- A rainy month can sure make the property manager's job busy
- Property maintenance and management of soakwells is important
July had 28 rainy days and some of these days the torrential storms put lots of pressure on buildings.
As a manager of industrial properties, receiving photos from tenants with their yard flooded was not a one-off during that month. As we received notifications in the news about the floods in West Europe, Italy, West & Central Africa, South America and other parts of the world, so we saw some flooding in parts of Perth.
Also, some industrial tenants had their yards flooded, making it very hard to operate forklifts in the area. Normally, the soakwells should be able to drain the water away from the site, but what happens when the soakwells fail to operate?
Managing soakwells
Managing the soakwells involves two steps:
- Ask the plumber to pump the water away from the site as a short term solution.
- Service and clean the soakwells.
During the lifespan of a soakwell, water gets drained away. However, the water also brings in dirt that can block drains, making it harder for the water to drain away.
During the drier months, it is recommended that the plumbers open the drains and clean the soakwells in preparation for winter, to avoid these yards from blocking up. It is the same as cleaning out the gutters before winter so that the downpipes can drain the winter rains away.
July has been a very wet and interesting month for many across the globe, but hopefully, as Perth is in its last month of the winter, we can expect some drier weather, allowing us some time to fix roof leaks, clean and repair gutters, and clean out the soakwells as reported by tenants over the last weeks.
