Author: MaintenX

Buying VS Leasing Utility Vehicles

The age-old question, to buy or to lease? Read on to find out the pros and cons of buying vs. leasing a utility vehicle for your business.

Leasing Advantages

  • Taxes: Monthly lease payments are tax-deductible as a business expense
  • Repair Costs: Maintenance is covered as part of some leases
  • Lower Payments:  Leases tend to have lower monthly payments than purchasing

Purchasing Advantages

You Own It: You can sell the vehicle and recoup some of your original investment

Taxes: The cost of the vehicle is a business expense for tax purposes. Moreover, depending on your area, hybrid and electric vehicles could be eligible for a tax break

Purchasing Disadvantages

Upkeep: After your warranty or dealer services run out, you must front all future tune-ups and repairs.

When you buy a utility vehicle for your business, you also now have an asset. This asset can be resold later. You could also have a utility vehicle which later increases in value, depending on the sector-specific alterations or future popularity of the model. However, if you are in a business that requires switching in and out of vehicles often, then leasing would likely be the most cost-effective and expedient route.

Every business is different. That’s why you should take a good look at your sector as well as the current and future needs of your company. All of this together will help you make the best decision.

Green Landscaping Best Practices

Green landscaping is more than selecting the plants that are the most aesthetically pleasing. It’s about choosing the right plants along with the most efficient use of water and resources to sustain your lawn. The closer it resembles the natural biosphere, the more it will take care of itself.

Sound like something you might be interested in tackling? Below are some helpful and easy practices for your next green landscaping project.

The Right Lawn

Choose the grass best suited to your local climate and conditions. Make sure to do your homework. Native flora is your best bet, as it’s already adapted to live in your environment and will require minimal upkeep.

The Right Dirt

Healthy plants need healthy environs, so make sure your soil has the right balance of nutrients.

Prevent Runoff

Landscaping layout is also very important to the health of your lawn. Make sure to utilize natural light, provide drainage, and take advantage of rainfall where possible.

Materials

For a truly green landscape, you need to use the right materials:

  • Use recycled materials
  • Design lighting prudently to decrease energy use
  • Use solar power
  • Reduce ambient light pollution
  • Choose and greener equipment that uses more sustainable fuel sources
  • Use organic pest management solutions
  • Avoid pesticides prohibited by environmental groups

Self-regulating System

The more you acclimate your lawn to the existing environment, the easier it will be to maintain. The best lawns are self-regulating, because they use the existing structures and soil to take care of themselves. Which means a beautiful lawn and a lot less work for you!

Tips for Improving Construction Documents

Construction documents are essential to any building project. Because of their significance in the building process, it is very important that each project has stringent, organized document procedures.

We’ll go through some helpful ideas to keep your construction portfolio in tip-top shape.

Accessibility

Easy access to information ensures that all staff know the schedule and stay informed. The easiest method to do this is to use software like Google Drive that allows groups to view and edit all relevant documents remotely. This makes the construction process go a lot more smoothly.

Keep Staff in the Loop

Most existing document managing software will routinely alert you when pertinent changes are made to your documents.

Storage

Using one system across the board is the easiest option for file storage. If you do decide to go the digital route, you must make sure that ALL documents are stored in the same place. If you have some physical documents and some digital ones, it can become a nightmare down the road.

Document control isn’t something to take lightly, but a little bit of preparation goes a long way. If you do your homework and look at all available options, you’ll find the solution that works best for your project. This way, everything will be in one place and accessible to everyone who needs to be in the know.

Drain Cleaning Tips

The drainage system is an essential yet often ignored part of your home or workplace. If left untended for too long, though, you might experience a wide range of problems: bad smells and harmful bacteria, for example. But not to worry! Follow these simple tips to keep your drains clean and operational for years to come.

Hot Water

Run hot water until your sink is full and let it sit for half an hour before draining. The heat helps to clear the pipe’s walls of the buildup and can even help to dislodge an existing clog. This method works particularly well with kitchen sinks.

Vinegar and Baking Soda

Don’t want to pour toxic chemicals down a clogged drain? Try a 50/50 combination of vinegar and baking soda. Low-cost and safe, vinegar and baking soda can keep your drains clear of clogs, and takes care of odors common to sinks. A half cup of baking soda poured into the drain followed by a half cup of vinegar should do the trick. For extra cleaning power, pour boiling water down the drain afterwards. The two ingredients react with one another to bubble up and clear debris and blockages without damaging your pipes or your health.

Use a Plunger

One solution for your clogged drains is the bathroom plunger you already own. It’s an easy process:

  • First, cover the drain opening with the plunger
  • Then press back and forth in a circular motion for about 1 to 2 minutes.
  • Check to see if the clog is fixed
  • If it isn’t, try this process several more times.

This steady buildup of pressure can easily remove both small and significant clogs.

Need drain cleaning tips? Call the experts at MaintenX today!

Ways to Keep Your Occupants Healthy During Flu Season

Keeping your facility’s occupants healthy year-round should be a big priority for owners and facility managers alike, and flu season is no exception. Luckily, there are a few steps you can put in place to help prevent the spread of the flu in your facility.

Know who is the most Vulnerable to the Flu

Although everyone is susceptible to getting the flu, some are at higher risk of exposure. They include: 

  • People over the age of 65
  • People whose immune systems are compromised
  • Pregnant women
  • People with chronic medical conditions (asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease)

There are some simple things your occupants can do to minimize the effects of flu season:

Get Vaccinated

This is the best method to stop the spread of the flu. Encourage your occupants to get vaccinated.

Sick? Stay Home!

This seems like a no-brainer, but many people go to work sick. This naturally spreads illness, including the flu.

Wash your Hands

Encourage occupants to frequently wash their hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. An alcohol-based hand rub can also be used when soap and water are not readily available.

Clean Surfaces

Keep surfaces (telephones, door knobs, computer equipment, etc.) clean. Avoid using other peoples’ phones, desks, computers, or other frequently touched equipment.

Want to know more about keeping your facility safe from the flu this winter? Call MaintenX today!

Design Basics for Solar Carports

The growing popularity of solar technology has led to some surprising innovations. One example of this is the solar carport.

What is a Solar Carport?

Solar carports offer all the benefits of traditional carports, like providing shade and protecting your vehicle from the elements, with the added benefit of supplying your home or even electric vehicle with energy collected from sunlight.

Solar carports use comparable equipment to traditional solar panel systems, so the installation process is much the same.

Benefits of Solar Carports

One big advantage of solar carports, in contrast to traditional ground-mounted panel arrays, is that they don’t need extra land to be installed. For this reason, solar panel carports are a more efficient use of space. Depending on your state, you may even be eligible for a tax credit for installing one. If you want to maximize the use of your space while still benefitting from solar energy, a solar carport might be a smarter option than a ground-mounted system.

Flexibility

Another advantage of a solar carport is that it offers you more flexibility. When installing solar panels on a roof, many factors can limit where its panels are placed.

A solar carport, on the other hand, can be assembled anywhere. The direction of your solar panels and the angle they are positioned changes the amount of energy they can collect. With the freedom to angle and position a semi-mobile structure like a carport, this method can help you maximize the energy output of your solar panel array.

Easy Integration

Solar carports can also be integrated with a home battery or electric vehicle charging port.

Want to know more about solar carports? Call MaintenX today!

Easy Fixes to Increase Thermal Comfort

As the temperature drops, people across the country turn on the heat in their homes and workplaces. Soon afterwards, they often start to worry about the cost of their heating bills. Luckily, there are many simple things you can do to keep warm this winter without breaking the bank.

Rugs

Rugs not only make rooms more stylish and inviting, they’re also great at keeping heat from escaping through the floor. They also keep your feet warm on tile and hardwood flooring.

Insulate Outlets on Exterior Walls

Heat loss can happen in many ways, but people often forget about their electrical outlets as a potential cause. The solution? You can pick up socket sealers or outlet insulating kits at your local hardware store or on Amazon. Most kits cost as little as two dollars apiece and are even cheaper in bulk. Simply install them underneath the faceplate of outlets and watch your heating bill drop.

Doors and Windows

Window and door maintenance is a great way to keep the heat in and the cold out. Try adding caulk or weather stripping to seal up air leaks around drafty doors and windows. Check the sealing around windows and doors to prevent heat loss. It’s also a good idea to seal any air leaks around chimneys and keep your flue closed when not in use. Replace or repair screen doors. Do the same for window screens.

Want to know more ways to keep warm this winter? Call MaintenX today!

Facility Audit Checklist

Efficiency is vital in any facility. If everything isn’t in good working order, it can mean a big loss for your company over time. That’s why it’s important to have a comprehensive facility audit checklist, and to perform audits regularly.

Below are some tips for creating the perfect checklist for your facility’s next audit.

What’s Involved?

To ensure a comprehensive facility audit, you must plan strategically. A combination of both short-term and long-term planning is your best bet.

A good facility audit checklist is comprehensive. It will usually include the following:

  • Land and permanent structures
  • Buildings
  • Facility systems
  • Equipment
  • Roads
  • Parking facilities
  • Fences
  • Utility systems
  • Trees, landscaping structures, lawns, etc.

Energy Usage

Energy use and utility costs are huge expenses for most facilities. That’s why it’s a good idea to include this metric in your facility audit regimen. Track this information over time and then respond accordingly to help curb costs.

Some ways to limit energy usage include:

  • Installing motion-sensor lighting
  • Installing energy efficient light bulbs like LEDs
  • Turning off power strips at the end of the workday or when not in use
  • Upgrading older appliances and general office equipment as needed

Securing your Security

The last thing you want is a break-in at your facility because you forgot to put this item on your checklist. A simple security system inspection doesn’t take much time and can thwart a would-be thief or arsonist.

Almost all systems, equipment, and assets within a facility need regular inspection and maintenance in order to work efficiently and consistently. That’s why a comprehensive audit plan is so important.

Want to know more about facility audits? Call the experts at MaintenX today!

How Data Can Inform Operation Decisions

Many business owners are beginning to take advantage of data to give them important insights into their operational decisions. Using analytics can improve service delivery while providing for more effective resource distribution. To get this helpful information, data analysis often uses multiple sets of data, of variable sizes and contexts. Below we will highlight some of the important facets of data analytics and how it can help your facilities work smarter.

Importance of Data Analytics

Considering the ever-increasing complexity of systems in today’s facilities, regular maintenance is crucial. Some of the main challenges facing facility managers are:

  • Ineffective energy metrics
  • Incongruent systems
  • Lack of reliable energy management systems
  • Inability to track system performance

These challenges can damage a facility’s operational efficiency. But using data metrics can foresee problems that traditional maintenance methods miss.

How it Works

Data analytics is the answer to many problems facilities face. Decision-making is simpler when utilizing data collected through such metrics as:

  • Internal or customer surveys
  • Smart meters
  • IT networks
  • Occupant behavior

Detecting Future Equipment or System Failure

Data analytics can forecast systems in need of maintenance before a problem even arises. With the help of integrated systems within a facility, disaster can be averted, and costly repairs and downtime can be avoided altogether.

Managing Facility Performance

By utilizing the power of data, many complex and intricate systems can be viewed in a simple, transparent way. For example, any facility manager will tell you that energy usage is not a constant, easily trackable metric.

But facilities that utilize smart sensors and/or smart meters can give you access to data while automatically suggesting solutions. These smart sensor systems allow facilities to shift non-essential power to non-peak hours, saving money while keeping your facility at peak efficiency.

Want to know more about how data can help your facility work more efficiently? Call MaintenX today!

How to Conduct a Facilities Audit

As a business owner or facility manager, it’s vital to do regular facility and safety audits to ensure a comfortable and healthy environment for staff along with code compliance. Although it may seem daunting, it isn’t difficult to do a successful facilities audit, but it does take a bit of preparation.

Below are a few helpful tips to make sure your facilities audit goes off without a hitch.

Know What Needs Inspecting

When you’re conducting a facility audit, you must first have your inventory checklist with all pertinent equipment and systems. Every facility is different, but the list usually includes things like:

  • HVAC system
  • Electrical system
  • Septic and plumbing
  • Doors and windows
  • Structural integrity
  • Outdoor structures, including parking lots, sidewalks, trees, and fences
  • Roof and building exterior

Keeping a regular record of the health of all of these systems and structures will help you to determine the life cycles of each part of your facility. By providing you with the necessary information, an audit should be relatively easy to compete.

HVAC System

Your HVAC system does a lot of hard work year-round. That’s why a professional should carefully inspect your HVAC system to determine its quality and effectiveness and whether it requires any repairs to pass inspection. If you’ve kept up your regular maintenance, this part should be a breeze.

Want to know more about facility audits? Contact the professionals at MaintenX today!