When Mike Morales rolls up to your house in his green, late-model Mercury Cougar, gets out, opens the trunk, and dons his backpack sprayer, he means to liven up that grass.
Morales owns a small business called Lawnlift. Going from home to home, Morales gives brown lawns a touch of green paint to make them look normal.
Because of California’s ever-persistent drought, water usage is constricted and homeowners are forced to cut back on non-essential amenities, like watering lawns. Lompoc restricts lawn watering to two days per week within a specific time range.
It’s causing a hassle for lawn owners, some of whom have completely stopped watering lawns all together.
The city of Lompoc offers rebates of up to $1,000 for homeowners to replace their lawns with low-water usage foliage or materials, but that can get expensive, Morales said.
“It can cost around $2,000 to put rocks on your lawn,” Morales said. “This is a cheap alternative to tearing out your grass and laying down AstroTurf. Lawn painting is pretty economical.”
Morales charges between 15 and 25 cents per square foot of lawn, since the amount of paint needed depends on the variety of grass. So far, he said the average price for a painted lawn is between $100 and $200, but the total cost hinges on the size of the lawn as well as the type of grass. According to Morales, that’s cheap in comparison to other lawn painting services in California, with some companies charging between 50 and 75 cents a square foot.
The paint can last up to four months, although Morales guarantees at least three months. Morales said he uses a non-toxic form of paint, and it doesn’t kill grass or any other foliage. Depending on the type of lawn he’s working with, Morales will use different dyes and textures.
From a distance, a painted lawn contains a deep green color that’s similar to artificial turf or sod grass.
But upon closer inspection, it’s clearly paint. For the conscientious homeowner who wants a green lawn and doesn’t want to shell out $40 to $50 for a water bill each month or get fined for wasting water on their lawns, lawn paint could be the cheaper alternative to a completely redone front yard.
Morales began his venture about a month ago. He got into lawn painting after watching a TV documentary about flipping houses and noticed that people were spraying their lawns with green paint.
That’s when he started doing some research into what he would need to get started, all the way from the types of sprayers, to the kind of paint he needed. Then he filed some paperwork, paid a small fee, and got rolling.
It wasn’t hard for Morales, since he also has prior lawn care knowledge from his dad’s business, Morales Lawn Service. He tried to get his dad on board with lawn paint, but he just wasn’t buying it.
“He wasn’t interested,” Morales said. “He’s kind of old school.”
Morales doesn’t advertise, but you can find a post or two on Craigslist. He takes business anywhere from Lompoc, Santa Maria, or Santa Ynez.
Once he gets spraying, it’s like Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel.
“It’s kind of like an art,” Morales said.
Want to know more about Lawnlift or lawn painting? Give Mike Morales a call at 315-0458.
Highlights
• Exceeding more than $1,000,000 in international sales in 2014 and for the first time in company history, Santa Maria-based Hardy Diagnostics received something many exporters strive to get each year: the Export Appreciation Certificate. The company was recently awarded with the certificate during the annual World Trade Center event held at the Port of Hueneme on May 20. Each year, the U.S. Department of Commerce awards companies that are highly successful in achieving overseas business relationships. Hardy Diagnostics manufactures products used for the culture and identification of bacteria and fungi. Additionally, the company distributes microbiology and laboratory supply items to customers in more than 80 countries.
• Calling all farmers, growers, irrigation managers, designers, and engineers: the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce is offering a free pump and energy efficiency seminar on the morning of June 23 at Sula Mediterranean Kitchen. The seminar runs from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. and teaches how pumps and variable-frequency drives work and how to save money and energy using them. Free breakfast will be served, but an RSVP is required. To register, call Dave Cross at 925-2403, Ext. 817, or send an email to edc@santamaria.com. There’s no cost to attend.
Staff Writer David Minsky wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, email, or mail.
This article appears in Jun 18-25, 2015.