Topic: Could anyone give tips on things to do for Maintenance Team when there are no work orders?

Could anyone give tips on things to do for Maintenance Team when there are no work orders?

Shop is cleaned and organized, office touch up painting is done, market ready units have been walked and rewalked, grounds are good...

I’m not the manager that works my team like a slave, however we can’t sit idle.

Grounds? Preventive Maintenance? Power Wash breezeways?

I definitely have some things they can do on my sites! What a great place to be! I like scheduling Preventative maintenance for these times, or if they can, have your maintenance team make renewal calls-anyone expiring in the next 2-4 months...call and check on them. Is there anything we can do in your apartment? This impresses them and more likely to renew when they feel like you went out of your way to check on them. Who knows, people are busy right now and maybe you have some work orders piling up that they haven’t had time to call about! Power washing or painting rails and deep cleaning lights is always good too.

Marketing! Take a photo of the team and introduce their skills in your online ads, in welcome messages to new residents. Create personalized door hangers and testimonial cards. These are your rock stars!

Preventive maintenance in apartments, go building by building and check air filters, smoke detectors, unreported leaks under sinks, clean breezeways, get bugs out of light fixtures, etc

Package delivery? This time of year our storage rooms get filled with extra packages! Have them wear a Santa Hat!

If you have sister properties reach out and see if they could use some help?

Let them relax. They deserve it!

I'm maintenance lead and I normally have them ck lights on exterior, ck dryer vents are cleared and have caps on, wash condensers, replace ac filters and and spray evaporating oils with cleaner also ck for leaks and smoke alarms while they are there, c km exterior of buildings for missing siding, pressure wash exterior of buildings and breeze ways, make sure paint on exterior isint fairing or cracking...of you need more ideas let me know l.

Paint fire lanes?

Preventative maintenance is never complete or up to date. I suggest doing preventative maintenance

Do you have a pressure washer? I'm sure there are places that can be spot cleaned if the weather is decent.

Defineately prevenitive maintenance on AC's, wash windows, power wash

Walk unit that have not had work orders for a long time. Do preventative maintenance on units coming up for renewal 120 days out.

I bake cookies and bag them up. Then have my Maintenace team deliver them to the lease expirations that are 120 days out to make sure “everything is good” in the apartment.

definitely preventative/unit checks if possible. Cleaning of light fixtures is a good one (inside and outside the front door).

One of my favorite maintenance team projects for when there are no work orders are to proactively clean the AC units/heat pumps (remove the front panel, hose them down, brush them down and oil) and to replace all the air filters, check fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. Often this process will reduce tenant energy bills, prolong the life of the heat pumps, and as the staff are working through units, work orders will come up ("oh, by the way...")

I also like to see any budget requests or needs anticipated from this process.

I'm also a big fan of online educational classes (CECs) for maintenance staff that can be taken during slow periods.

My maint super does quick tip videos - how to change an air filter, how to reset garbage disposal, what the light switch that "doesnt work" actually does, etc. My residents love these. www.youtube.com/channel/UCijEwq9SYPaWRCaOnV346Zw

Have them shop your competition!

This is a great time to touch up paint on all common areas or the model(s).
I’ve never been on a single community that didn’t need the pool equipment room or area plumbing lines and valves clearly marked for flow direction.
They can also repair all those used and skelentonized appliances in all the garages you could be collecting revenue on!

Wow, no work orders? I’m jealous. What about preventative maintenance? Inspect waters heaters, roofs for potential leaks, change a/c filters. You could also offer to assist residents with hanging pictures, etc for an hour.

How about doing a small video showing residents how to do some of the small things like replacing smoke detector batteries and things like that.. I started making tutorial videos with my old guys and the residents love it.. if you have a Facebook page post the video..

Parking lot striping

Take them out for a steak they sound like a badass team

Have them knock on doors and ask residents what they can do in the apartment for them. Hang a wreath. Take out the trash, clean a ceiling fan. Freshen caulk. Touch up a spot on the wall. Adjust a door. Walk the dog....

Leak and running toilet inspections.

Touch up paint the outside of the community, change out filters in 1/3 of the community. Do routine maintenance on A/C’s and heaters.

Can I hire them?

Gutters, air filters

Send them my way!!

Clean out outdoor light globes

Quarterly inspection?

Have them shop their competition - so that they can see what they're competing with in terms of Service, Curb Appeal, unit turns, etc.

Loan them out to your sister properties.

Plumbing inspections. Maybe an online class to refresh fair housing. Update any common area lighting to LED.

Individual apartment inspections. Check smoke alarm batteries, replace furnace filters, replace light bulbs, note condition ( cleanliness) of apartment or if they have pets. Ask the Resident if there is anything we can do for you today.

Preventive maintenance
all units.
check from leaks, filter change,caulking, etc.
Impressive to the residents.
Reduces turnover.

Preventative maintenance inspections & repairs.

Wow what a great team! Get them involved in reputation management - asking residents to post reviews on Google. We got our maintenance team involved in our rep management and were blown away by the amount of 5 star reviews we got just from our maintenance rockstars asking residents to leave reviews.

Preventative Maintenance...clear condensate lines..

Volunteer at a charitable organization for a day in the community

Check trip hazards, drains, inspect light fixtures, notate siding repairs, make sure there aren't holes in gutter run offs... Depending on where you are located you can do preventative cleans on exterior HVAC units (in SC guys cleaned them in winter).

Basketball keeps them moving

Great time to take online courses such as the ones HD Supply and other vendors offer.

Hi, That's a great question to ask. so here is the break down

A) in the navy, there is a statement, "if it moves, Salute. If its still, paint it"

with that in mind, Hire a 3rd party company, and get a property inspection done, you want another set of eyes.

So my check list goes like this ( southern florida, I had list for other area's )

Priority : water away from the property is always a good thing

A) Roof review, gutters and pipes cleaned out

B) drainage clean out.

C) Leak discovery and repair.

D) dryer venting repair/replacement. ( fire hazard prevention )

E) Door repair and security check ( out of normal cycle but it's always a good thing )


Secondary :

A) Foundation cracks discovery and repair

B) sidewalks crack discovery and repair

C) Elevator cleaning and basic maintenance ( monster fees for repairs, so keeping them top shape is well worth the effort )

D) creation of a paint priority list. You would be surprised what has never been painted.

E) A/C window and property air leak research

F) plan to split the parking lot, and look to reseal, topcoat, and paint the bumpers.

G) make a landscape repair plan including the sprinkler system.

H) out of schedule on hot days, wash the solar panels with water. No one complains about cool water spraying on a hot day. it's BS work since is water wash no rags, just a lazy cool down.


I am going to guess that everyone has a scheduled power wash routine and other to do list routines. this is my out of cycle list.


I once ran a firm, we never had downtime because these list are living list of
things to do and repair.

I have my maintenance team work on a Preventative Maintenance Schedule when not working on service requests, grounds and make readies. Changing outs ac filters, testing smoke alarms, inspecting lights, sprinkler heads, pressure washing, cleaning pool furniture, BBQ area and Pet stations.

I also have them touch up paint throughout the community, including curbs and entrances. In addition, I have them go through their binders to make sure everything is up to date such as MSDS, Freon Logs, Pool Logs, Inventory, etc.

This is also a great time for them to catch up on their Gracehill Courses.

I would love to know what other suggestions you receive. Love getting new ideas!

Have a great Day!

First of all Congratulations!!! Sounds like you have a great team. There are always things that you can find for someone to do be it checking all unit smoke alarm battery's, to changing out all the HVAC filters and prep for summer on your AC units. I liked when I read that you are what I called pretty laid back and not a slave driver. I managed apartments years ago and had the same type of attitude. I'm sure you have a corporate office so I don't know how they would take this but I use to have fun with my staff. I would cross train them. Usually I found that the leasing department would have no idea what the Maintenance staff went through nor did the Maintenance staff understand exactly what the office staff did. Each position deals with a lot more than the other department is aware of. I would take a day here and there and make them switch roles. I remember during the summer months and during the extreme cold I would have a leasing agent complain because they leased an apartment and could not understand what the big deal was to get it ready in a day while maintaining other needed items. I would take that leasing agent and tell them to ware Jeans the next day and put them with one of the Maintenance staff and the same with Maintenance and leasing, Maintenance would have to dress and work in the office. Of course they were not turned loose but under the supervision of the Maintenance supervisor I would have them work the full day in the heat following and helping as though they were part of the staff. Believe me by the end of the day it was rare to ever have them want to do this again and they had a much better understanding of what the other person goes through. I would also like to mention it always seemed to make them have a better relationship and understanding of each other. Just a team building exercise. I might also mention that I was not mean but I would make sure that what ever supervisor was in charge that day I had already had a conversation to make sure that the person following was in for a very lets say fun filled day of hard work and the extreme tempetures. Try it sometime, its a lot of fun and usually your staff will have a great understanding for each other