From yard work and pest control to cleaning and taking care of home systems, there’s a lot that goes into maintaining a house. Everything Home offers practical tips and expert know-how to help anyone take good care of their home.

Regular lawn mower maintenance is vital to keeping this tool running well. These tips from the experts at TruGreen will help you take care of the workhorse of lawn care.

Sharpen the blade

The sharper the blade, the cleaner your mower will cut the grass, and the better your lawn will look. Dull blades can shred grass and cause discoloration at the tips.

If you don’t have the time or the inclination to sharpen the blade yourself, pack up your mower (or carefully remove the mower blade) and take it to a repair shop or home improvement store. For the do-it yourselfer, take a look at these general tips – for safety, always consult the owner’s manual for instructions specific to your machine.

To sharpen a blade:

Drain the gas and disconnect the spark plug.

Clamp a piece of wood to the deck to keep the blade from turning.

Turn the blade bolt counter clockwise to remove it. If there is resistance, apply some penetrating oil, wait 15 minutes and try again.

Remove the blade and mark the bottom side so you can put it back on correctly.

Clamp the blade in a bench vise and sharpen with a 10-inch mill file. Use long strokes and work from the center outward. Use the same number of strokes on each side and keep the same angle.

Balance the blade on a balance tool – it’s an inexpensive pyramid-shaped tool that can be found in most hardware stores. If one side of the blade hangs lower than the other, grind off excess metal from the end of the blade – not from the part just sharpened.

Reinstall blade.

When you reinstall the mower blade, make sure you place it at the proper mowing height.

“Letting grass grow tall and then removing more than 1/3 of the leaf blade is called scalping and can damage the lawn,” said Ben Hamza, Ph.D., director of technical operations at TruGreen. “Be careful not to mow grass extremely low as you can damage the lawn by cutting into the crowns of the plants.” (Family Features)