PROTECT YOUR BUILDING FROM LAWN MOWER DAMAGE

PROTECT YOUR BUILDING FROM LAWN MOWER DAMAGE

Summer’s Coming up fast! Here’s how you can protect your building’s siding from dent’s & dings when landscaping.

When the exterior grading and finished floor elevation are not carefully designed, lawn areas that grow right up to the foundation create a situation for a mower to come in contact with the siding system.  This results in dented and torn away siding, exposing the building to weather, bugs and rodents that may lead to additional building damage.

Here are two ideas for protecting buildings that have this problem:

Drip Strips along a building’s foundation will keep mowers and power equipment away from the siding.

Extended, well-draining landscape beds with weed control matting a few feet out from the building prevents lawn from growing along the foundation.

If You Are Planning a New Slab-On-Grade Building …

When we are invited to perform maintenance on the wood or metal siding of a slab-on-grade building [no basement], we often find that the top of the foundation wall and concrete slab meet at the same elevation and the siding system extends below the top of the foundation wall to seal off this joint.  When designing a slab on grade building, in addition to elevating the first floor so that the ground slopes away from the building on all sides, one should also extend the top of the foundation wall a minimum of 6” above the finish floor.  This raises the joint and siding lap well above grade and protects the siding from mowers and other power equipment.