When summer arrives in the High Desert, things can get uncomfortable pretty quickly. Most of us are spending a lot of time indoors, and that includes the tenants who rent space in your commercial property. You’ll need to be sure they can access reliable air conditioning. The days are longer, which means you might have them in your property for extended hours.
What can you do to make sure your commercial property is safe, habitable, and functional during these dog days of summer? We have a seasonal maintenance to-do list that might help.
Tend to Your Curb Appeal
Flowers may start frying and the grass is likely to begin looking a bit brown and dead. Make a plan for how you’ll keep things looking healthy and attractive outside of your building. Think about providing shade, installing water fountains, and doing other things to your property’s exterior to keep it from wilting in the summer heat.
Preparing the sprinklers is also necessary to keep your landscaping from dying of thirst. Test your irrigation and make sure all your sprinklers are pointing in the right direction. You don’t want to waste resources by watering the parking lot.
Check for Fire Hazards
Fires are more common during the hotter months, and you want to make sure your tenants and their customers are safe. Make sure all your fire extinguishers are up to date. Post your evacuation plan in every unit. Put together an emergency plan and make sure all of your fire prevention systems are working. Check smoke detectors and sprinkler systems.
Prepare Your HVAC for a Heavy Workload
Maybe you have your HVAC system inspected after the summer months or in the beginning of the year.
There’s nothing wrong with having it inspected and serviced twice a year, especially when you consider how hard it has to work in the summer.
You want your air conditioning unit to be efficient and ready to withstand the high demand. Cooler inside temperatures protect the expensive equipment your tenants may have in their units. Check thermostats and upgrade to digital equipment whenever you can.
Conduct a Security Check
The summer is an excellent time to cut down on the risk of welcoming crime to your building. If you have security cameras around the perimeter or inside the building, give them a check-up and make sure they’re working. Audit the number of keys, passcodes, or other security information that’s shared with tenants.
Check the exterior lighting. You want to make sure the building is never too dark that it attracts thieves or vandals. Make sure some lights are on at all times. If you work with a security company, check in on their systems and processes for patrolling your property.
Inspect the Electrical System
Electrical installations should be up to date and functional. It’s easy to ignore minor problems. Those outlets that don’t work or that light that never really turns on can seem like minor annoyances and nothing more. But, they could potentially lead to larger problems.
Commercial buildings use a lot of electricity. A power outage would be devastating for your tenants and their ability to continue doing their own business. You want to prevent that with an annual electrical checkup.
These are some of the things we recommend to our clients for summer maintenance must-do items. We can tell you more. Please contact us at Preston-Lee Management.
