As 2020 finally gives way to 2021, good news for public health is nearly here. No matter where or who you are, everyone has reason to cheer now that the spread of COVID-19 might soon come under control. But it may be months before the vaccination is readily available to everyone, and many businesses are temporarily closing their doors.
If you find your operations on pause as a result of coronavirus, you may be wondering if there’s anything you can do that would be safe and productive. Shelter-in-place rules vary from state to state, but there is an option you should strongly consider if you lead a commercial or industrial business.
Downtime is the best time for the necessary maintenance of your facilities.
When Business is Booming, Maintenance Often Waits and Waits
You know maintenance activities such as painting and floor coating are necessary for your business. They keep your facilities looking sharp and performing longer. Once complete, they can be good for team morale and impressive to the public. But it is rare when these projects are seen as a top priority.
If you have dozens of employees and hundreds of customers walking through your space every day, then you have good reason to be judicious about when you get maintenance done. After all, these projects can require that you reroute traffic and make spaces available to your painting contractors.
Fair enough. But what about now, when many businesses are closed or working within limited hours?
Most maintenance projects do involve a little bit of safety risk, which is why it’s so important your contractors have updated OSHA safety training. Now, maybe for the first time since your company opened, you have the chance to get the whole job done with no employees or members of the public to worry about.
Depending on the nature of your business, years may have gone by since the last time you were able to do a full exterior or interior paint job, perform waterproofing, or coat your high traffic floors. Over time, your existing coatings wear out and leave the substrates vulnerable to serious damage from moisture and corrosion.
When you decide to go forward with maintenance projects, you are effectively turning back the clock on these worries. The opportunity to upgrade your building’s defenses against environmental hazards can mean saving thousands of dollars compared to the repair bills that come around once a problem becomes serious.
For those “have to get done” maintenance chores, there is no better time than now.
What Maintenance Projects Deserve Your Attention?
Not sure where to start or what to prioritize? Your in-house maintenance team or maintenance contractors can probably offer a few ideas. Simple visual inspections should take place several times a week to make sure that vulnerable surfaces and other building features are not suffering from cracking, chipping, or loss of adhesion.
Consider these investments in your facility’s future:
1. Exterior Paint
Exterior paint is most important for commercial enterprises that rely on foot traffic. As the coronavirus vaccine reaches more people, it will be easier and safer for them to visit local businesses. That’s especially crucial for restaurants, personal service, and hospitality properties that may be seeing virtually no impromptu visits today.
2. Interior Paint
Time to rebrand? Public-facing businesses should consider using this time to refresh their image and how they connect with customers. However, that’s not the only value of painting inside. Repainting provides a team with a more professional work place that they can be proud of. Plus, it looks cleaner than old paint.
3. Microbicidal Coating
Microbicidal coatings are specialized paint products that actively destroy certain disease-causing pathogens. The leading name in true microbicidal coating is Sherwin-Williams and its Paint Shield product. It can eliminate more than 99% of common microbes associated with intestinal upset, great for foodservice brands.
4. Floor Treatments
Floor treatments can extend the life of your floors by ten years or more, but they also tend to be among the most disruptive maintenance projects. Foot traffic in the area must be completely suspended, and the humidity and temperature must be conducive to curing. If you do only one big maintenance project, pick this one.
5. Parking Lot or Structure
From a small parking lot to a large multilevel garage, you know how harsh the public can be on your asphalt and concrete. Remember, when people decide to visit you, parking is the first experience they have in connection with your business. An old, dilapidated parking area gives a poor impression and may even be unsafe.
Every decision you make in your business has some trade-offs. When it comes to maintenance, though, the upsides far outweigh the downsides – especially when the impact to your customer service and workflow will be nearly zero. Prepare your business for the coming recovery by planning your maintenance today.
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