Just as you’ve finished clearing up the mess from last winter, it’s time to start preparing for the next one.

As a property manager, you’re constantly juggling a hundred different tasks, and ensuring your winter maintenance is in order is one of the most important ones, especially if you’re in a colder area.

In the winter months of 2023, businesses across the UK claimed £153 million in burst pipe damage alone from insurers, and an additional £443 million in weather damage was claimed across the year—much of that coming in winter.

Claiming insurance rockets monthly premiums, not to mention the effort required to fix these issues, even if insurance money has been claimed.

While it takes a lot of effort upfront, putting in the work before snow and ice arrive is the best way to prevent accidents, reduce liability, and maintain property value. Proactive maintenance will always save you time and effort in the long run.

If you’re a property manager getting ready for this year’s winter weather challenges, here are some tips on how to get ahead of the problem.

Preparing for Winter

It can be tempting to start winter maintenance immediately, ticking it off your list of things to do.

Before you begin the hard work, you need to complete a thorough property inspection, assessing all the potential hazards and challenges that may occur during the winter months.

This typically includes identifying cracked pavements that may expand with ice forming, loose handrails that may break as people use them more or any drainage issues that could get worse in winter conditions.

Of course, these aren’t the only hazards to identify. Develop a complete plan to ensure you catch every possible problem. This should include:

• Creating a schedule for regular maintenance tasks
• Allocate responsibilities and resources to relevant staff
• Compiling emergency contact details for all staff, contractors, and utility companies
• Develop clear procedures for any necessary winter scenario such as ice storms, power outages, or heavy snowfall

Essential Maintenance Tasks

Even without storms, almost every winter in the UK brings ice, cold weather, and (some) snow.

Removing Snow and Ice

Effective snow and ice management is vital for keeping your facilities up and running during winter.

Whenever storms, ice, or snow are predicted, you should pre-treat all your surfaces with grit or de-icing agents. Alongside this, set aside scheduled time to remove any snow that forms. For ice and snow, prioritise high-traffic areas such as entrances, exits, and any emergency routes.

Heating Systems Maintenance

Whatever the weather, winter always brings the cold. This makes maintenance of your heating systems a top priority.

Check all your boilers, furnaces, and other HVAC systems to ensure they are efficient and safe. Ideally, do this before winter — fixing HVAC systems when it’s already cold is never good.

 You should also clean or replace any relevant filters, test all your thermostats and controls, and inspect all ductwork for leaks or damage. Setting aside time to check for damage and review the functionality of your HVAC systems well ahead of winter will save you in the long run.

Utilising Technology

By using new technology and advanced tools, winter maintenance can become simpler and more efficient.

The first critical advantage comes with weather monitoring tools. While public weather forecasting is accurate, sophisticated weather tracking tools such as AccuGrit’s partner service can provide even more precise, localised forecasts from much further out.

This allows us to prepare for incoming storms and other winter weather way ahead of time and gives us specific data on surface temperatures and snow and ice formation.

Combined with other automated systems, these weather forecasting tools can trigger automated heating and cooling elements in key walkways to melt ice before it forms without human intervention.

Ensuring Sustainable Practices

In the past decade, the world has become increasingly environmentally conscious, and for good reason.

Our climate, ecosystem, and local environment need protecting, which is why winter maintenance services have been slowly adapting and evolving to create more sustainable approaches.

There are several ways this is being achieved:

• By using eco-friendly de-icing materials over traditional gritting helps reduce damage both to vegetation and waterways, as well as infrastructure that can be corroded through gritting.
• Developing more preventative and automatic measures such as permeable paving and heated mats will help reduce the need for chemical de-icers.
• More accurate and sophisticated forecasting tools allow for more accurate and minimally invasive use of gritting and snow removal, helping protect the environment.

With a deep commitment to protecting the environment, AccuGrit uses a combination of all these methods to provide essential and reliable gritting solutions while minimising our impact on the environment.

Maintaining Good Communication and Coordination

As you work to protect facilities during the winter months, it is important to keep open lines of communication with tenants and key stakeholders such as owners or investors, so that they are aware of what is happening.

This should include sharing your winter maintenance plan and schedule and any changes to normal facility operations, either because of preparations or severe weather conditions.

You must also send out key safety tips and guidelines for navigating the property during winter conditions.

In addition to tenants and stakeholders, it’s critical that you maintain good relationships and open communication with your internal team and any external service providers.

Risk Management and Safety

While general maintenance always helps reduce risks in winter months, there are some specific strategies you can use to help create an even safer experience for tenants, staff, and visitors:

• Install clear signage of potential hazards
• Set up barriers to deter unwanted visitors from dangerous areas
• Regularly inspect key walkways
• Log all maintenance activities for liability protection
• Install good lighting in key outdoor areas for better visibility 

Conclusion

Inspecting, assessing, and fixing any issues well ahead of time is the number one tip for good winter maintenance, helping you reduce stress, risk, and weather damage, all in one.

Alongside good preparation, it is also important to have a trusted professional service on hand – a reliable partner such as AccuGrit to help you when you need it during winter. We help facilities all across the UK stay safe and operational throughout winter, no matter the weather.Contact us today to get tailored, comprehensive winter maintenance services!