Tips for Facility Managers to Preserve the Assets in Commercial Buildings

Whether you’re a facility manager that has years of work experience or you have just started in the field of facility management, we all know that this job requires continued education together with plenty of wise and knowledgeable advice, especially when it comes to the preservation of assets.    

As a facility manager of a building, preservation of assets should be at the top on your list of priorities. A facility manager is responsible for recruiting companies that provide services like MEP services, air conditioning maintenance, generator maintenance, lifts maintenance, cleaning and janitorial services, and many other soft and hard services so that the building’s assets can be kept and maintained in top-notch shape and condition. A facility manager is also responsible for making sure that when assets of a building require repairs then they’re done in an efficient and effective manner. In addition, it is important for a facility manager to possess the ability to identify whether any damage to a building asset has been caused due to normal wear and tear or by the way the tenant used or handled the said asset.  

Carrying out the aforementioned tasks in a timely manner are critical towards the preservation of a building including its assets. Some of those building assets include woodwork, carpeting, upholstery and hard surface flooring. All the assets within a building have an expected useful life. A facility manager should ensure that all the building assets are either meeting or in some cases exceeding their expected useful life. Mentioned below are some advises and tips that if followed can help you in preserving assets of your building as well as increasing their life span:

Tips for Maintaining Carpets in Good Condition

Carpeting is a significantly big expenditure, especially if you’ve a lot of area to cover. There are a number of different grades of carpets that are available at different rates, but irrespective of the carpet you select, it’s a big investment. As a facility manager, you should ensure that the carpet lasts as long as possible so that the building owners don’t have to spend a lot in replacing the carpet earlier than expected.

It is highly important for a facility manager to recruit a cleaning company that not only has adequate cleaning knowledge but also the latest cleaning equipment, to ensure that carpets within the building remain in good shape and condition. In order to ensure that the carpets exceed their expected useful life it is important that your service provider provides you with deep cleaning services at least once a year, in addition, to periodically cleaning areas that are highly susceptible to high traffic or areas that have a tendency to become quickly soiled.

Tips for Preserving Hard Floors

Hard floor surfaces can survive for multiple years only if they are properly cared for by the building’s management. If proper attention and care is not diverted towards maintaining these hard floors then it can cost a lot to replace such floors, particularly if it’s high-end-flooring such as marble or granite. Your cleaning service providers should have the capability to help you in keeping your hard floor surfaces clean, tidy and free of dirt, dust and stains and should also be able to provide you with suggestions to protect your hard floors from wear and tear and high traffic.

When you are hiring a cleaning company, make sure that they have skilled and trained cleaning workforce with years of experience in cleaning hard floor surfaces. Your cleaning service provider should have the right cleaning equipment to provide quality cleaning and maintenance services for a number of different hard floors, including:

• Concrete
• Ceramic tile
• Stone
• Rubber
• Vinyl
• VCT tile
• Wood

Tips for Cleaning Windows

Windows cleaning of your building goes beyond aesthetics and appearance. It’s obvious that you would want the windows within your building to look neat and clean, but you would also want the windows to last for a number of years to come. Failure in proper cleaning of the seals, frames and tracks can ultimately cause degeneration, which may end in costly repairs as well as increased energy bills. Further, it is important to mention here that if the management of a building allows sprinklers to spray water on windows on regular basis then your windows can end up having hard water marks and stains that could ultimately pit the windows, which no cleaning equipment can fix.

Windows of a building are visible to all those that walk past the building; it’s highly important that your building makes a good and positive impression on all those that pass by it as well as those that enter it. Your cleaning provider should use latest cleaning equipment and tools to ensure that windows of your building remain in good shape and condition for a number of years to come. Therefore, ensuring that you are not forced to replace your windows prematurely.

Tips for Preserving Other Assets

Floors and windows might be at the top of your list of assets that require preservation, but they are not the only ones which need your care and attention. As a facility manager of a building, you should ensure that the following building assets are properly maintained and care for as well:

Upholstery 

Keep dirt, crumbs or dust on your upholstery at bay by making sure that you vacuum most of the fabric surfaces with an upholstery attachment. This will help you in lifting dirt and crumbs that was transferred onto the fabric surface from the floor. In short, during the sofa cleaning process, it is important as a facility manager to ensure that draperies and furniture of the building in which you work should be deep-cleaned regularly to ensure that they don’t get replaced on frequent basis.

Wooden Surfaces 

Wooden surfaces within the building should be carefully cleaned and cared for by a team of well-trained and experienced cleaning professionals. These cleaning experts should not only help the building owners and the facility managers in keeping wooden surfaces dust-free but also help them in maintaining natural beauty and elegance of wooden surfaces by using latest cleaning equipment and solutions.

Stainless Steel Surfaces

Stainless steel surfaces require special handling, attention and care. It is important to mention that you should recruit cleaning providers that have appropriate knowledge and understanding about different ways in which the stainless steel surfaces can be cleaned. Damaged can never be caused to stainless steel refrigerators, elevators, sinks and drinking fountains if cleaners use techniques and cleaning methods that are meant specifically of the aforementioned surfaces.

Stone and Marble Surfaces 

If there are marble or stone surfaces in your building then in that case you may need cleaning services from a janitorial firm that not only has the latest cleaning equipment but also has unique cleaning methods for preserving and protecting your marble and stone surfaces for a number of years to come. Trained and skilled janitorial workforce of your cleaning provider should ideally be aware of the fact that natural marbles and stones require specialty cleansers. These cleansers will help you in keeping your surfaces free of dirt, scratches, stains, and other abrasions that can cause your stone and/ or marble surfaces to be less attractive and appealing.

It’s critical for you to preserve your building assets by partnering with a professional firm that is not only known for providing quality facilities management services, but is also known for creating a schedule for more intensive and detailed maintenance that will put on the path of proper asset care and preservation.