Your building’s outer envelope is incredibly important. Every building is made with one chief concern in mind: how do we keep water out? Your masonry is the first line of defense. Every cracked brick or crumbling mortar joint means more chances that water will find its way through the outer envelope and wreak havoc inside.

Concrete is one of the most common building materials on earth. It’s been used since before the time of the ancient Romans, and though we’ve come up with newer materials since, nothing has replace concrete in over 2,000 years.

Commercial buildings are often defined by their parking garages.

Water is one of the most powerful forces nature has to offer. Leave it anywhere for long enough and it will trickle its way into the tiniest crack, freezing and expanding in areas with significant temperature fluctuations, seeping into pores and leaching out essential binding ingredients in mortar and concrete. It can turn a solid concrete floor with a rebar core into a buckled, twisted mess. It can carve canyons from solid rock.

That stucco on the outside of a commercial building probably isn’t stucco, especially if it’s a newer building. There’s a good chance it’s something called EIFS.

Palimpsest. If you were a scribe in the Middle Ages you’d have known this word well. But you should probably know it if you maintain commercial buildings too.

If there’s one constant that lowers property values, it’s graffiti. Constant tagging of outside surfaces can be a massive burden on businesses. It’s an eyesore, and it can provide a bad impression for customers who are coming to make a purchase or clients who want to bring business.

Leaks below the grade on your building are one of the worst possible problems you can face. They can easily go undetected, and because of their location they’re likely to get more water flow than leaks above ground. And they’re also hard to fix.

You wouldn’t go to a client meeting in dirty old clothes, or leave your store or office in a state of filth, or leave a bad first impression with someone you thought might be a customer. But you might be doing that same thing with your parking garage.