14 Dec 3 Items To Consider When Managing Your Laundry Rooms | Owner Update
Three items to consider when managing your laundry rooms.
Laundry Room Lighting
Lighting inside the laundry room is very important. To the landlord and property manager, it is important to keep a bright and safe environment to reduce liability and risk of crime. To the tenant, a bright laundry room provides peace of mind and assures them of a safe and visible place to do their laundry. Furthermore, very bright lighting that is out of reach of tenants will stop the laundry room from becoming a darkened love nest or drug den at night. It is advisable to wire the laundry room with motion sensor control lighting that always comes on when there is someone in the room. This kind of control eliminates the switch, stopping tenants from turning off the light to conduct illegal activities. A licensed electrician should only replace a laundry room with automatic control. In addition to crime reduction, motion sensor control lighting can reduce energy use by assuring the light is off when nobody is in the laundry room. Many laundry room lights burn all night when the last tenant turns it on.
Energy savings can be found in the laundry room lighting using LED lighting. Changing an ordinary incandescent or fluorescent light bulb fixture over to a LED fixture will dramatically increase light and can reduce electricity use. If changing out a fixture is too complex, at a minimum, all bulbs should be changed to LED lamps. Some LED fixtures come with built-in LED lights; others have screw-in sockets for LED bulbs or tubes that can replace fluorescent tubes.
The Laundry Rooms Painting
Tenants expect a clean laundry room that supports the clean clothes they expect to take out of the machines. The best color in a laundry room is high gloss enamel oil base alkyd paint. This paint is the most durable surface and will stand up to rigorous use. A bright gloss white will sparkle and reflect light making the room appear even brighter. It also provides an environment that implies there is work to be done and no reason to linger.
Trash & Debris
In small apartment buildings, a trash can only invites tenant dumping and requires someone to empty the container. Small buildings should have a sign asking tenants to take all trash when leaving. Large complexes with on-site management can afford to provide trash bins with daily removal. Regardless, the laundry room should be swept and cleaned at least monthly.
The laundry room door should also have a weather strip at the bottom to keep out wind-blown debris. This strip will touch the ground and provide a flexible barrier to leaves and trash that the gardener and his blower typically end up blowing under the door and into the laundry room. The lint screen on the dryer needs to be cleaned after each use, and tenants should bring their own bag to put the dryer lint into for removal from the laundry room.
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