The Importance of Garbage Chute Maintenance
As a property owner and landlord, you may have some buildings that use garbage chutes. Garbage chutes help your tenants to keep the areas around their homes clean and free of clutter.. Keeping the chute maintained so that it is in working order is necessary for the residents to physically use the chute. In most cases, the maintenance for the chute will be the responsibility of the landlord. Look at some ways to maintain a garbage chute, and the effect that this has on your tenants.
Why the Chute Needs a Good Clean
One of the biggest risks of a chute that is not working properly is a fire risk. Sometimes, sticky substances can be spilled onto the very top of the chute, meaning that garbage may stick to the chute. Paper and other flammable material may pose a risk if a fire breaks out nearby.
Similarly, if any substances are left to drip or spill onto the chute, this may cause an attraction for some types of pests, such as rats or mice. They could then have access to the rest of the building.
Reduce Health Risks
If bacteria are allowed to build up, it can have a detrimental effect on the tenants. Due to the nature of the garbage chute, there is a constant updraft, so when the opening is accessed by the tenant, the bacteria can become airborne. This can cause such symptoms as watery eyes, headaches or nausea.
Removing the build up of bacteria is essential to the maintenance of the chute. In addition to this, built up bacteria may cause an unpleasant smell, meaning that your tenants and their guests will have to suffer living in a place that smells bad, due to the chute.
How to Clean the Chute
You can do some of the cleaning yourself, but it is advised to hire a chute cleaning company for the other half. As the landlord, you can check the openings of the chute on every floor, and remove any blockages near the top of the chute. You can also use a hand scraper to remove any stuck-on debris from the entrance of the chute.
You can also leave reminders of how to properly bag waste, or what kind of waste you allow to go in the chute.
Clean the outside and inside of the chute with a disinfecting cleaner. For the rest of the chute, a hired company can apply a cleaning solution to the whole length of the chute and clean it with a powerful spray gun. The money spent on hiring the company like Qwik Chutes will go a long way to improving the lives of your tenants, should they have been living in a building with chute problems.
Generally speaking, a residential garbage chute should be power cleaned on a yearly basis to properly maintain the chute.