Community Management: Winter Safety Tips for Common Buildings

Many cities and towns have already experienced the first chill of winter. If your planned community is one of them, and it has not implemented winter safety measures for common buildings, it is essential to implement the measures below as soon as possible. Doing so will help protect residents from dangerous slip and fall accidents, and thus protect the community and its community management provider from the potential legal fallout from such incidents.

Apply Snow Melt if Needed

Many brands of snow melt work well down to a temperature of -6 degrees. However, the higher the temperature is, the more effective snow melt is at liquefying ice and snow. Because winter temperatures can change fast, it is a good idea to apply snow melt liberally to outdoor egress paths in the event of sleet and snow. If your community is in a climate that need not worry about ice and snow, then enjoy the cost savings of not having to buy snowmelt.

Shovel Snowy Walkways

Keeping walkways well-shoveled can help prevent slips and falls when the temperature is too cold for snow melt to work. Shoveling walks also improves the performance of snowmelt, as it decreases the amount of snow and ice that must be melted. If you live in a warm climate where snow is only talked about in books, forget shoveling and enjoy the nice temperatures!

Apply No-Slip Tape

Thanks to state and municipal laws, some common buildings contain no-slip tape in the form of luminescent fire safety tape. If the common buildings in your community are not among them, having the community management provider implement no-slip, luminescent tape according to the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Life Safety Code will help prevent slips and falls in egress paths.

Position Wet Floor Signs

The custodians that clean your community’s common buildings should have access to “wet floor” signs that are used to identify freshly mopped floors. The signs are also useful for identifying floors that are wet as a result of egress traffic in winter. The signs can be used in any location where slick, non-carpeted floors increase the chance of slip and fall injuries.

Use a Floor Drying Fan

Commercial floor drying fans are available from big box retailers such as Home Depot and Lowes. The fans are designed to blow a forceful stream of air across the surface of floors. Placing them in areas where heavy foot traffic creates wet floors can help floors dry faster.

Keeping floor drying fans going strong in the winter months can help prevent slips and falls.

For more information about preventing slip and fall incidents in your community’s common buildings, contact a provider of community management services for a free consultation.