Hot, Hot, Hot

[Bowie Man]

Its hot at out there for sure.  Back in my contracting days we would start the crews at 5:00am and work straight thru till noon and call it a day.

What precautions or changes is your company making to keep your crews safe and still profitable?

[hydroservice]

When I was on the road we would pretty much just keep going. The single most important thing is to be sure the crew is drinking lots of water. Over the years I saw the results of not doing that simple thing. We to started early everyday so most summer days we were done seeding by early afternoon and then only had loading for the next day to do so I could slow things right down. I do remember 2 jobs that I had to call it quits as it was just to much heat. When I was spending more time going to get water then working it was time. As a foreman you have to be aware of your crew and yourself. Safety is # 1. It can be hard sometimes because as a foreman you know the schedule, what work is ahead, what needs to be done so sometimes you have to push and you have to know if the crew & yourself can handle it. In the fall I had to push many days well after dark which was almost harder then working in the heat. At least you could see in the day. I think the bottom line is if you don't have to be out there in all this heat don't be but if you have to drink as much water as you can and go at it easy.

[easygrass]

Gee I guess its so hot no one wants to talk about it       start early don’t schedule more than you can handle in this heat.   On a side note here we are at day 24 with 100+ heat next 7 days 100+  no rain, water restricted  and at least 95% of Texas is in a severe to extreme  drought   worst in 40 years, round hay bales are going for $100.00 a bale ,farmers are hurting crops are failing . But today staying cool and watering some plants they are thirsty..

[hydroservice]

We are pushing 2 weeks here with no rain. Not as hot as you but really dry for us.

[slc tm35]

sorry guys 6 days with rain. Im ready to go back to work maybe tom,weatherman says more rain.

[Bowie Man]

Send it over to Texas .... they really need the rain!

[MarksTLC]

We are getting a light shower here in Eastern PA. Not likely enough to change anything, but a little is better than none. I haven't cut grass for over two weeks. Nothing but weeds growing now. Even the crab grass is going brown...

[seedgiant]

One guy told me to just forget the hydroseeding and do it next week because he didn't want to try to water it. I guess that wasn't a bad idea.

[MarksTLC]

Many of the jobs I have waiting are all due to the weather. They don't have irrigation systems installed and don't want to be watering 3-5 times a day. Not on city water for sure.

Most have agreed to wait until fall. That's good for me and lets them use less water.

[Turboguy]

Most years I seed right through the Summer as long as people are willing to water but for the past two weeks I have been doing my best to talk everyone into waiting until at least the end of August. 

I have to admit that I am just as happy not to be out working in the sun on some of those hottest days we have had and have enjoyed my little break.

On a plus and unrelated note, yesterday was the new high for me for calls from my IAHP membership.  I had 7 calls in one day for jobs that ranged from 3 acres to a few thousand sq. ft..  I am not sure why that would be on a fairly typical wednesday in late July, must be something in the air or water. 

[MarksTLC]

That's a good number of calls. Maybe people are tired of looking at their grass browning out and figure they need a new lawn.

Most of those I talk too, don't want to spend the time watering. Several lawns I've looked at recently, simply needed water, not an entire overhaul.

[hydroservice]

When we seeded a lawn with a hot and dry spell going on I would tell them to just let it sit. Wait to start watering if they can't water it properly. It does risk the chance of weeds but if its real hot and dry even they don't do much. I have seen road jobs sit for 5 weeks and still grow just fine once the rain comes.

[Whysod]

When we seeded a lawn with a hot and dry spell going on I would tell them to just let it sit. Wait to start watering if they can't water it properly. It does risk the chance of weeds but if its real hot and dry even they don't do much. I have seen road jobs sit for 5 weeks and still grow just fine once the rain comes.

I shot one for a charter school that sat for 3 months.  Somebody donated the money for the lawn, but wanted to pay for the hydroseeding rather than give it to the school.  It took them 3 months to get the sprinklers in.  The school paid me to re-shoot the areas that the trencher tore-up.  The lawn came in exactly the same in the 3 month old areas as it did in the newly planted areas.

[MarksTLC]

Thanks guys, that's good to know. I'll try asking them to leave it dry till the weather cools.

I've been re-scheduling them for later in the season. Sure would be nice to continue seeding right on through the summer.

[hydroservice]

To be honest I couldn't imagine not seeding right thru summer. We never stopped. If we had waited untill cooler weather we would have been straight out until January to get caught up. When I first started seeding I thought we were just wasting our time on so many jobs done in hot, hot, or covered with snow, or just cold, cold, but they all would grow just fine. I learned then just how tough seed is and also how nature makes things work when conditions are right. So many times I have heard "the seed will dye or the seed will rot".If either were true we would have been out of business 40 years ago.