A brown ring on the ceiling tile above the copy room finally got reported last week. It had been there, faint, for weeks. Nobody reported it because nobody was looking up. That is exactly why regular walkthroughs are an important part of Preventive Maintenance Services. Most building problems show warning signs long before they turn into bigger repairs.
Daily Checks With Preventive Maintenance Services
The daily check is short, often under fifteen minutes. The person opening the building catches the lobby light that burned out overnight.
Then the urinal that will not stop running. Then the puddle by the door. Cleaning crews see a lot of this already.
A good one writes it down. Anything that touches safety gets handled before lunch.
Once a Week
A weekly pass goes slower and covers the shared spaces.
- Stairwells, mostly.
- Handrails get a tug.
- Exit signs get a glance to make sure they are lit.
Preventive Maintenance Services help catch small issues during these regular checks.
A carpet seam that has started to lift is a ten-minute fix in week one. By spring, it could become a trip hazard.
Once a Month
Monthly is when the doors marked Authorized Personnel get opened.
- Mechanical rooms.
- The roof hatch.
- The loading dock, where pallets tend to hide damage.
- Filters get checked.
- Extinguisher tags get read.
Often, the source of a complaint on the fourth floor turns out to be something sitting in the basement.
Seasonal Preventive Maintenance Services
Chicago puts a building through four very different conditions every year.
October is for roof drains and door sweeps, before the first freeze.
April is for the parking lot, the salt-stained entry, and whatever the plows scraped.
These are also the walkthroughs where next quarter’s bigger repairs get priced.
Annual: A Full Assessment
Once a year, the whole building gets a slow walk with a notebook. The roof membrane gets looked at.
So does the facade, the parking surface, and how the cooling held up in August.
Those notes become next year’s budget request.
Walkthroughs That Should Not Wait
Some walks cannot wait for the calendar.
- A storm that drops two inches of rain in an hour.
- A tenant moving out. A conference with 300 guests coming Saturday.
- A walk the next morning finds the damage while it is small.
It also settles who caused it before the next tenant moves in.
Building a Preventive Maintenance Services Schedule
In practice the schedule has layers. The short checks happen often. The thorough ones happen less.
Older buildings with busy lobbies need the walks closer together. Newer ones with lighter traffic can space them out.
And someone has to own the schedule. Otherwise the walks fade out after a few months.
Contact Us
Regular walkthroughs are the first step in keeping a building ahead of repairs.
Power Bright Cleaning Services provides preventive facility maintenance services for offices, schools, healthcare facilities, retail stores, and other commercial properties throughout Chicago.
Call (312) 312-7866 or email Info@powerbrightcleaning.com to learn more about our facility maintenance services.