Spares on hand!
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TheBeachHouse
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Awesome.
Last week a couple reported the shower had broken. We go to look and the wall of the shower is buckled. She had leaned over to pick something up and pushed the wall in with her tush!!!! LOL
We called our handyman and he happened to have some waterproof drywall and happened to have some tiles that happened to match our shower.... seriously!! and he happened to have 1/2 day free.
Fixed it that day. Not sure how we could have rigged it if all those things hadn't fallen into place.
Last week a couple reported the shower had broken. We go to look and the wall of the shower is buckled. She had leaned over to pick something up and pushed the wall in with her tush!!!! LOL
We called our handyman and he happened to have some waterproof drywall and happened to have some tiles that happened to match our shower.... seriously!! and he happened to have 1/2 day free.
Fixed it that day. Not sure how we could have rigged it if all those things hadn't fallen into place.
Morticia
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We have fixed more emergency plumbing than I care to think about at the moment! All of it due to a pipe breaking. Lucky not inside the wall.
Still, you're making breakfast and someone comes to say there's a leak in the room, the shower won't turn off, the shower head fell off. Yikes!
Generic
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When I replace I use the http://www.toiletseats.com/model-family/view/plastic-seat-whisper-close-with-easy-clean-change-hinges-and-statite/ mostly because I can change it in about 10 seconds but also I can remove the seat for cleaning too, in less than 10 seconds.
Morticia
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Because we don't have any other 'seating' in the bathroom, we always get the painted wood seats. Those dang plastic ones flex too much!
Guess that is a good reason to have a serious preventative maintenance schedule
Morticia
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How often do you change the pipes in your rentals? I mean completely replace the piping so it doesn't break at an inconvenient time?undersea said:
I was referring more to the toilet seats and buckling wall. Pipes are a mystery.
Just this week, a tenant is moving out, and complaining the A/C doesn;t work. Turns out I just replaced it about 18 months ago at a cost of $300. Frustrating, because I know what a repairman would charge.
Thinking about a policy of "BYOAC (bring your own air conditioner). 6 family had 6 old A/C's through the wall. Cannot get that size anymore, and now sloppy duct tape trying to get it to stay.
All the refrigerators, water heaters, floors, cabinets, etc. are going bad on my watch. Only had it for 30 months... Frustrating. The building is 1987. But everything is end of lifing during my reign...
dup - the curse of accidentally pressing Save twice...
wow~ Good job! I had a guest use a sink for support. An old sink that just had some kind of epoxy holding the edge against the bathroom wall, the sink was held up by the pipe underneath it. It was on my 'worry list' .
Guest went out after breakfast without mentioning any problem. I went in to freshen the room and noticed the sink was sloping at a dangerous odd angle - OMG it was ready to come off the wall. In the basement was an old white cupboard measure measure measure ... it was just the right height to fit under the sink. I scrubbed the cupboard with a wire brush and called for some help. We shoved it under the sink after my carpenter son cut off most of the back of the cupbard, (after he sawed off a couple inches then had to put shims under to level it.) and cutting a space in the top for the sink. He screwed it all into place so it was bolted to the wall. Said you won't be able to use this cabinet for much storage - didn't care! Very 'shabby chique', layers of paint some scrubbed away but clean. Fastest repair job I've ever been in on. Guest never said a word.
If I hadn't had my son to call on that weekend I don't know what I would've done - shoved a folding chair under the sink maybe. All rooms were occupied.
Guest went out after breakfast without mentioning any problem. I went in to freshen the room and noticed the sink was sloping at a dangerous odd angle - OMG it was ready to come off the wall. In the basement was an old white cupboard measure measure measure ... it was just the right height to fit under the sink. I scrubbed the cupboard with a wire brush and called for some help. We shoved it under the sink after my carpenter son cut off most of the back of the cupbard, (after he sawed off a couple inches then had to put shims under to level it.) and cutting a space in the top for the sink. He screwed it all into place so it was bolted to the wall. Said you won't be able to use this cabinet for much storage - didn't care! Very 'shabby chique', layers of paint some scrubbed away but clean. Fastest repair job I've ever been in on. Guest never said a word.
If I hadn't had my son to call on that weekend I don't know what I would've done - shoved a folding chair under the sink maybe. All rooms were occupied.
Generic
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Morticia
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Ah, now you know how we feel. We have replaced almost every possible appliance, sink, shower head (3 times) , furnaces, hour water tanks, roof, I could go on.
The toilet seats are all relatively new (past 2 years) . We already replaced this toilet last year when a rather large guest broke the toilet bowl.
We do keep an eye on them. We test everything in the rooms a few times/month.
Something Important all aspiring innkeepers should know -
Even if you are going to be a mom and pop operation (or just a mom or pop like I was) when something breaks, floods, cracks, malfunctions, goes on the blink - guests expect all will be resolved in a few hours just like in a big hotel with staff etc. Have as much 'spare stuff ' as you can - every time I bought one of something I bought a second. ((toilet seats, the gizmos that flush the toilet, door knobs!, curtain rods, sheet sets, pillows, hairdryers, loads of light bulbs and flashlights and batteries)) I had a vacume cleaner on each of the three floors (actually I stowed the third floor vacume in a cubby in the staircase on the way up to the attic and cupola) Whatever you use in your home will get hard use in your b&b. Usually something will break or fail when it is least convenient for you to go running off to the hardware store. In my case, 45 minutes each way to the nearest one.
Even if you are going to be a mom and pop operation (or just a mom or pop like I was) when something breaks, floods, cracks, malfunctions, goes on the blink - guests expect all will be resolved in a few hours just like in a big hotel with staff etc. Have as much 'spare stuff ' as you can - every time I bought one of something I bought a second. ((toilet seats, the gizmos that flush the toilet, door knobs!, curtain rods, sheet sets, pillows, hairdryers, loads of light bulbs and flashlights and batteries)) I had a vacume cleaner on each of the three floors (actually I stowed the third floor vacume in a cubby in the staircase on the way up to the attic and cupola) Whatever you use in your home will get hard use in your b&b. Usually something will break or fail when it is least convenient for you to go running off to the hardware store. In my case, 45 minutes each way to the nearest one.
Morticia
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Yes. The bowl. We watched it for a week because we were so dang busy we couldn't take the room offline. Replaced it as soon as we could so we didn't have a really colossal oops.seashanty said:
Then there was the one who snapped the fill line off inside the wall. We fixed what we saw (not that either guest mentioned the flood in the bathroom) but missed that the line was cracked inside the wall.
Ceiling came down in room below the next morning. Had to replumb the toilet, remove the debris, replace the ceiling and repaint it that day. I cleaned while Gomez repaired everything.
This is not a job for the unhandy. Unless you have buckets 'o bucks.
Copperhead
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Joey Camb
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plus its not just wear and tear its fricking nutty guests - we have illuminated mirrors with a shaver point in the side at chin height exactly where you would want one and easily seen - guest didn't see it so decided to climb on the toilet to look on the top in case the point was there, and smashed the seat to bits - luckily like mort I have half a dozen spares on hand, but how daft do you have to be?
Morticia
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Guest dragged chair over to stand on to turn on light. Light switch is right there in front of them. Guest then gave me a hard time saying it was too hard to turn the light on and off. Now, we point to the light switch to show the guests what it does. Really?Joey Camb said:
