Author: MaintenX

If you’ve been down the lighting aisle of a hardware store in the last couple years, you might be scratching your head at all the new and strange options in front of you. Take a deep breath, and let us guide you through the different varieties of light bulbs on the market.

Incandescent

These are the standard bulbs that most of us think about when we think of a light bulb. Incandescent bulbs work by using electricity to heat a tungsten filament (a resistor) within the bulb. Most of the energy consumed by the bulb is given off as heat, making it comparatively inefficient. Their effective lifespans are comparatively short, too, as the filament wears out.

Halogen Incandescent

These create the same amount of light as incandescent bulbs, but they also save around 25% on energy costs! They tend to be a bit more expensive than traditional bulbs but are cheaper than LEDs or CFLs.

Fluorescent

You’re probably quite familiar with the long glass tubes seen on department store ceilings. This type of bulb contains mercury vapor that converts UV light to visible light. Because these bulbs contain mercury, they can be dangerous if not handled correctly. In most places, there are regulations for proper disposal. Though their light is often unattractive, they’re more energy efficient than incandescents.

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs)

CFL lighting is diffused, so colors appear duller than under incandescent light, and they’re usually not dimmable. But if you find one with the right color temperature, CFLs can work nicely in table or floor lamps. They’re quite efficient and last longer than incandescents.

LED

Light emitting diode (LED) bulbs are currently the most energy-efficient light bulbs available. Though they used to be quite expensive, prices have dropped significantly in recent years. With lifecycles which far surpass those of most other bulbs on the market, dimming capabilities, color options, and extreme energy efficiency, LEDs are an all-around-great option for most uses.

One of the key factors in running a successful business is staying relevant in your market. Whether you are trying to attract new clients, new employees, or keep your existing base intact, relevancy helps you stay in front of your competition. Sometimes the easiest way to become more relevant is to give your facility a facelift. Here are some reasons why you may want to consider this.

First and foremost, to run a successful business, you need to have a good team in place. It is currently a tight labor market, with unemployment rates at an all-time low. To attract the best team, you must create an attractive work environment, as well as competing based on pay and benefits. Office environment is highly important to employees’ comfort and success. If you have a sterile, lifeless office space, you need to consider what you can do to make it inviting. Modernizing your space with group areas, a great common area or break room, and outdoor environments are important to today’s new worker.

The other side of the story is your customer base. You must make sure that your space has a certain “cool” factor, because chances are you have competitors that could easily take your business. Just as with your employees, you need to make sure your customers feel welcomed and that you create a strong positive experience tied to their visit.

Other, simpler factors involved in a facility facelift are paint, lighting, flooring, and basic structural elements of your building. If you have outdated furnishings in your space, you will feel old and tired. It’s amazing what new flooring and a fresh coat of paint can do for your building.

When you have determined that it is time for a renovation, it may be hard to visualize your goal and the path to it. Working with MaintenX will help alleviate your stress and give you a strong team to accomplish your goals. Call today to find out more.

If it is time to renovate your workplace but you can’t afford to lose any business in the process, planning can be stressful. Not every business can do overnight renovations; they’ll require a team to be in place during normal business hours to finish the project. Extra bodies, noise, and debris can be a big turnoff to your patrons, especially in customer-driven businesses like restaurants and retail. Here are 3 tips to help keep business booming during a renovation.

Tip #1 – Communication is Key

It is highly important to give your employees and customers ample notice about your renovation schedule. Posting signage is an easy way to inform your customers about what is going on and what to expect. Make it a point to stress the fact that the business will remain open and unaffected by anything extra going on within the space. If you have a marketing system in place to keep in touch with your customers, send out an email blast 2-3 weeks prior to the start of renovation. Include renderings of what the finished space will look like, so everyone knows what the disruption is in service of.

Tip #2 – Work in Sections

While it may take longer to complete the job, working in zones ensures that you have enough space to operate your business normally. You can partition the renovation site with plastic curtains to help hide the mess or keep debris confined to the zone currently being worked on. Work with your construction team to schedule when heavy equipment or power tools can be used. You want to keep noise to a minimum.

Tip #3 – Offer a Sale

One way to keep customers coming in during a renovation is to offer a sale or a special. This works especially well in retail or restaurant environments. A good renovation special will entice your regular patrons to continue doing business with you, and can even attract a new client base.

Renovations can be a tricky thing and must be approached correctly. You need to have a trusted and skilled team in place to ensure that your daily business is not affected. If you have considered a renovation in the past but were too concerned about the implications of running your business during the process, contact an expert at MaintenX and find out how to make it work for you.

Water damage looks bad, but it can also become a serious threat to your building if it isn’t properly addressed. One of the most common sites for water damage is your ceiling. This is because the source of the issue, a leaky roof, can often go unnoticed until it’s too late, resulting in a giant eyesore staring down at you. Do you know what to do if this happens?

The first and most important step in remedying a water-damaged ceiling is to find the source of the leak. If you have standing water on your ceiling, it needs to be traced to see where it is coming from. The source needs to be addressed and repaired so that future water intrusion does not take place.

Next, your attic or space above the ceiling needs to be completely dried out. Professional teams can come in to remove any standing water and set up high-powered fans to dry the area. Once it’s dry, the ceiling can be cleaned to prevent mold from forming.

Minor damage is relatively easy to tackle. You cannot, however, simply paint over the stain, as the water damage will show through the paint over time. The area must be properly primed first, using a special sealer with water blocker. After being primed, the area can be painted with a high-grade ceiling paint. For more serious damage, the drywall area must be cut out and removed. Again, the new drywall will be primed and painted.

As a note, any time you have water damage you should have an air quality analysis performed to ensure you don’t need mold treatment. If you have signs of water damage on your ceiling, no matter the severity, you need to have a professional inspect the area and give their expert opinion. Don’t wait until it is too late and a minor issue grows. Call MaintenX today to find out more and schedule a service call.

When was the last time you took a walk around the outside of your building and really inspected the area? Did you get down and pay close attention to your building’s foundation? Most often, business or building owners don’t personally examine the exterior. Landscape and facility maintenance teams are there to keep the exterior looking beautiful and well-manicured, so foundational cracks can be overlooked. But cracks in your foundation can lead to severe problems like building erosion and even mold.

It is a good rule of thumb to have your building’s exterior examined by a professional annually. In environmental conditions like those in Florida, though, there are some things that happen to add to ground settling and foundation cracking. Rain, heat, and wind can all play roles in the decline of your building’s structural integrity.

If foundational cracks are discovered, it is important to address the issue immediately. You need to have an inspection performed to ensure that mold has not penetrated the building and started to spore. Exterior walls directly surrounding the cracks should be scraped, providing a new and flat surface on the wall. Cracks are then filled and painted over with a waterproof paint to seal the exterior surface.

Once the cracks have been directly addressed, it is important to survey the surrounding area to determine what can be done to prevent future foundational cracking. Many businesses do not have proper drainage around their exterior. If there’s standing water, erosion and cracking can become more prevalent.

If your building hasn’t been inspected within the past year, or if you have discovered cracks in your foundation, you need to get a professional out to your facility immediately. These issues need to be resolved prior to the upcoming storm season. Contact MaintenX today to set an appointment with one of our experts.

Mold is frightening to any home or business owner. The threat of mold spores traveling through your walls and into your HVAC system, completely taking over your building, is a very real one here in Florida. The climate is hot and humid, and storm season lasts through Summer and Fall, so mold is just something that business owners must consider. So how do you combat foundational mold once it has arrived? Let’s look at what to do.

Foundational mold can occur for many reasons, but the most common cause is moisture getting into tiny cracks in the base of your exterior walls, near the surface of the ground. This moisture penetrates the stucco or concrete walls and does not evaporate, creating a mold breeding ground. If you suspect that mold has formed, you need to get it professionally inspected and properly cleaned. You also need to have an air quality analysis done inside your building to make sure the spores have not spread beyond your foundation and infected your air.

Once the source of the mold has been taken care of and cleaned, the cracks need to be addressed and sealed. Make sure that your landscape drains water away from your building. Many businesses do not have proper drainage systems and promote standing water around the base of the foundation.

If you have suspicions of a mold problem in your foundation or building, or you regularly notice standing water in the landscaping surrounding your building’s exterior walls, you need to get a professional involved. Mold can be a serious issue for your building and the health of those inside. Contact MaintenX today to have an expert come out and assess your situation.

A clean office is not only an inviting space for guests, but also a healthy environment for employees to be creative and productive. Businesses vary based on size and industry, but one thing generally holds true for all: after hours, the cleaning crew comes in and scours the office for the next day. Have you ever thought, “Is my cleaning crew coming too often?” Worse yet, what if they aren’t coming enough?

While I can’t tell you in an article specifically how often your office should be cleaned, there are a couple things to factor into that determination.

The first thing to take into account is the size of your office. Larger spaces can be difficult to maintain on your own; open space allows for dust and dirt to be spread about the floor and through the HVAC system. Smaller offices are easier to sweep up and accommodate a clean-as-you go mindset and routine.

The other big factor in solving your cleaning schedule is your type of business. If you are a medical facility or dealing with anything associated with sterilization, you need to have your office cleaned multiple times a week, if not daily. If you have a business with high client traffic you will need to clean up at least weekly. Offices with low traffic or employee counts can get away with a less frequent schedule.

If it’s time to get yourself on a cleaning schedule or get a second opinion about what you need, call MaintenX today to schedule a consultation. MaintenX has experts that will guide you in the right direction for your office cleaning and other facility maintenance needs.

Just the thought of organizing your office can be overwhelming. Where do you start, and what do you do with all your stuff? Here are some tips to help you successfully navigate the process.

Before you begin, segment your office space into multiple zones. This will allow you to focus on one manageable area at a time instead of just seeing one big mess. This will help take some of the stress off, since you won’t be overwhelmed by the scale of the task. Some common areas to demarcate include offices, group workspaces, breakroom, reception, and copy room, among others. Now that you have divided, it’s time to conquer.

If you aren’t blessed with an office with massive amounts of storage space, then it might be time to get creative. If you need to utilize open space for storage but want to keep it hidden, line your walls with shelves and cabinets and run a wire from one end to the other, using opposing walls for anchoring. Using your work environment for inspiration, pick out curtains that fit the space and the people inside. You can hang curtains the length of the wire and create a false wall for your storage.

But sometimes your office is just too far gone. You have too many documents to manage, too many employees in one space, or just too much stuff and nowhere to put it. In these cases, the tip is to get a professional involved. Professional organizers can help you plan a new layout with your available space and will know how to use what you have most efficiently. Sometimes, a simple renovation or retrofit can vastly improve your space and make organization a breeze.

If you fall in the category of the latter and need some professional help, don’t fret. The friendly faces of MaintenX are just around the corner. Make the call to have a pro from MaintenX consult with you on your options and strategize on how to best accomplish your goals. What are you waiting for?

The dream of having the big office in the corner is starting to fade away. Not because promotions are harder to come by; rather, most offices just don’t have large offices anymore. Space is becoming a bigger issue due to a tight labor market and high property values. Whether you’re in a cubicle, shared office or small home office, storage is a problem; reserving space for employees is obviously a more economical use of square footage. Here are a few tips to make the most of your space.

Utilize your walls! Everyone has at least one wall in their dedicated workspace. Floating shelves are a great way to create extra storage. Shelves can house everything from paper organizers to staplers and tape dispensers. Shelves also allow you to get the non-essential items off your desktop, freeing up space to spread out and get down to work.

Get your desk tech off the desk. You can easily find desktop risers for your computer monitor and telephone. These are basically platforms with drawers and allow you to get back some space generally taken up by your tech. These drawers are also great when you are limited on standard desk drawer space or file cabinets.

If you can’t go outward, go upward. This one is a little tricky in some instances, but you have a lot of unused space above you. Using hooks and hanging bins, you can create a floating bin system for general organization. Depending on your style, you can also use these bins as trendy decor.

There are plenty of ways to store your stuff, even in the smallest of spaces. Whether you install shelves on the wall or just do some general desk organization, every little bit helps. The most important thing to remember is to just have fun with it and get creative.