Winter Tip 2 – Winter Risk Management

I sit writing this article with my face set in a subtle grimace of considerable discomfort, my left leg propped up just high enough so that the people in the office can see it, just in case they forget and stop offering to get me cups of coffee. With each throb of my slightly swollen ankle I’m reminded of the trauma I faced the night before on my bi-monthly run.

It wasn’t a cold night. The air was still and my trainers were tied just tight enough so I could still put my feet in without having to tie the laces. The only major difference I noticed as I jogged out of sight of my house, slowing immediately to a leisurely stroll, was the distinct lack of light. I wasn’t going to let this dark reminder that the clocks had gone back a few days previously affect my fitness regime, however. ‘It won’t make an ounce of difference,’ I thought as I entered the field behind my house, ‘I’m a machine’.

As it turns out, it did and I’m not.

Running across uneven ground in the darkness without a torch is always a mistake, and as my lightly twisted ankle would have me know, the winter is no time to be running outside after work. As November rudely announces its arrival with fireworks and frost, we’re reminded that summer is long gone, autumn is slipping quickly by and the long, dark depths of winter are just over the horizon. Here, then, is the second in our series of posts on how you can prepare your commercial properties for the months ahead.

Tip 2 – Seasonal Gutter Clearance.

When it rains, it pours. And when it pours out of your gutters because they’re blocked by a year’s worth of debris, your tenants get wet. Tenants hate getting wet.

Treating your commercial property to a simple gutter inspection can alleviate unnecessary emergency call-outs to clear blocked or broken gutters and could even go as far as to rectify any problems that could potentially cause thousands of pounds’ worth of damage to your building. By getting them cleared the water will drain properly, and the contractors will check for damaged systems and even backflow while they’re up there. A must-have in a facilities manager’s winter preparation arsenal.

Jake Jones, Propertyserve helpdesk