Author: MaintenX

Bad weather is the culprit behind many damages to facilities; certain parts of the country are affected more by this than others. In states that are at risk for hurricanes and other major storms, water damage is a real threat to facilities and business processes. Therefore, as a facility manager, it is a good idea to prepare your building for, and protect it from. potential water damage. Sound planning will minimize the cost of recovery and repairs down the road.

Make sure that all vulnerable entryways seal tightly. Investing in weather strips and jamb seals will prevent doorway infiltration as much as possible. Make sure all windows are likewise secure, and that none are cracked or otherwise compromised.

Inspect the roof to be sure that there are no leaks or places where floodwater can enter. Leaky roofs are an easy way to accumulate both floor and ceiling flood damages, and they can only be patched if you know of them before the storms come.

Roll up carpets and elevate them; even if water does come in, it won’t rot your fabric.

MaintenX excels at all kinds of facility maintenance and can certainly help you and your business prepare for potential flood damage, which will save costs in repairs later. To learn more about this and our other services, please feel free to contact us anytime.

Darkened, vacant storefronts are sometimes difficult for facility managers to deal with. Without occupants, a building is easy to forget. Typically, however, it is a good idea to maintain some level of influence on your unoccupied storefront so that it will still be attractive to potential new tenants. In addition, you want to make sure that the building is protected against criminals and damaging weather.

The exterior of the dark, closed store is the most important aspect to maintain because it is the first part that prospective clients see. Therefore it is worth investing in landscaping and exterior cleaning services so that the tenant will have a worthy storefront already when they start renting.

It is also worthwhile to inspect the inside periodically to make sure that it’s in fair condition. Damages can come from pest infestations, water leaks, or weather; always check after extreme weather events. Don’t forget human risks; invest in an alarm system to deter thieves and vandals from your property. All of these problems get worse if left unattended, so draw up an inspection schedule for the property.

Dark closed stores are unfortunate to own, but don’t neglect them. We at MaintenX can help you maintain this kind of property, so contact us to help you keep the property attractive and in good working order. 

Hurricanes aren’t the only storms that can damage your building. Poorly maintained infrastructure is subject to damage from water, wind, and debris. If your commercial facility is prepared, you can rest easy when storms head your way. It’s the facility manager’s responsibility to make the structure resilient and avoid costly damages and downtime. Here are some tips to help prepare.

• Identify the most vulnerable parts of the facility, and protect them. Invest in multi-pane windows (their superior insulation saves on energy costs anyway), and make sure seals are tight around doors. Make sure your roof is in good repair and won’t leak. Check that equipment that would be harmed by water and wind can be secured. If your area is vulnerable to hurricanes, have enough plywood to cover your windows and sandbags to protect your doors.
• Take care of your landscaping! Prune large trees, and schedule regular arborist visits to make sure they aren’t rotting and therefore vulnerable to collapse. Avoid having bare dirt on your property as well; it’s not only unattractive, but it also is much more prone to being washed away.
• Plan for the aftermath. Can you count on your facility maintenance team to be there promptly after the storm? In humid climates, HVAC failure can quickly cause mold. If that’s your situation, think about renting or buying backup generators early.
• Make a comprehensive emergency plan. Include emergency resources, ways to communicate with employees, shelter locations, and recovery options. Where will you turn if a piece of infrastructure or equipment needs repair or replacement? By what criteria will you determine if you can resume normal business processes?

Having an experienced facility maintenance team on your side to help prepare and recover from a storm really helps. MaintenX has spent 30 years in Florida, and is ready to support you before, during, and after extreme rain. To learn more about this and our other services, reach out to us at any time.

Having to leave your building vacant is undesirable, but sometimes chance and circumstances make it unavoidable. If you do have an unoccupied facility, however, it is important to keep it protected from both people and the elements. Here are some tips for facility managers and property owners to minimize losses from vacancy.

An empty building is a target. Whether or not it has valuables inside, make sure it’s protected from theft and vandalism. Criminals are attracted to unattended structures because they’re often poorly secured. If the building has an alarm system, maintain it. In particularly bad areas, or if the building still has contents worth protecting, consider hiring a guard service or work with the local police to include the property in a regular nighttime tour.

Because regular maintenance tends to slow down, vacant buildings are also vulnerable to bad weather. Inspect the building on a less frequent but consistent basis to check for water damage, disarranged landscaping, and problems with pipes and HVAC. The longer structural damage sits, the harder it is to clean and repair. If you ever plan on selling or reoccupying the building, it’s a worthy investment.

Finally, keep up the building’s appearance. It doesn’t have to be spotless, but make sure it doesn’t look dilapidated. Obvious derelicts attract vandalism and squatting, and tenants of neighboring buildings don’t want the negative externalities associated with an unattractive vacant property. Keep the grass and plants in order, and give it the occasional pressure wash. If you decide to sell, it’ll be less work to pump up the curb appeal.

Whether your facility is vacant or full, MaintenX is here to support you with any kind of facility maintenance project. To learn about our services, contact us anytime.

Sanitation is important for any business or commercial facility. Restrooms, however, are particularly key, as they face “outward” to the consumer. Remember, 94% of consumers would not return to a business with dirty restrooms. On the internal side, clean and functioning restrooms are essential to employees.

When approaching maintenance on your business’s restrooms, it is important to formulate and stick to a consistent plan so that they never fall below high standards of cleanliness. This includes cleaning and inspection; the latter should be more frequent. Some businesses clean every half hour, some every hour; you’ll have to find the correct balance.

Quality of cleaning products makes a difference. Cleaning does little good if a restroom looks or smells dirty shortly after it has been serviced. High-quality products will leave a clean scent and remove more grime. The difference is noticeable; invest in an upgrade.

MaintenX’s broad range of facilities maintenance specialties includes janitorial services. Our technicians are prompt, efficient, and reasonably priced. To learn about this and other services we offer, contact us anytime.

There are a number of factors that affect business efficiency, but workplace floorplan is often overlooked. Having the right floorplan helps balance and storage and works areas, as well as make outward-facing spaces attractive to consumers.

The effects aren’t just aesthetic. Floorplans that incorporate “free space,” that is, places for employees to gather and relax, have been shown to increase collaboration but decrease concentration. Gallup polls show that despite the “open office” trend, the majority of people still prefer to have their own space. Every manager has to balance these factors when designing the layout.

For storefronts and other commercial venues, taking the customer’s perspective can help you devise the right floorplan as well. More balancing is involved; customers like to be able to navigate to what they need quickly, but you want them to see your other products on the way. Don’t forget to take into account the size of your inventory. If you have many products in many categories, you’ll want a more spatially efficient plan like a grid. If you have fewer items that you want to be prominently visible, choose a free-form plan to encourage browsing.

Whether your business is moving to a new location or you are considering renovating the office space that you currently have, choosing the right floorplan can go a long way towards business efficiency and retail sales. To learn how MaintenX can help you with this and other tasks, contact us at any time.

Downtime makes facility managers cringe. It’s a waste of time and resources, and it’s especially annoying because it can be easily avoided in many situations. A good preventative maintenance plan and a more efficient working environment will increase productivity and minimize unnecessary downtime.

Preventive maintenance is a major boon towards minimizing downtime in your facility. It identifies and resolves flaws and potentially dangerous anomalies in equipment and facility systems before they cause mechanical failure, one of the leading causes of downtime. Moreover, it involves planned, small costs and can be done at convenient times. Waiting until things break to fix them is expensive and short-sighted.

A clean and healthy working environment has also been shown to increase productivity. Obviously cleaned machines tend to work better, but well-maintained humans do as well. A clean environment is also a safer one, which reduces the risk for workplace injury.

Every facility manager seeks to avoid downtime, and that can be accomplished through creating a clean and safe working environment and establishing a strong preventative maintenance plan. To learn about how we at MaintenX can assist in both of these endeavors, please feel free to contact us anytime.

In the world of facility management, there are typically two types of maintenance: preventative and reactive. The former is almost always going to be more cost-effective. In fact, there really is no such thing as a “reactive maintenance plan”; the very nature of reactive maintenance means it’s done on a contingent basis.

The primary cost of a reactive maintenance plan comes from the fact that things requiring reactive repair are necessarily more vital and therefore more expensive to fix. Moreover, the urgency of fixing them means that the labor will be more expensive. Vital equipment failure can cause business downtime, which is costly and disruptive.

Counting on reactive maintenance leaves the facility manager flying blind with regard to the state of his equipment, which is a nightmare for a profession that relies on good data. If the first sign that a piece of machinery isn’t working well is its catastrophic failure, mistakes have been made.

Reactive maintenance plans only deal with problems as they happen. It is always more efficient to prevent such situations from happening in the first place. To learn about how MaintenX can help you create and execute a preventative maintenance plan, please contact us anytime.

Peak performance is not just a term used in sports; it is important for the maintenance team of a business or commercial facility as well. How can a facility manager tell if their team is working at maximum efficiency? Here are four key indicators that tell you.

1. The backlog of deferred work. This will tell you how many projects are yet to be completed and, depending on the configuration in the tracking software or logging system, which technicians are not keeping up with the pace of work.
2. The percentage of completed maintenance work that is reactive. While reactive maintenance is sometimes a necessity, most of the work should be preventative maintenance.
3. Compliances with preventative maintenance and weekly service schedules.
4. Pareto analysis of completed work; a chart designed to compare business resources consumed to amount of work completed.

If your maintenance staff is not performing as efficiently as it should be, then maybe it’s time to make some changes. MaintenX can help you make that determination, and our technicians are always ready to step in. To learn more about our services, contact us at any time.