Author: MaintenX

Four Examples of Preventative Maintenance

At MaintenX, we are passionate about preventative care. We believe it’s what makes our services stand out from the rest and keeps our customers happy all year long. However, not everyone realizes what a difference preventative care can make for their facility. We want to help you see the difference by providing different examples of MaintenX preventative maintenance that can help make your facility run more smoothly. 

 

During your MaintenX technician’s visit, they may perform any number of these tasks to make your facility equipment run smoother and last longer:

 

Change filers and clean air ducts of the HVAC system. 

Your HVAC system is incredibly important in a commercial space. It controls the indoor air quality, ensures a comfortable working and shopping experience, and provides ventilation for areas like commercial kitchens and manufacturing sites. By keeping your HVAC system clean and free of contaminants, you can feel the difference in the air every time you step inside. 

 

Clean piping via hydro-jetting service. 

Hydro-jetting is a critical service for all commercial facilities. This keeps your pipes clean and free of blockages, which can, in turn, prevent major plumbing leaks and disasters like a toilet overflow or sewage line bursts. If you want to keep your facility clean and sanitary, this simple task is a top priority. 

 

Annual roofing repair and routine gutter cleaning.

In Tampa, Florida, where MaintenX is headquartered, our customers understand the importance of this service all too well. We experience an intense hurricane season, where high-speed winds easily damage roofing and detach gutters. Plus, with as much rain as we receive, keeping the gutters clean is essential for a healthy building. Your MaintenX roofing team can periodically replace aged roofing and clean gutters to ensure your entire roofing system will last several decades without major replacement. 

 

Backup generator maintenance.

Your electrical system is typically self-sufficient, but in the event of a power outage, you can be met with a serious problem on your hands. In times of emergency, you need a reliable backup generator to power your business. However, you can only rely on generator and UPS systems if they are well-maintained by your MaintenX team. 

 

As you can see, preventative maintenance is about more than tune-ups. It’s about keeping your facility at peak performance every day of the year. If you want a team that cares about your facility as much as you do, contact MaintenX today!

How To Protect Your Floors In The Winter

Winter is a beautiful time of the year, but it is especially hard on your facility. Snow, dirt, and ice are tracked in, which can cause damage to your floors if you’re not careful. MaintenX sees an increase of maintenance calls for flooring in the spring due to winter damage, so we want to help you prevent these issues early. 

 

Below are four different tips you can follow to improve your floor maintenance in the winter and keep your facility clean: 

 

Reseal hardwood if needed. 

Hardwood is most susceptible to damage from ice and snow. It will absorb the moisture tracked in and either warp or crack over time. In order to protect your floors from this damage, we recommend resealing every few years to keep your hardwood looking new. If you haven’t resealed yourhardwood recently, ask your MaintenX flooring specialist if it’s time. 

 

Plan parking lot maintenance. 

You can do a lot for your flooring by keeping your facility’s parking lot ice and snow-free. Plowing or melting snow on a daily basis will prevent visitors from tracking in dirt and moisture from outside. Parking lot maintenance in the winter will also keep your facility as a whole safer. 

 

Add entrance mats or give them a deep clean. 

Proper entrance mats for your commercial facility are a great defense against snow, ice, and dirt coming into your facility. If you don’t have any that are long or wide enough to cover your entrances, shop for them now before the first snow falls. Or, if you have entrance mats but don’t see the best results, give them a deep clean to ensure all ice and snow are removed from shoes before guests enter the building. 

 

Use floor neutralizer to protect against ice melt.

You may use chemical agents or salt to melt snow in your parking lot, which is very convenient for exterior maintenance. However, if it gets brought inside on the shoes of visitors, it can cause damage to hardwood, tile, and vinyl flooring. To combat this, use floor neutralizers to protect the flooring and remove any chemicals from the surface. 

 

Floor care is the foundation of a good interior maintenance plan. To learn more about your maintenance options for winter, contact your local MaintenX today!

Do’s and Don’ts for Cleaning Your Gutters

Winter is here, which means your gutters are likely to fill up with snow, fallen leaves, and other debris that isn’t present in the summertime. While this may seem like an afterthought in your exterior maintenance, it is actually detrimental to your roofing to neglect gutter maintenance in the autumn and winter. If you want to better maintain your roof, follow these tips for proper gutter maintenance:

 

DO fix leaks as soon as you notice them. 

Gutter leaks and cracks are easiest to detect in the winter as the snow starts to melt. You’ll notice water dripping along the roof line in areas where it shouldn’t, which could intricate either ice dripping or a leak. If you see this, check your gutters immediately to repair the damage. If you don’t you could lose the gutter entirely or face worse damages in the spring. 

 

DON’T wait for ice to melt in order to remove it.

Icicles and ice dams within the gutter are not only a problem for your gutters, but can be dangerous to visitors at your facility. If icicles fall they can cause injuries, even if they’re small. Plus, ice dams can severely clog your gutters which can put pressure on your roof and flashing. If possible, remove any ice from your gutters on a daily basis in order to keep your facility safer. 

 

DO check to ensure the slope of your gutter is correct. 

Gutters aren’t effective if there is not enough of a slope for water to drain. However, a gutter that is sloping too much due to debris weighing it down may eventually fall off or cause undue pressure on your roof. Be sure to check this periodically and adjust as needed. 

 

DON’T skip regular cleanings in the winter. 

It may be tempting to skip your regular gutter cleanings in the winter now that the leaves aren’t falling as much as they did in the fall. However, organic matter and debris can still build up. Keep cleaning your gutters on their regular schedule in order to maintain them through the harsh winter season. 

 

If you find it hard to maintain your gutters and roofing in the winter, call MaintenX for help! We have roofing specialists available who can help you plan preventative care and make repairs as needed.

Is There A Best Maintenance Strategy?

At MaintenX, we talk a lot about preventative maintenance as the best way to keep your facility in good health. However, preventative care is not the only viable maintenance strategy, nor is it the right one for all facilities. In this guide, we’ll discuss some of the different types of maintenance strategies you can employ at your facility, and how to determine which is right for you. 

 

Why Maintenance Isn’t a One-Size-Fits-All Solution

 

In general, it’s safe to say that being proactive with your maintenance strategy is better than reactive maintenance. It can save you on expensive emergency repairs and ensure your equipment reaches its maximum service life. However, preventative maintenance isn’t always right for certain pieces of equipment or facility operations. 

 

In some cases, run-to-fail maintenance can be most efficient for non-critical or older equipment. Prescriptive maintenance, which differs slightly from preventative maintenance, can also be implemented in order to streamline your preventative care. Below are descriptions of the three primary maintenance strategies, and when they are most beneficial to businesses: 

 

  • Run-to-fail (reactive) maintenance – This is a “no strategy” strategy, where the maintenance team is called only when a breakdown occurs. This is the cheapest option in the short term, but costs will accrue over time. Reactive repairs are typically more expensive, which makes this a poor long-term strategy. However, some pieces of equipment are not important enough to perform preventative care (light switches, for example, do not need preventative care — lights can be switched when they go out). 

 

  • Preventative maintenance – Preventative maintenance is the most popular maintenance strategy. It incorporates cost-saving strategies that are easy to turn into routines, and reliably prevents unexpected breakdowns. However, it takes time to build a comprehensive maintenance strategy. Working with your MaintenX team you can continually improve preventative care for your facility’s specific needs. 

 

  • Predictive/prescriptive maintenance – Predictive maintenance is similar to preventative maintenance, but relies on machine learning and sensory output to predict when machines will fail, and what preventative measures can be prescribed to extend service life. This strategy is the most advanced and effective but is not always practical for smaller facilities. Unless you operate an extensive manufacturing site or have a business that operates 24/7, this level of preventative care is often not necessary in order to keep your equipment in good shape. 

 

Most companies graduate” from reactive to preventative to predictive and prescriptive maintenance. These strategies increase in cost and complexity, which is why new maintenance teams can’t jump straight into prescriptive strategies. They must first learn the needs of the facility through reactive and then preventative maintenance before they can begin to predict and resolve solutions before they happen. 

 

The more MaintenX works with your facility, the better prescriptive solutions we can create for your business. However, we always start with preventative maintenance to get you on track to your overall company goals.

How To Craft Your Facility’s Maintenance Policy

Every commercial facility needs a detailed and strategically designed maintenance policy for their outsourced contractors and in-house janitorial staff. This policy covers not only “big picture” goals and strategies but rules for safety and maintenance practice. It instills the company values from the ground up by ensuring that maintenance services are performed in alignment with your greater goals. However, your maintenance policy can’t do these things if it has been created for regulation compliance and cost-savings only. 

 

Your maintenance policy should not be a stagnant document that is only read once a year. It should be a living, breathing document that is referenced often to determine the best strategies for your maintenance team. It should also be used when trying to set and accomplish maintenance goals for the year, such as reducing costs or purchasing new equipment. 

 

Six Necessary Elements of Your Maintenance Policy

When writing or updating your maintenance plan, your primary focus should be the six elements below. They will outline all the necessary protocols for your maintenance team. Plus, they can be used by upper management for strategy, budgeting, and risk management for facility assets. 

  • Risk analysis – Risk analysis in maintenance includes risk descriptions, assessments, and acceptance of certain maintenance strategies and equipment chosen for your facility. The analysis should be the primary guiding factor in choosing different maintenance strategies as well as bigger-picture goals for your maintenance team. 

 

  • Regulatory compliance and safety protocols – These should be at the forefront of your maintenance policy, as safety protocols and regulatory compliance policies are the ones that prevent injuries, reduce costs, and keep your business in check. 

 

  • Maintenance costs – Defining your maintenance costs — both reactive and preventative — can give you a better understanding of why a specific maintenance budget is needed, and when funds should be allocated for equipment upgrades. 

 

  • Management protocols – Your upper management within the organization is equally involved in the maintenance department as the maintenance staff. They should be involved in ground-floor decisions, and be educated on the needs of the maintenance team in order to integrate their work into the business’ overall direction. 

 

  • Performance monitoring – Performance monitoring should be a required part of maintenance review and protocols. It can help you understand what’s lacking in your maintenance plan, and what needs to be changed in the upcoming year as you adjust your preventative care services. 

 

  • Contracting and procurement of service – Employees need to know who to call and how to submit service requests when maintenance services are needed. By outlining what contractors you use, and what services are required from them can streamline your maintenance outsourcing for better results. 

 

MaintenX can help you improve your maintenance policies by providing a comprehensive preventative care plan for your facility. To learn more about our preventative maintenance services, contact us today!

How To Better Manage Breakdown Maintenance

Breakdown maintenance is one of the more difficult aspects of maintenance strategy. When a breakdown occurs, diagnostics and repairs must be expedited to limit equipment downtime as much as possible. However, a more thorough diagnostics and preventative maintenance strategy incorporated into the breakdown repair typically yields better results. Balancing efficiency with effectiveness is the ultimate test of a skilled maintenance technician. In order to achieve this, breakdown maintenance must be handled very carefully. 

 

If your team is struggling with recurring emergency repairs, there are steps you can take to improve your maintenance plan:

 

Place the most experienced technicians on breakdown repair. 

While breakdown repairs are beneficial for technicians to learn and test their skills, speed is incredibly important when working in commercial facilities. We strive to put our most experienced technicians on emergency repairs to ensure your breakdown maintenance doesn’t take longer than needed. 

 

Replace failing assets. 

If you notice you’re spending more and more of your maintenance budget on repairs for a single asset, it may be time to start shopping for upgrades. At a certain point, a piece of machinery will be more costly to repair than it will be to replace. When you reach this point, talk to your MaintenX team about energy-efficient upgrades for your HVAC< roofing, plumbing, or electrical system. 

 

Have a plan in place. 

Even if your facility is following a preventative maintenance plan to a T, you have to be ready for emergency breakdowns. A storm, power outage, or act of God can always take out critical facility equipment, and you don’t want to be left unprepared when it happens. Talk to your MaintenX team about incorporating reactive maintenance plans at your facility as part of your overall maintenance strategy. 

 

MaintenX is here to help you with both reactive and preventative repairs. To learn more about your facility maintenance options, contact us today.

How To Find Reliable Outsourced Maintenance Partners

Outsourcing maintenance and repair work is becoming the new normal for commercial facilities across the U.S. Limble CMMS conducted a 2021 Maintenance trends study that showed over 90% of facilities outsource maintenance tasks instead of staffing a full-time maintenance team. This is in large part due to the lower cost of outsourcing, and the better selection of qualified specialists who would rather subcontract than work full-time for a facility. Other reasons to outsource maintenance include: 

 

  • Ability to delegate more resources to core staffing
  • Greater flexibility in maintenance staffing and budget
  • Higher caliber subcontractors are available when needed without having to pay full-time salaries for experts in the field

 

While outsourcing your maintenance can be highly beneficial to your business, you need to ensure you hire quality technicians for your HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and roofing repair. Here’s what to look for before you hire: 

 

Ability to address your specific concerns. 

Before you hire a maintenance contractor, go over some of your current roadblocks and maintenance issues you want to address. If they can provide clear solutions for your facility’s current state, you will be off to a better start. 

 

Financial stability. 

While new companies can have a lot of talent to offer, a financially secure business is better for long-term strategy. If you are looking to contract with a maintenance partner for several years, choose a company that has been in business a long time and can prove their success year after year. 

 

Reputable individual contractors.

The strength of a maintenance company comes from the training, knowledge, and experience of its individual technicians. If you have positive experiences with the company’s onsite workers, you can rest assured that the rest of the staff is committed to excellence. 

 

An established reputation in your industry. 

Not all maintenance companies can handle a medical facility, large-scale restaurant, or industrial site. Each of these types of commercial buildings has specific needs that require a specialist’s attention, so it’s important to look for a partner that can meet your facility’s demands. 

 

MaintenX specialties in restaurant, healthcare, retail, and commercial sites and have built a reputation for excellence in these fields. To learn about our services for your industry, contact your local MaintenX team.

How To Optimize Equipment Performance

In any commercial facility, productivity heavily relies on asset performance. Even the greatest staff cannot perform well with old, dilapidated, or inefficient equipment. That is why your MaintenX team is so integral to the rest of your staff. By maintaining facility machinery and basic systems, you can improve functionality across the board. 

 

An optimal maintenance strategy for equipment will: 

 

  • Improve reliability and reduce downtime
  • Without increasing costs or wasting maintenance staff time and resources

 

You want your preventative maintenance to reduce emergency repairs and improve asset performance, but going overboard can cost you more in maintenance than your asset is worth. In order to meet this perfect balance between affordability and efficacy, your maintenance team needs to focus on three core issues:

 

Balance maintenance cost with performance

Before creating a maintenance plan for your assets, you want to consider the life cycle cost (LCC) of that machinery. The LCC of an asset includes the cost of acquisition, maintenance, operation, and disposal. When calculated at the time of purchase, you can estimate when the cost of maintenance will reach the cost of acquisition. It is then that you should invest in new equipment instead of maintaining equipment that is costly to retain. 

 

Be mindful of maintenance program capabilities

Even the best maintenance plans can fall apart if your facility does not have the resources or manpower to follow through. MaintenX is highly regarded for our total facility repair and maintenance services, but we are not a full-time maintenance team. You do not want to create a maintenance plan that exceeds our availability or the size of your onsite janitorial staff. 

 

Create a proactive culture in your maintenance department.

Asset performance is only as good as the maintenance service provided for it. When the maintenance team feels empowered to make choices based on their experience rather than commands from the top, they can perform better and improve asset maintenance across the board. By trusting your MaintenX partners, you create a better working environment for all. 

 

MaintenX works hard to ensure that your HVAC, electrical, roofing, and plumbing systems are in peak condition and will last through the end of their service life. To learn more about how we help businesses achieve this, contact your local MaintenX team today.

How To Improve Performance and Extend Service Life Of Your Facility Equipment

In almost every commercial application, the success of the facility depends on the reliability of equipment. Without a properly functioning kitchen system, a restaurant cannot create a worthwhile customer experience. Without a highly functional warehouse, a retail outlet cannot maintain inventory and keep its sales evergreen. And, no commercial facility can function without a properly maintained HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or roofing system. 

 

Proper functionality and performance start with the right preventative care. If you want to reduce downtime and extend the service life of your facility equipment, here’s what you need to do: 

 

Write manufacturer recommendations into your maintenance plan. 

We often think we know best when it comes to the maintenance of our facility. However, the manufacturer of your equipment should be the authority for preventative maintenance required for certain assets. By incorporating these recommendations into your facility’s maintenance schedule you can make preventative care simpler to stick to. 

 

Don’t over- or underuse assets. 

Most facilities either run their machinery to the ground or fail to utilize or maintain it properly. For example, some areas of your facility will be in use on a daily basis, leaving very little time for maintenance and repairs. The areas of your facility that are underused are often neglected in the maintenance plan because they are seen as unimportant. Both actions, however, will affect your facility as a whole. Total facility maintenance instead, should be conducted on a regular basis to ensure everything is in working condition whenever it is used. 

 

Choose the right equipment and upgrades. 

Maintenance services will only go so far on poor or outdated appliances. If you want your facility to improve the longer you’re in business, be mindful of opportune times to invest in upgrades for your HVAC system, electrical system, and plumbing. 

 

Communicate with your MaintenX team. 

Communication is most often the missing ingredient to a high-performing maintenance team. By addressing issues immediately and building rapport with your local MaintenX, you can avoid costly downtime and improve your asset performance incrementally. MaintenX is here to serve your facility for the long haul, so never hesitate to call us to see what more we can do for your building. 

 

To learn more about ways you can improve asset performance with preventative care, visit our Resource Center or contact us today.

Parking Lot Maintenance In The Winter

Parking lot maintenance is often an afterthought for facility managers, especially if they are managing a smaller facility and don’t see a lot of traffic. However, lot maintenance is essential for the safety of visitors and for guaranteeing a better customer experience. If you have an outdoor lot that isn’t protected from the elements like a parking garage would be, there are several steps you need to take to maintain it in the winter. 

 

Below are three ways you can improve your parking lot functionality and prevent driving accidents through preventative care: 

 

Fill in cracks and potholes now. 

Minor cracks and small potholes will grow bigger in the winter if you don’t address them. As water fills the holes, it will expand as it freezes. This will widen the crack and eventually lead to a major pothole. The best practice is to fill in the gaps during the fall in order to prevent cracking, but you can always do this on a sunny day in the winter as well. 

 

Repaint parking lot markings

De-icing chemicals used to thaw parking lots can cause the paint on your parking space markings to fade over time. This can make it difficult for visitors to see where they should park and identify handicap spots. In order to prevent this, be sure to repaint any faded markings in your parking lot before the temperatures drop. 

 

Maintain proper drainage in your lot

Pooling water will turn into ice by the next morning, which can be dangerous for pedestrians and cars driving on your lot. Be sure that you maintain your drainage system and remove debris that may be clogging it so that no such accident occurs. 

 

MaintenX helps commercial facility managers maintain all aspects of their property from curb to roof. If you need help maintaining your parking lot or repairing cracks in the surface, contact us to schedule preventative care services.