When residents turn in their notice to vacate an apartment, the maintenance manager will schedule a pre-moveout inspection to see what will need worked on to get the apartment turned and back on the market.
Floors: Often times the kitchen and bathroom floors have dings, tears or cuts. The average replacement cost of a kitchen and bathroom vinyl floor is $1,000. Then there is the time to schedule out the flooring vendor and the time to tear out and install the new floors. According to the EPA there is over 1.9 billion pounds of vinyl products in landfills today. Vinyl is not a biodegradable product. Instead of tearing out the old floor, Surface Experts can match the color, design, texture and sheen and do a seamless repair extending the life of the floor coverings while saving money, replacement time and waste going into a landfill.
Counters: It is common to see knife cuts, burns and chips on counter tops. Whether its laminate (Formica), Granite, Quartz or another type of solid surface countertop, Surface Experts can repair the damage as long as it’s smaller than a dinner plate. When it comes to laminate counters, property managers often have the entire counter resurfaced or reglazed and while it might give a new look to the counter, the coating will not last as long as the original laminate. Our approach is to maintain as much of the original surface as possible and repair only the damaged area by matching color, design, texture, and sheen.
Many apartments are being upgraded to quartz and other solid surface counter tops these days. More often than not, the counters are not sealed when they are installed resulting in stains around the sink and stove top. We can remove stains as well as seal counters. We also fix chips and cracks to quartz and solid surface counters which saves money on an expensive replacement and the time to demo and install new counters.
Bathtubs: When a tub starts to show wear and staining property managers often have the entire tub resurfaced because it’s cheaper than replacing ($1,000+). Sometimes the damage is so large its unavoidable; however, once resurfaced (painted) the tub will often need another complete resurface in the next year or two due to chipping and staining. Whether its chips, stains or a crack in tub, Surface Experts can repair just the area that is damaged saving property managers money. The average resurface takes 3-5 hours, and the apartment must be vacant for 48 hours to air out the toxic fumes from the paint. Ask most maintenance staff and they will tell you that they often get complaints from neighboring apartments about the smell.
Our average repair:
Appliances/Elevators: Glass cooktops are becoming more common in multi-family housing as an alternative to the traditional coil element stove tops. Residents often let food cook on the top making it almost impossible to clean without scratching or they use cast iron pots which scratch the glass easily. Any maintenance person can tell you the cost of a replacement top is 75-80% the cost of the entire stove unit. A typical entry level GE glass cooktop is $350 while the entire stove unit costs $450. We have figured out a way to grind and polish out these cooktops restoring them to like new condition for far less than it would be to replace.
Stainless steel refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers and elevator panels scratch easily from magnets, cleaners or just an accidental ding from someone passing by. Surface Experts can remove scratches and restore the grain and luster to stainless steel surfaces which saves time and money.
We serve the multi-family housing industry all over the country, whether its an “A” high rise building or a “C” garden style apartment complex. Each Surface Experts franchise is a member of their local affiliate to the National Apartment Association. We work with the heads of maintenance onsite to help properties stay within their maintenance budgets by not spending money on costly replacements.