A malfunction of a guest’s car treading on your already developed lawn can take place, by mistake, anytime. You can add beauty to your garden and at the same time avoid such malfunctions by curbing the landscape. Walking area and motoring area can be separated accordingly to evade a mix up.

Why is curbing important:

One of the primary reasons for curbing is separating different areas. Curbing is necessary to prevent intrusion. The word curb means to control and by curbing you can control unwanted entry to a particular area. Construction materials like stones and bricks are used for curbing. Flat products are rarely used for curbing as they have the tendency to get ‘spilled’. Curbing is important to increase the beauty of the surrounding landscape as well as that of your house. It helps to give your home a unique look. With a proper frame-work, you can separate the lawn area.

Straight lines can add rigidity to the lawn. Instead use curved and flowing lines as they add beauty to the landscape. Before the overall planning and finalizing the final design of the curb, talk to the contractor. Curbs of the same size are better to have uniformity throughout the garden. Width of the curbing material should be proportionate to the road width. Color of the landscape curbing should also match the overall color scheme of the surrounding area and the home. With attractive landscape curbing you can create an impressive pathway or road leading to and away from the home.

If you have water flowing in the garden then to prevent the water from flowing into the drier areas you need to have a bit of higher curbing. Curbing designs should be simple enough. Dirt can get into the intricate designs, and create moss, and thus generate dangerous slippery areas in the garden. The lawn maintenance process can be eased by creating double boundaries which help in separating plants and lawns. Plan the look of the curbing segment and that of the main garden area with a variety of plants.

Being a landscape curb contractor may be a home based business for you if you don’t mind getting paid well for working hard.

Landscape curbing is a booming business that involves the installation of small concrete curbs around flowerbeds and gardens. There is a good chance that you have been seeing this type of work in your neighborhood and if you haven’t you soon will be. For examples of what I am talking about, please look at the resources found at he end of the article.

When you consider a business opportunity a few questions usually present themselves.

What can I make? You can earn $500 to $3500 or more a day. The retail price for curbing varies around the country, but can vary between $2.20 to $7.00 a foot and sometimes higher (call a local curb contractor and get a quote).

The cost in materials (sand and cement) is usually less than .50 cents a foot. For example, a cubic yard of sand can cost about $30.00, add to that 6 bags of concrete at $10.00 a bag and you have about $90 in material. For a 6-inch wide, 4-inch deep sloped curb you can get about 225 feet out of a yard of mix. That works out to about .40 cents per foot.

You will need some help at least one other person. An experienced, efficient crew of two people can lay 500 to 700 feet a day. If you pay your labor $10.00 per hour your labor costs per hour are less than .20 cents a foot. There are other expenses (advertising, fuel, insurance etc.) but they are less than .20 cents a foot.

So your gross profit can be a $1.00 to $5.00 a foot or more. If you do the math you can see that $500 to $3500 a day in gross profit is possible.

I apologize for getting so detailed with the numbers, but a lot of business opportunities are a lot of hype. I wanted to lay out the numbers so you can check my figures and know that this is a real opportunity. When you check my numbers you will realize I have been conservative.

What are the drawbacks to this business opportunity?

The work is hard. The materials that you are using are heavy and moving them around is work. But you only have to work as hard as you want. Many curb contractors work part time and only do this business as they want to. The work is also seasonal in a large part of the country, but many of the curbers that I know enjoy having December and January off.

How To Boost Curb Appeal To Make Your Home Sell

Curb appeal has a dramatic impact on the way a home appears to everyone who sees it from the vantage point of the street. If you are selling your home, from a real estate valuation perspective, curb appeal must be geared towards the prospective buyers. In a buyer’s market, curb appeal is even more crucial since there are many other homes on the market competing for attention. It makes sense to invest in making certain improvements so these prospective buyers don’t keep driving by when they pull up in front and are disappointed.

Just as the inside of the home is ‘staged’, the landscape can also be staged. The underlying premise is to not only appeal to buyer’s emotions, but deal with practical aspects as well.

Here are some tips:

· Remove overgrown vegetation that blocks a clear view of the home, the front door or otherwise takes away from an open, welcoming feel as seen from the street

· Remove all the clutter by taking out shrubs and trees that do nothing to enhance the property

· Clean up, prune trees and shrubs and remove any dead growth

· Enhance the front door and/or path leading to the main entrance by adding color or walkways

· Fix or repair any obvious flaws that take away from the appearance of being well maintained

· If there is a lawn, make sure it’s as nice as you can get it by dealing with brown spots and fertilizing it to make it lush and green weeks before you put the home on the market

Once you get your prospective buyers out of the car and into the home, you don’t want to disappoint them by neglecting the backyard. Be consistent with fixing problem areas, pruning overgrown shrubs and covering the ground with either gravel or new sod so it appears finished yet allows the buyers to visualize living there or perhaps customizing things to their liking.

Think of the outside landscape as just another space that needs to be ‘staged’. Put all personal items such as kids’ toys, rusty bbqs and tools behind closed doors. Remove all yard art that the buyer may not find so amusing as you do. Stand out on the curb and imagine you are looking at the home for the first time just as a prospective buyer would. This is the home’s first impression. What do you feel? Would you enter the landscape into a “best on the block” contest? Does the landscape enhance the appearance of the home? Does the landscape have an overall ‘neglected’ feel to it as if the current owners didn’t really value having nice landscaping?

Most all sellers who are in the position of dealing with their front landscape curb appeal invariably say they don’t want to spend a lot of money. I deal with this all the time and the solution is not necessarily the cost, but the value of what is actually done to the property. Often, the simplest things can make a big difference.

Someone who sees the problem areas from a designer’s perspective and who has knowledge of plant materials, curb appeal principles and real estate awareness is the key to providing the best solutions to making your home a property with great curb appeal.

Curb appeal is an emotional response that is difficult to measure. One thing is for sure though. Properties that we have created curb appeal or otherwise enhanced, have sold more quickly than others according to feedback I have received from the listing agents.

Benefits Of Landscape Curbing

If you’re tired of looking at your lackluster landscaping but aren’t sure where to begin when it comes to improvement, you may want to give some thought to installing concrete landscape curbing.

Landscape curbing, or the solid borders that surround gardens, water features, and other landscaping elements, can create a brand-new look for your lawn. You may be surprised at how much more sophisticated and streamlined your lawn looks after you’ve invested in some new curbing. Here are some benefits:

Better Curb Appeal

Real estate agents consistently promote the importance of “curb appeal” when trying to list or sell a home. Homes with high curb appeal (that is, homes that have simple, attractive, and streamlined exteriors, including landscaping) are far more likely to find a buyer quickly than homes that are obviously “fixer uppers” or that will require a bit of work to get in show-ready condition. By installing stone or concrete curbing instead, you’ll be able to create a seamless appearance that’s aesthetically pleasing. This streamlined and low-maintenance landscaping can catch buyers’ eyes, enticing them to come in for a closer look, even if some of your property’s features might otherwise have been disqualifying factors.

Improvement in Value

Not only can the curb appeal generated by your new curbs make your home easier to sell when the time comes, it can improve the “paper” value of your home. This can improve your ability to qualify for favorable refinancing and home equity terms, providing you with the cash you need to perform other home maintenance or improvement projects without dipping into your savings or taking out a higher-interest personal loan.

Reduction of Lawn Maintenance

One of the chief benefits of landscape curbing is its subsequent reduction in weeds. Not only can having a solid border between grass and garden prevent grass seeds and other unwanted intruders from putting down roots where they shouldn’t be, it can make it much easier to trim any weeds or tall grass that does make it through this initial barricade. Because concrete curbing is designed to stand up to the elements, it is also well-equipped to any abuse a lawnmower (even a riding or zero-turn mower) or weed eater can dish out, remaining stable and strong even when in direct contact with the blades. This can allow you to mow or weed eat directly against the edges of your curbing, enhancing the neat and trim appearance of your lawn and garden.

How Adding Curbing Can Increase Your Home Value

When it comes to attracting prospective buyers to your house, a great looking landscape in both your front and backyards can make or break a good deal. A nice simple and easy to implement landscaping idea is called curbing. Curbing is just a fancy word used to describe the procedure of arranging your flowers, plants, trees and garden accessories into a nice looking landscape for your open-air living areas.

Curbing is a way of structuring your walking paths into different shapes, curves, angles and circles in your garden. Curbing around your yard can be a fun and very rewarding experience for your whole family to get involved with. Many of us tinker in the garden and lawns to relax and some even choose to put into place a backyard garden curbing program as a way to get exercise as well.

How adding curbing creates extra appeal

Curbing adds structure to your landscape and the eye is automatically drawn to it’s appeal. Subconsciously we are turned off by clutter so curbing brings an organized and orderly process that not only looks tidy but can be used effectively make certain areas of your home stand out as a feature. Curbing gives the impression of a home looking more precious and really makes it easier to put up for sale. In survey’s it has been noted that a home with trees and plants are twenty percent more salable than a house without trees.

Concrete curbing is really taking off in a big way

Concrete landscape curbing has becoming amazingly popular with many businesses now specializing in just curbing. Concrete curbing minimizes your lawns edging and weeding chores. It creates a root barrier keeping the lawn out of your flowerbed. Outdoor lighting is also a great outdoor curbing idea that will increase the value of your home. A prospective buyer will devote three to five minutes to study the exterior of your home so you really want to impress.

If you have an oval shaped flower arrangement in your yard and you have concrete curbing around it as an attractive border your eye is automatically drawn to it. You can’t help being attracted to it and impressed by it. On a subconscious level a prospective buyer will fall in love with the landscaping without even necessarily understanding why.

For a very minimal cost compared to potential return in the sale value of your property adding concrete curbing is a very easy and affordable way to get those extra few bucks you deserve for your house.