Grass clippings?

The landscaping company is blowing grass clippings all over cars in the parking lot. The company says they cant control where the clippings blow or fly. My car is often covered in grass not just a spray of clippings. What are your thoughts?

Hi Renae,

If they blow grass onto the cars why can't they blow it off the cars? A good landscaping company knows better. Two weeks ago I got in my car to leave and noticed a HUGE crack in my windsheild that wasn't there when I parked it. Since the glass was fine when I parked the car earlier I knew it had to have happened at work. The landscapers had been that day and I gave them a call. They came out the next day took a look at the damage and I had a new windshield by COB. I can not prove they broke the glass, but they were professional enough to admit it could have happened and replace it for me.

I had something similar happen to my motorcycle when I was working on a site that had some remodeling going on. I had JUST replaced my tires and all of a sudden, the front tire was flat! Seems I had picked up a nail while the tires were not even broken in yet (<100 miles, when I could expect close to 15000).

Spoke with the contractor and had a check to replace the front tire by the end of the day (labor included).

Renae, already your landscaping company is on the defensive, which is never a good sign for how the relationship is going. The first thing you can do is go through the contract and see if that specific item is part of your scope of work. Once you know that, you approach the situation accordingly. If it is, then you simply call the contractor and ask to meet with him. When he gets there, you can be nice (usually the most effective) or you can be direct (usually promotes more defensiveness, not the most pleasant.) Show him the scope of work and tell him that you personally are experiencing this issue. He should immediately respond by telling you it won't happen again and apologize.

The second way, if this is not covered in your scope of work, is to meet with the foreman(person) while he/she is there during your service and point it out to him/her. You don't necessarily have to be the one to do this. A ot of times your Maintenance Supervisor handles this. They should comply from that point on, especially since your on site team will be watching. Here's how I have done this: I grab some bottled water (cold) and start distributing it to the guy walking around with the string trimmer, etc. and when I get to the guy with the blower, I take him aside, hand him his water, and ask him to take a break with me. While I'm there shooting the breeze, I casually say, "Hey, I notice you're blowing the clippings onto the sidewalk and I notice some of it is getting onto the cars. Could you please blow the clippings back onto the grass?"

Then follow up one or both conversations with a letter to the contractor simply stating that you chatted with the on site crew and asked them to keep the clippings off the sidewalk and cars and how much you would appreciate that. It will cut down on the complaints from your Residents and staff regarding the issue.

When you negotiate your next lawn care contract, add the clause in there about all clippings must be blown away from the parking lot. Then if they do it and don't stop, you can withhold payment until they comply (which is of course the least nice way to have to handle this situation.)

Whatever you do, remain calm and professional and nice about it. Your actions are a reflection of your management company and yourself as a manager. Show the landscaper and all contractors respect and you won't have any problems.

I like the touch of offering cold water; but in extreme heat, I would do GatorAde instead.... But that is just me.

I always keep a supply of GatorAde for the maintenance guys anyway (provided by my vending machine company at no charge). I have made sure that the maintenance team has a working refrigerator in their shop as well.

I love both the ideas of Gatorade and cold water. I also used to bring in the cheap ice pops that are essentially just plastic tubes filled with colored sugar water. They are easy to throw into the freezer and feel surprisingly refreshing on a hot day. The maintenance team loved them and they went a long way towards maintaining good relationships with our landscaping service in the summer. Plus, they're not a budget breaker.

Beyond that advice, I think Mindy said it well... try the nice track first and I'm fairly sure you'll get the response you want. If, however, you don't then go the direct route. Worst case scenario the problem persists and the maintenance team helps you out by blowing off your car. When renegotiation time rolls around you add the grass clippings to the contract or go with a company that will be respectful of your requests and has a clippings clause.

I learned this the hard way. I had at the time, a 1993 GMC Custom Conversion Truck done up by Southern Comfort Conversions. It was a metallic pearl teal and I kept it clean enough to go into a surgical suite. Well, I had just done it up and Armor All'd the tires and bumpers. I use a slow drying gel to make 'em shine. So I parked the GMC just north of the office on the parking lot.
Well, stupid me, here I come on my NEW TurboCharged Zero Turn, and I blow grass all over my carefully applied Armor All tires!! That taught me a lesson to be sure.

I too, blow clippings all over the tenants cars each time I mow. I give them an on-going opportunity to move the cars as I mow. In the end, I come by and blow everything off, cars, porches, and walks. As you can guess from reading this, "me, myself, and I" are the lawn people on the property(s) I mow on. I think the difference is that I am glad to blow off everything I blew on. Not so sure I would be happy to do it in this 105 temperature today though!!!!!!

Being nice to me moves mountains though!!!! Thanks Mindy for your comments.

I should have been specific this is the property I live at, not work at. However, I have left some of these suggestions for my office in hopes that I see some change.

Great comments all the way around and as usual Mindy is on top of it! She beat me to the punch and actually that is a good thing because the language was more eloquent than what I would have written.

The main thing for sure which all should pick up on is in the contracts to ensure from the start that this is covered. Now, I have one where around vehicles and areas where blowers were not authorized for use. I also worked with the residents in announcing the days when the contractor would be coming and gave them an alternate place to park. Was not perfect, but there were those who took advantage of it.