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Glebe NSW 2037

Fire stairs in Glebe buildings that nobody uses and everybody owns

A fire stair is common property, is inspected periodically, and in a great many buildings has not been cleaned properly in years. It falls out of scopes because nobody walks it, and it reappears in conversation only when somebody with a clipboard does.

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In short

Fire stairs, service corridors and secondary exits in a Glebe building are common property funded by the owners corporation, but they generate no complaints because almost nobody uses them day to day. That makes them the first thing to disappear from a scope and the last thing anyone checks.

Clean Best names low-traffic shared routes explicitly in the scope, usually on a periodic rather than weekly cycle, so they are covered at a sensible cost and the committee can see when each was last attended. The record is what protects the scheme when somebody with an inspection checklist asks the question.

No complaints does not mean no responsibility

Cleaning scopes are shaped by feedback, and feedback comes from the areas people occupy. A lobby generates comment within hours of looking tired; a fire stair generates none for years. The result is that scopes drift towards the visible and away from the parts of the building that are equally common property and equally the owners corporation's to maintain. Nothing about that drift is deliberate, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed for years.

The correction is not to treat a fire stair like a lobby, which would waste money. It is to name it in the scope with a realistic cycle attached, so the work happens deliberately and appears in the record. A committee that can see when a stair was last attended is in a very different position from one that assumes it is included somewhere and discovers otherwise during an inspection.

What accumulates in a route nobody walks

Low-traffic stairs collect dust, cobwebs, insect debris and, in older buildings, water marks and efflorescence from the structure itself. They also attract storage, which is the more serious issue. Items placed on a landing because there was nowhere else for them are exactly the kind of thing a cleaner will notice and nobody else will. Nobody else is walking those landings from one inspection to the next.

That makes the cleaning attendance genuinely useful as an inspection of last resort. A contractor who reports what they find in these routes gives the owners corporation information it otherwise has no source for. The instruction should be to record and report rather than to move items, because removing something from a landing without knowing whose it is creates a different problem entirely. That approach protects both the contractor and whoever owns the item in question.

Deciding the cycle rather than defaulting to nothing

The realistic options for a rarely used stair are a light regular pass, a periodic detail, or a combination of the two. Which one suits depends on the building's construction, its exposure and what the previous condition suggests. The wrong answer is the one most schemes land on, which is no defined arrangement at all and an assumption that somebody is handling it. Assumed coverage is the most expensive arrangement a scheme can have, because it costs nothing until it costs a great deal.

Putting the choice to the committee as a costed option takes very little time and settles it for years. It also gives an incoming committee an answer to a question they will otherwise ask again. Clean Best proposes a cycle at the walkthrough based on what the stairs actually look like rather than applying a standard interval to every building. An old building and a recent one on the same street rarely warrant the same interval.

Low-traffic route points for a Glebe building

  • Fire stairs and service corridors named in the scope
  • A defined cycle rather than an assumption of coverage
  • A record showing when each route was last attended
  • Instruction to report stored items rather than move them
  • Condition observations passed to the nominated contact
  • The cycle reviewed against actual condition, not a standard
Clean Best supervisor reviewing office and strata cleaning quality in Parramatta NSW

Working in Glebe and the Inner West

Glebe in the Inner West holds education, hospitality, retail and mixed-use buildings, a good deal of it in older stock where secondary stairs and service routes were built into buildings that have since been subdivided and re-purposed. Routes of that kind remain common property and remain the owners corporation's responsibility even though few occupiers use them from one year to the next. They generate no complaints and therefore no attention. Clean Best services Glebe from Seven Hills and names low-traffic routes in the scope with a cycle attached.

Questions about Glebe

How often should a fire stair be cleaned?

Far less often than a lobby, but on a defined cycle rather than not at all. A light regular pass, a periodic detail, or a combination usually suits, depending on the building's construction and exposure. The walkthrough looks at the actual condition and proposes a cycle, which the committee can then approve as a costed item rather than assume.

Should the cleaner remove items stored on a landing?

No. Items belong to somebody, and removing them without knowing whose they are creates a different problem. The instruction should be to record and report to the nominated contact, who can raise it under the scheme's own arrangements. That keeps the contractor out of a dispute and puts the matter in front of somebody with authority.

Why do fire stairs keep dropping out of the scope?

Because scopes follow feedback and nobody complains about a stair they never use. Areas that generate comment attract attention and areas that do not gradually disappear. Naming the route explicitly, with a cycle and a record of attendance, is the only reliable way to stop it happening again at the next contract change. Naming it also gives the next committee an answer instead of a question.

Is the stair the owners corporation's responsibility?

In most schemes a fire stair is common property, so the owners corporation is responsible for maintaining it, but the strata plan is what settles any particular case. Where a stair serves only one lot or has an exclusive-use arrangement over it, the position may differ. It is worth confirming with the strata managing agent.

Can the stair be included at a low cost?

Usually yes, because the frequency required is low. The cost of including it on a sensible cycle is generally small compared with the cost of a recovery clean after several years of neglect. Presenting it that way tends to get a straightforward decision from a committee that would otherwise defer it indefinitely. Deferred indefinitely, a stair eventually needs restoration rather than cleaning.

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