8 RGS EXTERIORS; ONE STOP SHOPPING COMBINED WITH DECADES OF EXPERTISE AND NUMEROUS AWARDS
“We can be your one contractor. Call us for one thing and we’re going to take care of it all.”
NOT SO HARD TO FLIP-YOUR-STRIP, HERE’S HOW
Local landscape architect and social media darling Daryl Lindsey gives easy suggestions for flippingyour-strip or converting your parking strip from lazy lawn into a beautiful pocket-prairie garden.
The frustration of being without power in your home can be devastating. Having a precaution against blackouts and natural disasters is crucial for homeowners across the United States.
RGS EXTERIORS; ONE STOP SHOPPING COMBINED WITH DECADES
OF EXPERTISE AND NUMEROUS AWARDS
By Mimi Darley Dutton|m.dutton@mycityjournals.com
Experience. It’s what sets RGS Exteriors apart from the rest. Equally important, RGS is a Utah-based family business, not a national company whose representation in the state comes and goes. In business for three decades and with numerous awards accumulated including Best in State 21 times and the prestigious Guildmaster Award for Service Excellence, RGS Exteriors offers the products and services you need for your home, all under one roof.
RGS owner Tim Brown is the fourth generation in the family business. His kids work there as well, making it a five generation Utah-based business. Tim’s dad focused on rain gutters and established Rain Gutter Specialties (RGS) in 1990. The company expanded in 2015 to offer a gamut of home exterior services and re-branded to RGS Exteriors to better represent all they have to offer.
“We started as a gutter company, went to exteriors, and added. We did that to take care of our customers so we can be that one stop shop. That’s a big advantage and
“ Proudly serving Utah for five generations, RGS is the only elite preferred contractor for James Hardie. The partnership ensures the best quality of materials and customer satisfaction. ”
21-TIME WINNER
“We can be your one contractor. Call us for one thing and we’re going to take care of it all.”
one of the reasons we’re so successful. It’s important because when you hire services, everybody points fingers when there’s an issue. But we do everything, so there’s no finger-pointing,” Brown said.
RGS specializes in siding, seamless gutters and leaf protection, decking, brick and stone accents, soffit and fascia, ice melting, custom metal, and windows.
RGS offers James Hardie siding and is the only company in Utah to be named an elite preferred James Hardie contractor. “We’re the only ones that have met 100% of the criteria to legitimately be an elite preferred contractor,” Brown said. He sits on
the Board of Directors for James Hardie, the only person in the Intermountain West to do so.
RGS is also in a class of their own for seamless gutters. “We’re the only company that has a half-round gutter machine. Because we offer the half round system, we can not only do it in copper, we can also do it in another material so it’s not as expensive, and we can do it in any color. It’s an exclusive thing we have,” Brown said.
Brown said a lot of national companies offer leaf protection, but those companies typically come into Utah to sell and then leave, leaving the consumer with no one to take care of and service the covers. “We’re the exclusive Gutter Topper dealer in Utah. That gives us the opportunity to take care of customers with lifetime gutter cover care. They’re never going to have to clean their gutters again,” Brown said. Because RGS has the exclusive to offer Gutter Toppers in this market, they can offer three different covers that fit any type of roof, each with a lifetime guarantee. “There’s no such thing as a one size fits all gutter cover, it just doesn’t exist. We’re the largest rain gutter company in Utah by a mile, and we selected Gutter Topper
because we feel like it’s the absolute best product on the market, the most versatile, and the only gutter cover than can handle snow and ice,” Brown said.
Where ice melting systems are concerned, RGS also leads the way. “We’ve probably installed more than anybody in Utah times 10. We’ve actually had the manufacturers come to us to help them design a heated panel system that is a true ice-melting system,” Brown said.
Soffit is the material that lines the underside of roofing on an overhang and fascia is the forward-facing trim that lines the perimeter of the roof, both to protect
roofing. RGS offers both. The company also does custom metal decorative accents such as chimney covers and hoods, all made in-house. “We have a huge sheet metal shop so it can truly be custom for each individual’s home,” Brown said. RGS offers windows as well for a complete exterior package.
Longevity and experience has brought RGS many accolades, including Utah’s Best of State an astounding 21 times, as chosen by consumers. RGS also received the 2025 Guildmaster Award for Service Excellence from GuildQuality, an independent company that surveys customer satisfaction. “The Guildmaster Award is given to those who have high customer satisfaction approval rating. The national average is 50% who hired a contractor are happy or would hire the contractor again. We have a 95% approval rating, meaning 95% of past customers would hire us again. That’s something we’re really proud of,” he said.
Brown travels to conferences to stay on top of trends and keep the company on the leading edge. “We know the latest trends before they even start here. Because of our reputation and size, manufacturers come to us first with new products and trends, seeking us out and getting our advice. That happens on every product we offer,” he said.
Brown and his company tell consumers not to fear financing because the national average is a 10% annual price hike on
products. “Don’t put off your project because you can’t afford it today. Instead, finance it, because any interest you pay financing would be offset by the money you’d save waiting. It’s only going to get more expensive and you’re never going to pay 10% interest. And we take care of the financing with options that cost nothing or very little,” Brown said.
Some of RGS’s well-known and high-end clients include Deer Valley’s The Chateaux and The St. Regis for whom RGS did all the gutters when it was built.
“We’ve been here a long time and we will continue to be. National companies come in and leave, but we’re not going anywhere,” Brown said.
RGS Exteriors is headquartered in West Jordan and serves the Wasatch Front. Call 385-247-8308 for an appointment to visit the showroom, or find RGS online at RGSUtahSiding.com.
IT’S NOT SO HARD TO FLIP-YOUR-STRIP, HERE’S HOW
By Ella Joy Olsen | e.olsen@mycityjournals.com
Spring is time when people think more seriously about their yards. Some gaze at their lawn and lament that even with meticulous care and excessive amounts of water, it will never roll forth like a luxurious carpet of green.
That’s because we don’t live in Kentucky. And most lawns in the Salt Lake Valley are Kentucky bluegrass.
Kentucky bluegrass wants to go dormant at about 80 degrees, so Utah’s spring and fall seasons are lovely. But over that temperature (most of the summer) we’re forced to water the lawn more often to cool things off, to fool it into thinking it’s a shoulder season. Bluegrass doesn't want to be in Salt Lake in the summer.
So, if bluegrass doesn’t grow well in in the valley, why is it so ubiquitous?
“Initially, lawns were a symbol of wealth and the American dream of home ownership,” Daryl Lindsey, a local landscape architect, told Doug Fabrizio on a recent episode of KUER’s RadioWest.
“I think it started with modern suburban development in Levittown, Long Island. After World War II, a developer had a group of new houses that needed something quick and green in front. The trend grew from there,” Lindsey continued. “Kentucky bluegrass is inexpensive to install, and developers can roll it out, dust their hands and say, ‘good luck maintaining this.’”
Of course, there’s a place for lawn. It’s great for sports, walking dogs and picnicking. But Utah has a lot of lazy lawn, which is a drain on our water resources and is hard to keep green. There’s an alternative.
Not even five years ago, Lindsey started making videos about her backyard vegetable garden. “Squash and tomatoes became my entire personality,” Lindsey said with a laugh. “You
Local gardener and landscape architect Daryl Lindsey turned her passion for sustainable, yet beautiful, landscaping into a career after her social media posts went viral. (Photo Jackelin Slack)
Native and drought-tolerant plantings are anything but boring. Local landscape architect Daryl Lindsey says, “Use your park strip to create a pocket prairie.” (Photo Daryl Lindsey)
could say I came about gardening and landscaping very organically.”
After her content went viral, she figured she might have found a niche market and started her company Yardfarmer.co. On her wildly popular platforms, she provides gardening and landscaping tips. She also creates personalized landscape plans to help clients switch to native plants and create drought-tolerant, sustainable yards.
These days, Yardfarmer.co employs a team of eight, including herself and her husband Steven Schmidt. Lindsey was born in Long Island, New York and her husband is from Germany, but the two met at the University of Utah. They moved to Murray in 2016.
Start with your park strip
This article will focus on some of Lindsey’s suggestions for park strips because strips are most often “lazy.” Plus, they are inefficient strips of grass. Eight feet is the minimum for conventional sprinklers to water efficiently and not spray onto pavement.
If you’re daunted by the prospect of changing your landscape, it is much easier to tackle a small square footage landscape conversion. Extra benefit: there are many rebates available to help pay for the changes (varying from city to city).
Flipping your strip isn’t just about digging out the grass and replacing it with rock and gravel, either. Weeds love gravel and rocks are hot. The goal is to mimic nature, so think prairie.
You also don’t need to spend a whole season with plastic on your lawn. Depending on the size of your strip, it could be a weekend of work with a big payoff.
Local landscape architect and social media darling Daryl Lindsey gives easy suggestions for flipping-yourstrip or converting your parking strip from lazy lawn into a beautiful pocket-prairie garden.
Sandstone creates a walkable corridor through a park strip filled with native and drought-tolerant plants. Daryl Lindsey gives tips for flipping-your-strip in informative videos. Link in article. (Photo Daryl Lindsey)
Steps for planting
1. Check with your city for rebates. You’ll need to qualify for the rebate before the conversion to get money back, so don’t dig before you qualify.
2. Dig out the grass. You’ll need the volume removed to add plants and organic material, so things don’t spill onto the sidewalk.
3. Convert your sprinklers to drip line. There are many YouTube tutorials available for this step.
4. Now for the fun. If the strip requires a path from the street, determine where most visitors and street parkers will walk. Use pavers to create an obvious and easily accessible path for foot traffic.
5. If there is not already a tree in your strip, search for trees that are available for park strips in your city. Each city typically has a list of several you can purchase directly from the city for cheap, and they will even plant them for you.
6. Select some decorative native grasses. The Salt Lake Valley is a high-elevation desert. Think of your park strip as a pocket-prairie, and drought tolerant grasses love the climate. Typically, most cities want plants under 24-inches tall, which rules out some grasses and makes the decision easier. Lindsey recommends blue gramma and Idaho blue fescue grasses, both decorative and native.
7. Give it a pop of color with a few flowering perennials. Lindsey threw out a few that work nicely in the valley: Wasatch penstemon, silvery lupin, asters and scarlet globe mallows.
8. Choose a low-growing native groundcover for the gaps. Bark mulch is fine to fill in until the groundcover covers the space. But do not use weed mat or fabric. It stops the nutrient transfer of the plants and makes it hard for the mulching plants to take hold. Weeds have shallow roots, so the mat will actually encourage weed growth after a season or two. For groundcover, Lindsey recommends blue mat penstemon, kinnikinnick, or a low-growing Yaak yarrow.
9. Lastly, give it a couple of years to fill in. Where to buy native plants
While you can find native plants at most nurseries, Lind -
sey says a nice selection can be found at 42nd Street Greenhouse in Murray, Growing Empire, Twin Pines Nursery and Cache Valley Native plants (who delivers locally).
“Up to 60% of potable water goes to outdoor irrigation,” Lindsey said. “So, while a strip is a small parcel of a person’s yard, collectively it’s not a small thing. Millions and millions of gallons of water can be saved.”
Native and drought-tolerant plantings are anything but boring. Local landscape architect Daryl Lindsey says, “Use your park strip to create a pocket prairie.” (Photo Daryl Lindsey)
Generator Supercenter helps homeowners have backup power systems which are crucial in an emergency. (Photo contributed)
For most people, HSB is meeting the needs of reliable and hassle-free backup power at an affordable price.
The frustration of being without power in your home can be devastating. Having a precaution against blackouts and natural disasters is crucial for homeowners across the United States. Reid Leland, owner of Generator Supercenter, shared that the right home backup power systems are crucial in an emergency. In a connected world, having electricity can be essential for your livelihood or health.
There are many reasons why people do not want to get trapped in their homes without power. “The primary reasons I see are: One, people who wish to maintain a standard of living in a power outage;” Leland said, “two, people who work from home and can’t afford to have their power disrupted; three, people who have medical conditions or devices that require power: CPAP, O2 concentrator, refrigerating insulin, heart monitors, etc.”
Homeowners have multiple options for electrical back-ups, one of which is a portable generator. Portable generators can be moved from place to place to provide electricity during shortterm power outages. These systems have a limited on-board fuel tank, which means they need manual refueling in an outage lasting more than a few hours. This process is cumbersome and often required during inclement weather.
Plus, a generator will be hot during and after operation, so great caution must be used during refueling to prevent fires. Homeowners must also run an extension cord from the portable generator to the appliances inside the home. Furthermore, the adaptors
HOME BACKUP POWER SYSTEMS: THE BEST WAY TO PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE
By Reid Leland| President, LeanWerks
needed to connect the generator to other electrical components can be overloaded, potentially causing damage.
Another option, which Leland suggests is the best for homeowners, is a whole-home standby generator (HSB). This generator will provide power to your entire home and requires natural gas or liquid propane to operate.
HSBs are slightly larger than portables and are mounted outside a home. The gas line is run from the unit to the home's gas meter, a propane tank, or both. The electrical output from the generator is routed through an automatic transfer switch that is mounted near a distribution or main circuit breaker panel. If the grid power goes down, the generator will automatically take over, which requires no intervention from a homeowner. “For most people, HSB is meeting the needs of reliable and hassle-free backup power at an affordable price,” said Leland.
Battery backup systems are another system to help power your home. These devices are charged through the grid, solar panels, or wind turbines and store this energy for the future. The battery’s output will run through an inverter that converts direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC), since most household appliances utilize AC.
However, batteries have a limited amount of storage, typically 2–36 hours of backup power. Without a charging source, a battery
backup may not provide enough power during a prolonged emergency, and will be depleted quickly if the homeowner uses large appliances like air conditioning or an electric range.
Additionally, these systems must be kept in optimal temperature conditions — between 40 and 100 degrees — in order to operate reliably.
Leland suggests looking at multiple factors when selecting a generator. “Start by assessing priorities and balance that with budget,” Leland said. Leland also stated that homeowners should consider their electrical and gas demand before installing a home backup power system so that their meters can be upgraded, if necessary.
One important factor to consider is the system’s lifespan. The lifespan of a portable generator will depend on how often it is used. While batteries typically last only 10 years, a well-maintained HSB system will last over 20 years.
“The most common misconception I see is that solar panels alone will provide some back-up power in an outage — not the case on most solar installations,” Leland said. He says that while solar is a great option to help with electrical bills, it is not going to provide backup in a power outage.
The cost of installation is another misconception Leland sees among clients choosing a backup power generator.
“It requires licensed electricians and plumbers to properly install these systems with the appropriate support materials and infrastructure,” Leland said.
“If you are off-grid, have a bigger budget, and want to have the ultimate uninterrupted back-up power system, then an engineered solution with integrated solar or wind, battery, an HSB is an awesome and robust solution,” Leland said.
Generator Supercenter provides portable whole-house generators and backup battery systems to help consumers provide safety and security for their family and livelihood. They offer installation, maintenance, and repairs to help homeowners have better peace of mind about grid failures or power outages. Leland is willing to speak with anyone who has questions about backup power options or who is curious about HSB systems.
SAVVY A MAGAZINE FOR THE SAVVY HOMEOWNER SAVVY
The lifespan of a portable generator will depend on how often it is used. (Photo contributed)
