The amount of foot traffic your business receives is strongly correlated with the condition of your parking lot. Without a clean, level, visible, and accessible parking lot, you can’t expect customers to line up outside your door. A pristine parking lot encourages people to enter your building and creates a strong first impression. As such, your property maintenance services should pay just as much attention to your parking lot as they do any other aspect of your facility, inside and out. Let’s go over the top three steps to take to ensure your parking lot remains safe and well-maintained at your facility.

How to Keep Your Parking Lot Maintained

1. Keep Your Lot Clean and Trash-Free

Parking lots can quickly become landscapes for litter of all sorts. While there’s no way to prevent customers from leaving garbage on the ground or stopping the wind from blowing debris onto your property, you can (and should) make a concerted effort to remove waste from your lot each and every day. Clearing away this garbage on a consistent basis will reduce tripping hazards, minimize any deteriorative effects on the asphalt, discourage pests from sticking around, and improve the overall appearance of your property. In addition to regular sweeping and litter pick-up, it’s important to perform deeper parking lot cleaning at least twice a year -- this usually entails power washing to remove debris and stubborn stains.

2. Hire a Snow and Ice Removal Company for the Winter

Every season threatens your parking lot in various ways, but winter is undoubtedly the most offensive, especially if you live in an area that gets a fair amount of snow. Not only can the cold temperatures make your parking lot’s surfaces brittle and prone to fractures, snow and ice can creep into the pores and cracks of your parking lot and deteriorate it from the inside. On top of that, a snowy, icy parking lot poses a major risk to employees and customers who need to drive and walk on it. And when snow builds up on your parking lot, it can be difficult or impossible to make out parking spots or safely enter and exit the lot at all. For all these reasons, it’s essential to partner with snow cleaning services during the winter. These professionals will prevent snow from accumulating and suffocating your parking lot via plowing and laying down rock salt. In doing so, people can more safely get in and out of the lot and drive or walk on its surfaces, and your lot won’t take nearly as big a hit.

3. Resurface Your Parking Lot when Necessary

No matter how frequently you clean your parking lot and keep it clear from snow and ice, it will wear down over time due to regular use and other environmental forces (i.e., sunlight, moisture, wind, etc.). Fortunately, a well-maintained parking lot can stay strong for 20-30 years. That said, if and when your lot shows several signs of wear and tear such as spalling, cracking, pitting, etc., and more than 25-30% of it requires repair, you’ll want to have it resurfaced. Resurfacing your lot at key intervals (usually every 10-15 years or as needed) will reduce the amount of regular maintenance you need to do, extend your lot’s lifespan, maximize safety, and boost your property value in the long run.

Is your parking lot benefitting your business or sabotaging it? Let the facility management experts at The Budd Group help you care for your parking lot and the rest of your property. To learn more about our services and values, give us a call today at 800-221-8158!