Window Cleaning Can Make A Sparkling First Impression

You make an entrance, with well, your entrance. A sparkling facility sets a positive, welcoming, quality impressions for anyone entering your facility. So much is dependent on a quality first impression, everything from the perceived quality of your service to the competency of the management and administration. So, how do you give the best first impression to everyone that enters your building? The answer is with your windows (of course we love shiny doors too).

Every facility manager knows that a well cleaned building gives an overall atmosphere of stability and professionalism, and it all starts with the state of your windows. A crystal clear view in and out of your building also lends itself to the idea of transparency in your business practice. While at first glance, windows may seem unimportant to the cleanliness and view of your company, in actuality, they can have a very large impression on tenants and potential customers. They let light in and frame what’s in our visual field drawing our eyes in. So when your windows are cloudy, streaky or just dirty, people notice.

Not All Window Cleaning Services Shine

Many commercial cleaning services will offer your standard, run of the mill services when you contract with them: toilet and restroom cleaning, dusting, caring for various floor types, vacuuming, etc. What is all too commonly ignored, however, is a window cleaning service. Not only do most commercial cleaning companies not have the necessary training and equipment to properly clean windows, most simply choose not to offer the service or do it in a way so that you probably won’t ask again. Windows need to be cleaned at least once a month, so make sure that your prospective commercial cleaning service offers a window cleaning solution that works for your building.

An Experienced Professional Window Cleaning Service Can Add Just the Right Sparkle

While any company that offers window cleaning should be on your watch list, that doesn't mean that every company can provide a quality window cleaning. If you aren’t careful who you partner with, your window cleaning might end up doing more damage than good. To many of us, the idea that window cleaning requires specific training might seem a little odd. But commercial window cleaning has very specific technical equipment and processes associated with it to not only clean your windows, but to protect them and keep the clean longer. On top of that, many larger buildings have windows or skylights that require specific safety protocols in order to protect both you and your staff and limit any risk or liability.

How Can You Find a Window Cleaning Company That Shines?

When looking for a window cleaning service there are a couple of key points that you should be on the lookout for:

• Choosing the right equipment and the right process for your specific window will not only save time and energy, but provide a better result.
• Having the best cleaning solutions will ensure that streaking and other impurities don’t taint your windows.
• In order to get the best results, your cleaning staff needs to be well trained and experienced in window cleaning, unlike other aspects of cleaning a facility, the windows are not forgiving when it comes to mistakes.
• Window cleaning chemicals matter, make sure your cleaning solutions are the best available. 

By making sure that your commercial cleaning company adheres to these important points when it comes to cleaning your facility’s windows, you can help make sure that they are always crystal clear and that your building makes a real entrance! Interested in a window cleaning program for your building? Want some help retooling your commercial cleaning program or facility maintenance, please contact Stathakis at (800) 278-1884.

The Building Maintenance To Do List

Ah, summer, sand between our toes, the sun’s warm rays on our shoulders, the smell of the grill and the long days that promise to go on forever. It often seems, or at least many of us would like to believe, that summer’s days are truly never ending. Yet, before you know it, those long summer days come to a close, the weather turns cooler, kids return to school, summer turns to fall and the long, cold, wet winters that Michigan is famous for bellows in to add a million things to your already full plate. It can be difficult to address these problems in fall and even spring with wet weather and the bustling, busy season in full swing. So, summer’s natural slow down and vacation time offers an opportunity to give your facility a truly deep cleaning and to tackle those maintenance tasks that you simply couldn’t before. Getting a head start on preventative maintenance and cleaning can be the best way to prepare for the full swing to ‘back to business’ that so often happens in fall. So, what can you and your commercial building maintenance company do to take full advantage of summer?

Preventative Building Maintenance Isn’t Just for Your Building’s Interior

One of the biggest challenges that winter presents is the damage it does to the exterior of building. Not only can constant rain and snow damage your building’s exterior, it can make it difficult to spot and address the problems it causes allowing them to bloom into much larger, much more expensive future fixes. The best way to avoid this is to, whenever weather permits, inspect fences, gates, gutters, siding and your building’s roof. Check landscaping to be sure everything is operating as intended and that any needed maintenance is done. A seasoned, professional Michigan Building Services Contractor can help take that burden from you and inspect these crucial areas for you. Having a professional that knows what to look for and how to address problems can greatly extend the expensive assets of your building like roofs and windows. Finding a problem when it is still a minor one, will always be cheaper than finding it later after it has gotten out of control. So, during summer be sure to address key areas like: carpentry repairs, concrete and stucco repair, wood replacement and power washing.

Summer is an Ideal Time to Address Your Carpets and Floors

Summer’s warmer temperatures, dryer weather and reduced traffic can make it a good time to attend to some deep floor and carpet cleaning. Low moisture carpet cleaning methods like the Whittaker System Carpet cleaning can be done nearly any time with minimal down time. And truck mounted hot water extraction carpet cleaning can remove soils, bio-pollutants and other grime and allergens that wear carpet, diminish your facility’s appearance and downgrade indoor air quality. And perhaps, your hard flooring is also in need of some TLC. Are scuffs, dings dirt, grime and dullness making your flooring look less than appealing? Summer is still the best time to address repairs and cleaning for it. Does your commercial handyman service offer cleaning, polishing, stripping, waxing, and other repair services that are needed to keep your floors looking new and polished? If not, it may be time to inquire into a building services contractor that offers preventive maintenance packages, special cleanings and even complete refurbishing.

There are Only Three Things Certain in Life, Death, Taxes & HVAC Problems in the Middle of August

Why is it that every HVAC system decides to stop working on the *hottest* day of summer? It is an unanswerable mystery. What isn’t a mystery, however, is how to avoid the summer rush to fix air conditioning problems. First, make sure that you schedule routine service before you and everyone else need them on the first 114-degree day of summer. Next, contact your building services or cleaning company about preventative maintenance so that when your HVAC system inevitably breaks you skip to the head of the line for repairs. Regularly scheduled maintenance and inspection will always keep your HVAC system in better condition and save you from the quadrupled price of an emergency repair in the middle of August. This way you can keep your building at a comfortable temperature all summer at a comfortable price for your budgets.

Judging A Book by its Fresh Coat of Paint 

While we should all live by the creed “never judge a book by its cover,” but when it comes to deciding where we do business or how we see a business, perhaps it's best we’re a little judgmental. So is your building’s exterior sending the right message to potential customers, employees, tenants, the community, employees or student’s parents? Summer offers an opportunity to paint the inside and outside of your building, giving your facility and instant, affordable makeover, refresh and update. And if you are looking for specialized commercial and industrial painting including things like: special coatings, finishes, textured coatings, multi-color spray applications, electrostatic painting, paver and deck sealing and more, many professional janitorial companies, painting companies and building services contractors offer a myriad of services to fit the needs of your facility.

Your Summer Building Maintenance Isn’t Limited to Just Cleaning

If your planning on remodeling or doing construction on your facility, it’s worth inquiring with your Michigan commercial building maintenance company if they can help. Many building services companies offer services like wall mounting, fixture/furniture moving, light fixture installations, office furniture moving, remodels/alterations, lighting retrofits, studs and drywall, not to mention basic electrical and plumbing services. Perhaps even more attractively, many of these companies will also deal with post construction cleaning so you don’t have to.

What’s the Difference Between a Building Maintenance Plan & a Commercial Handyman Service?

There are three types of building maintenance service that you should be aware of so that you can pick the one that fits your facility best: on site maintenance, multi-facility maintenance and on-demand maintenance.

On-Site Building Maintenance:

A building that is outfitted with on-site maintenance has the advantage of having an around-the-clock staff dedicated to keeping your facility in its best operating condition. Having this type of maintenance is often necessary in larger facilities where problems can compound quickly, especially with regard to mechanical and electrical systems. Further, in larger facilities, having a staff that is familiar with its needs is often the most effective way to quickly address problems.

Multi-Facility Building Maintenance:

This style of maintenance puts a single building service contractor in charge of facilities across numerous locations. This way, you only have to go through one company when addressing different facilities needs often making service more effective and affordable. 

On-Demand Maintenance:

This service often goes by the name “Commercial Handyman Service”. This type of Maintenance is often best for facilities that may not have the budget or workload for an on-site team of technicians but still needs factional service with a commercial building service provider that is familiar with their facility and its needs. You can use services as you need them while still having a relationship with a single provider so that your needs are always put first.

Get on That Summer To-do List:

Not matter what the needs of your facility happen to be, summer is the ideal time to attack that to do list and get your building ready for the coming year. Many if not all janitorial service companies and commercial cleaning companies provide such services. Make sure to ask you Building Services Company how they can help you make the most of the summer months to get and keep your facility looking its very best now and for many seasons to come.

Commercial Handyman Services To the Rescue

Building maintenance can quickly become overwhelming as a list of work orders seems to grow faster than you can keep up. Putting out fire after fire can also create a situation where preventive maintenance is put on the back burner further increasing the likelihood of unplanned for problems. If your building maintenance is causing nothing but headaches, it is likely time for a commercial handyman service. Ongoing maintenance issues from light electrical to plumbing to patching and painting or even installing fixtures, can quickly fill your day with appointments, site visits, estimates and follow-up. Not only does this kind of maintenance eat up your day, it can chew through your budget in no time. A few unscheduled outages and emergency service calls can quickly throw your facility into chaos and your carefully planned budget out the window. Contracting with a commercial handyman service is not only significantly more convenient, it’s typically much less expensive. Get the maintenance you need, stay on course and on budget and minimize the headaches associated with the cascade of problems that can so often plague even the best run facilities.

You Need A Qualified Maintenance Man Service to the Rescue

Find a qualified maintenance technician and everything becomes at least a little bit easier. With the best building maintenance services companies, not only do you get a quality technician you get a TEAM you get a team of highly qualified maintenance technicians. These commercial handymen have experience in plumbing, HVAC, electrical and more. The most effective building services companies employ a number of skilled and experienced maintenance technicians trained to handle nearly all of your facility’s issues, in real time as you need help. These commercial handymen handle most of the service, repairs and problems that arise in your facility. On the rare occasions where the project is larger or more complex than they can do, your building services company are still a valuable source of information to help you break down understand the scope of work and likely cost of those more involved projects.

You Could Have Your Own Team Of Highly Skilled Technicians At the Ready

With the right commercial handyman services, you can reduce the ongoing hassles of finding and coordinating a bevy of maintenance services in your facility. When you establish a relationship with a professional, attentive, experienced and responsive commercial handyman, everything is easier, smoother and more straightforward. Check off your to do list and know that you have a highly skilled team of technicians in your pocket, ready to step in and help you with whatever you need. Whether it's light electrical, plumbing, installing bookshelves, hanging pictures or televisions, installing fixtures, ongoing repairs or patching and painting, the right commercial handyman services company can go where you need them.

Is A Professional Maintenance Technician or Commercial Handyman Right For Me?

Is a professional maintenance technician the right solution in your facility? Maybe you wonder if perhaps there’s too much work for one company or maybe not enough work. Maybe you think you’d love to have a commercial handyman service at the ready but worry it is out of your budget. The good news is most commercial handyman services offer a number of options that fit the needs and budget constraints of most facilities. The best commercial handyman services can develop a maintenance program customized to the unique needs of your facility. Maybe you need daily ongoing maintenance at more than one facility. Or it could be that you require a once a week visit to whittle down a growing to-do list. Maybe you need someone every other week to keep your to do list in check and keep up with scheduled and preventative maintenance. Or maybe you need help for a one time project, seasonal needs or periodically as needed. Larger commercial maintenance companies typically have the capacity to adjust staffing and facility visits to meet your facility’s unique needs.

Keep Your Facility Ready to Go With A Planned Maintenance Schedule

The demands of a large, bustling facility can make even the most organized and efficient Facility Manager pull their hair out now and then. The best Facility Managers are not the ones that can do everything themselves, but rather the ones that know how to find great people and organizations and then let them do what they do best while they as Facility Managers focus on those responsibilities that only they can do. You know that if all of the little and not so little repairs and maintenance tasks are left to languish on a growing to do list, in time they may diminish the perception of your facility and even your building’s value. Among the benefits of working with a commercial handyman service is the ability to create a maintenance schedule that keeps your facility looking and running it’s best. Similarly, with a thoughtful, planned out maintenance schedule, you can simplify you planning, budgets and forecasting.

How Do You Find the Best Commercial Handyman Services?

There is no shortage of commercial handyman services however, landing the right maintenance technicians to care for your facilities can feel like a gamble. Building maintenance companies and commercial handyman services can vary tremendously in size, type and capabilities. When looking for commercial handyman services for your facility, you need more that one-man and a van kind of operation. A commercial maintenance company with a team of professional maintenance technicians and vast experience in a number of different facilities handling a number of different issues is most often the optimal solution. The reality is in this service business, you are only as good as the people you employ. The most effective maintenance companies have a really good team.  

It can be helpful during your search for building services to ask prospective maintenance companies about their people. How long have they worked there? What is their background? And is your commercial handyman services company doing enough to find, screen, hire, train and manage the very best people for your facility? Ask a prospective commercial handyman service about their people, their processes and experience. It isn’t easy setting up a long term solution to your maintenance issues but invest the time in upfront and you could be rewarded with better maintenance, fewer headaches and better cost management. If you are in search of a commercial handyman service in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Farmington, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi, Plymouth, Downriver, please reach out to us at Stathakis. With over thirty years serving the businesses of southeastern Michigan, we have become a respected and trusted part of the business community.

Right now Michigan is in the middle of a cold, wet winter. School closings abound, flu season is in full swing and spring seems like a teeny tiny speck so far in the distance. In fact, Pennsylvania's groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow last week and you know what that means, welcome to six more weeks of winter. And yet, thankfully, before we know it, the long, dark months of winter will be behind us and spring will have sprung. As hard as winter can be on us here in Michigan, it’s even tougher on our flooring and carpets. The snow, sleet, slush and salt can make even the most well maintained facilities look and feel grimy and water logged. Water, snow, grit, sludge, dirt and salt all make their way into your building on the hundreds or even thousands of feet coming in and out, day to day. It can be tempting to wait for winter to be over to clean up the mess it brings, but maintaining your carpets over the cold and wet season can not only keep your facility looking top notch, it can prevent irreversible damage to your office carpets and protect your carpet’s lifespan.

No Two Facilities Are Alike, Your Carpet Maintenance Program Should Be Specific to Your Needs

 A regular, well thought out carpet maintenance program should include regular care, spot cleaning, high traffic area cleaning and deep cleaning in order to protect carpets and even delay costly carpet replacement. A professional carpet cleaning company will carefully assess your building’s traffic and use patterns when developing a carpet maintenance program. By taking the time to visit your building and working to understand your individual challenges with regard to floor and carpet maintenance, the right commercial carpet cleaning company can help develop a carpet maintenance program that meets your needs in an efficient, cost effective way. Even better, the best carpet cleaning companies will recognize and evaluate high-traffic times and even seasonal shifts to determine when it makes most sense to address flooring and carpet cleaning for minimal interruption to business as well as optimal results. Partner with the right commercial carpet cleaning company and you will get a carpet maintenance program that is careful with your dollars and your carpeting investment by performing maintenance where it is needed, and skipping or delaying it where it may not be.

Is Your Carpet Cleaning Company Using Appropriate Equipment?

The best commercial carpet cleaning companies get to know your facility so that they can prescribe carpet cleaning solutions that fit your needs, but they also use the right equipment. Far too many carpet cleaning companies still utilize old equipment that has proven to be too hard on carpets, even commercial carpeting which is designed and manufactured for high traffic. Out of date methods like Bonnet carpet cleaning are significantly too rough on carpets and may even void your carpet’s warranty. Why don’t carpet manufacturers cover damage caused by Bonnet carpet cleaning? Because it happens too often, they know Bonnet cleaning is simply too hard on carpets. Not only is Bonnet carpet cleaning too harsh, it isn’t really effective beyond removing surface soils and pushing dirt and deeper into your carpet. Dry carpet cleaning methods like the Whittaker method are superior when it comes to periodic maintenance and truck mounted hot water extraction carpet cleaning is best for a deep and thorough carpet cleaning.

Get Ahead of the Winter Wear With Professional Commercial Carpet Cleaning

Periodic office carpet cleaning and even a carpet management program can help keep your facility looking great throughout the year as well as protect your valuable building assets. Odors and stains can plague carpets that are not cleaned regularly. Many commercial carpet warranties also require yearly or twice yearly cleaning because they know regularly cleaned carpets wear better. At Stathakis, Detroit and Southeastern Michigan businesses expert commercial carpet cleaning and floor maintenance. With proven carpet cleaning methods like truck mounted hot water extraction carpet cleaning, portable machine carpet cleaning, and low moisture carpet cleaning, and Whittaker Carpet cleaning, we get carpets cleaner, looking and smelling better all while extending their lifespan and even improving indoor air quality! Need Detroit office carpet cleaning? For more information on how you can keep your floors and carpet looking their best, please contact, Stathakis at #800-278-1884.

Is Your Commercial Building Maintenance Threatening to Overwhelm You?

Commercial building maintenance is not for the feint of heart. Between ongoing preventive maintenance and putting out the occasional and not so occasional fires, if you go it alone, your facility maintenance can quickly overwhelm even the best Facility Manager. When your ‘to do’ list becomes ‘to do’ lists, and tasks are accumulating faster than you can tackle them, it’s time to consider the help of a commercial handyman service. Regular maintenance and preventative maintenance assure your building is optimally maintained. Likewise, day-to-day facility maintenance issues can overwhelm your schedule with calls, site visits, estimates and more, leaving little room for your other important responsibilities. Contracting your commercial building maintenance to a professional handyman service can not only free up your time to focus on other things, it can save you money while keeping your building in great shape.

The Right Commercial Handyman Service Is Like Having Your Own All Star Team

One of the many challenges as a Facility Manager is finding the right people to do the work when something goes wrong or needs attention in your facility. Contracting with individual plumbing companies, electricians, HVAC techs and so on means finding, qualifying, managing and paying multiple separate businesses. With the right commercial handyman services, you get your own team of highly qualified maintenance technicians. These technicians come highly qualified with experience in plumbing, HVAC, electrical, general building maintenance and more. With the right technicians, your handyman service can offer premier building maintenance, managing most issues as they come up and even attending to preventive maintenance so you can catch small issues before they become major, costly problems.

Commercial Handyman Services Give You The Help You Need

The right commercial handyman service works closely with you and your facility. Your needed work is their priority. No more long service waits, missed appointments, reschedules and unnecessary delays. When you contract with a premier building maintenance company, you form a relationship with your commercial handyman or team of maintenance technicians operating like your very own A-Team, doing the work need done with just a little guidance from you. Are you wondering if a commercial handyman service might be the right fit for your facility? Maybe you worry that you don’t have enough work for a whole service or maybe you worry you have too much. Among the benefits of a commercial handyman service is that you can adjust your services to fit your individual facility needs. Some companies require continual maintenance at multiple facilities while other companies may require a once a week visit to tackle ongoing issues as they come up or even as needed help. The right commercial facility maintenance company has the staffing and flexibility to give you exactly the services you need without paying for services you don’t.

Get Premier Building Maintenance & Get Back On Track

Ongoing maintenance and preventative maintenance can overwhelm the best of us, and yet, a commercial handyman service can help you get to all of the little and not so little fixes that can add up, stress you out and even diminish a building’s value. With the right commercial handyman service, you can create a maintenance schedule and preventive maintenance plan that works best for your facility. Likewise, having a solid plan for repairs, fixes and installations will help you budget and forecast more easily and stay on track with those budgets while keeping your facility well maintained.

Finding A Professional Handyman Capable of Servicing YOUR Facility

While there is no shortage of maintenance companies, finding the right company can be challenging. Building services companies that are really up for the job of partnering with you in the maintenance of your facility will have a few important qualities you should look for. First, your maintenance company must have really good people. With a service business, you are really only as good as your team. What does your prospective commercial handyman services company do to attract, screen, hire, train, retain and manage the best technicians? Do they conduct consistent, reliable drug and criminal background check screening? Do they provide the training, management and incentives to drive reliability through accountability? Likewise, even with great technicians, if your commercial maintenance company doesn’t operate with great communication in place, service is bound to suffer. So how does your prospective building maintenance company handle problems when they arise? Do they have procedures in place to manage issues? Do they have a formal process for communicating with you the customer when you need help? Do they offer transparent pricing so you can compare their services to other companies and be clear about what you are getting and what you're paying for it? Asking a few probing questions upfront can save you the hassle of partnering with a building services contractor who is simply not up to the job.

The Right Handyman Services Can Make a World of Difference

Make your job as a facilities manager significantly more manageable, enlist the help of a commercial handyman service. Tackle big jobs and small jobs with ease knowing you have a true partner and your own A-Team of trained, experienced technicians. Shorten your to do list and keep your building and its assets properly maintained. Whether you need electrical, plumbing or HVAC or you need furniture assembled, shelves or televisions installed and mounted, patch and painting and so much more, a commercial handyman service can keep your building in good shape and be a sanity and time saver for you.

Here at Stathakis, we provide commercial cleaning and commercial handyman services to the following Southeastern Michigan Counties: Genesee County, Livingston County, Washtenaw County, Monroe County, Wayne County, Macomb County, St. Clair County. We offer effective, professional facility services to the cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Farmington Hills, Dearborn, Farmington, Livonia, Plymouth, Downriver, Royal Oak, Southfield, Troy, Auburn Hills, Novi and more. For more information on our services and how we can help you, please contact us at 1-800-278-1884.

Is Your Building Maintenance To Do List Growing Out of Control?

Even experienced Facility Managers can get flooded by the sheer volume of work their facilities can create. It doesn’t take much to tip a Facility Manager’s ‘To Do’ list from barely workable to teetering out of control. A few unplanned maintenance issues accumulate faster than you can take care of them or ongoing maintenance issues start to pile up to the point where you aren’t even sure what to tackle first. Sometimes it is a lack of preventative maintenance coming back to haunt you, sometimes it’s new tenants or a building issue happening in multiple places at once and sometimes it is just plain old bad luck. When you are in the weeds and it feels like you might never catch up, commercial handyman services can save time, save money and reduce your workload to a manageable level. An effective commercial handyman service can attend to day-to-day issues before they get out of control and even help you complete projects that you have been putting off. Sure, what Facility Manager wouldn’t want some professional help, but maybe you think it’s going to throw your budget completely out of whack.

Are You Concerned Commercial Handyman Services Are Too Costly?

If you have put off critical maintenance because you think you cannot afford it, you should consider the following. First, when you partner with a solid commercial handyman service, you are creating a partnership that benefits you both. Your maintenance company gets ongoing work and you get to move to the front of the line and pay less than you would with a steady stream of new, individual contractors. Second, as tough as it can be to budget for preventive maintenance, a little money upfront for maintenance can save a lot of money and hassle later when things start breaking. For instance, an HVAC inspection off season is going to be much easier and cheaper than an AC service call from a new company on the hottest day of the year. An experienced building maintenance company can help you schedule preventive maintenance and even put their expertise to work creating an affordable maintenance schedule that makes sense for your facility and your budget. Third, supervising a team of in-house maintenance staff is a full-time job that you don’t want and there are simply too many associated costs. There are wages, benefits, health care costs and overtime associated with employees, not to mention the costs connected to recruitment, screening, interviewing, training, drug testing and criminal background checks and training. Outsourcing your building’s maintenance to the right building services company will save time and money as well as shield you from unnecessary liability and the issues associated with managing additional employees whose responsibilities are beyond the scope of typical business operations. 

Are You Tired Of Starting From Square One Every Time You Have A Facility Maintenance Issue?

If you have to start from square one every time you have a maintenance issue, no wonder you are overwhelmed. Think of what you must endure every time you need help. There are often canceled appointments, frequent more no-shows, price gouging and waiting far longer than you should for service to be completed. With a reliable, effective commercial handyman service, you go directly to the front of the line. If you have already established a relationship and trust with your building maintenance company, diagnosing, pricing and completing work is much more straight forward. What if an electrical issue comes up and you didn’t have to search a contractor out, meet with them, haggle over price or get multiple estimates? What if when it was time to have your office’s carpet cleaned, you had a great company at the ready? What if you could just dial up or email your point person at your building maintenance company and let them coordinate it for you? What if you could get a faster response and better work all while paying LESS than you would with multiple, individual contractors?

What Things Will a Professional Handyman Service Do?

Considering outsourcing building maintenance? Can you imagine the ease of having a trusted, reliable building services company that does it all? While not all building maintenance companies offer such an abundance of services, there are many that do. It is generally the larger maintenance companies that can afford a large team of trained technicians and professionals at the ready. So what kind of work and tasks can you expect a large facility maintenance company to offer?

• Wall repair
• Painting & touch-ups
• Plumbing Repairs
• Carpentry Repairs
• Electrical repair
• Carpet/Tile Repairs, Restoration & Replacement
• Carpet cleaning
• Ceiling Tile Repair/Replacement
• Flooring restoration
• HVAC preventative maintenance & repairs
• 24/7 Emergency Repairs
• Office Furniture Moving & Assembly
• Remodels/Alterations
• Lock and Door Repairs
• Ballast Replacement
• Door/Hinge/Hardware Repair
• Roof Inspections
• Group Relamping
• Painting/Wallpapering
• Life/Safety Audits
• Light bulb changes/Light fixture installations
• Comprehensive building inspection
• Exterior power washing
• Caulking & Glazing
• Water Clean Up
• Construction Clean up

How Will Having Your Own Team of Building Maintenance Pros Make Life Easier?

With an experience building maintenance company, you can get quick fixes to your maintenance issues, go straight to the front of the line, extend the life of your property’s assets, forecast better, cut maintenance expenses and even plan work around your needs. When you contract with a commercial handyman service, you get help where you need it at any given moment. That means you don’t over hire or pay someone when there isn’t work. Likewise, with a team of building maintenance pros, you can forego individual contractor specialists without settling for sub par contractors who might lack the experience needed to get the work done. Rather than go through the frustrating process of searching for and waiting on individual contractor for minor repairs, you get a turnkey, hassle free solution to the bulk of your building maintenance needs.

Do You Have Enough Work For a Commercial Handyman Service? 

Some Facility Managers like the idea of having their own ‘A’ team but worry that they simply don’t have enough work to make it worthwhile for a commercial handyman service. Others worry that a professional maintenance company is beyond their budget. The reality is that most commercial handyman services will customize a maintenance plan to correspond with your requirements and your budget. They know there is not any one size fits all solutions. They already wok with a variety of businesses, they understand each facility is going to be different. While some facilities may need a lot of help getting back on track, others might only need less frequent help. The most effective professional maintenance companies will work with you to figure out precisely what you need and how they can help you.

Are There Benefits to Outsourcing to a Commercial Handyman Service?

Yes! Outsourcing your building maintenance services not only helps you maximize your building services budget, it makes life easier by better managing your ever growing to do list. The advantages of farming these tasks out to technicians with specific expertise are clear. First, you can reduce and even eliminate the time and money associated with finding, hiring, administrating and managing your own in-house facility maintenance staff. Likewise, you do away with the costs associated with procurement, maintenance, inventory, equipment, supplies and uniforms. Third, you have access to expert service in a variety of specialties and even help with when planning larger, more difficult projects. Fourth, as far as budgets go, outsourcing can help you control and predict costs. You don’t pay for help you don’t need but you still aren’t paying the premium you might with individual contractors. Fifth, you get quick turn around and responsive service from people you already trust. Finally, enlisting the help of a commercial handyman service allows you to focus on your business.

Let Stathakis Help You Tackle Your Facility Maintenance 

Need help tackling your towering to do list? Feel like you are constantly running around putting out fires? Investing a bit of time to find the right maintenance company to meet your needs will pay off for many years to come. Outsourcing your building maintenance services is likely to reduce and stabilize your maintenance costs considerably, while also offering you, tenants and employees more consistent maintenance. Make outsourcing commercial handyman services work for you and your organization by choosing a building services contractor with a solid reputation and over 35 years of experience. To get more information or to schedule a free consultation, call Stathakis at 1-(800) 278-1884. 

As a Facility Manager, you likely have a ‘to do’ list a mile long. Along with your regular day to day duties, problems arise and it doesn’t take long before a small issue can turn into a big problem with an even bigger price tag. If your goal is to minimize hassles and save money, you need to plan ahead with preventative building maintenance. Sure, the thought of tackling preventive maintenance with so many balls in the air can seem futile, but one of the surest ways to get a handle on your work load is to plan ahead. Plan ahead with preventative maintenance and it will pay dividends in the long run. Your building maintenance plan becomes intentional and streamlined when you plan ahead and the right building services company can help you come up with a plan that is reasonable, affordable and sure to shorten your to do list and reduce the challenges that come with putting out fires.

I’m Not Sure I Can Afford Preventive Maintenance?

Preventive building maintenance is not unlike other preventive measures we take. For example, a twenty-five dollar oil change can prevent a $3000 engine repair. And a routine teeth cleaning can prevent much more costly future dental repairs. There is an upfront cost in money and time, but the overall savings is significant. The costs involved with preventive asset maintenance is money well spent. A building that gets regular preventive maintenance experiences less downtime, which leads to happier occupants. But beyond that, there is money saved from reduced energy usage, less lost productivity from unexpected failures and service headaches. Timely preventative maintenance will cost far less than last minute, high season emergency calls. For instance, scheduling routine maintenance for building A/C off season will likely cost less than an emergency service call on the hottest day of the summer. Similarly, preventive maintenance maintains the value and lifespan of costly building assets. Not only will planning ahead cost less over the long run and protect building assets, a building that is operating optimally sends the message you as a Facility Manager are skilled at planning and managing.

Pulling Together Your Preventive Building Maintenance Plan

Preventive building maintenance is intended to prevent failures, plan service when it is most convenient and cost-effective, reduce unplanned for equipment failures and maintain and extend the lifespan of building assets. The right building maintenance company can work with you to create a preventative building maintenance plan that prevents failures, schedules maintenance for convenience and savings, reduces the likelihood of unscheduled equipment outages, eliminates or diminishes unexpected, expensive emergency maintenance and extends the usable lifespan of your facility’s assets. A well thought out Preventive Maintenance Plan should include the following three basic components: budget, job’s plan task for each asset and have skilled technicians to perform assigned. In both the planning and the execution phase of your building maintenance plan, a commercial building maintenance company or Commercial handyman service can be exceedingly useful. You can opt for on site building maintenance, multi-facility maintenance or on demand, as needed maintenance, whatever method suits the size, need and budge constraints of your facility.

Where Do I Find Time For Preventive Building Maintenance?

It can be absolutely daunting to try to plan scheduled preventative maintenance when you are already beyond busy. This is why outsourcing building maintenance to a reputable, professional facilities maintenance company can help you get ahead of the fires and plan maintenance without overcrowding your already full plate. If you fail to plan your maintenance ahead of time, you throw yourself into a constant battle of putting out fires. You simply get so busy putting out fires that you put off preventive building maintenance and in so doing, create your next fire to put out. Preventive building maintenance helps you break that chaotic cycle. You must make scheduling preventive maintenance a part of how you work and manage your facility. We all understand the challenges of planning ahead, but it is critical to getting proactive rather than reactive. Repeating this reactionary cycle reduces the lifespan of building assets, creates more work for you, significantly more hassle and eats away at your bottom line.

Professional Facility Maintenance Services Can Be A Real Ally

Planning is great, working ahead is wise but in this business, there will always be things that come up in spite of our best planning. Add to that the fact that sometimes it’s difficult to know precisely how much labor you need and when you are going to need it. Additionally, if you handle building maintenance in-house, there is the added cost of employees, equipment acquisition, storage and maintenance and more. More often than not, partnering with a building maintenance company or using a commercial handyman service offers the best solution to the changing needs of your facility. Even seasoned Facility Managers can become overwhelmed with the amount of work generated by their facility. A professional commercial handyman service can help you deal with day-to-day issues before they escalate into bigger, more expensive issues. When you partner with a qualified commercial handyman service, they can help you customize a maintenance schedule that works for your facility. Repairs, fixes and installations can be planned, forecast, budgeted for and scheduled. Likewise, no matter which plan or option you choose, you will have a building services contractor at the ready when the unexpected happens. Choose a commercial handyman service or commercial building maintenance company that offers a great deal of services and your days of calling new contractors and hoping they show up and don’t gouge you is over.

Choosing a Partner to Help Manage Your Building Maintenance

Maybe you know that partnering with a professional maintenance company or commercial handyman is the direction you should go in but you aren’t sure where to start. Perhaps you are unsure if you even have enough work for a building maintenance contractor or maybe you are worried you have too much work for a single company. It could be that you are still worried about whether there is enough money in the budget to warrant outsourcing parts of your building maintenance. You don’t have to know what you need to enlist the help of a professional. A commercial building maintenance company or commercial handyman services will tailor the work to fit your facility and your budget. Maybe you need regular daily maintenance at multiple facilities or perhaps you only require a weekly visit or every other week to manage a revolving to-do list and perform preventive maintenance. It’s even possible that your facility only requires occasional help during specific short-term periods or seasons. A commercial building maintenance company can provide you with flexibility and a wide range of service options to come up with an individualized maintenance plan to help you shorten your to do list, reduce the headaches and cost associated with unplanned maintenance and keep your facility in great shape.

Windows Are the Face of Your Facility

Your windows are the face of your building. They are often the first thing visitors see when they enter your building. They are seen by people who don’t even enter your building, just passing by getting a look at the exterior. So it is not difficult to understand why in spite of all that is required in your facility, exterior window maintenance matters. Send customers, employees, tenants and visitors the right message with clean windows that elevate the overall professional image of your building by partnering with an effective, professional window cleaning company that can help you keep your facility looking good, inside and out.

Isn’t Commercial Window Cleaning Just a Rag & Some Windex?

Much like some people believe janitorial services come down to little more than a mop and bucket, some people incorrectly believe that commercial window washing boils down to a clean towel and some Windex. But commercial window cleaning is a professional service and requires an experienced janitorial company with professional technicians. What is involved in getting your windows sparkling? Typically the best window cleaning companies will scrub and scrape windows to loosen all tough, stuck on debris, dirt and even paint. Likewise, the edges of your windows and your window sills should be properly wiped and dried. Window screens, if you have them, should be cleaned as well as window tracks for a complete thorough window cleaning. Your commercial window cleaning company should offer all types of window cleaning, storefront, high-rise or whatever you need in your building. Additionally, they should utilize commercial grade window cleaners for a streak free, lasting shine. Furthermore, many expert commercial window cleaning services will offer specialized services like exterior window washing and track detailing, cleaning of sills, casings, sashes and frames, adhesive removal, hard water oxidation removal and lime removal and more. When shopping for window cleaning services, it’s important to find a commercial window cleaning company that is poised to fully meet your needs.

How Do I Choose the Right Commercial Window Cleaning Company?

While we wish there was a magic crystal ball that could give you easy answers to the questions of who will provide the best building maintenance services, it just isn’t that easy. Still, there are some factors you can look at to make choosing the right window cleaning company easier. Commercial window cleaning, like other building maintenance services, requires professionalism and know how. Windows are the face of your building, don’t risk your image or expose your company to liability issues by choosing the wrong window cleaning service. What do you as a facility manager need to be on the lookout for when making this critical decision for your facility? First, you need skilled technicians. Window cleaning, like most other maintenance services, is performed better when technicians are trained and experienced. Second, solid technicians must be given the tools and materials to do the best job possible, the first time. Third, technicians must be supported by a professional maintenance company that is committed to following best practices in everything they do. Fourth, your window cleaning company must be properly insured to protect you from unnecessary liability and risk. And finally, your commercial window cleaning service must follow all safety and compliance requirements to the letter. To summarize:

• Experienced, skilled exterior window cleaning technicians trained for success
• Using best available supplies, equipment and materials to do the job right every time
• Supported by a professional building maintenance company committed to best practices
• Fully insured to shield you from risk and liability
• Absolutely compliant with safety and regulatory requirements

Need An Easy Way to Get Shiny, Clean Windows Every Time?

Getting effective, consistent commercial window cleaning shouldn’t be so tough. There are building maintenance companies that understand how to do the job right and work hard to make your building shine and protect you from unnecessary risk. These window cleaning Detroit service providers understand that your windows reflect your building’s overall maintenance and must be done right, the first time. They understand that tools and products matter. So the most effective window cleaners are out there, but how do you find them? There is an easy, free shortcut that makes finding the best building services companies a snap. When looking for effective window cleaning, CIMS, or the Cleaning Industry Management Standard offers an ‘easy button’ to finding solid building services contractors. CIMS is a deliberate certification process that assures a building services company meets a number of indicators directly linked to overall success and satisfied customers. CIMS requires developing and following processes that support best practices. While CIMS doesn’t guarantee you will get the promised service, it is a valuable, free tool to help you create a short list of window cleaning companies, eliminate the less than professional, experienced companies and get the window cleaning your building deserves with the least amount of hassle for you.

Facility Maintenance Costs Can Be Unpredictable

We all prefer preventative maintenance, be it with our cars, our teeth and yes, the facilities we manage. And yet, how often do we skip routine maintenance because we are busy, or the money needs to be used for something else, or it just never gets scheduled, only to get hit with an unexpected issues and a BIG bill. Sure maintenance and repairs are just an expected part of the landscape when it comes to facility maintenance and yet, the high costs unexpected repairs bring can be significant. It can seem like just when you are sailing smoothly, on budget and on track, an issue comes up that can eat up your budget with months left to go. And once you have a needed repair or replacement, there isn’t much you can do except grit your teeth and write the check. Yet if planned right, you can incorporate predictive maintenance and preventive maintenance into your yearly plan and budget and save yourself the highs and lows of going at it without a plan.

Reactive Facility Maintenance Costs More Down the Road

All maintenance requires your time and costs money and yet, reactive maintenance is hands down the most costly. What are the three main types of maintenance and how do they differ? There is reactive building maintenance, preventative maintenance and predictive maintenance. These approaches are used by different Facility Managers in difference scenarios, but here’s some basics on how they break down. Reactive maintenance is pretty much what it sounds like, you REACT to an issue as it arises, basically a ‘fix it when it breaks’ method, or lack thereof. With preventative maintenance, the mindset is to ‘inspect, check and repair’ BEFORE it breaks. Preventative maintenance has the added benefit of allowing you to plan inspections and maintenance outside of peak cost periods. For example, have your AC inspected in fall as A/C reactive repairs wind down. Finally, there is predictive maintenance. This is using a history of your building’s maintenance along with technology to forecast issues before they happen in order to plan and budget for likely issues. While much of maintenance ends up being reactive maintenance, it ultimately costs more than the careful planning of predictive maintenance and the forward thinking preventative maintenance. The only time reactive maintenance costs less in when nothing breaks, and we all know how seldom that is.

Proactive Facility Maintenance Reduces Costs

Preventative building maintenance and predictive maintenance take planning and thought and yes, allocating dollars to it. But by choosing this more proactive facility maintenance, you net a significant cost efficiency and plan your time and that of your facilities maintenance company in a way that saves you money and time. If you have a preventive building maintenance plan with an effective and experienced Commercial handyman services, you can also plan work around your buildings use patterns and critical times so that disruption of your business or tenants’ businesses are kept to a minimum.

A Preventive Building Maintenance Checklist Can Help You Get Started

There are a few areas to start off with that can net you big gains with a little preventive maintenance. These are lighting, carpets and hard flooring and HVAC. For instance, in very large buildings, you might find yourself or your team frequently changing light bulbs. While this might not seem like wasted time, it adds up. Relamping and even converting to LED lighting can significantly reduce your energy costs. LEDs can last as much as fifty times a standard incandescent bulb! Sure LEDs cost more at the outset but with reduced relamping and reduced energy costs, the long term savings is huge. Another area of your building that can benefit from preventive maintenance is your carpets and hard flooring. Did you know a carpet management program could add five to ten years to our carpet’s lifespan? All too often, Facility Managers wait until hard flooring and carpet is visibly soiled to maintain it. With hard floorings with a clear coat, it is critical to strip and finish before dirt and grime push pas the clear coat to abrade and permanently mark your floors base. Likewise, carpet that is not maintained regularly allows abrasive, sharp dirt and debris to cut at carpet fibers and prematurely wear carpet and dull its appearance. An effective, experienced commercial handyman service can help you develop a preventive building maintenance program that keeps your costly assets like carpet and flooring looking good and lasting longer. Regularly cleaning of carpets and flooring can cut a great deal of expensive repair or restoration work and even delay the expense of a planned carpet replacement. Finally, the last area that can save you money on costly, ill timed repairs and replacements is your HVAC. When heating and cooling go on the fritz, you can be forced to spend top dollar to get your building comfortable and up and running quickly. When you facility’s HVAC is a part of your preventive building maintenance schedule, you save on both money and headaches. Ideally, your HVAC should be inspected at least twice yearly. Likewise, you should conduct start up and run inspections seasonally before you need air or heat so you have time to plan any needed service.

Your Commercial Building Maintenance Company Can Help You Identify Cost-Saving Maintenance

Partner with the right Building Services Company and you can get planned maintenance or even on-demand maintenance that still helps you cut service times and costs by having a go to team already on the bench. Working with a commercial handyman service or janitorial services company that handles building maintenance can help you record and monitor maintenance over time allowing you to plan and budget effectively. You can’t totally eliminate those expensive surprises but by shifting more of your facility maintenance from reactive to preventative or even predictive, you can reduce the number of unplanned expenses and shut downs that impact the overall smooth operation of your facility.

Does Your Facility Need a National Cleaning Company?

It can be easy to think your facility needs a national cleaning company. Maybe you have a large facility that requires multiple people or teams to maintain it. Or perhaps you have complex facility requirements like industrial cleaning, medical or school cleaning and you know that finding the right contractor to maintain your facilities is critical. Perhaps your organization has multiple locations and needs coordinated maintenance services. These factors and more can leave you feeling like maybe bigger IS better, but is that really the case? A national janitorial service might be a good option if you have locations throughout the country and require a single, centralized commercial cleaning company. But in most instances, the big national janitorial services can come with a variety of issues and obstacles you need to consider. Maybe you know you don’t want the things that come with a national janitorial company, but you also know your operations are far too big and complex for just any janitorial company. You would really like to shop local but need to assure you partner with a commercial cleaning company that is big enough, experienced enough and professional enough to offer you the same benefits of national cleaning companies. What size and kind of cleaning company will serve you and your facility best?

Is a National Janitorial Company Better Because They Are Bigger?

In order to examine what size and kind of janitorial companies perform better, we must define what better really is. Many Facility Managers can agree that in order to offer effective, reliable service, a commercial cleaning company must:

• Have employees who are a good fit for the work, have been properly screened, trained and managed to do their best for the customer.
• Have transparent pricing that allows Facility Managers the ability to both compare janitorial quotes and hold janitorial contractors to their word.
• Assure you know exactly who to call when there is an issue and then respond and rectify quickly to keep issues from becoming problems or burdens for you.
• Be interested in a long-term partnership with you and not just getting the contract, which means they work hard to understand your business and your needs.

Janitorial services aren’t a one time transaction rather it is an ongoing relationship of service delivery. You don’t want to contract with a company that doesn’t get the job done day after day. You want a partner that lives up to their promises and goes above and beyond to make sure your facility is well cared for and you are getting the full value of your janitorial budget. Now that we understand some of the most significant components of quality service delivery, lets examine how those measures relate to the size and type of commercial cleaning contractor.

Do National Cleaning Companies Have Better Buying Power?

Some Facility Managers like the idea of a national janitorial service because they know they are likely to have significant buying power where supplies like paper goods are concerned. While the larger companies certainly do benefit from the cost savings that comes with larger purchasing power, there is no guarantee they will pass along this savings to you the customer. The larger local commercial cleaning companies are likely to also have considerable buying power with cleaning supplies and stock supplies, and they are far more likely to pass their savings on to you the customer is order to stay competitively priced with national janitorial contractors.

Where Do National Cleaning Contractors Fall In When It Comes to Responsiveness?

With smaller cleaning services, you know exactly who’s in charge and they are likely happy to talk to you, and yet, if you manage a large facility or multiple buildings, your needs are beyond the scope of a small scale cleaning and maintenance operation. With national cleaning contractors, connecting with a person who can address and remedy issues can be challenging to say the least. Like most other corporations, personal attention and accountability can be in short supply while bureaucracy and impersonal, out of step customer service can be the norm. Some of the most responsive service comes from those mid to large local building services contractors. These larger, local janitorial companies can offer a solid mix of personal and operational responsiveness with a clear point of contact and an ability to go ‘up the ladder’ if needed to get issues addressed. And because of their size, they can still compete with national janitorial companies when it comes to flexible staffing and a rich and helpful service menu.

How Do National Janitorial Services Line Up With Labor?

One of the most important elements of effective service in cleaning and maintenance is the front line employee. What matters most? Employees must be adequately screened, trained and managed in order to arm them with the ability and motivation to give customers their best day in and day out. Most national janitorial companies are set up to effectively hire and screen employees. They likely do the required drug and criminal background checks as required for new hires. But building loyalty with employees and creating a responsive work environment often evades the large corporate national janitorial companies. The smaller janitorial companies often have a tough time finding and retaining the best people for the job. Their need may rise and fall too quickly to keep an adequate reserve labor pool for growth and attrition. Likewise, they are less likely to offer the compensation, benefits and perks that can help janitorial companies retain the highest performing employees. The more sizable local cleaning companies quite often have developed systems to find, screen and manage a great team. But they also benefit from their relationships with the local community. This can make it easier to attract and retain great teams and get referrals for future employees from current employees.

What’s Best For You the Customer?

All too often the really big guys, the national janitorial services leave you feeling lost in the crowd and getting the most attentive and effective service can be elusive. This is because national building services contractors can replace customers as fast as they lose them. Doing business in so many areas helps them spread out lost accounts and ‘fish from many ponds’ so to speak. It isn’t that you as a smaller customer aren’t important, it’s just that you aren’t as important as larger, harder to replace accounts. The smaller janitorial companies value every customer but whether or not that equates to effective, consistent service is anyone’s guess. Often smaller businesses become perilously reliant on one client to keep their business afloat. The larger, local cleaning operations can't replace lost accounts so easily. Word of poor service delivery travels fast in local communities and among Facility Mangers and local Detroit janitorial companies must guard their reputations carefully in order to find success here in Michigan. So they often work harder to get and keep customers.

A National Janitorial Service Has Limitations & Drawbacks

What is it that you really need? You need effective service. You want to be seen as a priority and get the responsiveness that demonstrates that is the case. You need a solid value from your janitorial budget and a company that will know how to deliver the most for the budget you have. You want a company that focuses on their customers rather than their shareholders. You need a janitorial company large enough to have at their disposal the methods, systems and procedures to deliver on their promises of quality service. You deserve to partner with a commercial cleaning company dedicated to finding the best people for the job and then arming them with everything they need to be successful in your facility. For all of these aims and more, a large locally owned large cleaning companies, like Stathakis, offers the best combination of benefits from both the big national guys and the little guys giving you just the right balance of professionalism and those personal touches.