What To Do Before Shuttering Your Facility

Most facilities were not designed to spend long periods of time without any use. When the doors for a facility need to be closed for more than a few days, there are a number of tasks you should complete before shuttering.

However, with the quick onset of COVID-19, your business had to make fast decisions to keep your employees safe. You may not have had time to finish everything. And now that the ‘shelter in place’ orders in your state could extend several weeks or months, it’s even more important for these steps to be completed.

As an essential business, Flagship can provide facilities services that will make sure your facility remains safe and well-maintained.

We created a consolidated checklist for your ease of reference to ensure that you will come back to a healthy facility after the pandemic has subsided. Here are the top 11 tasks that should be completed before shuttering a facility.

Facility Shuttering Checklist

1. Tested smoke, fire and alert systems throughout the facility to ensure locks, alarms and/or fire sprinklers work properly.
2. Verified contact information and facility location records with the local fire and police departments.
3. Inspected boilers, hoses and pipes and visually checked walls, interior and exterior pipes and valves to look for drips, spotting, softness, puddling or corrosion.
4. Verified all combustible or hazardous scrap, debris and waste has been properly disposed and removed from the facility.
5. Double checked flammable or hazardous materials that are kept onsite were correctly marked, containers were examined for leakage, and properly stored.
6. Checked all tools and equipment to make sure they have been cleaned and stored in a dry, secure location.
7. Tested the HVAC, the thermometer and the temperature alert system before leaving the premises. Authenticated that preventative HVAC maintenance had been completed within the last 2-3 months and reprogrammed the thermometer based on little to no facility occupancy.
8. Established a moderate facility environment (between 55 and 80 degrees with a maximum 60% humidity) and made necessary adjustments for areas with critical systems, equipment or machinery that are still running.
9. If your facility has onsite food service, you established a plan for disposal of perishable goods. For facilities with staff kitchen areas, refrigerators have been cleaned out and all community dishware and eating areas were fully sanitized.
10. Certified that running machinery has had a full cleaning and maintenance regimen completed. Non-running machinery should have been tested to make sure the machines will not automatically turn on after a power loss.
11. Authorized a contact person to go onsite to walk the grounds, secure areas and make sure critical systems remain temperate, clean and maintained.

Please Be Aware

Not shuttering your business correctly may risk the safety and security of your facility. Brush overgrows, gutters get clogged, dirt builds up and dust can become a fire hazard.

You can also use this time to improve your facilities, get a jump on spring maintenance and also tackle overdue items on your deferred maintenance list in order to enhance your occupants’ experiences.

Since early January, Flagship has reported on the COVID-19 coronavirus and presented ways companies and airports can prepare and protect their occupants. You can access Flagship’s dedicated coronavirus information hub, which includes past articles, videos, printable materials, updates from the CDC and the World Health Organization.