Keeping Your Home Super Clean

Should You Put Garbage Chutes in the Building You Are Designing? 5 Questions to Consider

by Jordan Horton

Designing or building an apartment building? There are a lot of decisions you need to make, and one of them concerns garbage chutes. Should you put in a garbage chute? If so, which type should you use? Here are some points and questions to consider as you make your final decision.

1. Would a Chute Make Life Easier for Tenants?

When putting together an apartment building, you want to make it as comfortable for tenants as possible, and a garbage chute may be part of that effort. In particular, if most of your tenants are mobility impaired, they may want the ease of a garbage chute. Even for tenants who can easily walk up and down stairs, a garbage chute is more convenient than taking an elevator to a garbage room.

2. Is a Chute Cost-Effective?

If possible, you may want to crunch the numbers to ensure a garbage chute is cost effective. You have to pay to install the chute and clean it if it gets clogged up. However, if the chute helps attract tenants and if it reduces the potential for rubbish in the hallways, it is probably cost effective. In these cases, the upfront investment in the garbage chute and the long term potential for gain outweigh the potential costs down the road.

3. Do Other Buildings in the Area Have Garbage Chutes?

You may want to see if the other buildings in the area offer garbage chutes. You have to compete with those buildings for tenants, and having same or better amenities can help. A garbage chute may seem like a small amenity, but when you picture a tenant spending an inordinate amount of time talking trash downstairs versus the convenience of just putting it in the chute, that shows just how valuable this seemingly small amenity is.

4. Is It Possible to Put in Multiple Chutes?

Before recycling was popular, apartment buildings only needed a single garbage chute, and tenants could throw virtually anything down it. Now, however, you may want to see if you can put in multiple chutes. Then, you can designate one chute for rubbish and other chutes for clean recycling.

5. What Should You Connect the Chute to?

If you decide to move forward with the garbage chute, you have one final choice to make. Do you want the chute to go directly to a skip, or do you want the chute to go to a compactor? Compactors allow you to throw away more rubbish, but you will need to hire someone to move the rubbish from the compactor to the skip.

For more information, contact companies like Qwik Chutes.

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