Important Maintenance Considerations for the Exterior of Your Commercial Building
When it comes to exterior maintenance of your building the most important thing to remember is, being proactive, rather than reactive on your building’s maintenance issues creates real value for the building owner.
The list below highlights three key areas of exterior maintenance that you must keep an eye on at all times.
Failing Paint:
When a common person thinks of paint, what is their first thought? More times than not, and
individual will say, “Well, paint is applied to buildings for aesthetical reasons. “ While this is one of the reasons, it usually isn’t the main objective in why something is being repainted. When paint is failing or is on its way to failure, this allows for the buildings substrate to then be exposed to outside elements and therefore allows for the possibility of deterioration. Without the barrier of protection paint provides, water penetration, moisture and contaminants quickly will work their way in and compromise the surface, eventually costing you more money than if you were proactive initially.
Caulking Failure:
When property managers and building owners are serious about taking care of their properties, many of them will 
ask our sales professionals, “What is a very important aspect of exterior maintenance, most individuals miss?” The answer to this question is simple; most individuals completely forget or are uneducated on what caulking is and when it should be replaced. Caulking is applied and or found in the joints of tilt up buildings or around areas where water penetration could be possible, (i.e around windows). Caulking, on average, should be replaced about every 8-10 years, but it is important to keep a close eye on. Some tell tale sign of when it is necessary to replace are: water has penetrated the interior of the building, it has cracked and is brittle, or if it his hard and not longer flexible.
Roofing:
Roofing is another out of sight aspect of exterior maintenance that is many times hard to know when it needs repair, before it is to late. Many times, weakness or failure of a roof system or coating will quickly lead to structural damage, as well as anything that may be stored within that facility. We find that it is important to add routine roof care to your ongoing maintenance strategy to ensure that roof failure doesn’t create more of a mess than it should.
