Fire Escape Painting

[RE123RE]

Hello,
When painting an old fire escape in an apartment building, would you paint the cat walk too?
Scrape and paint helps maintain it for longer or mainly done for cosmetic reasons so the building looks better? If the last, the cat walk is not part people or even tenants can see as it is located above the flat roof and can only be seen from the roof.
Any other suggestion/tip on getting a quote for that, would be appreciated.
Thank you

 

[Thomas Beyer]

In tight margin apartment building the #1 rule is: don't overupgrade; in other words: Good enough is good enough.

Doing nothing at all an option here.

 

[kfort]

The fine art of finishing is more important than the fine art of perfection.

If it's not detracting from your business goals, your only concern is ensuring its function. In other words, is it working? If yes, done. If no, address.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

Besides the noble art of getting things done is the more noble art of leaving things undone.

 

[RE123RE]

I thought you buy ugly buildings and improve them. If the place looks nicer, you can attract better tenants or/and fill vacancies faster.
Now, if you have zero vacancy, then you are correct - perhaps do nothing.
Thanks

 

[kfort]

Painting a non-visible cat walk on the roof will have zero impact on your rental rate or building value.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

I thought you buy ugly buildings and improve them. If the place looks nicer, you can attract better tenants or/and fill vacancies faster.
Now, if you have zero vacancy, then you are correct - perhaps do nothing.
Thanks

Correct.

We improve what brings value to tenants. From the street to the suite. But an invisible fire escape landing is not high on that list although new mailboxes, new front entrance, better landscaping, new hallway carpets, new lighting or anything within a suite usually is !!

 

[RE123RE]

Thank you Thomas for clarifying this. So visible fire escape maybe yes. The cat walk in the roof that nobody can see - no.
From your first post I thought no to all.
Kfort and Thomas,
The question is also about proper maintenance of fire escapes. How often do you recommend scraping and painting fire escapes to make it last longer? Every 10 years? Never?
There are many areas with corrosion you can see on fire escapes because they are exposed to rain. The sooner we paint them the better? For proper maintenance purposes. Or no?
Thanks

 

[kfort]

You're definitely overthinking this. We've got welded ladders on grain bins that never were painted and haven't been painted in 30+ years that aren't even close to rusted through.