Spring Maintenance Dave Wescott
Spring maintenance is one of the single-most important aspects of building maintenance and has a direct correlation with preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance costs are typically a fraction of the repair of reconstruction costs. A strong spring maintenance plan will provide benefits far beyond the months during which it is prepared.
Several years ago a community contacted our company about a major issue they were having—moss control. The history of their problem was very sad. A 74-year-old grandmother had moved into a beautiful condominium community and had bought a second-story unit overlooking the water. The view was spectacular. On a somewhat cloudy, dreary day, she left her unit to run some errands. As she walked down the steps and arrived at the landing, her feet touched down and she began moving forward, but she stepped directly onto a strip of moss that was growing on the concrete sidewalk. She slipped and fell, causing her to break her hip. It took her over a year-and-a-half to recover from the fall, and she was unable to move back into her condo. This occurred all for the lack of a $250 moss-treatment service. While this story is heartbreaking, it highlights a major reason to be prepared for spring and have maintenance plans in place. This is why we recommend that each association or building team have a minimum of a 300-point checklist to review each property every spring. A checklist should be created from a maintenance matrix; doing so helps prevent tragic events like the one described above. There are several critical maintenance items which, when neglected, can have devastating effects.
Asphalt and curbing should be reviewed each spring. The cost to replace asphalt is approximately ten times the cost to repair or maintain asphalt! Cracking or spider-webbing in the asphalt should be investigated. This problem occurs when water leaks through the existing asphalt during frequent rains. During the winter months, this water freezes under the asphalt and creates cracking, breaking and alligatoring. Curb speed-bumps and street reflective bumps should be checked for damage from snow-plow activity. Reviewing and repairing these problems results in a long-term savings.
Another critical maintenance task: Each owner should be sent a reminder to check water heaters and their purchase dates. The five minutes of effort that this requires each year can save tens of thousands of dollars in repair costs from blown or leaking water heaters.
It is also critical to address drainage systems as part of a spring-maintenance plan. Drainage systems should be cleaned/vactored (i.e., flushed out) to make sure there is no clogging from winter months. Sediment builds and causes blocking and clogging of catch basins, drains, and bioswales. If left without service, backups can cause major damage to surrounding buildings from overflow or flooding.
An additional item to check is the irrigation system. Irrigation systems should be checked for cracked lines and broken sprinkler heads caused by freezing winter temperatures. Irrigation leaks on average can cost up to $29 per day per leak in lost water. Staying ahead of irrigation damages can be a huge cost-savings.
Yet another item that needs to be reviewed each spring is the landscape plan for the season. This is crucial to each community’s curb appeal. Curb appeal is an important consideration for owners trying to lease or sell their properties. Landscape beds should be checked for mulch depth, making sure seasonal plantings are adding the necessary beautification. Deciduous trees should be reviewed for fungus and disease, while evergreen trees should be examined for dangerous broken and hanging branches that are ready to fall. Branches often hang from dangerous positions and break from heavy ice, snow, and wind storms. Winter pruning should be reviewed to ensure that the landscape team has pruned all deciduous trees while they were dormant, removing all dead, damaged, and decaying branches, and crowning and thinning each tree as needed. Shrub pruning should be reviewed to confirm that all shrubs have been pruned to a minimum of eighteen inches from all buildings. This shrub pruning is a key to maintaining each building’s pest control. When buildings have shrubs and trees touching the buildings, pests and rodents have easy access to the building and can easily find their way inside. Keeping shrubs pruned off the buildings also prevents moisture from being constantly present on the siding. Turf should be monitored for moss and weeds, and fertilization plans should be put in place.
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