Living in a condominium can seem like a pretty sweet deal. In exchange for your monthly condo fees, all your maintenance tasks are taken care of. Right? Well, while you might not be on the hook for things like shovelling snow or cleaning the building’s pool, there are still some maintenance tasks you can’t forget. Have you overlooked any of these?
Check your dishwasher supply hose. One thing people often forget about living in a condo is that if there’s water damage in your own unit, it’s likely going to damage other units beside or underneath you. A leaking dishwasher is a common cause of this. Make sure you check your dishwasher supply hose (usually located under the sink) seasonally to ensure it’s in good repair and there are no portions that look weakened or torn.
Clean your lint traps—all of them. Many people know not to run a load in the dryer without cleaning the lint trap in the machine. But a surprising amount of people don’t. Not only should it be cleaned every time you put a load in, but many condominium units are designed to have two lint traps, one often in the ceiling of your laundry room or closet. This is to act as a backup, in case the first trap doesn’t collect all of it, so the secondary trap shouldn’t need cleaning every time. It should, however, still be checked monthly.
Clean the windows you can reach. Most condo corporations will hire a professional window cleaning company to clean the building’s windows twice a year. The catch? They will often only clean windows that are inaccessible to residents. That means windows that are part of the facades and can’t be reached by unit owners. So any windows you can safely reach by standing on your balcony may be your responsibility to tackle.
