Year-Round Commercial Building Maintenance

Your building isn’t much different from your home. It’ll need some proper year-round maintenance, too. However, it is very important that you plan this ahead just so you can save some funds since serious building repairs might cost you a little fortune. In other words, prevention’s always better than cure. Wondering how one builds a year-round building maintenance schedule? If that is so, you have come to the right place. In the article you are about to read, we’ll show you everything there is to know about the subject.

Building Exterior

Your building’s exterior walls and other masonry work will, of course, suffer from the passage of time. You should check them at least once a month in detail. If possible, you’ll want to check for any visible cracks or similar issues on a daily basis. Also, keep in mind that building arches, eaves, and canopies should be your prime suspects. It is a common thing that they tend to ruin more often than the other parts of your building’s exterior. And another thing – routing roofing and soffit check-up should should be, by all means, incorporated into your exterior building inspection.

Doors, Windows, etc.

Now, it’s not like we’re suggesting you should replace your doors and windows on a monthly/yearly level. Nope.

They’re made from materials that ensure their durability and strength. Therefore, one shouldn’t worry about it too much (unless the need for a replacement is so evident it hurts). However, the smaller parts of your windows and doors will probably need a replacement every now and then. We’re talking about hinges, locks, or handles. They can break faster than “the whole package”. Also this segment might suit commercial buildings more than regular residential ones.

There is something else you’ll want to add to your building maintenance expenses checklist. For instance, if you’re replacing the doors and windows of your building, the whole process can turn out to be quite messy. Therefore, some of your building’s inventory will have to find a temporary home. That is why you should rent out a storage unit if it fits your budget. So, once you’re thinking about your building maintenance expenses, consider that you’ll have to put aside some funds for this.

Lighting

Now, there’s really no need to check anything here since lighting has its own way of telling us something’s awry. However, one shouldn’t simply wait for defects to show up in order to take some action. You will want to check your lighting at least on a monthly basis. Also, the power supply should be inspected even daily. You’ll want to check lights with transformers, your control gear, cables, screws, and other parts of your building’s lighting system. Lastly, one might want to clean the lighting surface for increased performance.

Fire Equipment

This one should absolutely be included in your year-round building checklist since that’s the way the law proposed it to be. Avoiding to include checking fire equipment inside your year-round building checklist will not only put your colleagues (in case of a commercial building) or neighbors (in case of a residential building) at risk, but you’ll also face various penalties and fines. And you don’t want that, right? Here’s the thing: fire extinguishers will need to be serviced at least once a year, depending on the building’s location. In contrast, the door and crawl spaces will definitely need to be inspected more often than that. If you’ve got a sprinkler system installed inside your building, make sure it goes through a preventive maintenance check-up and the rest of your gear.

Plumbing

There is probably no need to emphasize this, but plumbing issues aren’t so easy to be seen until they, well, occur. However, if you have built your own year-round building maintenance checklist and you’ve included the plumbing equipment guidelines inside it (the time to replace a valve, for example), you can prevent major issues from happening. Also, you will want to know that irrigation system maintenance is sometimes also included in the subsection called plumbing. However, it can also incorporate some extra check-ups conducted by specialists. All in all, with plumbing issues out of your way, you’ll be totally prepared for the winter.

HVAC

Your building’s HVAC system demands you regularly maintain and clean it. Now, it won’t totally ruin your business (if we’re talking about commercial buildings). Still, issues with the HVAC system will have an overall negative effect on your employees. If working conditions aren’t good, your employees won’t find the motivation to be more productive with ease (if at all). That’s why you should include checking up on your building’s HVAC system on your year-round building maintenance checklist.

Yearly Office Decluttering

Needless to say, a cluttered office isn’t such a motivating place. That’s why you should include office decluttering in your checklist. Simply remove unnecessary items from your building’s inventory, and you will enjoy a new kind of freedom. Nowadays, our office buildings are cramped with unnecessary stuff, and there’s no way folks like working in such conditions. Introduce an annual office decluttering event to your building!

Access Control

Certain parts of your building’s access control system can be integrated with other parts of the facility. Therefore, they’re well-known to cause confusion about h ow and when every single one of them needs to be checked. Let’s give an example. For instance, your building’s fire alarms can activate the sprinklers. In addition, they can also disable certain access doors. Here’s another one: your video cameras are able to function in a couple of monitoring modes, as well as for safety purposes. That being said, it’s always good to check each of these aspects separately since you don’t want to worry about missing a crucial part.

Rely on Pros for Your Year-Round Building Maintenance

If everything we have described above seems like a tremendous hassle, you might want to call up professionals and rely on their services. They will definitely know what to do without ever looking at your homemade year-round building maintenance checklist. By following these guidelines, we are sure that you will avoid any major issues your building might experience.