Year in Review
2020 has been a crazy year for all of us. But here at Dare, we never stopped working. Our services are essential for commercial property owners. Sweeping, maintenance, and repair is not just about making a property look nice, it’s about making a property safe and environmentally friendly. There’s a lot that goes into what we do and why we do it. This past year we covered all sorts of topics from parking lot liabilities to the history of street sweeping. Let’s dive into our Year in Review and revisit some of these fascinating topics.
The Psychological Benefits of Landscaping
In early 2020 we finished out a series on landscaping in which we explored the economic benefits of landscaping, the environmental benefits of landscaping, and the psychological benefits of landscaping. All three are important to know and in many ways, each one influences the others; but the most fascinating of the three has to be the psychological benefits of landscaping. Check out these cool facts:
- Having plants in the office can increase productivity as much as 15%
- Indoor plants can reduce stress levels
- Being surrounded by plants has been shown to increase positive feelings and decrease stress and anger
- One study showed that 74% of respondents preferred to shop at commercial areas with trees and landscaping
- Being around plants and greenery can help improve focus and our ability to concentrate
Parking Lot Liabilities
If a customer gets into an accident because of a pothole on your property, and it can be proven that you were aware of the pothole prior to the accident taking place, you could be sued for damages. This also goes for personal injury as a result of potholes and all tripping hazards, including damaged inlets and damaged parking stops. And don’t assume that these incidents are extremely rare: It’s estimated that in 2017, 500 deaths occurred as a result of parking lot accidents and even more resulted in injuries.
There is also a lot to know about ADA compliance including signage and handicap parking. The chart below shows you how to calculate the amount of handicap spaces your property needs. Learn more at the United States Access Board.
The Importance of Power Sweeping
Power sweeping is much more than a cosmetic treatment for your parking lot. Power sweeping helps keep both pedestrians and vehicles safe by removing hazardous debris such as gravel, sand, dirt, oil, and trash. When vehicles run over these substances they act like an abrasive and cause damage to the parking lot’s surface.
Power sweeping clears away debris that might otherwise get washed into storm gutters and inlets, which can result in flooding. It also protects vehicles. Stones, trash, sand, and other materials can wreak havoc on your vehicle—tearing up the underside, popping tires, and even shooting up and striking the windshield. Large debris has the potential to cause drivers to swerve and panic, promoting the likelihood of accidents and injury.
What You Need to Know About Potholes
Potholes are holes in the pavement that are formed by specific weather conditions along with the constant wear and tear that all roads and parking lots experience. Rain or snow seep into the pavement through small cracks. In winter, this water freezes and expands, creating a cavity between the pavement and the soil. When the water eventually melts, the pavement becomes compromised due to the now hollow cavity. When vehicles drive over this compromised section of pavement, the pavement cracks and crumbles, and a pothole is formed.
Being proactive and preventing potholes from forming not only helps protect motorists but it will save you money in the long run. There are many ways to prevent potholes such as crack sealing, fog sealing, chip sealing, and microsurfacing. The size of your property, the climate, traffic volume, and the existing damage will determine what method you use. What matters is that you fill in pavement cracks before it’s too late. By being proactive and filling in pavement cracks, you can avoid the nuisance of potholes.
Dare Reports
Dare Reports is a one-stop, comprehensive guide to making your commercial property the best it can be and so much more. Dare Reports collects all the relevant information about your property into one easy and convenient app. We survey the good, the bad, and the ugly and report it all back to you so you know exactly what needs to be done. It’s a mobile app for easily collecting info directly on your smart phone or tablet. And it’s a web dashboard for building forms for viewing and editing fresh data back at the office.
Our reports allow us to take pictures or video with spoken description (voice to text) to fill critical data on location into your reports. Our built-in, GPS geo-stamp feature will verify your location at start-up for each report. Finished reports are automatically emailed to one or more addresses and uploaded to our desktop dashboard. Data is quickly searched by date, personnel, location, or report and can be easily exported to other programs. It’s a program we use out in the field but it’s also a program that you can use yourself. Click here to request a demo.
So Long, 2020. Hello, 2021!
These are just some of the things we covered this year. We also covered inlet repairs, parking lot striping, even a story about street sweeping strikes in New York from 1865! Be sure to subscribe to our email list so you don’t miss out on all we plan to cover in 2021.
