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Updated over 6 years ago on . Most recent reply
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Resilient property hacks
Looking for ideas on how to make rentals easy to maintain and resilient to tenant abuse. Here are mine:
- Texture walls and paint with semi-gloss ( I standardize on two colors) to make it easy to clean and touch up.
- Use ball valves everywhere for plumbing. Use threaded nipples for shutoffs so they can easily be replaced down the road.
- Use hard waterproof surfaces whenever possible. Tile, granite, vinyl plank flooring, etc.
- No particleboard cabinets. I use RTAs from Kitchen Cabinet Kings.
- Flush hot water heater between tenants
- Use drain enzyme to clean out drains between tenants to clean old plumbing lines.
- Use a powdered boric acid based bug killer before tenants move in to keep bugs in check.
- Use stainless steel and ceramic for sinks. No cultured marble since it scratches easily.
- LED lighting everywhere.
- Use a dark grout and use a grout sealer like Boost.
Most Popular Reply
1. If you provide a washer machine get new stainless steel washer machine hoses with burst protecting check valves inside of them. If an old rubber hose were to burst on a washing machine and nobody was there it would just keep flowing out water like crazy potentially ruining a apartment. have seen it happen at work.
2. If you have a dryer get the exhaust vent cleaned out. Its the #1 cause of fires in houses i believe.
3. Change toilet fill valve and flappers.
4. Put hinge door stops on any door that can hit another door or the sheetrock behind it.
5. Find your clean-out plugs for main drain ahead of time to possibly save headaches.
6. Don't use cheap tubular waste under a kitchen sink. Do schedule 40 PVC trap and waste piping use no hub couplings for easy removal.
In general use the KISS system. Keep it stupidly simple. Always spend a few extra dollars and get professional grade materials.