PressureWashingBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

Apartment Complex Pressure Washing: Breezeways, Stairs and the Property Manager

Apartment complexes have everything a pressure washer can handle in one place: concrete breezeways and stairs, building exteriors, a pool deck, a leasing office, sidewalks between buildings and dumpster pads scattered around the lot. The property manager is judged on how the place looks to someone touring a unit, so clean common areas are not a luxury to them. They are part of filling vacancies.

Like an HOA, With Tenants Instead of Owners

Apartments share a lot with HOA communities, covered in HOA Common Area Pressure Washing: Pools, Clubhouses, Entrances and Amenity Centers. The biggest difference is who makes the decision. An apartment complex has an on-site property manager who can often approve work quickly, sometimes with a regional manager or owner signing off on larger jobs.

The other difference is that the residents are home. Breezeways are the front door of every unit, and people come and go at all hours. That shapes how and when you wash.

Splitting the Complex Into Addresses

In PressureWashingBossPro, the property management company or the complex is the client. Each part of the property that runs on its own schedule or needs its own instructions becomes an address under that client:

• Buildings A–D breezeways and stairs: monthly or quarterly, depending on the property.
• Buildings E–H breezeways and stairs: same cycle, washed on a different day.
• Leasing office and pool deck: monthly in season.
• Dumpster pads: monthly.
• Building exteriors: soft wash, once a year.

Splitting buildings into groups keeps each visit to a realistic size and makes the monthly statement easy for the property manager to read, since each line shows the address and area.

Job Details and Notes

Each address carries surfaces, square feet, siding or surface type and method. Breezeway concrete gets a surface cleaner where it fits and a wand on the stairs. Building exteriors in vinyl, stucco or fiber cement get a soft wash. Pre-wet the landscaping and follow the manufacturer's guidance on any product you use near plants and pools.

Access notes for apartments tend to include:

• “Check in at the leasing office, ask for the maintenance supervisor.”
• “Spigots at the end of each building, maintenance will open them.”
• “Residents get a notice two days before. Do not start before 8am.”
• “Pool gate code in the office. Pool closes for cleaning Mondays.”
• “Watch for doormats and plants at unit doors, move and replace.”

Those notes show on the crew's phone under the address every visit, along with past notes from previous visits.

Working Around Residents

Unlike a drive-thru, an apartment cannot be washed at 3am without waking people. Most complexes want the work done mid-morning on weekdays when many residents are at work. The property manager usually sends a notice to residents ahead of time. Coordinate the date with them a few days early.

Two-way texting from the office makes that easy. Text the property manager when the visit is scheduled so they can send the notice, then again when the crew is on the way. Replies come back to the office, so if the manager says “Building C has a move-in Thursday, skip it,” the office sees it and can adjust the day. More on texting managers is in Two-Way Texting With Store and Property Managers on Commercial Pressure Washing Accounts.

The Cycle and the Route

Set each address's minimum days between visits. Busy complexes may want breezeways monthly; others quarterly. When a visit comes due, it appears on the Waiting List map. Large complexes may need more than one day, which is another reason to split buildings into groups: each group is a manageable visit that can go on the commercial rig's schedule on its own day.

Use the job notes to keep track of progress on big properties. If the crew finishes Buildings A and B but runs out of time before C and D, the note tells the office exactly where the next visit picks up, and the property manager can be told which buildings are done.

Apartment work fits the daytime part of a commercial rig's schedule. After an early run of storefronts and drive-thrus, the rig can move to a complex mid-morning, which keeps the equipment working all day instead of sitting after 7am.

Proof and Billing

Before-and-after photos of each breezeway, stairwell and pool deck stay with the visit on the account. Property managers often send these up to their regional manager or owner, so clear, consistent shots of the same spots each visit are worth the extra minute.

Set the client to Monthly so the property manager receives one statement each month covering every building group and area washed, each line labeled with its address. If the management company runs several complexes, add each as its own client so each property's budget stays separate.

To see how apartments fit with every other kind of commercial account, return to the commercial pressure washing software overview.