In Depth Guide to Property Maintenance in Seattle
The Seattle area is a place full of many different types of weather systems, geological features, and naturally occurring events. This brings a unique set of challenges when keeping your building or property maintained. Today we are going to cover which property maintenance services are recommended in order to keep your Seattle area building looking good while helping prevent any avoidable repairs through preventative maintenance.
This article will focus on four major property maintenance services;
Window Cleaning
Pressure Washing
Solar Panel Cleaning
Dryer Vent Cleaning
Using a combination of these 4 services you can help keep your property running at maximum efficiency, while maintaining a look that will attract more potential customers and tenants. We will use a client of ours, The Climate Pledge Arena, as an example of how each of these services can be beneficial to properties in the Seattle area.
Window Cleaning
Seattle experiences many different types of weather and natural conditions that amplify the importance of keeping your building maintained. Windows in Seattle that are neglected from an annual cleaning (at minimum) are more likely to be damaged from salt deposits and other pollutants. This is from both daily, and seasonal events. Under normal circumstances, rain in the winter and summer is enough to warrant multiple window cleanings for your average building. Unfortunately it does not stop there.
Anyone living in the Seattle area is well aware of the recent occurrence of wildfires during the summer months and the recently more frequent snow storms. Both of these pose interesting challenges for keeping your windows clean and undamaged.
Wildfires in the summer carry smoke and carbon deposits in the wind from their starting location all the way to the greater Seattle area. Aside from just looking dirty, if left on the windows these pollutants can etch into the glass and need to be cleaned with specialty methods. Regular window cleaning can help prevent this from happening. This saves both money and the need to have a property maintenance services company on site for a longer period of time.
What we see in the field for properties that do not have an annual window cleaning, is what we call hard water stains. This is a result of leaving contaminants on the glass, and having them get wet from rain, dry out, and harden on the glass. These are not usually possible to get off with normal means. This is something very easily prevented when you partner with a reputable property maintenance services company in Seattle.
One example of a property that values frequent maintenance is the Climate Pledge Arena. As one of the newest venues in the country, the Climate Pledge Arena has its windows cleaned multiple times per year. The investment in an ongoing window cleaning schedule means they will save money in the long run by avoiding time intensive mineral stain cleanings, as well as having a presentable and professional look.
Pressure Washing
When looking at Property Maintenance Services, pressure washing is often one of the first items that comes up. That said, there are numerous uses for Pressure Washing in Seattle beyond the obvious ones such as pressure washing parking garages and sidewalks.
One of the best uses of pressure washing in Seattle is to maintain siding and windows. By having the siding pressure washed annually, you eliminate the build up of contaminants and pollutants that spread down the side of the building. This can lead to cosmetic stains of siding and other surfaces such as horizontal runoffs for ledges and balconies.
By pressure washing the siding every year these buildups are rinsed down all at once, followed by a proper window cleaning, leaving a significantly reduced amount of contaminants that will run down and end up in structurally and cosmetically unappealing areas.
Another common practice for pressure washing in Seattle is to wash the roof of your property. This can be used on many different types of surfaces. For example you could have slanted metal panel roofing that gets soot, dirt, and grime on it built up over the wet months and fire season. This can cause wear and tear to paint surfaces, and eventually rust if left long enough. Pressure washing these panels will remove all of the build up, and help your roof last as long as possible.
Something that mid and high rise buildings with balconies do, is have a pressure washing company in Seattle pressure wash all of the balcony surface area. Below is a before and after picture of a cleaning we performed last month at the REN Apartments, a 41 story tower in Seattle.
The Climate Pledge Arena utilizes pressure washing in many places. The more common cleanings include stairways, walkways, and lower level windows. These are all high traffic areas that suffer from dirt, debris, and wear from elevated use. Pressure washing helps keep the surfaces clean which attracts less dirt into the building itself, as well as having a more presentable appearance.
The Climate Pledge Arena. The top section is after being pressure washed, the bottom is before. Quite the difference.
We also pressure wash the roof at Climate Pledge Arena. This is a very large and complex project with over 100,000 square feet of surface area. The roof has a steep incline, which requires use of fall protection equipment during the process of cleaning. This is not your average roof pressure washing job, usually it is a flat or slightly slanted surface with gutters or drains. The Climate Pledge Arena has its own water recycling system that collects all of the debris and water, and filters/recycles it. By cleaning the roof every single year, Climate Pledge Arena will likely avoid many costly repairs over the lifetime of the building. For large buildings such as this, there is always the added benefit of getting rid of bird droppings and other remnants of pests. The ledges of the Climate Pledge Arena are a great example of the difference a high quality pressure washing service can make when it comes to the outward appearance of your property.
Solar Panel Cleaning
Solar panel arrays are quite common on modern buildings.
They should be cleaned every year.
One overlooked service that most modern buildings require is semiannual solar panel cleaning. On the roof of most buildings in the Seattle area you will find a grouping of solar panels. These are often used to help supplement the cost of the building's exterior and interior ambient lighting, as well as some smaller electrical needs. This can save the building $100’s or $1000’s of dollars per year on energy bills (depending on each building's energy needs). Over time these solar panels, much like windows, will accumulate grime on the surfaces used to convert solar energy into usable electricity.
As these substances accumulate on the surface of the panel, the efficiency of the panels drops. Letting the output of your solar panels drop means you are leaving money on the table. Of course when you have more solar panels, this means that the cost is even greater. Larger arrays such as the one found at Climate Pledge Arena that boasts a whopping 1.2MW output, will have a very noticeable output after cleaning. Below you will see a measurement chart showing the solar panel output of a residential solar panel array before and after an annual cleaning. Keep in mind that these panels are being regularly cleaned, so the results will be less drastic than cleaning an array that has not been cleaned in more than a year.
Looking at the example by HESOLAR you will see there is a roughly 3% greater output after the regularly scheduled solar panel cleaning is completed. When put on a large scale, like the 1.2MW array at Climate Pledge Arena, this would be a ~30,000 watt increase shown after cleaning.
On top of the increased output that can be seen immediately, the panels will also be rid of possibly damaging contaminants that will extend their service life. Keeping the glass covering as clean as possible will help remove any opportunities for scratches and microscratches that can lower the output of the panels.
An experienced solar panel cleaning technician will have the ability to also keep an eye out for any product defects that may be covered under warranty, or repaired on the spot. This can include lack of insulation, loosened fixtures, improper angles from foot traffic and others. Having a professional set of eyes near your solar panel array can help extend its service life greatly saving your building money in the long run.
Dryer Vent Cleaning
This is another easily forgotten service item on most residential (and some commercial) buildings. If you have a 200 unit apartment building, chances are that you are going to have 150 dirty dryer vents. This can be from misusing the dryer by not cleaning the lint traps, having long hair, multiple pets, or maybe just a friendly neighborhood bird that nested in the warmth of the vent in the winter. No matter the reason we find that vents that are not cleaned annually tend to be significantly blocked up.
In the photos below you will see two very badly clogged vents. These pictures were taken at a relatively new apartment building that was completed in 2019. They had gone without a dryer vent cleaning since the building was new. You can see the large amount of hair and lint stuck in the vent screens and flappers. This is a fire hazard in the wrong conditions, and absolutely needed to be cleaned.
When cleaning dryer vents, you should have someone clean them from inside of the unit every year, and also clean the outside every year. This assures that there will be no backups in the entire line, and minimizes the chances of damage.
Properties will also see the service life of dryers increase (paired with proper use) with regular vent cleaning. This saves an immeasurable amount of money for each residential building.
As you can see, these services are necessary to upkeep on your property in the Seattle area. Annual services such as these are a vital part of securing the buildings longevity, and keeping an outward appearance that tenants, and prospective tenants, will appreciate and be attracted too. Make sure you find a window cleaning service in Seattle, that can help you tackle these tasks.
