What A Strata Maintenance Schedule Covers

A working schedule has three parts, and the reason an inherited one goes wrong is almost always that it only has the first of them.

1. 01The fixed cycle. Work that happens on a date regardless of what anyone can see — the things that are cheap on a calendar and expensive as a surprise.
2. 02The seasonal pair. Two visits a year timed against the weather rather than the calendar, which on this coast means before the rain and after the leaf drop.
3. 03The conditional work. Everything that happens because an inspection found it, and nothing that happens because it was on last year’s schedule.

Most inherited schedules only have the first, which is how the same complex ends up paying for quarterly window cleaning it does not need and no gutter clearing at all.

This is the part of the schedule that should not need a decision every year. It is written once, priced once, and the only question it needs at the AGM is whether the frequency is still right.

Twice a year

• Gutters and downspouts cleared and flow-tested, once before the rain and once after the leaf drop.
• Roof valleys and flat sections cleared of needles and debris.
• Yard drains, catch basins and parkade drains lifted and looked at, not swept over.
• Exterior common-area lighting checked while somebody is already up a ladder.

Once a year

• An exterior wash of the elevations that green over — north and shaded walls, not the whole envelope.
• Walkway, stairwell and entrance hard surfaces, which are the fall-risk items an insurer asks about.
• A roof condition walk, which is a look rather than a clean and is the cheapest line on this list.

Every one of those is ordinary maintenance on a schedule and an emergency call without one. That is the whole argument for the fixed cycle.

Parkade drains. Walkway and stairwell grates. The back-of-house corridors nobody walks through except staff. Roof access points, which are where moss gets a hold unnoticed.

None of these are expensive on a schedule. All of them are expensive as a repair.

The other common gap is not a place but a proof: a schedule that records that work happened, and nothing that records whether it worked.

A council taking over a schedule from somebody who has left can usually sort it out in an evening, in this order.

1. 01Put every line item against one of the three rhythms above. Anything that fits none of them is the first thing to question.
2. 02Mark which items come back with a report and which come back with only an invoice. The second group is where money goes quietly.
3. 03Walk the property against the list. What is on the schedule and not on the ground, and what is on the ground and not on the schedule, are both worth knowing.
4. 04Only then look at the prices. A line item nobody can find on the property is not a saving, it is a mistake.

Frequency, not scope. Halving a service is usually cheaper than cutting it out, and it is far easier to restore when the contingency fund recovers.

The other one is the flow test on the gutters. It adds a little to the visit, and it is the only part of the job that tells anyone whether the work achieved anything.

None of the below is an unusual request, and a contractor who cannot produce it is telling a council something useful about how the work is run.

• Proof of liability insurance and WorkSafeBC coverage, current, before the first visit rather than after an incident.
• A written scope that names the areas covered, so “exterior common areas” cannot quietly come to mean the front of the building.
• A service log per visit: what was done, what was found, what needs a decision.
• One point of contact who has actually stood on the property.
• A price that separates the scheduled work from the conditional work, so a council can cut one without losing the other.

A schedule is easier to defend as three rhythms and a set of reports than as a list of prices, because the question a council is actually being asked is not what the work costs but what it prevents.

If a line item has no answer to that question, it is worth cutting. If it has one, it is worth keeping at half the frequency rather than at none.

The scheduled work described here is commercial and strata cleaning, and the line item this article keeps returning to is gutter clearing. Both are available in every one of the communities we cover.

What is the minimum a strata maintenance schedule should cover?

Twice-yearly gutter and downspout clearing and flow-testing, an annual walk of the roof, annual soft-washing of the shaded elevations, and seasonal maintenance of walkways and stairwells. Those four items are cheap on a schedule and expensive as a surprise. Everything else a schedule carries is worth having; those are the ones that create liability when they are missing.

How do I get meaningful quotes from maintenance contractors?

Ask for three things before the first visit: a written scope that names the specific areas covered, current proof of liability insurance and WorkSafeBC coverage, and a price that separates the scheduled work from the conditional work. A contractor who cannot produce all three is telling the council something useful about how the work is actually run.

Can strata maintenance be scheduled outside business hours?

Most of it, yes. Exterior cleaning, pressure washing, gutter work and roof treatment are all outside work and can be scheduled early morning or on weekends without disrupting residents. The scope and the schedule are agreed in writing before the season starts, so nobody on the council side is finding out on the day what the crew intends to do.

What documentation should a strata get from its maintenance contractor?

A certificate of current liability insurance and WorkSafeBC coverage before the first visit. A written scope that survives an AGM question. A visit log recording what was done, what was found and what needs a decision. A separate quote for any work outside the scope, issued before that work begins. An insurer asking about a slip-and-fall on a December stairwell will ask for the log, not the invoice.

How often should a Greater Vancouver strata book gutter clearing?

Twice a year for most properties in this region: once before the autumn rain and once after the leaf drop, which are two different events here. A complex under heavy deciduous cover may need both within six weeks of each other. A property under conifers needs clearing more often than once annually because the needles run year-round rather than falling in one go.