Spring Cleaning at Your Building

Ask Kari is a monthly, Question & Answer feature from Kari Negri. Kari has two decades of property management experience, is a featured speaker at many industry trade shows, such as AAGLAs annual trade show, and is the CEO of SKY Properties, Inc. in Los Angeles.

Spring Cleaning at Your Building

This months question comes from Sydney in Los Angeles: Hi Kari, with spring cleaning tips do you have for my buildings?

Hi Sydney! Thank you for such a great question! There are many things you can do to keep your building in great shape. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Tip 1: Clean lobby, entrances and common areas

Summer is a high turnover time. Now is a great time to improve curb appeal. Start getting entrances and common areas looking their best: remove all trash, make sure and do a thorough dusting, vacuuming, and mopping. Clean all common area windows. Clean, healthy plants are also a good idea.

Tip 2: Pressure wash exterior

Remove gum from walkways, pressure wash both the walkways and building exteriors, stucco (not too much pressure as you do not want to remove paint), etc. Also, make sure to inspect parking garages for engine stains. Note that oil stains may require pre-treatment as well as a hot pressure washer. You can rent pressure wash machines from your local tool rental company.

Tip 3: Touch-up paint

In keeping with staying on top of curb appeal, do a thorough once over on all exterior paint and cracks. Staying on top of touch-up, stucco, fascia, and rain gutter repairs will save you bigger expenses in the long run.

Tip 4: Check on sprinkler timers

Double check to see that your sprinklers are turning on and off according to current daylight schedules, our drought environment, and your landscape needs, which will change with weather.

Tip 5: Building lights

Make sure all common area lights are functioning and turning on and off at the proper times or install photo sensors to turn them on and off automatically.

Tip 6: Test Smoke Alarms as required and use opportunity to inspect A/C filters

Biyearly smoke alarm inspections will alert you to possible liabilities in your units such as hoarding. Test your smoke alarms, change out batteries if necessary, test all appliances, and don't forget to look for leaks (which can become very expensive) under sinks and around toilets. Make sure all units have properly working CO2 alarms if units have gas appliances. Finally, all A/C filters should be cleaned or changed.

As always, please remember, I am not an attorney. Seek clarification through your attorney. All articles are simply an opinion. Stay in touch at www.GetSky.net

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