Property damage is an especially important issue schools and educational institutions must address because they are often working on fixed, taxpayer funded or nonprofit budgets. Their facilities are vulnerable to unexpected flooding, fires, and vandalism, just like many other properties. As a school facility manager, perhaps the most challenging part of your job is preparing in advance for unanticipated calamities.
There are two main ways to prepare your campus and your team to respond swiftly:
- Take Proactive Precautions: The first is a list of proactive steps you can take to reduce common risks. This could include lowering the chances of risks for crime, vandalism, fire, flooding, and mold on your properties.
- Professional Restoration Partner: The second is to partner ahead with a professional restoration company. These experts can acquaint themselves with your campus layout, and work with you to develop an emergency response plan. By having this step in-place, you can help to reduce the amount of damage incurred by speeding up response time in a disaster. You can also expedite the recovery process.
Unattended Facilities
Schools and education facilities are at high risk of property damage while closed. For instance, the rising water levels at your property due to flooding can increase the risk of water damage to buildings. Long periods of unoccupied time may leave a facility more vulnerable to a leak that’s not noticed, or fire hazards, all of which could lead to extensive property damage. Because of that, it is important to plan ahead as much as possible. See a list of proactive precautions below:
- Take Proactive Precautions
Luckily, school facility managers can reduce the risk of property damage when campuses are unoccupied. Here is how school and education facilities can minimize the risk of property damage, especially during holiday breaks:
Shut off Gas to Labs and Science Rooms During Breaks
Gas poses fire threats in schools and other education facilities, especially when they are unexpected gas leakages during holiday breaks. Shutting off gas to labs and science rooms during breaks can help minimize the risk of fire consuming the school facility. Leaving the gas turned on in science rooms and labs can be disastrous, since it can cause unexpected fires.
Gas leaks are also a common cause of fires in schools and education facilities. They usually happen because of faulty or poorly maintained appliances. Gas will leak when the appliances in the lab and science rooms are faulty, ultimately causing a fire. The most apparent sign of a gas leak at your facility is the smell. However, there will be nobody to detect gas leaks through smell when the school facility is closed. That is why school facility managers should hire a professional gas safety engineer to detect possible gas leaks before closing the school or campus for the holidays.
Securing Premises to Help Prevent Vandalism
Vandalism also poses a serious property safety concern. Schools and education facilities have been losing valuable items to vandalism. As a school facility manager, it would help to secure your premises to help prevent vandalism when the campus is closed. Here are some security measures to help prevent vandalism at your facility.
· Install security locks in all main doors
· Add extra lighting to deter vandals who operate in the dark
· Install security cameras at your property
· Have a security wall around your premises to keep away vandals from accessing your property
- Professional Restoration Partner
At STOP Restoration, we have extensive experiencepartnering with school districts, college campuses, and private schools at STOP Restoration to provide them with professional restoration services. We quickly respond to emergencies because we have independently owned locations within education and school facilities. But more than that, we want to help ahead of a disaster, by working proactively with facilities managers and school leadership to create an emergency response plan. Your local STOP Restoration team will meet with you, identify and record locations of utility shut offs, where to get power if restoration equipment needs to be put into action, and where you prefer our work vehicles to be parked. We’ll record your dumpster location and types, and even map out the best points of entry for our desiccants, should those be needed onsite.
Our goals are:
- Help keep students, staff, and visitors safe.
- Reduce the risks of damage, to limit the amount of damage if an incident occurs.
- Help educational facilities be prepared ahead of time for emergencies.
- Escalate the restoration and recovery timeline after any incidents.
- Minimize interruptions caused by damage to the educational schedule at your campuses.
Final Word
To get in touch with the locally owned and operated STOP Restoration nearest you, CLICK HERE to see our locations. Or call: (844) 500-4775
