Innovative Engineering Advises Building Owners on Winter Preparedness

ATLANTA - Dec. 7, 2023 - PRLog -- Is your facility prepared for winter?

Winter can be a challenging season for property owners and building managers. Inclement weather can strike without notice, and if you're not prepared, your building and occupants could suffer costly damage.

As the seasons change and temperatures drop, make sure you plan adequately and take these essential steps for winter preparedness:

1) Emergency Preparedness: While the following activities ahead of winter will minimize the likelihood or magnitude of unforeseen losses, not having an "Emergency Preparedness Plan" in place can be considered negligence. While insurance typically covers property losses, it likely does not cover lost revenue of affected tenants which can be much more than the cost to repair property damage.
a. All actual tenants should be notified before winter threats, such as low temperatures, of steps to be taken to minimize losses to them and other tenants. This may include ensuring unheated spaces are either insulated and heated and/or the affected plumbing lines either drained or heated with heat tape and fire sprinkler lines heated with heaters or heat tape. Also, ensure heaters and heat tape are actually functioning correctly.
b. On-Call Property Manager(s) should be identified and be available 24/7, including holidays.
c. On-Call Service Provider(s) should be identified and available 24/7, including holidays. Service providers should be familiar with where all utility shut-offs are located.
d. A current list of emergency contacts with backups for owners, managers, tenants, utilities, and on-call personnel should be made available and distributed to all tenants and owners.
e. Keys for each tenant space should be kept by the property owner or manager and be available to the On-call Property Manager and service providers.

Read the full list and download the free PDF checklist here: https://www.ieiusa.com/parking-structure-inspection-winte...

About Innovative Engineering: Innovative Engineering Inc. has been a trusted resource to some of the largest property owners and managers across the United States for over 25 years. Our passion is showing real estate professionals how to self-inspect their facilities in order to reduce repair and replacement costs and know when to call in an expert. Our engineers are glad to walk your facility, including parking structure inspection, let you know the condition, what and when repairs or replacement are necessary, and provide reports with construction costs and recommend quality contractors to perform the work.