As the old saying goes, a stitch in time saves nine, and for property maintenance, a truer statement has never been spoken. Neglected property maintenance tasks can contribute to extra time and money spent on ensuring your building remains in good condition.
Buildings tend to deteriorate faster than they look, and problems with buildings won’t go away on their own. With regular property maintenance, you will be able to spot problem areas earlier, which will help you get to them faster. With smaller repair jobs, you will save money and time as well as keep your property’s inhabitants and visitors safe.
However, there is so much involved with property maintenance that it is easy to overlook some essential but more hidden-away tasks. Are the following six tasks on your property maintenance checklist?
1. Side Yards
A side yard is an area that runs along the side of a property between the building’s exterior walls and any boundary walls or fences. They are usually not seen from the street and receive less traffic than other areas of the landscape, and thus, are easy to forget about and neglect. Many properties use side yards as extra storage, drainage, or simply as empty space.
Increase the outlook of your property by paying attention to these areas. Add paving and low-maintenance plants if there aren’t already. Ensure that any property maintenance or cleaning companies you hire include these areas onto their list of areas to clean.
2. Low Traffic Walkways
Similar to side yards, walkways that run along the far side of your property, between buildings, or are in areas that see little pedestrian activity are often forgotten and neglected.
However, poorly maintained walkways can be susceptible to dirt, drainage issues, or structural damage. These can deter people from using this walkway, adding to its neglect.
Create a property maintenance task list and program for all your walkways to keep them looking new and inviting for users.
3. Decking Supports
Because of their obscure positioning, loose, rotten, or damaged decking supports are often unnoticed until it is too late. Usually concealed by decking covering, trellises, or buried beneath the ground, it is easy to forget to regularly inspect and maintain any decking supports your property may have.
Talk to your property maintenance team to develop a plan that will ensure your decking supports are routinely inspected. Add this to your list of property maintenance tasks and give your property’s occupants and visitors the confidence and peace of mind to use a deck is sound and secure.
4. Drainage
It only takes one heavy rainfall to remind you that your landscape drainage system needs as much regular care as the rest of your outdoor spaces.
Improperly maintained drainage systems can wreck havoc on your plants, carry dirt onto patios and walkways, and cause pooling on lawns. In extreme cases, it can even bring down retaining walls because of how heavy the soil gets behind the wall as it becomes saturated with water.
Maintain your drainage systems regularly as one of your property maintenance tasks and keep your landscapes beautiful, clean, and danger-free.
5. Large Tree Care
Large trees may seem unaffected by old age, weather, fungus, disease, and pests. However, regular tree care is absolutely essential to keeping your large trees healthy and prosperous. It minimises the risk of losing your property’s trees to ill health and storm damage, protects your property from the damage of a fallen tree, and keeps your property green, beautiful, and inviting.
There are two main methods to tree maintenance:
- Tree Lopping: the trimming of tree branches to reduce and modify the size of the tree
- Tree Pruning: protects trees against disease to aid health for a long life
Click here to read more about large tree care in our previous blog. Not sure which is more important for your large trees? Speak to a professional to determine if tree lopping or tree pruning is the property maintenance task for you.
6. Façade Maintenance
One of the largest jobs on any property maintenance task list is the Façade Maintenance. Ideally, you want to clean and maintain your building’s façade every 3-5 years. Putting off façade maintenance means that stains, grime, and dirt can accumulate and combine to form other compounds that become more difficult to clean.
Depending on your location, the weather may see more extremes, or air pollution may be stronger, which can cause faster grime build-up. The materials used in your façade may also contribute to how often you need to maintain your building’s exterior.
Although it may be tempting to put it off, don’t! Your building’s appearance is often the first thing people see when they arrive at your property. Be sure to make a good impression with a clean and well-kept façade.
Any landscape is a condition of the spirit.
Henri Federic Amiel
Although properly and regularly keeping up with your property maintenance tasks may feel like another chore on top of a never-ending list of chores, making sure your property is in good shape will help prevent issues from arising and protect your property. It will also prevent you from having a huge repair bill later down the line from irregular maintenance or cleaning.
Feeling like you don’t enough spare time (or effort) to keep your property in its best shape? We can do it for you.
Contact Star PM for a quote and consultation and never neglect your property again.