As a responsible apartment owner, you understand the importance of upgrading your properties on a regular basis. Knowing just what to upgrade and when, though, can be quite a challenge. Between upgrades to safety and aesthetics, your capital improvements budget can quickly become exhausted. To help you keep your residents safe and satisfied, here are four building upgrades that every apartment building owner needs to look into.
New Doors
Between residents and maintenance staff, the doors on the apartment units get a lot of use. Over time, this can leave them vulnerable to break-ins and make them less energy-efficient. Plus, worn-out doors can ruin the appearance of your complex for potential tenants. Therefore, it’s important to upgrade your doors with high-quality steel doors as the existing doors become worn-out.
Better Foundations
The foundations of apartment buildings support a lot of weight. It is so easy to overlook this component, especially if you work hard to maintain your building with DIY practices and always have a ready mix calculator to hand. But you may want to get additional help to ensure your foundations are as strong as possible. Therefore, they need to be as strong as possible to protect against natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. If your complex was built before stringent building codes were in place, you might want to think about upgrading the foundations of your buildings with soft story retrofit services. This avoids the expense of building new buildings while providing the peace of mind that stronger foundations offer.
Sprinkler System
With so many people sharing a single building, the risk for a fire is fairly significant. Given the range of tenants in your building, they may not all be able to easily escape if a fire occurs. That’s why it’s vital to upgrade your buildings with a sprinkler system to provide the extra time needed to escape a burning building. On top of being the responsible thing to do, adding a sprinkler system may give you a discount on your insurance premiums.
New Windows
Whether you or your tenants are responsible for utility costs, adding new windows to your buildings is a good move to make. Inefficient old windows can increase utility costs and can let in extra moisture that can damage interior surfaces. Renewal by Andersen provides a wide selection of replacement windows and patio doors across the United States. Though they can be expensive upfront, they will pay for themselves many times over through lower energy costs and increased tenant retention due to this significant improvement.
Though it would be easier to perform a certain upgrade all at once, it’s best to try and stagger your costs by spreading out the upgrades over several months or years. You can, for example, choose to install upgrades when a tenant moves out so that you have easier access to the apartment. By staying on top of these upgrades, you will be able to spread the costs and ensure that your complex is as safe and energy-efficient as possible.
Meghan Belnap is a freelance writer who enjoys spending time with her family. She loves being in the outdoors and exploring new opportunities whenever they arise. Meghan finds happiness in researching new topics that help to expand her horizons. You can often find her buried in a good book or out looking for an adventure. You can connect with her on Facebook right here and Twitter right here.
