7 Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Commercial Facility
They say that spring is the season of renewal. It’s a time when new buds emerge, trees get fuller and the grass gets greener. And it’s not just Mother Nature. Many of us have adopted the habit of renewing the spaces we occupy with a little spring cleaning.
For facility managers, spring is a season of opportunity. While you may not have an official “spring cleaning” in your building, the season is a great time to enhance the appearance of your facility, prepare for the hot months ahead, and get proactive with your maintenance.
7 Smart Areas to Focus on with Commercial Facility Spring Cleaning
To help you plan your agenda for the spring, here are some key areas you may want to address as we move deeper into the season:
1. Landscaping: Clean up, spruce up, and green up
Your landscaping can have a huge impact on how people perceive your facility—both employees and visitors alike. A well-maintained landscape can make any building look more inviting. Spring is a time when your landscaping needs a lot of attention.
Along with preparing for regular mowing and upkeep, some additional landscaping efforts you should consider in the spring:
- Laying fresh mulch
- Weeding/putting down a pre-emergent herbicide
- Aerating and seeding/overseeding
- Trimming up bushes
- Fixing any problems areas
- Planting new trees, shrubs or flowers
2. Windows: Let there be more light in your facility
Whether harsh or mild, winter weather can leave the exterior of your building looking, well, weathered. Buildings with a lot of windows tend to bear the brunt of it. You may not even realize just how much natural light you’re losing due to that film on your windows.
When you have all your windows cleaned, it’s often like going from standard definition TV to HD. Entire rooms can brighten up, positively impacting the mood of everyone in your facility. For best results, be sure to clean both the exteriors and interiors of all your windows.
3. Carpet: Go deep to remove the harsh damage of winter
The winter months tend to be the hardest months for facility carpets. Moisture, mud and debris assault carpets at higher quantities in the winter and get ground in deeper as the result of stomping or wiping feet. Your carpet might even get hit with snow or salt, further marring its appearance and potentially causing long-term damage.
As a company that’s been in the commercial carpet cleaning business for two decades, we can tell you without a doubt there’s no more important time to have your commercial carpet deep cleaned than the spring. It’s when your facility’s carpeting really needs that extra level of clean. It will leave your carpet looking renewed and help extend the life of your carpet.
4. Upholstery: Don’t forget to refresh your office furniture
It’s not just your carpets that need a deep cleaning in the post-winter months; it’s your upholstery too. All that extra dirt and moisture that tends to make its way inside in the winter (not to mention germs and dead skin cells) also impacts the furniture in your building.
Don’t make the common mistake of overlooking your facility’s furnishings with your spring-cleaning efforts. Whether you have upholstered or leather furniture, a professional cleaning will leave it looking less old and dusty and more vibrant.
5. AC/HVAC: Prepare your system to stay cool in the heat
As you move from heating your building to firing up the air conditioning, it always a good idea to ensure your unit is running at full efficiency. You’ll want to test your equipment by running it for a while to make sure everything’s in working order. You’ll also want to identify any potential problems that could occur related to older equipment or deteriorating parts.
In addition, now is the time to clean out all your vents and ducts and remove dust from all those seldom-cleaned nooks and crannies in your unit. You’d be surprised how many buildings find things like mold or pest infestations when they do this. With AC, it’s definitely smart to take precautions now to prevent a system meltdown on a stifling hot July day.
6. Pest Management: Keep bugs from swarming your facility
As nature is reborn in the spring, so is the pest population. Whether it’s ants, termites, spiders, mosquitos, or—gulp—bed bugs, pests can cause big problems for commercial facilities. Dealing with major infestations can shut down buildings for days or even weeks. Like most things in facility management, the best approach to pest management is a proactive one.
Know what pests you need to be on the lookout for in your area, and have your building sprayed to keep those troublesome pests out. Also, if you had any pest issues the previous spring or summer, identify any exterior factors that may be attracting the pests—such as landscaping, standing water, food or garbage, or small holes or entry points in the building exterior.
7. Full Facility Check: Prevent problems and plan your next project
The start of each new season provides an opportunity to do a comprehensive walkthrough of your facility. Take this time to evaluate the state of your facility across the board. Identify any potential issues before they emerge. But also think ahead.
What equipment could benefit from an upgrade? Where could your facility benefit from new technology or smart technology? What are some ways you could reduce maintenance costs moving forward? Make your facility wish list. Even if you can’t do all (or any) of these things right now, make note of them. Maybe you can make it a goal to scratch one item off your list during the spring season.
Property and facility managers – what would you add to this list?