Commercial building property maintenance

You can prevent breakdowns and major unexpected repair expenses for your commercial property. With regular property maintenance, inspections, and care, you can keep your property functioning at its peak while maintaining a pristine appearance year-round.

domestic-construction.com gathered information on commercial property maintenance and provides pro care tips for property managers and owners.

Roofing Maintenance and Care for Commercial Buildings

The roof over your structure should keep the outside elements outside. Thus, protecting the structure, the assets within it, and its occupants. According to Atlanta Commercial Roofing Contractors, whether your roof is brand new or requires maintenance, the following steps should be taken:

Establish a starting point by having the roof inspected. Contract a professional roofing contractor to evaluate the integrity of the following:

Commercial building roofing maintenance and services

• Roofing material
• Flashing
• Drains
• Gutters
• Penetrations
• Walkways
• Equipment
• Load capacity

Make sure that you are provided with written and digital (photo/video) documentation of the roof’s condition and needed repairs. This documentation serves to hold your roofing contractor responsible for their work or lack thereof.

Tip: You can extend the life of your roofing system by several years with a maintenance program. This program should include two inspections/evaluations per year, and both light and medium repairs.

Tree Maintenance and Care for Commercial Properties

If the landscape around your commercial building includes trees, their maintenance is of the utmost importance. The last thing you need is for a diseased, dying or dead tree to fall on your building.

To keep your trees in good health, contract a professional tree service to provide the following:

Commercial building tree maintenance and services

• Annual tree and landscape inspections
• Tree mulching and fertilization
• Tree pruning in the fall
• Crown thinning when needed
• Disease and infestation treatment
• Tree removal when necessary
• Emergency tree removal for dangerous or fallen trees

Treatment and/or tree removal should be considered immediately upon the detection of an infestation or disease to avoid spreading it to other trees or neighboring properties.

Tip: A tree’s best defense is its health. By ensuring your trees are watered, mulched, fertilized, and pruned correctly, you are giving them most of what they require to thrive.

Plumbing Maintenance and Care for Commercial Buildings

Avoid plumbing malfunctions, potential flooding, and expensive repairs by doing preventative plumbing maintenance, and having your entire plumbing system checked annually for the following:

Commercial building plumbing services

• Leaks
• High/Low water pressure
• Clogged Drains
• Dripping faucets
• Malfunctioning toilets
• Defective/Worn hot water hoses

Between inspections, any signs of leaking pipes, connections, or faulty appliances should be addressed immediately. Some of those signs include:

• Discolored streaks down the wall
• Wet spots on the ceiling or wall
• Pooling water on the floor around or beneath appliances or water connections
• Slow drainage in sinks and toilets
• Constant hissing sound in the wall

Water leaks can cause immense and catastrophic flooding if left unchecked, including severe structural damage to the building and its amenities.

HVAC Maintenance and Care for Commercial Buildings

Climate control within commercial buildings requires machinery that must operate throughout the entire day, every day. Depending on the nature of the business, that machinery may need to function 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

Commercial HVAC systems should receive service/maintenance on a biannual basis at a minimum. Additional service that focuses on specific aspects of the system can improve efficiency and reduce operational costs, including:

Commercial building HVAC unit

• Checking thermostat settings
• Lubrication of all moving parts
• Tightening all electrical connections
• Inspection of the condensation drain
• Inspect and test the controls of the system

The heating system should be serviced every fall before the unit’s most significant time of use. The unit’s cooling system should be serviced in the spring.

Tip: When servicing the HVAC unit, have the building’s exhaust/ventilation system evaluated as well. This is also a perfect time to have all air filters replaced throughout your building.

Alarm and Evacuation Tests for Commercial Buildings

Depending on the municipality your commercial building is located in, you may be required to have your fire alarms inspected and conduct evacuation drills one or more times per year. During an evacuation drill, the Fire Marshall will likely conduct an inspection of your building looking for the following:

Commercial property safety equipment

• Are your fire extinguishers current with their inspection date?
• Are your fire alarms up to code and properly inspected?
• Are your building’s exits free of obstruction and functioning properly?
• Are your exit signs functioning properly?
• Do your emergency lights activate and function properly?
• Is there a Knox box outside of your building? (This box contains keys to the building for emergency services)
• Are the building’s electrical panels easy to access and unobstructed?
• Are you within the building’s occupant load or maximum capacity? (This violation can carry severe penalties)
• Are your sprinklers, valves, and control systems in good condition and unobstructed?
• Are extension cords being appropriately used throughout your business?
• Is your evacuation plan updated, tested, and approved by the Fire Marshall?

Tip: Designate one of your managers to create a fire and hazard safety team to conduct monthly inspections and corrections. By creating this team, you are proactively keeping your building aligned with local ordinances and safety codes.

Maintenance and Care for Commercial Property

In this article, you discovered valuable information and pro tips about commercial property maintenance and care.

By contracting outside service providers to keep your building, amenities, and landscape operating at peak performance, you are preventing small issues from developing into significant problems.

By neglecting routine maintenance on your commercial property, you are leaving yourself exposed to machinery failure, plumbing issues, structural damages, among other expensive repairs and potential code violations.

Sources:
energystar.gov/campaign/heating_cooling/maintenance_checklist
permapier.com/blog/7-commercial-property-maintenance-tips/
fireline.com/blog/fire-marshall-look-inspection/