Selling your home in winter presents a unique set of challenges. The most obvious is your landscaping and lawn. Although your lawn won’t Inspire awe in the dead of winter, you can show is potential by continuing to care for it.

We asked Lawn Care Guru Tony Steine for advice on maintaining your lawn in Colorado Springs during the winter months. Here’s what he had to say.

The unique winter conditions of the Centennial State can make caring for your lawn more of a timing issue than anything as homeowners try to beat the first snowfall. Although winter isn’t the prime growing season for grass, there is still plenty to do before the snow flies to ensure that your lawn bounces back next spring. Transitioning from “fall lawn care” to “winter lawn care” is easy as long as the snow hasn’t yet arrived. Check out these tips on how to care for your Colorado lawn this winter:

Winter Lawn Maintenance

Continue Mowing-Refrain from raising the height of your lawn as longer grass blades can create more chance for diseases once wet spring weather appears. Cut the grass as long as the grass is still growing to keep it at an average length before winter weather arrives. If you don’t want to cut it yourself, you can hire a professional for $42 per service according to data from LawnStarter.

High Traffic Areas-Once snow does appear, make sure to keep off the grass as much as possible. High traffic on dormant areas of grass can damage root systems and make it harder for those spots to recover once winter weather is gone.

Create Better Conditions

Credit: Guipozjim

Aerate-Choosing to aerate your lawn in Colorado is a great way to allow essential nutrients to reach the underlying grassroots. Aeration cuts out cylinders of the soil and provides sunlight, water, and energy sources to penetrate deep underneath it. Aeration not only creates a stronger lawn but can also make the lawn healthier as roots get access to essential nutrients. Consider renting an aerator to get the job done or aerate your lawn manually using a shovel or specially designed aeration shoes. Aerate every other year to keep your yard healthy and strong.

De-Thatch-Thatch buildup can happen to any homeowner as grassroots and debris can build up underneath a healthy lawn. Make sure to take steps to rid your lawn of thatch that could be suffocating the root system below. Consider using a dethatching rake that can help loosen the dead, mangled parts of the grass or possibly hire a lawn care company to use a power dethatcher to get the job done quickly.

Apply Energy Sources

Fertilizer-Adding fertilizer to your lawn is a great way to make sure that it receives the energy that it needs to withstand a long winter and green up quickly in the spring. Choose a slow release fertilizer that you can quickly spread over the lawn in pellet form. This fertilizer will provide a steady stream of nutrients to the lawn which helps roots withstand the frigid Colorado winters. Slow release fertilizers will also give the roots enough energy come spring to boost plant growth and ensure that your lawn bounces back quickly after a long winter. Be careful to follow directions closely as too much fertilizer in one spot can burn the grass creating unsightly brown spots.

Compost-Compost can be used on the lawn or as fertilizer for your cold season plants. Use this natural energy source to support the soil that hosts the grass. Compost is an organic material that includes natural forms of vegetation that have been broken down with the help of microorganisms. It is excellent to apply to lawns in late fall or early winter as the colder temperatures allow it ample time to absorb into the soil slowly. Consider using compost from your compost bin or purchasing bags of natural compost from a local garden center.

Mulch Fallen Leaves-Many homeowners still have plenty of fallen leaves on their lawns come early winter. Instead of bagging up the leaves to throw away, consider using this natural resource as energy for the lawn. Mulch leaves using a leaf mulcher, or your lawn mower, to cut them down into small pieces that will be easier to break down into the soil. Fallen leaves are a great way to naturally boost the nitrogen levels of the lawn making them a valuable resource that shouldn’t be tossed away.

Address Issues

Bare Spots-After a busy summer season, many homeowners will notice that thin or bare spots of their lawn begin to emerge after too much use. Consider these high traffic areas of your lawn and add new grass seed to these areas before frost arrives. Add new seed in a thin layer of the soil and water daily to encourage quick growth. Bare areas are also a prime spot for weeds to appear due to the lack of plant competition.

Weed Control-Early winter is a typical time for many homeowners to see the appearance of weeds in the lawn. Cooler temperatures may slow down grass growth, but weeds can usually grow reasonably quickly despite the cooling temperatures. Make sure to apply weed control to the lawn to keep weeds away and pull any larger weeds that have gone undetected. Keeping your lawn weed free throughout the winter is essential to encourage healthy and robust growth come spring.

Caring for your lawn in the winter is essential to make sure that it can quickly bounce back once spring weather arrives. Continue maintenance as long as the grass is growing and make sure to keep off dormant grass once the frost has come. Create better lawn conditions by aerating and dethatching the lawn to allow nutrients to penetrate deep into the soil. Applying energy sources, such as fertilizer, compost, and mulch, will also help give the lawn enough nutrients to last through the winter. Also, consider tackling the bare spots and keeping weed growth down to keep the lawn strong and healthy.

Investing in your lawn during the early parts of winter is a great way to ensure you’re your lawn will continue to grow well in the future. Consider all of these tips when caring for your Colorado lawn this winter.

**Updated Dec 2017**

With just about any home improvement in El Paso and Teller counties, homeowners are required to pull a permit with the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department (PPRBD) in Colorado Springs… anything from basement finishes, decks, electrical/plumbing updates, water heaters, furnaces, adding outbuildings… the list goes on! Their website is relatively user-friendly.

What we know about PPRBD

They often get a bad rap for high fees, very structured property visit guidelines, and being extremely particular. If we keep in mind that these codes exist to keep us safe, then hopefully we can all have a great attitude about the process. The codes do change almost annually, and they have a lot to keep up with. If you request a visit on building inspection, as long as you request by 8 am, they will come the same day. (see hours listed in chart below)

As you can imagine there are hundreds of thousands of homes here, and they do everything they can to remain organized. The rules are all posted online and homeowners can pull their own permits, general contractor not required, but all the same rules apply. I do not think their fees are really all that high.

Why you might contact PPRBD for a permit

If you are doing any number of projects on your home, you might need to contact them. Here are some of the most common reasons, but there are probably hundreds:

• building a home (yes the owner can do this themselves, all the same requirements apply)
• finishing a basement (owner can be the general contractor or contractor can, all the same permit fees & rules apply)
• adding a utility service to a property
• moving electrical, gas, water service (new plumbing location for any fixtures or electrical hook-ups)
• adding electrical, gas, water service (i.e. hot tub, new laundry hook-up location, new fireplace, etc)
• moving or adding mechanical systems (i.e. central air, water heater, etc.)
• structural changes (i.e. moving/removing a supporting wall, changing a door or window location, etc.)
• replacing any mechanical system (furnace, water heater, humidifier, central air)
• decks attached to the home
• adding buildings to a property (have to meet PPRBD requirements, as well as any pertinent HOA, covenants, set-backs, county building code, etc.)
• adding a ceiling fan

For any of the above services, inviting PPRBD into your home means they will likely also check your smoke and CO detectors, so make sure those are up-to-date.

My personal experiences with Regional

• We had the unfortunate issue last summer of having to terminate an agreement with a contractor mid-bathroom-remodel. It was extremely stressful. So 4 permits had been pulled – general building, heating, plumbing and electrical. And we were in a skeleton of the bathroom we had envisioned. As we approached new contractors to assist us, we realized much of the work was finalized and could be moved into our name. The contractor that helped us finish also helped us with PPRBD. My husband is really handy and did the work himself with the assistance of a contractor that worked on our kitchen. The plumber had fortunately been paid from beginning to end of the project. When my husband called them, we were stressed, but they were very helpful getting him to the right person with the answers. They voided permits and re-opened them in our name so we could conclude the project. Our electrician had skipped town, taking advantage of several customers, fortunately not us!
• I also had a client do a bunch of work himself, wanting to list his home with Springs Homes without appropriate permits. We are all about honesty and told him he must openly disclose the details of the non-permitted work all over the MLS listing, get professional plumber and electrician to sign off on the work, and even demolish some of the work done. He was concerned about the time and expense of going through Regional, but he would have saved time & money had he done it from the start! For more about how to pull your own or requirements, here is that website www.PPRBD.org. Happy (and safe) Home Improvement!!

The moral of the story (this blog) is that while our local Building Department is a big machine, they have been very helpful in many cases and even friendly. I’m sure it’s a stressful job, and I strongly believe the safety of the homes in our counties is of utmost concern. I have learned so much from the inspectors visiting our home over the years!

Update of Rules

As I mentioned, there are changes annually, here are just a few I know of, again, I’m sure there are hundreds I don’t know:

• Effective July 2011 Carbon Monoxide detectors are REQUIRED! We cannot sell homes without them. If you open any permit, expect the inspectors to check that your CO detectors are up to code (1 within 15 feet of every sleeping area/bedroom).
• There are new requirements for arc-fault outlets & switches.
• When you replace a water heater, the subsequent gas line requires replacement as well. (Many people try to replace water heater by just buying a new one and popping it in the spot where the old one was… easy peasy… well, not so much because you still need a permit.)

Backlog of permits waiting for approval

Occasionally there is a backlog of inspections, for instance, the fires of 2012 & 2013 and the catastrophic hail storm in July 2016 caused a variety of back-ups. If there is a home trying to close on the resale market, it’s possible during these backlog events that permits cannot be closed before closing happens. It might behoove homeowners and buyers to get a written letter from contractors guaranteeing work will be complete/corrected if there are any hang-ups in the permit process.