It is conceivable that your renters are damaging the bathrooms in your single-family rental homes without even knowing it. Even well-meaning tenants can unintentionally damage bathroom elements or fixtures. The main causes of accidental bathroom damage are practically a lack of regular maintenance or using the wrong cleaning products. By lending tenants a hand so that they understand how to properly care for the bathrooms on the property, South Orlando rental property owners can save themselves a lot of pricey overhauls down the road.
Regular maintenance and cleaning are the paths to making sure the bathroom is in great working condition. But there is no assurance that a tenant will know how to properly maintain and clean a bathroom and may unintentionally damage a bathroom’s fixtures and elements.
For instance, hard water (water with a high mineral content) is common in innumerable areas of the country. This type of water makes mineral deposits accumulate in and around plumbing and fixtures, affecting rubber seals so that they deteriorate, rust fittings, and leave behind an unattractive ring in tubs, toilets, and sinks. Hard water can lead to leaky pipes, toilets, and faucets, and cause a shower to lose water pressure. If left untreated, it can also permanently stain bathroom surfaces, making them appear mucky.
Regular maintenance is a vital part of preventing a little rust or hard water deposit from turning into a big problem. In the shower, simply cleaning the shower head and the faucet on a regular basis with vinegar can ensure that they will work well and that the water pressure stays reliable. But most household cleaning products will not remove hard water buildup, and neither will abrasive sponges or scrub brushes. To clean fixtures without damaging them, tenants need to know the right procedure to do it or may unwittingly inflict more harm than good.
Other elements of a bathroom that often sustain accidental damage are cabinets and floors. With closeness to several water sources, water damage in a bathroom is always a concern. A small leak underneath a bathroom cabinet or a dripping faucet may not appear like a huge issue to a tenant, but even small leaks are critical warning signs that something has gone wrong with the plumbing and should be addressed immediately. Otherwise, the moisture from the leak could lead to damaged cabinets and, if ignored long enough, damage to the flooring or even the subfloor beneath the bathroom’s tile or laminate.
Using the wrong cleaning products on cabinets and floors is also a typical source of unintentional damage. Many tenants want to have their rental home clean and in good condition, but they may utilize harsh chemicals or other cleaning products that end up stripping the varnish off a wooden cabinet or compromising the seal on a tile floor. Exposed wood and grout are far more susceptible to mold and other moisture-related problems, and can quickly change it into not only something ugly but also a health hazard.
It’s imperative for property owners to see to it that their tenants have a good understanding of proper bathroom maintenance and cleaning. But imparting this knowledge to them and then following up to see what directions are being followed can be timewasting and may offend the tenant. This makes having a professional educate the tenants about property maintenance one of the outstanding ways to conduct good tenant relations. At Real Property Management Sunstate, we can provide the information tenants need and the oversight that property titleholders want to ensure that each rental home is kept in the best possible form. Contact us online or call our office at 877-373-8404 and see how we can help make your rental property ventures go smoothly and profitably.
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