Fall Preventative Maintenance

My favorite time of year used to be the fall.  I love the smell of burning leaves, the color of the trees, pumpkin pie, and comfort food.  Then I began working maintenance and I no longer liked it as much.  Fall can be one of the busiest times of the year for a maintenance crew, and should be if things are done right.

Why is autum so busy? You would think it would be a little slower considering unit turns are not as common, no pool is there to be delt with daily, and the summer rush is over.  To the contrary, a well run maintenance team will start to prepare for winter during this "slow" time of the year.

Preventative maintenance is different for every property depending in the systems, weather, and resident profile but there are a few things that every property should be doing this time of year.  Performing these tasks will make your life easier during the winter months and allow you to keep up with the daily tasks during the holiday season and during snow removal, for those of you that are unlucky enough to have to deal with it.

Heating
Performing preventative maintenance on your heating systems is one of the most important tasks getting ready for cold weather.  This should be performed in late July to early August.  The tasks to be performed will vary depending on the system (if your not sure what to do to get your system ready establishing a relationship with a local heating contractor is a good first step, then you can ask them what they recommend).  Here are a few example of things to do:
1) Change the furnace filters.  Sounds simple but you would be surprised how many properties I have been to that don't do this simple task.  Changing the filters regularly will help prevent clogged a-coils, keep burners free of debris, and keep your flame burning clean.  It will cut down in the number of no heat calls drastically.
2) Clean your system.  Whether it's an electric, forced air, or hydronic system every system needs some sort of cleaning.  Cleaning the system will help prolong the life of the equipment and cut down on the number of service requests you get.  Check with a local heating contractor to see what is recommended for your particular system.
3) Change thermostat batteries.  Again, pretty obvious but it never hurts to point it out.
4) Start up the heating system and run through at least two cycles.  When I do this I bring the most common parts with me, such as flame sensors, limit switches, ect.  That way things can be repaired quickly if any problems are found.
5) Change smoke detector batteries.

Windows and doors
When checking the heating systems it's always a good idea to check the seal on windows and doors.

General repair check
While going through apartments for the heating check I like to check for general repairs.  We check all toilets, faucets, lights, and doors for proper operation.  Any job that will take under 5 minutes can be repaired while in the apartment, other jobs get a work order wrote up and are taken care at a later date.

Gutter cleaning
Getting the leaves and debris out of the gutter should be done once the majority of the leaves have dropped.  Clogged gutters can trap water which will freeze during the cold weather and could break gutters and down spouts.

There are many more things that can be done such as lighting checks as it starts to get dark earlier.  Look over your property and see what other ideas you can come up with.  Everything you can take care of during this time will save the midnight calls and take some of the stress out of a busy work week around the holidays.

Post any other tasks you can think of below to help others keep those residents happy!