Posted on January 30, 2012
Storage sheds are the perfect answer for the space challenged. Wouldn’t you love to actually park your car in the garage or reclaim the basement as a family room? If so, maybe you should consider investing in a shed for storage. Today’s sheds are durable, well constructed and are available in a wide range of sizes. Therefore, you should not have a problem finding something to suit you perfectly.
Storage sheds can be used to store everything from sporting goods to gardening tools to toys to household goods to clothes. Virtually anything you need to store can be placed in one of these sheds. They can be either permanent or portable structures. Permanent sheds are usually built on a foundation and constructed from materials such as brick, wood, metal, masonry block, or concrete.
Portable sheds are usually constructed from more lightweight materials that can be easily transported from one location to the next. Though they are billed as ‘portable’, you will likely not be moving your shed on a daily basis. If you only need temporary storage that can be easily moved or dismantled, then you might consider a portable storage solution.
The first order of business is deciding how you will be using your new shed. Here are a few things you might consider:
- Do you need an outdoor shed or one that can be used indoors? If you live in an area where you have limited outdoor space or need to store items that are sensitive to weather, you may want to consider an indoor storage solution.
- What do you need to store? The items you plan on storing will dictate what type of shed you will need, especially concerning the size. You likely will not use the same type of building to store your ride on lawn tractor as you would to store a garden hose and a few yard tools.
- How much stuff will you be storing? Again, size comes into play here. The more things you need to store, the larger the shed will need to be.
- Will you be using the shed as a workshop? Storage sheds are extremely versatile, and for this reason, many people use them as workshops. If you are a gardener or someone who finishes furniture, an outdoor shed may be the solution you have been seeking. In cases such as these, you will also require proper lighting and ventilation.
Maintenance
Since sheds are constructed of numerous materials (wood, metal, masonry materials), you should consider how much maintenance you are willing to provide to keep your storage space looking nice. A brand new storage space with wood siding is beautiful but will weather over time. If you would like something that requires less upkeep, you should consider a building constructed of either metal or masonry materials.
Installation
Storage sheds can be ordered pre-built or as a kit ready for assembly. If you are handy, most kits can be assembled over the course of a day or two with a little help. If you would rather leave the construction to the professionals, many stores will provide setup or installation services at an additional cost. If not, they are usually able to recommend a reputable handyman to help assemble your new shed.
Posted on January 23, 2012
The property management handover is a base by which you as the agent or property manager can implement sound property management processes and investigations. This is quite important considering that the property has been managed by others up until the handover and mistakes may or are quite likely to have been made.
Accuracy in the handover is therefore critical to stabilizing the property for the future.
Some of the biggest problems that are seen in the handover review are:
- Inaccurate tenancy schedules and tenant detail
- Lost lease or tenancy documentation
- Poorly maintained income and expenditure history of the property
- Incomplete arrears reports and strategy
- Missing landlords reports and communications
The process of property management handover is the best time to set the foundations for new property performance. Depending on the complexity of the property, a handover process can take anywhere from a few hours to a week to complete.
All documents provided and taken as part of the handover should be checked by you as the new property manager and signed for. This fact will protect you later if disagreements occur regards the things that were provided. Any comments or commitments from others in the process should be evidenced in email or written form.
There are some key processes that can be adopted in and through the handover. They are:
- Leases should be reviewed and read so that you know they are the current documents for each tenancy
- Special rights of property use such as naming rights, car parking usage, common area licences, storage, and after hours use, should be documented.
- Maintenance contracts and contractors details should be supplied. Any current ongoing maintenance jobs should be identified.
- Essential services documentation and contracts should be sourced. Check all elements of risk management that are associated with the essential services in the property.
- Tenant contact details should be checked and referenced against all the leases.
- Tenancy schedules should be checked against all the leases and licences.
- Income and expenditure activity and history should be provided for a number of years so you know what the property has been doing financially.
- Current budget detail for the property should be sourced in case it needs to be cross referenced to tenant outgoings payments, rent invoices, and arrears to be paid.
- In the case of retail property you may need to get the turnover records of all the tenants, and the customer visitation history.
You can add to this list subject to the function and demands of the property. When the handover is correctly and efficiently handled it makes your future management processes much easier.
Posted on January 11, 2012
There are four forms of carpet maintenance. They are preventative cleaning, interim cleaning, restorative cleaning and spot removal.
The most overlooked part of carpet cleaning is called preventative cleaning.
What this revolves around is the ability of the home or facility to keep the soil outside the building or at least at the entry doorways.
If the soil gets past the front doors then it becomes difficult to keep the place clean. In the winter this may often revolve around the dreaded slush or even worse yet - salt! - on the carpets.
It is extremely difficult to remove salt with any true green method of carpet cleaning method except for rinsing with straight water. This method can take dozens of attempts and still may not be successful.
Here are a handful of steps that are vital in maintaining a good appearance to your carpets at the buildings entryways during the winter:
- Keep the salt swept away from the doorways when there is no ice or snow.
- Keep sand, soil and settlement off of tires in parking areas swept up daily.
- Have large capture mats at all entries.
- Keep these capture mats clean. If they get slushy vacuum up the slush immediately with a wet-dry vacuum. If it's a bad winter you may have to do this several times a day.
- Clean visibly soiled area frequently. This may mean that the carpet has to be cleaned daily at high traffic entrances.
- Vacuum carpets in all directions. The dry particulate matter comes out much easier when its dry. Vacuuming in strokes north-south, east-west, south-north and then west to east will make a huge difference in the amount of soil removed from the carpet.
- Speed dry carpet matting. A huge percentage of installed carpet matting is made of olefin. This olefin fiber wicks soils quickly. Speed drying will allow for salty moisture to dry and be either vacuumed out or padded out with an acid rinse.
The fundamental element of winter carpet maintenance is preventative cleaning. A thoroughly thought out carpet maintenance plan requires constant inspection. This may require looking at the carpet before and after the cleaning. You may need to vary the amounts of water employed and the chemistries used in cleaning. Never forget that salty slush is much easier to remove with a wet/dry vac than after it has hardened.