BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES: Poking Around

Each year, Cliff Drezek and his staff convince a growing number of customers that the practice of punching holes in their lawns is a good thing. In exchange, these customers contribute to the company’s revenue, says Drezek, manager of lawn care company Green Lawns Plus in Marlboro, Mass.

The holes he favors are those caused by aeration, the practice of poking several holes into a lawn to get air into the root system, helping to eliminate thatch and promote healthy growth.

But that’s just one plus, Drezek says. While the practice is beneficial for a landscape company’s customers’ lawns, aeration also can promote healthy growth for a landscape business during the spring and fall seasons.
CORE BELIEFS. There are several types and brands of aerators. Drezek’s crews use tractor-pulled units for the majority of their jobs, which are made up of about 70 percent residential and 30 percent commercial customers. The average size lawn is 9,500 square feet, but the crews have lawns on the route that are 30,000 to 80,000 square feet. For the smaller lawns, there are walk-behind models. For either type of aerator, a variety of tine styles are available. These puncture the lawn in different ways. 
 
Drezek uses hollow, closed tines, but open-spoon tines are used for coring on some models. The tines are normally designed to be either pushed down in a vertical motion or rolled on a rotating, barrel-shaped piece of equipment. There are also aerators that get the job done with a slicing motion. But despite all of the varieties available, the goal is the same: get air to the turf’s root system by creating several holes in the lawn.
 
In the Northeast, lawns are sometimes aerated to break up clay in the soil. The clay build-up doesn’t allow the proper amount of air in. “It’s crucial in all soils to allow oxygen to get into the root zone,” Drezek says, adding that in his region it is especially helpful in clay soils, which don’t let in much oxygen when compacted. “Every region will have different types of soil, but each soil type benefits from aeration,” he says.
 
As an added bonus, aeration can help control thatch, he says. Although it isn’t meant to be a replacement for dethatching, aeration helps decompose this old, dead tissue that lurks in some lawns. Aeration also gets the roots and rhizomes growing in the soil rather than the in thatch, he adds.

HOLE HOW-TO. Drezek’s crews aerate from late April to June. This is an optimal time because cool-season grasses respond well to the treatment. The further into summer it gets, the less tolerant turf can be because it contends with conditions including drought and heat stress.
   
The crews use a hollow tine aerator that pulls 2- to 3½-inch plugs, or cores, from the soil. “We have a tractor-drawn unit that we can use in 95 percent of the lawn areas,” he says. “The tractor increases the amount of work we can do in a day and obviously decreases operator fatigue.”
   
Drezek’s aeration crews are separate from the maintenance crew and one or two operators are on each crew. This is where new employees usually start. “It’s a good way for them to get their feet wet as far as getting into lawn care,” he says, pointing out that what’s required to aerate is a general knowledge of the process – certification is not necessary before doing the job.
 
This general knowledge includes keeping all bases covered during the job to prevent problems, Drezek says. Be aware of rocks, tree roots or other hindrances that could damage equipment or surrounding buildings. In addition, ask the client if there are any underground hazards that could get in the way, including sprinkler heads and invisible dog fences that have buried cables, he points out.
 
Slice aerators can be especially troublesome to underground obstacles, Drezek says. His crews mark each obstruction and have a repair kit on hand in case of any accidents.

HOLE SALE. Green Lawns Plus wants homeowners to know they find aeration essential for a healthy lawn, so they market it in several ways. “We sell it by way of a newsletter we hand out with each service,” Drezek says, adding that he recommends aeration in follow-up visit comments that he leaves on customers’ doors. The company also sends out annual information pieces about aeration.
 
Green Lawns Plus has been offering aeration to clients 12 of their 18 seasons in business. The crews started with a walk-behind aerator, which was sufficient for the then-small workload, Drezek says. It took a few seasons to grow an aeration client base because many weren’t yet familiar with the concept and the benefits. But that changed, and quickly. Within three years, the company found the need to switch to a tractor-drawn aerator because they needed to be more efficient to tackle their growing aeration customer list.
 
Drezek is happy with the fact that 35 to 45 percent of his usual client base requests the aeration service regularly. He rarely gets aeration requests from homeowners who aren’t Green Lawns Plus customers. In a good year he sees 5 percent growth in aeration but usually it stays level from year to year. But the revenue from aeration is a base the company can count on each year, Drezek points out.

AER-RATES. Aeration is an add-on service for Green Lawns Plus. The crews that seed and spread lime treatments have the additional task of aerating.
 
Drezek’s charge for the service is based on every 1,000 square feet of turf. He estimates that an average 8,000 square-foot lawn would cost $125 to aerate. “There are a lot of variables that go into price,” he says. That includes obstacles, such as buried sprinkler heads, and hills. A fee of $75 to $100 is charged if the obstacles aren’t marked ahead of time and Drezek’s crews have to mark them. “It can take upwards of a half-hour to mark the obstacles,” he says.
 
Consider any obstacles that may hinder access to the lawn, Drezek advises. Even the contractors who mostly service large lawns should consider having a walk-behind aerator in their equipment fleet in case of smaller lawns or lawns that can only be accessed with a smaller piece of equipment, Drezek says.
 
Early on, Drezek had concerns about whether he was pricing properly. Through trial and error, he arrived at what he felt was a fair rate. He gives technicians a range of feasible prices so they can assess the difficulty of the layout and the time the job will take to properly charge the customer.
 
Drezek finds aeration is always profitable because the tractor-drawn aerators are efficient, allowing the crews to quickly move from job to job. In addition, the technicians charge the customers for any extra time spent on a job because of obstacles. Drezek doesn’t know exactly how much profit is made from an aeration job but says, “It’s a very good add-on service. We make an appreciable amount.”
 
Ultimately, he says, being prepared and using the right aeration equipment are the keys to keeping the lawns and the business at their best. “Once you have aeration as an established part of your optional services and people are aware of the advantages, you get a pretty steady income coming in.”