Winter is coming to the Chicagoland area and it’s time for building managers to prepare their commercial properties. Ensuring your property is ready for winter will help protect your building and tenants. Without properly preparing your facility, the harsh Chicago winter can conjure steep repair bills should you have a pipe break due to freezing, a draft that causes your heat bill to run too high, salt that can deteriorate floors, and even increased sick days due to flu and covid season. Omni Facility Maintenance Services will help you prepare your commercial facility for winter.
Property Inspections
First and foremost, your property will need a full inspection prior to understanding what is needed to winterize it. Omni Facility Maintenance can provide this preventative maintenance inspection to locate all the areas in which your commercial property may be compromised this winter. We will also check all your exit signs and look for code violations to ensure you aren’t hit with hefty fines. During this inspection, we will review your plumbing, electrical, HVAC, rooftop, doors, windows, floors, and parking lots and sidewalks if you have them. Should we identify anything that may be of risk, we will promptly inform you and either perform the maintenance work ourselves or help you find someone who can.
Eliminate Drafts
During the inspection process, it’s possible to find leaks in doors and windows that can let in the cold, Chicago, winter air. While drafts aren’t as dire in the summer months, during the winter, a draft can escalate your heating bill immensely. With a draft coming in, the building will be much colder, forcing your HVAC to work harder and for longer periods of time to keep it nice and comfortable. Should this occur and your HVAC system not be prepared, your HVAC can cause a variety of issues, including having blocked systems, uneven airflow, broken thermostat, or carbon monoxide leaks. Don’t let this happen to your commercial property! Omni Facility Maintenance can caulk your doors and windows before the cold air comes to ensure your commercial property is ready for winter.
Flooring
With winter coming, you know what else is coming: Water and salt. To protect residents, tenants, customers, and employees, salt will most certainly be placed outside around your commercial property and most likely in the parking lot as well. This helps snow not freeze in those areas, but it can also be tracked in on people’s shoes. Depending on the amount of foot traffic your commercial property has, you will want to ensure your floors are ready and can handle this type of abrasion. Salt is abrasive, and depending on your foot traffic, you will want to make sure you have the right flooring installed or that you are prepared to either clean or protect your floors with a covering. Omni Facility Maintenance can inspect your floors and help you decide how to best care for them this winter.
Sanitation
With covid still prevailing, we are also coming into flu season. With two illnesses dominating this winter, you will want to schedule regular sanitations of your commercial property. This will help remove any viruses and bacteria that land on your floors, walls, and furniture. Protecting your tenants, clients, and team members should remain a top priority, but don’t wait to schedule these sanitations until someone is sick. Be proactive about sanitation by scheduling with Omni Facility Maintenance to come out and sanitize your facility this winter. We recommend at least weekly and at most monthly.
Winters are harsh here in Chicagoland, but that harshness doesn’t have to follow you inside. Omni Facility Maintenance can help you winterize your commercial property so that you and your tenants remain as comfortable as all the other seasons. As with all things, preventative maintenance is key. Don’t wait until it’s too late, costing you more money than if you had just followed a preventative maintenance program. Call us today and get on our schedule. We would love to help ensure your property is properly winterized.