With spring in full swing, you’re ready to start marketing your apartment homes to a new wave of potential tenants. Smart thinking.
Life changes usually occur from May to September each year, so now couldn’t be a better time to start getting your apartment ready for tenants. A great place to start is spring cleaning.
Not sure what your spring cleaning regimen should look like? Here’s a rundown of six essential spring apartment maintenance tips to follow in 2023.
Let’s dive in!
1. Top Apartment Maintenance Tips Include Changing Your HVAC Filters
One of the most important apartment maintenance tips for landlords this spring is to change your units’ heating, ventilation, and air conditioning filters.
If your apartment complex uses disposable filters, you’ll need to replace these filters every quarter. This will help to ensure that your HVAC systems operate efficiently for years to come. It will also help you to maintain low energy bills.
You may also want to get your HVAC systems serviced during the spring season, too. This will help you make sure that your tenants don’t go without cool air during the summer, as well as heat during the winter.
2. Conducting Gutter and Roof Checks
Another important property maintenance step is to examine your gutters and roof.
Consider hiring a professional company to check your roof for any hail or sun damage. The company can also detect clogs that have built up in your building’s gutters due to leaves and other debris.
If you don’t tend to these problems at your apartment complex, this could lead to roof leaks. These types of leaks are a lot costlier to fix compared to the issues causing them.
3. Paying Attention to Landscaping and the Outdoors
As you begin your spring cleaning, don’t forget to pay attention to your landscaping as well.
Look for any plants around your apartment complex that need to be tended. Or, consider adding plants to add greenery to the property. Spring is a great time to start your weed treatment as well, as this will increase your lawn’s chances of thriving during the summer.
Also, look for branches that may block your apartment complex’s windows, and hire a professional to remove them. Tree care services can also remove or prune branches that are starting to overhang your roof.
Additional Outdoor Maintenance Tips
While you’re outside, consider testing your outdoor faucets as well. Your faucets might leak if water ended up freezing in their pipes. In this situation, you should hire a professional to repair your faucets right away to avoid causing water damage to your building.
Be sure to inspect your walkways and driveway for cracks. Earth movements due to freezing weather may cause cracks. However, if you repair these cracks quickly, you can keep water from seeping through the walkway or driveway and causing additional erosion.
You’ll also want to look for any rot in your decking, fences, trim, and wood siding. Extensive rot needs to be addressed during the spring season to prevent a worsening issue.
4. Testing Exterior Lights
As you complete your apartment spring maintenance tasks, you should also test and address all outside lights.
Light bulbs on the building’s exterior or in your parking structure require occasional changing. So, make a habit of checking them each spring and replacing them if needed.
5. Flushing the Water Heaters
When was the last time you flushed your apartment complex’s water heaters? If you can’t remember, this spring is a great time to get into the habit of doing this.
You should ideally flush your water heaters one to two times per year. This will keep sediment from building up and shortening your units’ lifespans. Failure to do this will cause your valves to become clogged and ultimately decrease your units’ efficiency.
6. Checking Your Building’s Interior
Finally, check the health of your apartment building as you perform maintenance on the building this spring.
For instance, take a look at your building’s floors. Winter weather might mean snow as well as salted roads. In light of this, you should check your hardwoods, tile, and carpet for damage that winter foot traffic might have caused.
Be sure to also look for damage stemming from a siding or roof leak. This damage might include mold, warped flooring, or soggy drywall. Other signs include brown ceiling spots or electrical fixtures that have become compromised.
All of these issues need to be handled promptly, as they affect the habitability of your units.
Finally, check for any indicators of pests. For instance, look for rodents, ants, cockroaches, and termites.
Critters usually hide out in walls during the winter season. As a result, they will probably still be in your walls when spring arrives. During the spring, you should hire a pest control company to treat your units if you notice pest activity.
Keep in mind that if tenants are in the units you are trying to inspect, you must give them appropriate notice before entering these units. Likewise, they should receive notice before you make any repairs to the spaces they are renting from you.
How We Can Help You with Your Property
The top apartment maintenance tips this spring include changing your HVAC filters and checking your gutters and roof. You should also ideally check the status of your landscaping and the interior of your apartment building.
At Reedy & Company, we take pride in offering top-tier property management services for both multi-family properties and single-family properties. Get in touch with us to learn more about our offerings, and let’s partner today!
