There are essentially two different ways to manage the upkeep of your outdoor space: planned grounds maintenance and reactive grounds maintenance. Both have their own place, but a proper grounds maintenance plan will prioritise planned maintenance to keep your grounds safe, attractive and fully operational all year round. Let us explain why.
What Is Planned Grounds Maintenance?
Planned grounds maintenance is a proactive method of managing your outdoor areas by way of scheduled visits to the site and performing a number of predetermined maintenance functions. Rather than waiting until something goes wrong with your site, partnering with a commercial grounds maintenance company addresses issues proactively through the use of a predetermined programme based on the specific requirements of each site.
Through planning ahead and performing these types of activities on a consistent basis, your grounds will stay clean, healthy and safe throughout the year.
Benefits Of Planning Ahead With Your Grounds Maintenance
A planned maintenance programme has many key benefits:
- Appearance improvement – Consistent upkeep keeps your grounds looking great at all times.
- Asset protection – As plants, trees, lawns and hard landscaping require regular attention, planned maintenance helps protect these assets and extend their life cycle.
- Safety improvements – Vegetation that becomes too large, uneven walkways and pathways that cause slips, trips and falls, and broken or buried branches and roots can all present potential hazards. By inspecting and addressing these issues consistently, potential hazards can be avoided.
- Financial cost reduction – Most planned maintenance programmes can save money by eliminating costly corrective action.
What Is Reactive Grounds Maintenance?
Reactive grounds maintenance refers to providing solutions to identified issues after they happen. Instead of adhering to a planned schedule, the solution is provided when a problem occurs or during an emergency situation.
Reactive grounds maintenance is usually unplanned and an immediate reaction to provide some level of safety or functionality back to the site.
Challenges With A Purely Reactive Approach To Grounds Maintenance
Although there are times when reactive maintenance is necessary due to emergencies or unforeseen circumstances, using reactive maintenance as your primary method of grounds maintenance presents many challenges.
Most importantly, since most issues aren’t noticed until they’ve reached a critical mass, repairs will likely be more time-consuming and/or expensive. A reactive approach will likely result in greater long-term expenses compared to those associated with regular preventive maintenance.
However, reactive maintenance has its use in a grounds maintenance plan. Unforeseen circumstances, such as extreme weather conditions or vandalism, could potentially occur with little notice. Therefore, having a dependable reactive commercial grounds maintenance service available will be crucial for quickly restoring safety and minimising disruption to your operations.
For all of your planned and reactive commercial grounds maintenance needs, get in contact with us at Arborcure. As a leading grounds maintenance contractor in the South West, we are able to provide all of the work you require to keep your grounds in the best condition and can work with you to put together a proactive and seasonally-focused maintenance plan. Our team is highly experienced, well-equipped and fully insured, and they’re ready to help you make your grounds look the best they can.
