Parking garages are an economic force multiplier. They facilitate travel to and from dense urban areas. This supports the workforces of businesses, the tourism industry, local residents who don’t otherwise have access to reliable parking, and the errands and leisure activities of people who live in the region. Without adequate parking for private vehicles, a great deal of economic activity simply would not occur.
Without clean, functional parking facilities, the force multiplier begins to degrade, creating knock-on effects that ripple through the local economy. This makes parking lot maintenance surprisingly important.
At Northbay Maintenance, our parking garage cleaning services are professional and comprehensive. We have a great deal of experience in the category, so we thought that today in the blog, we’d take a look at the secret dangers of dirty parking garages.
Health Hazards
Brake dust is carcinogenic — so when it accumulates on garage floors and gets kicked up by cars it creates breathing hazards. Those hit hardest are the ones constantly in the garages i.e. your engineers, maintenance workers, valet workers, etc.
Many parking garages also end up serving as makeshift living quarters and toilets for drug addicts and the homeless. This is a serious public health hazard. Used needles and condoms, human waste, vomit, and trash are all critical disease vectors that must be kept in check.
You can combat these human-caused hazards directly by increasing your garage’s security presence. To combat the potentially cancerous effects of accumulated brake dust, however, enforce prompt parking lot maintenance and hire a monthly parking garage cleaning service who can ensure your garage is as cleanly, and hazard free, as possible.
Vehicle Damage
Many business owners skimp on parking lot maintenance because they don’t realize that a dirty parking lot creates a danger to the vehicles that park there. For example, the general dirt and grime of a dirty garage can accelerate the wear and tear on a vehicle’s protective finish and paint job.
More seriously, loose debris often contains sharp objects that can puncture tires. Another danger is that, when cars drive too quickly (and in parking garages they often do), this loose debris can be thrown into the air, causing damage to the moving vehicle or to nearby parked vehicles.
A Crime Magnet
A lack of parking lot maintenance creates a dirty environment that implies negligent management and gives criminals the idea that here is a space where they can get away with their illegal behaviors. This makes an unkempt garage a much more appealing target for car thefts, vandalism, and drug deals.
It is important for any professional parking garage cleaning service to respond to things like graffiti and shattered glass quickly because a quick response sends the message that this garage is well-cared-for and frequently monitored and maintained.
Economic Disincentives
This will come as no surprise, but people don’t like dirty, smelly, worn-out parking garages that feel unsafe and are littered with hazardous debris.
Parking lot maintenance isn’t truly optional. You have to keep up with it. When a parking facility is neglected, it shows, and people stop coming if they have a choice. Maybe they’ll go to another garage. Maybe they’ll not make their trip at all. Either way, your business will suffer.
Legal Liability
We haven’t talked about legal liability yet, but if a person gets hurt (or their car gets damaged) in your parking garage and ties it to a case of poor parking lot maintenance, this can do a lot to harm your business.
Here are just a few of the possible causes of a lawsuit:
- Potholes
- Poorly visible parking stripes
- Broken glass or other sharp debris
- A burned-out light that hurts visibility
- A faded sign that makes navigation unclear
- Oil slicks or other slippery surface conditions
- Inoperative ventilation fans
- Human waste
Regular parking lot maintenance is cheap insurance against some potentially devastating litigation.
Environmental Harm
If you thought the harmful, carcinogenic effects of accumulated brake dust was scary, consider the horror of hiring an unqualified contractor who can’t get the job done or, worse, does a shoddy job to begin with.
Many lot owners or managers do hire a parking garage cleaning service; however, since they haven’t given much thought to all the risks of a poorly-maintained garage, they’re more interested in saving a buck than getting the job done right, and so they’ll go with the lowest bid they can find.
This tends to backfire in two ways: First, you get what you pay for. If a bid is too good to be true, you’re probably looking at an inexperienced or unprofessional contractor. Hire them, and the odds of complications go through the roof. Their parking lot maintenance services often won’t be delivered on time, and will frequently be done haphazardly. A bad contractor may even cause damage to the vehicles parked in your garage!
But the other problem is even worse: California has strict environmental regulations about things like runoff and cleaning agents, and there are all kinds of ways for an unqualified contractor to inadvertently run afoul of these rules and create a regulatory nightmare of noncompliance for you. Being fined by the authorities will instantly erase any savings from hiring a cheap contractor.
Let Northbay Maintenance Do the Job Right
At Northbay Maintenance, we offer all-in-one commercial cleaning services for businesses, restaurants and retailers, and other institutions. Why bother with a dozen different contractors when you can have one, consistently excellent contractor who meets all your needs? Our parking garage cleaning services cover every aspect of parking lot maintenance, including:
- Regular cleaning
- Pressure washing
- Cleaning oil slicks
- Cleaning debris that can puncture tires or damage car bodies
- Cleaning of human waste and other biohazards
- Graffiti removal
- Lane restriping
- Light bulb replacement
- Pothole repair
- Signage refurbishment
- Environmental regulatory compliance
In addition, we offer the other cleaning services your company needs including janitorial services, construction cleanup, and event cleaning.
When you contact us, we’ll come out for a free onsite evaluation, and we’ll make a competitive bid that meets both your needs and your budget. The whole process is free, so you have nothing to lose by finding out what Northbay has to offer!
Contact Northbay Maintenance today to set up that free onsite visit. We serve the entire North Bay Area, as well as the East Bay. Let us show you what a difference good parking lot maintenance makes!
