Appropriate apartment maintenance is key to luxury living – we all know that. But do you know what to do if you have an apartment maintenance question? Below you will find a transcript of the live interview (above) with Justin from our apartment maintenance crew. Several topics are covered, including how to leave a service request, how to address common maintenance issues, and how you can help the maintenance team keep our property beautiful.

Apartment Maintenance FAQ

Hey, everyone. It’s Jessica and Justin here. We are live talking all things maintenance at The Pointe Brodie Creek. We’ve got an agenda here, so we’re going to go through a list of common questions and service requests that the maintenance guys get. But, at any time if you have a question, leave us a comment. We will get to it in the live cast here. But, also, if you’re watching this later, feel free to leave a comment, too, and if we see it, our team will certainly get you an answer.

Ready to dive in? Let’s do this.

First, we’re going to go over some common service requests, how to leave a service request, all of that fun stuff. Then, we’re going to go into some things that you can do seasonally to keep your apartment looking great and feeling great. We will go into emergencies, what’s considered an emergency, how you deal with an emergency it ever happens. Then, we will go over some basic property maintenance, such as things that you can do when you’re out in the community and things that the maintenance team does.

Leaving a Service Request

First things, first. We get this question a lot: How do you leave a service request for the maintenance team? Let’s say you’re AC is not working, you’ve got a dripping faucet or something. How does someone leave a service request?

The best way that we like to see is that you can go online and go to the resident portal. Log in and submit a service request. There are instructions and you just follow it from there. Enter in your request and we can print it out and get it. If you do have something drastic that is an emergency, just call us. Call us up at the office and if it’s after hours, we have the on-call option there and you can leave a message and submit your request that way. You will get ahold of one of us after hours or on the weekends.

Emergency Service Requests

So, if it’s something normal that’s not an emergency, you can go online through the portal. What if there is an emergency? What is considered an emergency where you have to get maintenance ASAP?

You would need to get someone out there if there’s a leak of any kind, if you have a fire, and then air in the summer time…if it’s above 80 degrees outside, we will come out. If it’s under 80 degrees, it’s not considered an emergency. More than likely, we will come look at it the next morning or as soon as possible. For the winter time, if it’s below 60 degrees outside, we come out for that as well.

Also, gas odors. We don’t have a lot of gas out here, though. None of our appliances are fit with gas. But, if you do happen to smell something like that, give us a call. Then, if you’re in a one bedroom and your toilet seat is broken or if you have any issues with it.

So, if you have a two bedroom and only one of your toilets isn’t functioning properly, it’s not an emergency. But, if you’re in a one bedroom and you can’t use your bathroom, it’s an emergency?

Right, yes.

What happens if you do need help and its after-hours and it is emergency?

At that time, call the office. It’s 501-221-3377. There’s an option on there to get in touch with emergency apartment maintenance. It will reiterate these options, too. So, if you do forget what is an emergency, it tells you. Then, your message gets sent to whoever the on-call maintenance technician is. Then, we will be in contact with you shortly and help you get the situation taken care of.

Awesome, so 24 hours if something goes wrong and there’s an emergency, there’s an on-call person at all times.

Common Service Requests

Next, we’re going to go over some common service requests that the guys get a lot. The first one here that we talked about recently is something that’s coming up with the burners on your oven. We’ve had a problem recently with people putting foil on them?

Yes, people do it to keep their drip pans clean. We’ve had several issues recently having to replace burner receptacles and burners themselves because it can cause that stuff to short out. It’s not good for the oven itself. It could cause a fire if it gets hot. So, we just don’t recommend putting foil around your burners like that. It can cause issues. If you’re trying to keep your drip pans clean, you can take them out, spray them with some oven cleaner, and wash them in the sink or throw them in the dishwasher every once in a while. That’s a good way to avoid the grim and buildup.

Okay, so some other common problems that people have are when your disposal gets clogged. So, what to you recommend in that instance?

Sometimes the garbage disposals… well just note: garbage disposals aren’t for throwing anything down. They’re for small things. Like, don’t throw in any bones from meat or anything like that. Just small things. Don’t cram it full of stuff. It will cause it to back up.

If you ever run into an issue with it not running and it doesn’t do anything when you turn the switch. There’s either a reset button on the very bottom of it or on the side of it. You can push that. Sometimes it will work because if get too much in there, it will trip that switch.

But, also every once in a while, if you have time, take some out ice of your freezer, throw it in the disposal, and run the water. That helps clean the blade. You could also buy some disposal cleaner, but you don’t want to use any bleach or hardcore chemicals. That will rust the blades, which is not good for the disposal.

Okay, what about light bulbs going out? So, if you’re light bulb goes out, what do you do?

If you have any trouble replacing your light bulbs, we can take care of it. But, if you’ve been in the apartment for more than 30 days, you’re required to provide the bulbs. But, if you provide the bulbs after 30 days, make a service request, and leave the bulbs on the counter, we can take care of it for you. Other than that, the only bulbs that we replace throughout the term of your lease are any of the bulbs in the track light in the ceiling of your kitchen and then any appliance bulbs for the oven, the stove, underneath the microwave, inside the refrigerator…stuff like that.

Cool! Another one we get a lot would be dishwasher issues. Talk about common things you see there.

First, with the dishwashers… you want to rinse and kind of clean your dishes before you put them in there. You don’t want a lot of food or buildup on them. Your dishwasher will not clean them that well. Then, before you start your dishwasher, it is good to run the hot water because the dishwasher pulls from the hot water line. So, run the hot water and let it get hot through your tap. Then, turn your dishwasher on because it will put that hot water in. It’s good to have that hot water come in on your dishes rather than cold water. Helps get some of that stuff on your dishes.

Then, we recommend using detergent packets instead of liquid. It tends not to put as much buildup on the inside of your soap dispenser. It will get some buildup with liquids and gels. Also, the GE guy told us the best thing to do to get your dishes almost dry when they’re done is use a rinse aid. He recommends Jet Dry. You can find it at any of the major retailers. Put a little bit of that in every so often. That will help to get your dishes dry after they’re done.

We also get a lot of requests with the dishes not drying all the way. It’s just not going to. If you use the heated temperature setting, that will help. With using a rinse aid like Jet Dry, that will really help. But, you’re not going to see it dry bigger loads, more than likely. Smaller loads will do better. You may have to dry your dishes off with a hand towel when they’re done.

Do you have any tips on how to load your dishwasher? You have problems where people overfill them.

Yes, overfilling is an issue sometimes. You need to give good space between your dishes. Also, with the basket for your utensils and silverware, we try to move them inside the lower rack to either side. When new dishwashers come in, they put them in on the front. If you put a big spoon or spatula there, it will hinder the soap dispenser from opening and then the soap doesn’t fall in there. So, if it is in the front, just pull it off and set it inside the rack. Then, just don’t put too large of items on the top. That can stop the water dispensers from being able to rotate in there.

What about sinks clogs and shower clogs?

With that stuff, hair just gets built up in there. You just have to be careful with what you put down your showers and your sinks. You don’t want load them with things that will build up over time. It’s just good to clean those out. With your showers, it’s hard to keep those from clogging. It happens. It’s something we can come take care of if you run into that issue. If you have a problem, you’re not the only one!

One last thing with common service requests: floor care. There’s a specific way you need to clean your floors because they’re made of a certain material. If you use something bad, it will damage it.

These laminate floors are not hard to take care of. You just need to be careful with what you use and be careful with how you use them. We use Quick Shine to give floors their shiny finish and put a protective coat on top. But, if you’ve been a resident for a while, it can wear off.

If you’re cleaning it, don’t ever use a wet mop. Use a damp mop. Just enough to get the dirt off the floor. If you use a wet mop, the floor will soak that up and ruin. You can use Quick Shine like we use or you can use something similar that does the same thing.

Seasonal Apartment Maintenance

Let’s move into some seasonal stuff. I think that will answer some questions that people are having live right now. You talked about emergencies happening if it’s colder than 60 degrees in the winter or hotter than 80 degrees in the summer. What are some things you do energy saving-wise when it’s super hot or really cold?

I will say that the ACs here are something we run into that could be something that can help you save money. The way you use yours can benefit you. Winter or summer, it’s good to keep your thermostat set to a constant temperature. Don’t turn it off. When you do that as you leave for work, when you come home and kick it back on…when it kicks back on like that, that jump actually causes your electric bill to be higher just to get that AC going with that jump of energy.

It’s just good to keep your thermostat set to say 72 degrees and let it run. If you want to turn it up, turn it up to maybe 74 degrees and leave it on. Let it do its cycle to cool your apartment down or heat it up every once in a while. You don’t want to leave it off and then come back home and turn it on. Kicking it back on will just eat up your energy.

Then, also, in the summertime and in the winter, keeping your AC going actually helps the climate in your apartment. During the summer, if you’re not running your AC as much, you’re not pulling the humidity out of the air. You could get problems with moisture, window sweating, and mold. So, your AC does more than just cool you down. If you think about prescriptions, everybody takes at least one a day. If you leave it in a hot apartment or freezing cold apartment, you probably don’t want to take it!

Another thing is pest control. If you find a spider or something like that, what do you do? What can you do to prevent it? I know that we have regular pest control, so that should take care of the majority of it.

We do. They come out every Tuesday. If you do have a request for that, just go online and submit your request. Tell us what you’re having an issue with. Also, door sweeps are another thing we can look at it. Your door sweeps and weather stripping – just look to see if there are any gaps or worn areas. We can come out and replace them.

Another thing we get with pest control often is your patio. Patios sometimes just don’t get cleaned. So, you will see bugs. We’re in the middle of the woods! We will get calls asking us to come clean peoples’ patios and that’s not something we’re required to do. So, just go out there with a broom, dust and sweep your patio off. Knock down spider webs. That will prevent you from getting an abundance of bugs. If you let that build up on your patio, then they will try to get inside because it’s hot outside for them, too. Don’t foster a zoo on your patio!

One last thing for seasonal tips, in winter time, I know that if it’s going to freeze, we will put out little warnings. What is the general rule on preventing your pipes from busting or anything like that?

For the winter time, it’s just best to keep your cabinets open during a freeze warning. If it’s really cold outside, let your faucets drip and have your heat on at least 65 degrees. Keep your cabinets open. That will help get some air underneath there so your pipes don’t bust. We don’t run into a lot of that. But, every once in a while, it does get really cold and that could happen. So, it’s good to do as much as you can to prevent it.

We have a question about what to do if a neighbor’s smoke alarm goes off. What do you do if you hear your neighbor’s smoke alarm going off?

If it’s just beeping, the battery is just going dead and it will beep constantly. It’s just letting you know the battery has gone dead. They’re all hardwired together and linked together. So, if one goes off, they all go off. The battery is there in case the power goes off. The battery is the backup. So, the beeping is just letting you know the battery is dead.

But if you actually hear the alarm going off for a good minute and it looks like there could be smoke or fire in there, go knock on their door. See if you can check it out. If nothing happens, it’s an emergency. Call 911 and call emergency maintenance.

That’s another good question: what do you do if your smoke alarm battery does go off? Do you need to replace it yourself, or call maintenance?

Just like with light bulb replacement, it’s really easy to replace the battery if you can reach it. If you’re on the third floor with a vaulted ceiling, it’s harder to reach. But, if you have a stool or ladder to get up to it, they turn counterclockwise. There’s a plug on the back – unplug it. Take the battery out of the side and then there’s a test button on the front. Hold that down and it will beep and drain out the battery. Take out the battery, put the new battery in, and plug it back in. Put it back up there and that’s it.

But, again, if you can’t reach it, just give us a call and we will come take care of it for you. That’s a request we get quite a bit as an emergency request. But, if it’s just beeping, it’s not an emergency. If they’re going off, that’s different. Just a slight beeping with the battery is not something we will come out for as an emergency.

Is there anything else that you get often that a resident could do, but you guys help with? Is there anything a resident can do that you guys get asked about a lot?

Water filters. We run into that a lot. The filter itself and button that lights up saying the filter needs changing actually don’t communicate with each other. The filter doesn’t tell the fridge that it’s gone bad and turn the light on. They’re actually set to a timer. Those filters are good for six months. Sometimes it might have gotten replaced because the water was tasting funny but your light wasn’t on. Two months later, it might come on and say it’s time to be changed. So, they don’t communicate.

But, the ways of telling if your filter is going bad and it does need replacing are if the water starts tasting funny or coming out slower or if the fridge isn’t making much ice. But, if your water tastes fine and you are getting ice, you can hold down that button for 3 seconds and it resets and turns that light off. But if it does taste weird, you should leave a service request. We can get the filter replaced for you.

Okay, one question that we have is about trash. There are certain things you can put in the trash cans and certain things that you can’t.

Well, we have a recycling dumpster down the hill. It’s between buildings 21 and 7. It’s got a yellow lid on it. You can’t miss it. The other dumpsters are black and green. The recycling dumpster is yellow and green. If you look at it, it gives you a description of what you can put in that dumpster. Obviously, you can put in paper, cardboard, glass, etc.

Then, with the trash, we run into people putting trash outside their doors. That’s something that you will get charged for. It’s $25 a bag. We don’t want to do that, but we can’t have trash in the breezeways.

Also, you can double bag your trash. We run into bags leaking in the breezeways, staining the breezeways, and leaving a nasty odor. We would really appreciate it. We have to come out on the weekends and double check the property. Try to get everything you can in the dumpsters and not leave your trash out. We live in the woods and there are animals around. They will go up to your trash and rip it open. Then, on the weekends, we have to come out here and clean up that mess.

Nobody wants to pick up trash. That’s just something we would appreciate. Just pick up that trash for us and put it in the dumpster. If they’re full, try and go to another dumpster here. We have several. If you pile up trash over the top, we actually have to pull that stuff out because we get charged for it. It can’t be over the top of the bin or we get charged extra by the trash company.

What is something that you can’t put in the recycling or the trash dumpsters? I know there’s a list of things that you can’t put in there!

We run into a lot of mattresses and stuff like that. There are all kinds of places that would take those things! You could donate them or try selling them. Those things could definitely go to good use somewhere else. But, that’s one thing that we can’t put in those dumpsters. We run into a lot of mattresses when people are moving in or moving out or just getting a new bead. Those are things we can’t throw in there.

Property Maintenance

Let’s talk about some other property maintenance issues that you run into a lot or get questions about. One of the things I’ve heard about is gate courtesy. So, we have two gates and you have a fob to get you in as well as gate codes to give your guests. What’s the courtesy protocol that you guys recommend for that?

Well, we’ve had a couple of instances of people coming in through the exit gate. That’s definitely something that we can’t have happen. We don’t want an accident. It’s dangerous! It’s not set up to work that way. If you come in and hurt someone…. Just don’t go in through the exit gates. Be patient. If there are people coming in in front of you, just be courteous. If they are using the system to call someone to buzz them in, be courteous and wait or go to the other gate. Just pay attention because that is something we never want to happen.

What about problems with people’s fobs? Do they stop working?

They can. They have batteries in them. So, if they ever do stop working after you’ve had it for a while, it happens. They wear out just like anything else. We might have to get you a new one. We have them up here so can program you a new one or just switch the battery. If you have any issues with that, just come up to the office with your fob and we can fix it for you.

What about common amenities around the grounds? We have things like the grills, for example. If it’s a beautiful day and someone wants to go out and make some burgers, what is your “how-to” for that?

Like the trash, we check those on the weekends and dispose the trash throughout the week, especially in the summertime because everyone’s barbecuing. They get used a lot. After you’re done, try to scrape the grill off while you let it run and burn off what is there. Everyone is using them, so it’s just courteous to the people behind you. Then, it’s less for us to have to scrub off later.

We don’t mind going out there once or twice a week, but if we have to go out there all the time because we get complaints of how nasty they are or something…just help us out. Turn the gas off and stuff, too. We’ve had the grills get left on and that’s definitely a hazard.

What about the pool? Anything we should know about keeping the pool clean?

Yes, everyone loves the pool. I love being out there. But, we run in to a lot of glass. That is very concerning because someone could cut themselves over a broken bottle or fixture or anything that’s out there. People don’t think about it, too. People bring food out there and the food is something we don’t want out there. You can use the covered patio and eat over there. Just try not to have any food out there. We’re trying to get away from that as well.

You’re not allowed to have food in the pool, drinks in the pool, or glass in the pool. The last thing we want to happen is have glass break inside the pool. Then, we have to drain the whole pool and make sure everything is out of there before we refill it. Being that it’s summertime, we don’t want to have you guys without a pool. Let’s not shut it down. It’s expensive and time-consuming. We don’t want it to happen!

Glass is my biggest concern for the pool. If I could say anything about the pool, that would be what I would reiterate over and over.

Anything else on the grounds that you’ve noticed? Any common requests you get generally on the property? Playground? Pet park? Anything like that?

Yeah, we have several residents with pets. So, just pick up after your animals. We have to if you don’t. That’s probably the one thing that’s common on the grounds itself. If you see something out there, like if the pet stations are low on bags or out of bags, just call us and let us know. We will go out there and get the bags changed so you can pick up your pet’s waste. We will get it taken care of.

Like I said, the last thing we want to do is be out there picking up that stuff. As long as that gets done, just dispose of it properly. That’s a huge help to us. Then, just general trash: If something blows out of your car or falls out of your car, pick it up. We try to walk the grounds every morning and pick up trash. But, please just pick up after yourself. Help us keep the property nice as much as you can.

Great, well I think that concludes the list of things we wanted to go over! I think the key takeaways here are pick up your trash and keep the property beautiful. If you have an emergency, call the office. If it’s after-hours, there’s an emergency number. If you have a service request, you can either call them, go to the front office, or go online through the resident portal.

If you have any apartment maintenance issues, submit a service request through the resident portal or call (501) 221-3377.