November 2015 — Property Management Quarterly —
Page 17
S
ay you just finished a
$500,000 face-lift for your
building that included new
paint, carpet and updated
restrooms for the common
areas, which hadn’t been done in 10
years. Or, maybe you have a build-
ing that has not been updated in
10 years and the
remodel/face-lift
is another five
years away. No
matter the situ-
ation, if you are
marketing an A or
B property, there
usually are mini-
mum standards
for aesthetics that
drive impressions
and dictate what
people see when
they walk into the
building lobby. This person could be
the owner, a tenant’s customers or
a prospective client looking to lease
space from you. With budgets tight,
major face-lifts tend to move far
into the future. So, in the meantime,
what do you do?
By implementing a few changes
with your janitorial service, as well
as taking advantage of touch-up
services and maintenance plans,
you can extend the life of your
wood architecture and laminate
treatments that make your property
appealing and increase its value.
There are some easy ways to help
mitigate repeat damage. First, a lot
of damage comes from janitorial
carts that are pushed into restroom
or tenant suites for cleaning. You
can specify in the cleaning contract
the use of doorstops for carts or
have your building engineer issue
some. They are cheap insurance.
Second, you can have all delivery
services use one elevator cab or a
freight elevator, or pad an elevator
for deliveries and office moves. And
third, sometimes the use of kick
plates or hand-push plates can be
used on high-traffic doors, but be
sure to check your building and fire
codes of the installation of these on
fire-rated doors.
Another common question is
what to use to clean wood surfaces
to keep them looking nice. Your
best bet is to use nothing. If that is
not an option, use a damp micro
fleece − with water only − to wipe
dust. If a little more cleaning power
is required, 25 percent white vin-
egar mixed with 75 percent distilled
water will do the trick.
Many janitorial products are
ammonia-based cleaners or high/
low PH cleaners that are used as
degreasers. These can chemically
damage clear-coat finishes on doors,
furniture, millwork and wood pan-
els. Using polishes and oils are not
recommended, especially in our low-
humidity environment. When used,
these products evaporate and leave
a blotchy appearance that requires
continuous upkeep, which just costs
you more time and money.
Once you’ve implemented some
of the changes recommended, it is
important to recognize that things
still get damaged. Also you need to
be aware of upcoming inspections
and concerns about getting flagged.
In either case, you have a couple of
options – replace or refurbish.
If you’re not ready for the big face-
lift, a good cost-value approach that
saves facility professionals money
is to use touch-up services and put
a budgeted maintenance plan in
place. Touch-up services are done on
site and typically include wood and
laminate products. For best results,
this service usually includes the fol-
lowing:
• Custom mixing of colors (vs.
markers) to match existing surface
color;
• A durable damage fill for gouges
and missing veneer or laminate;
• Color work (to include back-
ground color match and wood grain-
ing); and
• Repair topcoat to protect the
repair from wear.
When doing these services, water-
based products are ideal because
they dry quickly and allow work to
be done during normal business
hours. This is important to match
the color under normal lighting
conditions. These products also
have the added benefit of low odor,
which enables them to be used in
Maintenance
Joe Lanucha
General manager,
Signature Wood,
Colorado Springs
A before and after example of plastic laminate door repair
