks of debate we set them up for a December 1^st start. 

They told us it would take 7-10 working days (not counting the weekend) and we should not live in the house during the process.  We would have no hot water heater (it sits in the laundry room, not the garage), wouldn’t be able to get around and the smell of the sealant at the end would be too toxic for anyone to stay in the home for any extended period of time.   Since they don’t work weekends we made arrangements to be out of the house a full two weeks.  Thanks to my wonderful parents we had a great place to land.  It was a full house, with four adults, two kids, three dogs & three cats and, although everyone got along well, I’m sure my parents were happy to get their home back after we left – 18 days later!  Turns out staining concrete is a serious remodeling project – but proving to be well worth it from our perspective.

The company we contracted is BC Coatings, owned by Ray Aycox.  I was extremely pleased with Ray’s professionalism while always being friendly, as was the crew he sent in every day for two full weeks.  Their website it limited but it gives you a great idea of what they can do to transform your indoors and outdoors.  For a sneak peek, here’s their website  http://azconcretecoatings.com/ If you contact Ray, please be sure to tell him I sent you.  A referral is such a great compliment so I’m sure he would appreciate it.

Once we nailed down the vendor and the timeline came day one – demo.

 

New floors, bargain of a price

One of my neighbors recently replaced the 8″x8″ white ceramic tile & carpet throughout their home with beautiful solid oak floors.  They were ecstatic with not only how they came out but the great price they got on the wood floors themselves.

They actually picked up their floors via a deal I came across in my Real Estate dealings.  A client was selling them for a steal as he needed the boxes out of his garage.  He had 1,000 square feet of Mohawk solid oak wood floors that he only wanted $1 a square for – I posted it to my client and friends in an email and my neighbors snapped them up.  But you can look for similar deals using CraigsList where you can always find bargains.

We don’t have before pictures but the after photos show you how great they came out.  They did the work all on their own and it was a back breaking undertaking but by doing so saved about $700 just in removing the old tile.  To lay the floors would have cost at least a couple thousand dollars so between materials and labor this job would have been in the $8-10,000 range when you take in to account the cost of materials, demo and lobor. 

It’s a messy job so they had plastic draping off the other rooms in the house, wore respirator masks and did a clean-up at the end of each day to contain the mess and keep it from tracking all over the house.  The entire project took them about two solid weeks but you’ll see it was well worth it.  Their new floors gleam!

This room was carpeted before

Lessons learned were pretty minimal as the project went well for them.  They started with a chisel and hammer breaking out the tile but finally resorted to renting the equivalent of a jack hammer with a special blade to remove the rest of it.  They said they wish they’d done that earlier because it cut the demo time down to a fraction of the hammer and chisel route.  They also underestimated just how pervasive the dust is when you break out the tile so they probably would have bagged and sealed more of their personal items, cupboards and furniture.

Foyer - you can see a glimpse of the old white tile in the kitchen

The Saguaro that got too much water

The Saguaro seems to be doing fine since we cut off much of the water supply around it and removed a few of its heavy arms that were contributing to it leaning toward one side. It was a fairly easy process that we did on our own and now that it’s been a few weeks we feel comfortable it will be fine.  It even straightened up a bit!

So again, here’s what we did based on David’s (from Gardener’s World) suggestions:

• Using a limb pruner we removed three of the heavy arms that were all on one side of the cactus, leaving one on that side.  the limb pruner was great because you can telescope the handle for reaching high places.  Here’s a pic of it:

Telescoping limb pruner

• Next we tossed a rope up and over the arm to be cut so we could pull it away from the house as it fell.  We were also keeping an arm below those that were being cut so it was important to make sure the other arms didn’t hit it on the way down.  To toss the rope we tied it to a whiffle ball to give it a little weight as we threw in up and over the arm.  That way it came back down to us without getting snagged on the arm itself.  Worked perfectly.
• Dave cut the arm while I held the rope.  As soon as it started to give I pulled the rope to guide the arm down to the ground.

Fallen Saguaro arms

• Next we mixed up the soil acidifier that David had given us.  It’s the consistency of tiny gravel and the goal is to turn in to a paste to roll on to the Saguaro where the arms were removed.  He told us this would protect the newly exposed portion of the cactus from the elements. It takes a good 24 hours or more for it to break down so we mixed it up the afternoon before and by the time we needed it, it was  properly diluted.
• The final step was to roll the past over the areas where the arms were removed.  Luckily the Saguaro is close enough to the house that we were able to lean the ladder up against so we could reach the upper portion of the cactus.  We used a mini paint roller that I found in the garage and it worked perfectly.

Rolling on soil acidifier

That was it!  The Saguaro is looking MUCH better than about a month ago and we’re confident it will make it now that we’ve addressed the too much water issue and removed a few of its weighty arms.  A little research on this problem ended up saving us about $600-800 which were the estimates all the specialists gave us to correct the problems.

When cacti get too much water…

…they take on a puffed up appearance, almost bloated looking.  Last entry we talked about our Saguaro that, because of our yard remodel, began to not only look ready to burst but began to lean to one side.  If it were to fall it would take out our a/c unit, a beautifully mature Ocotillo, a section of our block fence wall and a corner of my neighbor’s roof.  Hefty damage not the mention the anguish I’d feel for losing such an exquisite piece of desert history that has defied so many odds over its 100+ years of life.

Based on information from the Saguaro National Park in Tucson (a neat place to visit if you haven’t, here’s the link http://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm), a specimen the size of ours is roughly 125 years old and weighs a good 6 tons.  I feel responsible for making sure this plant makes it, especially since we’re the ones that recently put it in jeopardy.

Since the last post I’ve consulted with four specialists, three over the phone and one in person.  I didn’t have all of them come out because the going rate just to make the trip was between $69 and $150, just to look at the cactus.  All were very amenable to discussing the situation over the phone and I feel we got some good information to work with.  They all pretty much had the same thing to say: cut the water source, pronto, which I’d already done.  The solution to right the Saguaro was to straighten it with supports for 6 months or longer which would include roping it to something to pull it up and then brace it.  Because of its proximity to the house and where it is in the backyard, that was going to be difficult.  

After talking with each of the four companies on the phone I had one come out, David from Gardener’s World whom I’ve visited with on many occasions when deciding which plants to purchase for specific environmental conditions.  He’s always struck me as not only very knowledgeable but as a practial guy who really loves the plants.  You can tell by the way he talks about them and handles them. 

So prices to do the proposed work on our Saguaro ranged from $600 to $800, depending on the severity of the issue as in how much it is leaning and potential root rot.  David was relieved to see our situation wasn’t as bad as he thought based on our phone conversation and if we simply trim two of the arms it will take the weight off the one side and prevent further lean, which is his opinion was minimal at this juncture.  As far as the water supply goes, the drips that were pumping water to the root base are gone and although we still have the grass within 4 feet, it’s not deep watered so should not pose a continued threat. 

Thankfully the pleated design of the Saguaro allows it to expand and handle increased amounts of water when exposed to it, typically via mother nature.  But, the skin (epidermis) can still split when it reaches capacity and David directed us to be watchful for new splits in the trunk.  He gave us a soil acidifer called 1st Step to seal the new breaks if they occur.  Our instructions are to mix the gravel like substance with water until a thick paste forms and cake it on to the new tear to protect the cortex (or pulp) from the elements. 

He also pointed out another cactus in our yard getting too much water so I’ll be plugging a nearby drip and moving that Lantana to another location.  You can see by the picture where the Lantana was planted there’s a funnel effect created where the water runs down the rock right to the base of the cactus.  It too has become bloated and started splitting so we’ll be applying the paste to it, too.

Water runs down the rock to the cacti

Fresh splits from too much water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few more things to consider before you embark on any landscape re-design, whether it be big or small: 

• Evaluate the plants you want to keep.
• If they are desert plants, specifically succulents, gain an understanding of their water needs.
• Will those plants be OK in their existing space after you remodel or is it better to relocate them based on what you’ll be planting around them and any changes in water supply.
• When you interview your contractor, get a history of their work and understanding of desert landscape.

We’ll be watching the Saguaro closely.  David said the pleats will begin to go back to their normal size but it will take quite a while so to be patient and watchful.  He also told me what I thought was a canary island palm in our yard is a date palm and eventually it will get huge.  It’s the palm we moved in the remodel and the good news is, he thinks it’s going to make it, too.

Sunbrellas, worth the investment so far

At the start of the summer we made an investment and purchased two bright blue Sunbrella umbrellas as I was tired of replacing the Target brand ones each year.  I was skeptical they would indeed remain fade resistant in the Phoenix sun.

As we head in to the last days of summer I’m happy to report they are still looking great ~ still bright blue and I have them up every day except when we have high winds.  We paid $400 each which about killed me but now that I see how well they’ve held up I’d say it was worth it.

My friend Libby saw them a few weeks ago and was convinced they’d be worth the investment, too.  She purchased Jockey Red for her backyard; I can’t wait to see them!

We were buying two new umbrellas each season, anywhere from $40-$60 apiece.  That got old after five years in the valley.  Granted, it’ll take more than five years for this investment to pay off but based on this first summer I’m optimistic it will indeed be worth it.  Plus, there’s the hassle factor of getting new ones each year that you have to calculate as well.

You can see from the photo how well the umbrellas are holding up.  Now the teak furniture we bought at the start of the summer is definitely more faded but I’ll put more oil on it once it cools off and we’ll see how many summers IT lasts!

Still true blue

Saving a Saguaro

Well, looks like there may be an issue with our Saguaro in the backyard now that we’ve added grass.  Hopefully this is a good learning lesson for readers – you don’t want to make this mistake if indeed it turns out to be one.

With grass comes more water and our nearly 100 year-old specimen is not used to having water so available.  Until we remodeled the backyard there were no drips or sprinklers anywhere near it.  Now it’s a few feet away from drips and sprinklers and suddenly I noticed it’s taking on a tilt. 

Granted the arms on this baby are loaded to one side making it naturally heavier but it’s too coincidental that only a couple months after the remodel it’s suddenly started to lean.  We’ve been in this home for five years and it’s always looked the same; until now. 

A subtle lean

So, I called around to find a succulent specialist, specifically someone who knows Saguaros.  The first guy I talked to sounded knowledgeable but he’s the first person I talked to so I’m still gathering information.  I have someone else who is coming out this Thursday and a call in to another.  I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, based on what the first guy said (don’t have any drips or sprinklers within 10-12 feet of an established Saguaro – Oh Great!) I pulled out the katy ruellias near the base (see them in photo) and capped the drips, limiting the amount of water coming in around the Saguaro.  We’re also going to skip days on watering the lawn until we get more information.

This I do know for sure - there’s a way to tell if your Saguaro is getting too much water.  The ribs will look very swollen, starting from the base and moving upward.  Swollen meaning spread further apart than usual.  What’s ironic is, I noticed about a week ago on my daily walks that many of the barrel cacti I saw in the front yards of homes along our regular route were looking bloated.  In those cases it’s from all the rain we’ve received from the monsoons because no new water source was added other than via mother nature.  What I’m hoping is that’s what has happened to my guy – just too much monsoon water – and now that we’re cutting out the drips he’ll be just fine, grass and all.  We’ll definitely have to prop him from one side but I hope the roots don’t end up rotting due to the sprinklers. 

More to come as I gather more information on this one…..

Landscape Remodel Tips, Re-Cap

It’s been nearly three months since we finished the landscape remodel and we’re still tweaking a few things, but all-in-all we’re done. 

I was going to include detailed before and after shots but we just trimmed the mesquite tree and it’s all piled up in the front yard.  So I’ve included a couple shots of the front and  back but I’ll do more later, after bulk pick-up.  In the meantime, here’s a short list of tips you may want to bookmark if a yard re-do is in your future:

• When you’re obtaining bids, be sure to ask about their warranty on the work (hardscape like pavers, masonry work, etc. and the plants.  With Outside Living Concepts we have a four month warranty on the plants which we are now approaching.  There are a few plants that haven’t made it and come October they will be replaced per the contract.
• Think ahead about the details and discuss them once you’ve made the hire.  You may have a picture in your mind of how you expect certain details to turn out but if you don’t show the contractor(s) photos and/or discuss them specifically, you’re bound to run in to issues.  Here’s where I didn’t have a specific conversation and a few aspects of the project turned out other than I had envisioned:            

-Curbing.  I was seeing the s-curve in my mind and it came out block style.  Turned out the be fine. -Pillar caps.  We did discuss the color of stone but not the design of the trim around the cap.  I can live with it but had we discussed it, I’d like it more.  -Boulder placement. Came out nice but I would have staggered their height along the patio and used an odd number, not even.  -Plant placement. Think ahead to the eventual height of the plants and be sure to stagger color and height for how it will look long-term.   -Ask for a watering schedule. For the first two weeks, after two weeks and general for summer and winter going forward.  This goes for plants and grass.  -Manuals. Be sure to obtain any manuals for new equipment like watering timers, lighting, etc. and ask for a quick tutorial if need be.  -Call references and GO SEE THEIR WORK.  Call for sure and if you can see examples of their work, even better. That’s a big one. You’ll really get a feel for the quality & level of detail.  -Show examples of what you are looking for.  We showed examples of the paver steps and it took a few times to get it right, even after showing an actual example.  Magazines and pictures work, too.

• St. Augustine grass is heartier if you have kids and pets and requires less maintenance.  It’s a little more expensive but worth it if it needs to hold up to more activity.
• Don’t skimp on one area if it may compromise the entire project.  We ended up taking out our old landscape rock because it clashed with our new colors, which ended up costing us more in the long run.
• Be very specific about your watering system and make sure if you’re adding grass or significantly more plants that your existing system can handle the new load.
• Make sure you do a final walk through and have your punch list ready of the things that aren’t 100% up to par.  Be prepared with that list and ask for a time-line of when the final items will be complete. Follow-up if they are not done in a timely fashion.

So those are the major take aways from this most recent project.  Hope they help if you’re in the market.  Feel free to email or call with specific questions and watch for the next project….it may be those concrete floors I keep talking about but can’t bear the thought of the mess!

Front patio space, before

Front patio, afterAnother shot of the patio

Backyard, before

Before, Ocotillo & palm that were moved are in background

 

Backyard after

Yard to patio view