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At MaintenX, we believe that maintenance service is more than repair. We are the nation’s trusted repairman for commercial facilities, however, we take it one step further by providing long-term solutions for operational success. MaintenX is dedicated to client success at each individual level, from budget reduction to facility efficiency, performance, and more.

It is with this mindset that we often sit down with clients to discuss their preventative maintenance goals. While not every client invests in preventative maintenance, we certainly encourage each of them to consider the benefits of preventative care and determine which services best serve their overall goals.  

As we embrace another New Year, there are several methods in which we help clients create maintenance goals and achieve them throughout the year: 

We conduct facility audits.

Facility auditing is a crucial step to preventative maintenance planning. Our contractors cannot know where to begin their preventative maintenance scheduling if they do not understand the needs of the facility, or the issues that arise throughout the year. Audits include estimating performance and life span of critical equipment, assessing areas at-risk for breakdowns, and determining which preventative maintenance measures have yielded the greatest ROI. From there we can better develop solutions customized to your facility needs and budget. 

We review 2019 services, work requests, and improved performance across multiple metrics.

In addition to auditing your facility, MaintenX audits our own work to determine areas in which we can improve to deliver better service in 2020. We analyze work order response times, frequency of repeat calls, and determine which preventative maintenance services led to the greatest outcomes, whether those be reduced downtime or increase in performance. We share these findings with you so that you can understand your own facility needs and trends better. 

We discuss areas of concern among facility and maintenance management.

A necessary component to improving performance is open communication. We don’t just look at the numbers — we listen to our clients’ stories, needs, and concerns to determine where our services exceed expectations and where they need to be improved. Your input is of the utmost importance to our maintenance staff. By opening a dialogue between maintenance and facility management teams, we hope to better serve you in 2020. 

At MaintenX, we strive to envision the shared goals for 2020, and develop a preventative maintenance strategy that addresses these key points. If reducing costs is your main concern, we will look for ways to eliminate downtime and reduce service hours while maintaining service integrity. If you are experiencing a deterioration of performance with critical equipment, we will look for solutions that address root causes. Ur technicians will listen to you and provide you with the information you need for a more productive 2020. 

Contact us today to learn more about MaintenX preventative maintenance services.

Are you interested in pursuing a trade-based career? Do you enjoy working with your hands, solving problems for real people, and investing in a field that offers self-employment opportunity? If so, subcontractor work may be right for you. Trade-based professions such as roofing, plumbing, electrical work, and HVAC repair offer professionals many great advantages. However, you should understand the demands of this line of work before investing in your technician career. Here’s what you need to know before starting a career as a subcontractor: 

Technical school is worth the effort. Technical schools are a great source of knowledge for individuals in many fields. They are often more affordable than traditional universities and give you the hands-on training you need in order to enter an HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or another maintenance field. You can certainly learn the tricks of the trade by trial and error, but technical school and apprenticeships give you a leg up against the rest of the skilled labor force. 

Research licenses, accreditations, and insurance needed in your field. Because of the high-stakes nature of most maintenance jobs, many of these fields require that professionals receive certification, licensing, and liability insurance. You can get into major legal trouble if you do not cover your bases. If you don’t have these assets, at best you won’t get hired by quality customers, and at worst you will be sued. Always research your licensing and insurance requirements, or work for a contractor network that will offer these benefits for you. 

You can set your own schedule, but so can your clients. It is true that contractors and subcontractors are able to set their own rules and schedules when it comes to workload. However, you are in a more competitive market, with little knowledge of where the next job will come in. Oftentimes self-employed contractor work requires a greater workload in order to maintain consistent income throughout the year. You will need to learn to balance your time well between work and other responsibilities. 

MaintenX offers one of the largest trusted subcontractor networks in the country. Our staff are given the training and benefits they want in order to succeed in technician work such as HVAC repair, plumbing, electrical work, and roofing. We expect the best from our subcontractors, and are able to offer them the best:

Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance

Life Insurance and Short and Long Term Disability

401(k) retirement plan with company match

Paid Vacations

Paid Holidays and Sick Days

Personal Cell Phone Service Discount through Company Cell Phone Carrier

Company Vehicle and Uniforms provided 

Fuel Card provided for Company Vehicle 

Opportunities for Overtime Hours 

Opportunity for Career Growth!

Contact us today or visit our careers page for more information.

The workforce changes day-to-day, month-to-month, year by year, and from one generation to the next. This ever-tumultuous job market demands individuals to put their best foot forward in many ways. Hard work, education, market demand, and intrinsic talent all play a part in shaping the next generation to be ready for working life. 

While more and more younger generations are going to college, the prices for these degrees are becoming increasingly higher. According to The Institute for College Access and Success, the average college student owes around $28,650 in student loans (and that’s with a majority going to public institutions). In addition, the prospect of high-paying corporate jobs are becoming less appealing. The prospects within the corporate role lave lost their luster, whereas freelance and service jobs are seeing a comeback in popularity due to lowered restrictions and a perceived lower entry point for success. 

Younger generations, especially those in “Gen Z,” born after 1995, find a technician’s or freelance job appealing for obvious reasons. These jobs do not require four years of schooling, $25,000+ in student debt, and a decade-long climb up the corporate ladder to succeed. With a two-year, affordable education and hard work, these young professionals can create successful careers doing hands-on, invigorating work. 

It is for this reason that MaintenX is stepping up our recruiting with young professionals. We believe that subcontractor and trade-based jobs provide a number of benefits for those looking at alternative-career paths. Not only do we think that trade-based jobs offer numerous appeals to younger professionals, but that we need them in order to build a sustainable industry. Here’s why: 

Young professionals are tech-savvy. Younger generations have the advantage of being able to adopt to new technologies in HVAC and plumbing fields. They can easily be taught the tactical skills, and already possess a propensity for work order management technology that is at the forefront of maintenance innovation. This is an area where seasoned workers in maintenance fields often struggle, and could benefit from a fresh perspective brought on by young professionals. 

Younger generations value stability. Young professionals are looking for stability and higher pay more than ever in their careers, and are willing to put in longer hours in order to gain these benefits. Surveys show that growing up in the Great Recession, “Gen Z” watched their millennial older brother and sisters struggled to find jobs after investing in a college education. This has geared them less towards creative and information-based fields, and more towards pragmatic skill-based jobs. They are also delaying marriage and families until later in life, meaning that they are more willing to invest in their careers at a young age. This drive for career success puts young professionals at a distinct advantage in trade-based jobs, such as HVAC repair and plumbing. 

Finally, these young generations are key to making a smooth transition from one generation in the labor workforce to the next. Gen X and Millennial workforce are severely underrepresented in morder maintenance and contractor work. In order to keep these industries alive, we must encourage younger minds to pursue alternative career paths. It is through proper cultivation of young talent that we can keep trades such as HVAC repair and plumbing a thriving industry. 

If you’d like to learn more about MaintenX HVAC and plumbing positions and training, visit our careers page or contact us today.

Facility maintenance is a critical aspect of operational efficiency. If you don’t think about your maintenance strategies, you lose a great deal of information about your business health as a whole. The condition of your building affects your day-to-day operations, your budget, and everything in between. Do, you must ask yourself, “Is my facility equipped to handle the demands of the company now and in the future?”  

Conducting a Facility Condition Assessment will help you ascertain the health of your facility and develop strategies for short- and long-term improvement. You can begin by developing a Real Property Inventory, or a comprehensive list of your facility assets and their characteristics. This list should include the location, purchase date and age, and other qualifying characteristics of equipment to better categorize it and understand its role in your operations. 

Once you’ve created a Real Property Inventory, you must audit equipment and determine the performance level based on its age and intended function. This auditing process will give you a sense of where you are achieving maximum operational efficiency, and areas that need improvement. Auditing your equipment piece by piece will help you better ascertain the condition of your facility using objective criteria. 

After auditing, you can then:

1. Predict the remaining lifespan of critical equipment. No piece of facility machinery will last forever. In order to not only budget for upgrades, but prevent critical breakdowns, you must be able to accurately predict the lifespan of critical applications. A Facility Condition Assessment can help you and your maintenance team to determine when equipment will start to pose performance and efficiency, and when it will have to be replaced before breakdowns start to occur.
2. Budget for equipment upgrades. Upgrading your equipment should be a major part of the facility budget. Upgrading to newer technologies, while expensive in the short-term, can provide numerous long-term benefits to profits and sustainability. By using the information gathered from your equipment audits, you can budget year-by-year for upgrades and ancillary maintenance services. 
3. Strategize your preventative maintenance schedule. Facility equipment at the beginning of its life cycle needs drastically different maintenance services than equipment nearing the end. The Facility Condition Assessment will help you schedule preventatively maintenance services wisely, reducing unnecessary expenditure and better protecting your assets. 

Facility Condition Assessments offer invaluable information for facility managers to better control the work environment. Talk to MaintenX today to learn about our preventative maintenance and auditing services.

Solar energy is a hot topic in modern business discourse. Solar panels are seen as an innovative alternative that should be embraced by some, and prohibitively expensive non-solution to others. Before a facility manager makes a decision on whether to install solar panels at their facility, they should receive comprehensive information pertinent to their operational goals. 

MaintenX wants to help our clients not only maintain safe and efficient facilities but provide resources for enhancing facility operations at all levels. We support new ideas in energy and equipment operations and want our clients to have the information and resources they need to make smart energy choices. 

Benefits of Solar Panels for Businesses

Solar energy can be incredibly beneficial for owner-occupied facilities with roofing structures that can support solar panel installation. Some of these benefits include: 

• Commercial facilities with solar panels can produce their own electricity, reducing reliance and expenditure on traditional forms of energy
• Commercial facilities with solar panels are more resilient to fluctuations in the price of electricity from their municipalities or region. 
• Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) earned through producing solar power can be sold when cash on hand is short 
• Buildings with solar panels typically have a higher property value, depending on the region and local real estate market
• Commercial facilities that invest in solar power can receive tax credits and benefit from sustainable incentive programs
• Solar panels can produce nearly 30% ROI annually 
• Investing in solar panels can earn a company media coverage and bolster a brand’s marketing efforts as a sustainable enterprise

Opposition to Solar Roofing Installations

Solar power provides numerous benefits to companies. Not only can they provide handsome cost-savings rewards, but they offer new financial and marketing opportunities that other companies do not have. However, solar panels do not solve all of a facility’s energy or environmental sustainability issues. 

One of the biggest problems of implementing solar energy is its lack of reliability and utility in certain regions. Solar energy is much more powerful in Southwestern areas of the United States where sunlight is available year-round with little rainfall or natural obstruction. Uncontrollable factors such as the amount of daylight available throughout the day and the intensity of sunlight make solar panels less reliable than their fossil-fuel based counterparts. Solar panels may be a great investment if your facility is located in the southwest deserts of the U.S., but not as profitable if you leave in the Pacific Northwest where sunlight is less frequent and intense. 

Solar energy poses environmental risks as well. While the process of producing solar energy from solar cells is emission-free, the raw materials required to produce solar panels can be quite toxic. Dangerous substances such as nitrogen trifluoride, cadmium, and other heavy metals are used to create solar panels. Some of them are known human carcinogens, while others require intense mining which creates environmental issues of its own. Solar panels are also not easy to recycle, meaning that after their 20-25 year lifespan, they may end up overseas or in American landfills. 

Solar is also not a practical solution if you have an older roof or a roof that is not suited for solar panel installations in the first place. Fixing roofing issues after a solar panel installation takes place is much more complex. If your roofing is not in good condition, you will need to update it before installing panels. Roofing that is steeply pitched and not flat, or is exposed to frequent strong winds may not be suitable for solar installations regardless of its condition.  

At MaintenX, we believe in finding the right solutions for businesses. Our technicians strive to provide honest information and quality service when it comes to roofing installation, repair, and solar panel care. Contact us to learn more about energy-efficient options for your facility, or our roofing care services.

Corrosion is a big problem for maintenance workers and facility managers alike. This natural process of degrading and rusting is caused by oxidation from environmental elements, and is a never-ending battle to stop. When corrosion occurs, the structural integrity of your piping and metal appliances is compromised. This can cause major maintenance issues if not dealt with proactively. 

The corrosion of metals is impossible to prevent entirely. Air, water, and other natural elements will inevitably come into contact with your piping and metal equipment; however, there are several ways in which you can minimize their effects. Choosing aluminum and stainless steel, as well as investing in protections for machinery will give you the longest service life for the equipment at your facility. 

Below are three ways in which you can better protect your facility equipment from corrosion. 

Choosing galvanized metal products. Galvanization is the process of adding a zinc coating to steel or iron parts. The zinc prevents corrosion by up to several years or decades. While galvanization is not a process you can perform on existing equipment, choosing products and parts that are galvanized will lead to longer service life. 

Regular leaning. One simple solution you can apply to any metal piece of equipment is proper cleaning and preventative maintenance. When dust, dirt, and grease accumulate on metal parts, the protective coatings begin to wear. When the protective coating vanishes, corrosion happens much more quickly. Schedule regular maintenance checks on metal appliances to ensure they are properly cleaned. 

Protective coatings or sealants. In addition to the protective coating or galvanizing from the manufacturer, you can invest in additional protective layers for your metal products or parts. Protective layers such as paint, lubricants for moving metal parts, and rubber sealants will stave of corrosion for many years. 

If you are concerned about corrosion of facility equipment, contact MaintenX for help. We offer preventative maintenance and repair services for businesses in 13 states. As part of our commitment to customer satisfaction, we guarantee quick and affordable service. Find our local MaintenX team today!

Environmental conservation is a hot topic in today’s corporate culture. However, underlying in the umbrella of eco-consciousness is a concept that most businesses strive for every day: energy efficiency. Facilities that are energy efficient are not only able to reduce their environmental impact, but they are also able to cut costs dramatically. There are many ways in which these cost savings can be achieved. 

MaintenX encourages our clients to invest in energy efficiency today. There are benefits to gain for your facility, your employees, and the community at large, all of which contribute to the long-term sustainability of your organization. Below are just a few ways in which you can invest in an energy-efficient future at your facility: 

Remote working. Remote working, when a viable option for office workers, is a great way to grow your company without increasing costs. Workers can utilize their home resources, reduce their commuting costs, and save on other work-related expenses by spending more time in the home office. This eliminates not only energy costs for you, but costs in nearly all other aspects of hiring. This also makes you a more attractive employer for many candidates. 

Energy-efficient HVAC. Your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning account for a large percentage of your energy bill. Reducing these costs with an energy-efficient HVAC upgrade can significantly improve your air quality as well as your monthly power bill. Talk to MaintenX about energy-efficient HVAC options for your facility. 

A paperless office. Paper use in offices is a major source of waste and carbon emissions. In fact, it is estimated that if office paper usage in the U.S. was reduced by just 10%, the country could reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 1.6 million tons. This waste equated to higher energy costs across the board, which can be significantly reduced, if not eliminated, by digital record keeping and communications. Paperless offices are not for everyone, but making a conscious effort to reduce paper waste will help you reduce your overall energy use.  

Energy-efficient roofing. Your roofing may be one of the most overlooked areas for potential energy savings. Energy-efficient roofing helps to reflect the sun’s rays in order to eliminate heat transference. This helps to reduce air conditioning costs during the summer, which account for a majority of energy costs. In addition to energy-efficient roofing, you may want to consider installing solar panels on roofs to diversify your energy sources. 

There are many ways in which a company can reduce both their environmental impact and their budget. MaintenX provides many solutions with our installation and service options for energy-efficient HVAC, plumbing, roofing, and other commercial systems. Contact us today for more information.

Setting expectations may be one of the most difficult skills to learn as a manager. When spreading your time across teams and departments, it can be difficult to dedicate enough time to each area of operations. However, a lack of expectations from management is one of the leading causes of lagging productivity and employee dissatisfaction in American business. 

In order to achieve the results you want in any discipline, you need to set clear expectations. This includes expectations with your maintenance team. Your maintenance technicians are there to serve you, but they can’t if they don’t understand your needs and goals. You must work to communicate with them efficiently and effectively. 

Expectations should be set with the following criteria in mind:

#1: Mutual understanding. In order to ensure that you and your maintenance team understand the issue in the same way, practice this exercise: Explain the issue that you’re facing or the goal you want to achieve at your facility, and then have the technician explain it back to you. If they explain correctly using their own words, then you know that you are on the same page. If not, you need to work together to determine where disconnects in communication are occuring, and reframe your objectives so that everyone is focused on the same results.

Results. When communication is clear between the management and maintenance teams, you can then focus on results. You as the management need to communicate what results you desire, whether that be a quick repair of a piece of equipment or a reduction in maintenance costs over the course of the year. Your maintenance team must them communicate a plan to achieve those results. Working together, you can realistically achieve most goals. 

Time. While results matter, they do not matter as much when they are not achieved in a timely matter. If you want to reduce reactive maintenance costs within one year, and your maintenance team develops a five-year plan, you are at a disconnect. Work with your maintenance team to determine timeframes that will allow them to perform quality work and not derail your other facility management goals. 

Emergency protocol. Every facility needs emergency maintenance service. Whether it’s an unexpected leak or response to a natural disaster, you need someone on-call to provide service. A reputable facility maintenance company will provide emergency services for their clients, and be able to lay out expectations for emergency response protocol. 

MaintenX believes in working with our clients to determine best practices for preventive and emergency maintenance service. We serve 13 states across the U.S., helping small businesses maintain their integrity from the inside out. Contact us today to learn more about our services. 

The term “green building” is often tossed around in talks about energy efficiency and environmental protection in the business world. However, few facility managers understand what this term means, or how it relates to their decisions as leaders. Green building isn’t simply a buzzword used to attract attention from environmental activists. It’s a concept in building design that can save you time, money, and resources when approached holistically. 

Green building encompasses all aspects of architectural design that aims to reduce energy and water consumption, improve indoor air quality, and minimize environmental impact from building material choices. This ecologically sustainable and energy-efficient approach to design helps owners and tenants reduce a building’s recurring costs as well as its impact on the community. 

In America, commercial and residential buildings account for approximately 40% of energy and natural resource consumption. As non-renewable energy costs continue to rise, and accessibility to natural resources continue to decline, this percentage is likely to increase. The solution, one that will reduce human costs and environmental consequences, is green building technology. 

Green buildings with the greatest focus on energy-efficiency can reduce energy costs by nearly 30%. These buildings also offer greater ROI than traditional buildings. It’s estimated that for each $4 per square foot invested in green building technology, your facility can yield a $58 increase in property value over a 20-year period. As green technology becomes more desirable in the market, this trend will likely cause greater property value differences between energy-efficient and traditional buildings. 

In addition to cost savings in energy efficiency, you can receive financial benefits for green technology in the form of government rebates and incentive programs. As our socioeconomic landscape changes, more and more local and national government programs are encouraging businesses to adopt sustainable building and energy practices. In Tampa, Florida, where MaintenX is headquartered, there are over 40 incentive programs for renewables and energy-efficiency, found on the DSIRE database. 

If you’d like to learn about more ways in which your facility can adopt green building principles, contact MaintenX today. We help our clients retrofit existing technologies with energy-efficient ones, and provide holistic preventative maintenance service to extend the life of your green tech. Your long-term success is our priority!

With rising rent and overcrowding in America’s most industrious cities, maximizing space has garnered greater attention in the business community. It is difficult to afford more space for growing facility needs; however, facility managers can easily maximize space by implementing an efficient design in their offices and workspaces. 

Disorganized, dark, and cluttered spaces can cause issues with productivity and safety goals. Whether that space is an inventory warehouse or a large corporate office, the way you budget and maximize space has an effect on the way your facility functions. To combat productivity issues due to disorganization, you can make these three simple changes to your workplace design: 

Invest in efficient lighting. Maintaining light in a workspace can make it easier for employees to focus, as the light keeps them more alert than ambient lighting. Dark offices and warehouses also cause a space to look smaller. This creates a less-than productive workplace that can be easily avoided by investing in smart lighting systems. Install bright lights in your workspace, and ensure that they are energy-efficient to concurrently reduce energy costs. 

Maximize vertical space. When most facility managers attempt to maximize floor space, they look for ways to combine and reduce material needs. However, you can achieve the same results by instead maximizing your vertical space. Install more vertically efficient storage equipment to replace used floor space with used wall space. This works in both warehouse and cramped office spaces. 

Lean operational principles. Budgeting your space has more to do with actual square footage used. You need to think outside the box to find ways in which you can reduce the need for material resources, therefore creating a more efficient operating system. Minimizing material inputs will help you better budget your space as well as your financial and human resources. 

By maximizing space and minimizing waste, you can better manage a facility of any size. Along with better budgeting of space, you should consider ways to improve the management of your physical assets. MaintenX offers preventative maintenance resources and services to help you improve facility efficiency across the board. Talk to your local MaintenX team to learn more.