How To Ensure Your Student Housing Complex Is Ready For Fall

By Victoria Robertson on October 1, 2015

There’s a huge difference in maintaining an apartment complex in summer versus the fall/winter.

As the temperature outside gets colder, upkeep at the apartment complex gets much more, well, complex.

So to ensure that your student housing complex is ready for the fall, here are five tips you should keep in mind as the colder weather starts closing in on us.

1. Spruce up the place.

Before the weather gets too cold, you’ll want to do basic upkeep on the individual apartments’ look. This means fall cleaning as well as painting.

The reason this part needs to be done sooner rather than later is simply for ventilation purposes. If you’re touching up on the interior paint job, you’ll need somewhere for those paint fumes to go, and nobody’s going to be happy if that means you’re allowing the cold air in.

Also, this is a great time to clean out the bathrooms in the apartment. Bugs are typically a bigger problem in the summer, but cleaning out any bacterial buildup, etc. is extremely important to do before winter comes around. For this same reason, you’ll also want to clean out kitchen sinks/disposals.

This is also a great time to beat out any rugs as well as vacuum the carpets and dust around the apartment. There’s a reason for fall cleaning, and it’s something that should be done yearly, and before it’s too cold.

2. Prioritize vent upkeep.

Another important aspect that many apartment owners ignore, as well as current residents, is that the dust buildup on vents causes problems down the road.

This is something that’s so easily avoided, but if it’s something that slips your mind, it should be made part of a regular fall cleaning schedule. By doing so, you’re preventing a blockage of airflow, which means that the ventilation in the apartment will be much better (for both heat and air conditioning).

It may not seem all that important, but the buildup has the potential to cause major problems down the road.

3. Check on the heat.

Before there’s a high demand for heating in the apartments, it’s best to check on everything and make sure there aren’t any problems before there’s the large demand in the winter.

So check out the furnace, HVAC units and whatever other heating components there are so that you can ensure they’ll be working come time for winter.

4. Update the outside areas.

There is plenty to do outside before it’s too cold to do it, so you’ll certainly want to start on that sooner rather than later. The best place to start is with painting the outside of the buildings to help give another layer to protect against the elements.

You’ll also want to repair any damage to patios and decks as well as to any sidewalks and driveways, especially since the cold typically prevents such repairs later on.

Finally, you’ll want to clean out the gutters and such before it gets cold, as these materials can build up and then cause problems later on. So make sure that water is free to flow through the gutters, and certainly remove any twigs/leaves that may have lodged themselves in there during the summer.

5. Address any issues ASAP.

While the bridge between summer and fall is typically the busiest, it’s important not to let any maintenance issues fall flat and cause problems down the road.

While these upkeep procedures need to be done ASAP, maintenance in individual apartments should still be a priority, especially those that could be problematic the longer they’re let go.

So all requests should be taken seriously, and while it’s important to prioritize, it’s also important not to drop the ball.

Keeping up with your housing complex isn’t an easy task, but it’s one that needs to be done. Even the smallest problems can become monumental over a short period of time, so it’s important to continually keep up with the demands of the building before they become too overwhelming.

By following these simple tips, you should have no problem keeping your complex well maintained, even into the winter months. So long as these steps are followed regularly, the cold isn’t going to have any impact on your impeccable building.

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