Preparing Your Building for Winter

By Shari Engstrom, Sid Grinker Restoration

Love it or hate it, winter is around the corner and with it comes valid concerns for your building and community regarding water in all the wrong places and fire hazards unique to winter. Below are some bullet points to consider as we leave the colors of fall for the cold of winter.

Water Loss Concerns Tied to Cold:

When the temperatures go below freezing, especially below zero, pipes that are not properly insulated are at HIGH RISK of freezing and bursting. What is even riskier is having fire sprinkler pipes bursting. In order to minimize risk consider the following:

• Sprinkler maintenance is key. Make this a priority.
• Clear roofs and watch for ice damming
• Baseboard hydronic heat will leak and/or freeze. It’s essential that doors and windows remain closed.
• Remind residents that they should call maintenance if their unit is too hot, do not open windows to cool off. Notify residents that they are responsible for maintaining heat in their apartments and may be held liable if damage occurs from leaving window open or turning off heat.
• Have a plan for accessing units if residents are out of town during a water emergency in their unit. If there is not a master key, will the resident expect you to force entry? Consider setting that expectation to avoid enraged tenants when they come home to see their door boarded or padlocked.
• Visit vacant spaces often and monitor units where there is a possibility of a tenant leaving without notice, such as people behind in rent or in the eviction process. They love leaving their windows open or the faucet running on the way as well as turning down the heat to save money. Watch for afterhours move outs
• Do not turn down thermostats to save money—a minimum goal is 60 degrees. Areas of special concern for this include:
  • Storage areas
  • Parking garages
  • Vacant spaces
• In areas where work has been done recently, inspect attics to make sure insulation has been replaced properly. It is often done for cable or similar services.
• Regularly check sump pumps, especially on a mid-winter thaw. For areas likely to have concerns, provide a back-up power source and suggest tenants take advantage of plastic bins for storage, especially on the floor, rather than cardboard boxes.
• Make sure the “old style” of hose bibs are drained properly for winter.
• Keep winter repairs efficient, for example, even vacant spaces can’t go without heat for more than a couple hours while you change out or repair a furnace.
• Monitor areas that have been a problem in previous winters.
• Make sure storm windows are in service to prevent sweating and ice build-up on inside of windows. This prevents staining and warping of interior windowsills.

Regardless of the cause of water issues, you need to know where your shut off valves are located:

• Every day toilets over flow and washing machines leak. It is essential to know where shut off valves are located. It is common for toilet cpvc pipes to break in the wall when the shut off valve is turned, so you must know where the next valve is located and so should anyone managing/covering the building. It’s common for there to be vacations around the holidays. Make sure you or the person responsible knows where to look. That 45 minutes of hunting can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
• Label your shut off valves. Several years back we had someone shut off the wrong floor during a construction project with no heat so even the best laid plans resulted in a substantial flood.
• Make sure the appropriate people know how to shut off the sprinkler system, without also shutting off water to the entire domestic water system. Having a maintenance person who lives an hour away is not a solution. Assuming they answer the phone immediately, it could take 2 hours to be on site.
• Check important shut off valves to make sure they operate freely.
• Remind tenants that they are not allowed to perform plumbing repairs and reinforce what shouldn’t go down toilets. This is trickier with unit owners, but uninsured contractors ultimately result in others paying the costs of mistakes and accidents.

In addition to dealing with concerns from cold, winter brings on a few new fire hazards. Things to check this fall:

• ​Remove birds’ nests from exterior lights. The like to live here in the winter months for the heat.
• Dryer vents and exhausts can be trouble as well. Make sure to clean them and check to make sure they are connected.
• Overloaded outlets are a problem especially in the winter with lights and space heaters.
• Also remind residents about candle safety—out of a draft, away from children and never left unattended.

All staff, especially on call, should have names and contact info for contractors of record such as fire suppression (sprinkler) contractor and fire alarm contractor. A restoration company will need those to coordinate and expedite an emergency response. If possible, the cell phone number for your salesperson is especially helpful.

So, enjoy the winter and all is has to offer from ice skating to an excuse to stay inside. And come spring, inspect concrete for cracks or heaving & repair as necessary in order to prevent falls.

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About the Author:

Shari Engstrom is Sid Grinker Restoration, Inc’s Marketing Maven. She loves people, stories, and being out and about. Active on multiple charitable & industry boards, she hopes to see you at the next real estate event before she heads home to Muskego to see her husband and two school aged children. Hobbies are a fantastic goal, but for now work, kids and a little bit of exercise fill her days. Find her on LinkedIn!

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