Beat the Signs of a New England Climate with Facility Maintenance

While our famous New Eng­land win­ters can be charm­ing if you’re spend­ing an after­noon on the slopes or the seat of a snow­mo­bile, they’re much less appeal­ing dur­ing rou­tine life and work.

Win­ter weath­er con­di­tions pose a real threat in numer­ous ways, and espe­cial­ly when it comes to the health of your facility’s sur­faces. Salt fog along more coastal areas, ele­vat­ed mois­ture, snow, ice, and the intru­sion of salt and sand tracked indoors all take their toll.

This might sound like an uphill bat­tle, and it real­ly is in many ways. On the oth­er side of the coin, how­ev­er, if you have the right knowl­edge and work­ing part­ner­ship with a facil­i­ty main­te­nance pro­fes­sion­al, you can cre­ate a vital lev­el of pro­tec­tion for your assets.

The Pow­er of Pre­ven­tive Facil­i­ty Maintenance

Every main­te­nance strat­e­gy looks a lit­tle dif­fer­ent, but they are all found­ed on the same prin­ci­ple: proac­tive care. If you wait until decay and dam­age set in, or ignore trou­bling symp­toms for too long, the cor­rec­tive mea­sures becomes much more dras­tic by necessity.

Con­sis­tent, pre­ven­tive care will pro­tect your main­te­nance bud­get in the long-run and cre­ate price­less peace of mind.

Facil­i­ties Pre­ven­tive Main­te­nance Checklist

To avoid dam­ages to your build­ing due to the New Eng­land cli­mate, imple­ment the fol­low­ing best practices:

1. Main­tain caulk­ing door and win­dows to avoid mois­ture damage.
2. Ensure exte­ri­or paint­ing is imple­ment­ed reg­u­lar­ly to avoid dam­ages and haz­ards enter­ing your building.
3. Main­tain floor coat­ings for safe­ty, even if snow, ice, and salt are tracked into your building.
4. Prac­tice reg­u­lar equip­ment and facil­i­ty cleaning.
5. Prac­tice reg­u­lar FOD con­tain­ment pro­to­cols, espe­cial­ly dur­ing sea­sons with high allergens.

Com­mon Signs That Your Paint or Coat­ing Needs Atten­tion This Win­ter (and Year Round!)

What are those ear­ly signs we men­tioned that should nev­er be ignored? Here are a few com­mon ones to watch out for:

• Mois­ture Intru­sion — This can be an indi­ca­tor that exte­ri­or coat­ings, mason­ry seal­ers, or mois­ture mit­i­ga­tion sys­tems (for floor­ing) need to be con­sid­ered. Stain­ing, delam­i­na­tion, and bub­bling are just a few symp­toms to be wary of.
• Rust — Swift, effec­tive cor­ro­sion con­trol is essen­tial, espe­cial­ly for exte­ri­or sur­faces and high-humid­i­ty inte­ri­or envi­ron­ments. This is an ide­al spring­time project, but can be com­plet­ed year-round with the right prod­ucts and weath­er conditions.
• Failed Coat­ings — In this case, media blast­ing may be required to bring your sur­face back to a healthy, recep­tive con­di­tion before new paint or coat­ings can be applied.
• Buildup of Dirt and Debris — Whether in the struc­ture of your ceil­ing deck or across sen­si­tive equip­ment, the right clean­ing reg­i­men will yield tan­gi­ble, pos­i­tive results. And, your main­te­nance pro­fes­sion­al will have the right tools and tech­nique for each surface.
• Miss­ing or Worn Safe­ty Fea­tures — From line strip­ing to paint­ing pipes accord­ing to OSHA require­ments, indus­tri­al paint­ing facil­i­tates safe­ty, effi­cien­cy, and code-com­pli­ance as well.

Can Exte­ri­or Paint­ing and Rust Reme­di­a­tion Be Per­formed Dur­ing the Winter?

Paint and coat­ing for­mu­las have enjoyed huge advances in recent years, allow­ing many to be suc­cess­ful­ly applied even in frigid tem­per­a­tures. For exam­ple, the coat­ing we used in this par­tic­u­lar project can be suc­cess­ful­ly used in tem­per­a­tures as low as 20°F.

This has opened the doors to more exte­ri­or win­ter paint­ing, allow­ing us to con­fi­dent­ly pro­tect your sur­faces even before the spring thaw rolls around again. With that said, we do pro­ceed cau­tious­ly, ensur­ing that the con­di­tions are what they need to be for a suc­cess­ful project.

What Does An Ongo­ing Facil­i­ty Main­te­nance Plan Include?

This large­ly depends on your spe­cif­ic needs and prop­er­ty. Here at Kaloutas, for exam­ple, we believe in cus­tomiz­ing your plan to best meet your require­ments, goals, and bud­get. It’s not a one-size-fits-all scenario.

In a more gen­er­al sense, how­ev­er, pre­ven­ta­tive facil­i­ty care often includes:

• Rou­tine paint and coat­ing inspec­tions, ensur­ing yours are per­form­ing as they should and are in good condition
• Per­form­ing repairs and touchups as need­ed before points of con­cern have a chance to grow
• Indus­tri­al cleaning
• Con­crete inspec­tion and sys­tem recommendations
• Sched­ul­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty, adapt­ing to your needs

Choose Your Paint­ing and Floor­ing Main­te­nance Part­ner Carefully

We use the word ​“part­ner” very purposefully.

It’s essen­tial that you choose an expe­ri­enced paint­ing and floor­ing pro­fes­sion­al who has the skill, staff, equip­ment, and capa­bil­i­ty to han­dle projects of any size, and adapt to your sched­ul­ing parameters.

If your facil­i­ty is in New Eng­land, we encour­age you to con­tact us at Kaloutas. It would be our plea­sure to answer your ques­tions and dis­cuss the best strat­e­gy for your property.

Oth­er Ser­vices Kaloutas Cus­tomers Are Search­ing for Include:

• exte­ri­or paint­ing con­trac­tors cen­tral massachusetts
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• ure­thane mor­tar floor­ing contractors

Kaloutas is New Eng­land’s pre­mier con­trac­tor for com­mer­cial & indus­tri­al paint­ing, floor­ing, and relat­ed ser­vices. Estab­lished in 1987, Kaloutas has become a trust­ed resource for gen­er­al con­trac­tors, facil­i­ties man­agers, and build­ing own­ers from Con­necti­cut to Maine. Our team prides itself on high qual­i­ty work­man­ship, jobs done on time & bud­get, and tack­ling com­plex projects that oth­er con­trac­tors don’t have the expe­ri­ence or resources to han­dle. Con­tact us today for a paint­ing or floor­ing esti­mate, or give us a call at 978−532−1414 to learn more.