Do you maintain a parking structure or parking garage at your facility?

When winter hits, are you truly prepared to take care of the snow and ice buildup?

Best practices for snow removal operations on parking garages are:

1. Don’t store large piles of snow on the top level. Large snow piles get heavy over time and can quickly exceed the live load limits of the structure or garage.
2. In between snowfalls, make it a habit to use snow melt machines or over-the-side dumping to remove large snow piles from corners of the garage.
3. Don’t use metal or steel snowplow blades in the garage! Use urethane or heavy rubber edges.
4. Floor drains and catch basins should be free of ice and snow at all times.
5. Only use de-icing agents that are parking garage-friendly! Sodium acetate, potassium acetate, and calcium magnesium acetate are good to use in advance of snowfall. Avoid sodium chloride (rock salt), calcium chloride, and ammonium nitrate in a garage as these accelerate corrosion of reinforcing!

Prep Your Structure for the Winter Season

Before the snow hits, there are some items to add to your to-do list that will make snow clearing easier and will help ensure you avoid costly repairs when the snow finally melts. To avoid leaks that lead to corrosion, check the caulking in your structure and replace where it’s deteriorated or missing.

Check for loose, spalling, or missing concrete elements that will allow water to penetrate during snow melting and cause further deterioration, and finally, clear leaves, dirt, and other debris from floor drains and leaders, which can cause ponding water. Continuous freezing and thawing of ponding water in a structure can cause extensive concrete damage.

Innovative Engineering Specializes in Parking Structure Restoration

Innovative Engineering has been helping owners reduce parking garage restoration costs since 1995. Unlike most other building systems that are protected by a conditioned building envelope, parking structures are directly exposed to the elements which results in exponential or accelerated deterioration. Therefore, early and inexpensive parking garage restoration practices produce a ROI much higher than that of other building systems.

Our engineers are glad to walk your facility and let you know of any conditions that require immediate attention and what maintenance activities you can perform now to extend the life of your facility. Since the back of IEI business cards contain a crack gauge, you can easily evaluate any cracks within your structure to determine if it is of concern. Give us a call today!