Do you ever wonder how your neighbors get their lawns to look so perfectly manicured? Chances are your most landscape-savvy neighbors are using a lawn edger. The thin strip of grass that lines your driveway and walkways and surrounds your flower bed and patios is just as important (if not more so) than the large expanse of green inside it. Riding mowers and push mowers are too wide to get a crisp edge around your lawn. Here are some tips on how to use the lawn edger you just got from your local equipment rental store .

Safety First

First and foremost, consider your safety and the safety of those around you before you operate a lawn edger. Wear long pants and closed-toed shoes when edging your lawn. Before you take the edger home from the equipment rental shop, have the staff show you where the safety guards are located and make sure they are working properly. Also, never use a lawn edger at night unless the area is well light by good artificial light.

Watch Out for Obstacles

When edging, point the blade between the edge of your sidewalk or driveway and the grass. Keep the blade away from trees, mailboxes, flower bed edging, and other obstacles, as these objects can wear down the edging blade. Also look out for rocks and other pieces of debris as you move along. A lawn edger can sometimes shoot small pieces of debris outwards after running them over.

Choose an Edging Material

To give your lawn a professional finishing touch , choose an edging material to fill in the outline you just made around your lawn. Concrete and brick pavers are very durable and will give your lawn a formal, professional appearance. You can also use unconventional edging materials, such as seashells, bottles, or even roofing tiles.

Here at A Tool Shed in San Jose, we have gas lawn edgers available for rent for as little as $33 per day. We also have a large selection of gardening and landscape tools that will help you keep your property looking great. Visit our website or call us at (831) 359-4769 to learn more about the tools and equipment rentals we offer . 

April is here, which means it’s time to start taking care of your lawn and garden after coming out of the winter months. Even though some homeowners prefer to re-seed their lawns during the fall, early April in Southern California is moderate enough to apply new seed to your lawn before the warm temperatures set in. In this video, you will learn how to re-seed your lawn, including what fertilizers and compost mixtures to use and how often to water your lawn. 

If you need tools or equipment to care for your lawn this spring, come to A Tool Shed Equipment Rentals in San Jose. We carry all of the lawn and garden tools you need to maintain your home’s landscape. From hand tools to heavy-duty equipment, you can rent it all from us! Call us today at (831) 359-4769 to find the location nearest you . 

Spring is finally here, and that means lawns and gardens throughout San Jose are about to become a lot more vibrant. If your lawn took a beating during the winter, you may be thinking about planting new grass seeds to bring it back to life. However, some experts recommend that you wait until early fall to sow the grass. It’s almost impossible to keep new grass seed moist in the summer without nearly constant watering. In the fall, between August and October, the soil is warm, but daytime temperatures are moderate, waking watering less of a problem.

Whenever you decide to re-seed your lawn, you can get everything you need to complete the job at A Tool Shed Equipment Rentals. With locations in San Jose and the surrounding areas, we are your source for lawn and garden equipment rentals in Southern California . We have seeders, tillers, edgers, and more. We even carry hand tools! Visit our website or call us at (831) 359-4769 to find the location nearest you. 

If you want to turn a plot of grass into cultivated soil ready for planting, your equipment rental store can help. One of the many pieces of lawn and gardening equipment you can rent is a rototiller. Rototillers, also known simply as “tillers,” break through grass and loosen soil. However, the grass remaining in the soil after tilling can grow from its roots and seeds. Unless you want to fight grass and weed throughout the gardening season, you will need to remove the grass and tilling your garden. Here’s how:

Go Over Your Garden with a Hoe

After you finish tilling your garden , work your way around the outermost edge of the tilled soil with a garden hoe, breaking up soil clumps as you work your way inside. As you move towards the center of your garden, remove clods of grass so you don’t compact them into the soil with your feet as you move around.

Rake Your Garden

After breaking up any noticeable clumps of soil and grass, pick through the soil with a wide-toothed bow rake, also available at your tool and equipment rental store. Dig around a bit to remove all grass clumps that were turned below the soil surface with the rototiller. Rake the grass clumps into a large pile and repeat the procedure until you no longer find clumps of grass in your garden.

Discard the Grass

After thoroughly picking through your garden with the rake and hoe, move the piles of grass clumps outside of your garden using a shovel and wheelbarrow. After spreading the grass to dry, add it to your compost bin.

For everything you need to keep your garden thriving, come to A Tool Shed Equipment Rentals. We are your source for tool and equipment rentals in San Jose. From rakes and hoes to rototillers, sod cutters, and edgers, we have the tools and equipment you need. Visit our website to see our entire selection, or call us at (831) 359-4769 to reserve your tools today ! 

It’s easy to take care of your home’s landscaping with the right tools and equipment available from your local equipment rental store. But even with a full arsenal of lawn and gardening tools , you can still make mistakes if you don’t know what you’re doing. To help maintain the landscape around your home, here is a look at some of the most common landscaping mistakes and tips on how to avoid them.

Cutting the Grass Too Short

It’s easy to get carried away and cut your grass all the way to the root, especially if you aren’t familiar with how to use the lawnmower you rented. If you scalp the lawn, it could result in a bare patch, which could make it inviting for insects and/or susceptible to disease. Let the blades grow longer in the summer to provide shade for the roots, and cut the lawn shorter in the winter to allow sunlight to warm the soil. 

Pruning Too Much

Pruning is often just as much of an art form as it is a technique—which means that when done improperly, the result can be unappealing and harmful to your trees and shrubs. Every plant has a different pruning process, so be sure to ask around or do some investigative research to find out what’s best for each shrub and tree around your home .

Neglecting the Front Yard

A lot of homeowners put most of their energy into the backyard. However, the front of the house is where first impressions are made. This is especially important if you are putting your home on the market. Keep the grass trim and tight around the edges and plant colorful flowers to make your front yard pop.

A Tool Shed Equipment Rentals has all of the lawn and garden tools you need to maintain your home’s landscaping. Visit our website to see our full selection of tool and equipment rentals, or visit one of our six locations in San Jose and the surrounding areas . For additional information about our equipment rentals, call us at (831) 359-4769. 

Power sanders can be used for a wide range of tasks, and yet many people tend to use them sparingly due to intimidation. Follow the guidelines in this video in order to use power sanders safely and effectively. 

When it comes to power sanders, bigger sanders do provide greater benefits. Large sanders have larger belts, which provides greater surface area and makes it easier to hold level. If you are a beginner, use a finer belt; mistakes will be minimized because less wood is being taken away. It is also a good idea to use a lower speed, as it reduces the probability of digging into your project and making mistakes.

For more tips for using a power sander, call A Tool Shed Equipment Rentals at (831) 359-4769 or visit our website. We are an equipment rental service based out of San Jose that specializes in the sale and rental of tools and equipment. For more information, stop by one of our six locations in northern California. 

The “green” movement towards greater environmental efficiency has seen a variety of new tools that help to conserve money and resources. One of the resources that these tools help to conserve is water. Here is a look at the reasons and methods behind conserving water with efficient appliances and fixtures.

Why Conserve Water?

When you conserve water, you can potentially save a great deal of money. The more water an appliance uses, the more water it wastes due to leaks or inefficiency; more wasted water means more wasted money. Water is also a resource that is in short supply in certain areas. The northern Sierra snowpack is severely dry, and Californians are now facing the possibility of drought-like conditions. It will take a communal effort in water conservation to make sure that enough drinking water is available in California.

What Kind of Appliances?

Appliances that help to conserve water include aerators for faucets, low-flow toilets, leak detection systems, and showerheads with flow restrictors. An aerator fits on the end of a faucet and shapes and adds air to the water stream. This helps reduce energy costs and conserve water. Low-flow toilets, showers, and faucets deliver water with less pressure so less water goes to waste. Leak detection systems are tools that serve to identify leaks so that you can repair them as soon as possible.

Is It Worth It?

Switching to efficient appliances and fixtures is an investment, especially for commercial use. However, this investment typically pays off in as little as a year. Restrooms at LaGuardia Airport in New York have enjoyed a $90,000 upgrade that includes more efficient toilets, showers, and faucets, as well as a leak detection system. This investment returns about $160,000 each year in water savings .

If you would like to know more about conserving water with efficient appliances and fixtures, do not hesitate to call A Tool Shed Equipment Rentals . We are an equipment and tool rental and sale service based out of the San Jose area. For more information, visit our website, call us at (831) 359-4769, visit our website, or stop by one of our six convenient locations. 

Drip irrigation systems strive to distribute water among plants and crops more efficiently, using a system of plastic piping and low-pressure water flow. In terms of efficiency and waste, this type of method is far superior to sprinkler systems. Here are a few of the advantages of drip irrigation systems.

Drip irrigation provides water to specific locations at a slow pace. Whereas sprinkler systems cause water loss because of evaporation and runoff, drip irrigation water goes directly into the soil; it can even be used effectively in windy conditions. If you are a particularly busy individual, you can use a controller to arrange automatic irrigation. All you need to do is make sure that you adhere to the irrigation schedule. Adding new plants and removing old ones is easy, and it requires the simple repositioning of emitter lines. In addition, drip irrigation systems eliminate the damage to wooden fences, pavement, and house siding that sprinkler systems cause.

A Tool Shed Equipment Rentals provides tool and equipment rental and sales. We operate out of six convenient locations, including San Jose. If you would like to learn more about us, visit our website or call us at (831) 359-4769. 

Ideal for cutting soft woods and plastics, reciprocating saw blades come in many different forms and materials. In this video, a home improvement expert provides a very brief introduction to these different types.

Saw blades are often measured by the number of teeth they have per inch inch, and reciprocal blades with a greater concentration of teeth tend to give users a smoother cut. As far as material is concerned, bi-metal blades are stronger than carbon-tipped blades and are capable of sawing through some metals such as nails that have been driven through wood.

Are you a homeowner or contractor in the San Jose area who is looking to rent a reciprocating saw that is in excellent condition? With six convenient locations throughout the area, A Tool Shed is never far away. To speak with an experienced representative about our tool and equipment rentals , call us today at (831) 359-4769

There are dozens of types of saws and saw blades, and choosing the right tool for your home improvement task is of vital importance in terms of safety, efficiency, and overall efficacy. In order to choose the right saw and blade, you need to know what materials you will be working with and how heavy or light your use of the saw will be.

The names of some blades, such as plywood blades, indicate what their primary use is for. To cut stone tiles, you will need a diamond-bearing edge blade. For a project that requires cutting several different types of materials, you may be able to get away with using a combination blade as long as nothing that you are cutting requires a smooth finish.

No matter what type of saw you are looking for, you can find it at A Tool Shed in San Jose. With six convenient locations and more than 60 years of tool rental experience, we are equipped to meet all of your needs. Call (831) 359-4769 to have your questions answered by one of our equipment rental experts.