As a landlord or letting agent, the number one priority is the health and safety of your tenets and their families. They want to know when they come home at night they can relax, and not worry about illness or disease. While some illnesses such as the flu are out of a landlord's hands, there are still some they can take steps to prevent diseases like legionnaires disease. The disease has the potential to sicken and even kill anyone who contracts it, so it is important to keep the building disease-free.
The first step in keeping a building disease free is to conduct a legionella risk assessment. This containment is what causes the disease. The assessment can be completed by anyone. However, if there is any doubt, a professional company like Bluewater Plumbing Ltd should be called in as soon as possible. A risk assessment is a hard, fine tooth comb look at the building's plumbing. If everything is updated, it is likely the assessment will come back clean. It should be done on a regular basis though to ensure the continued safety of tenets.
If the plumbing in a building is found to be older or to have problems, the risk assessment will lead to many other steps. First, it is important to upgrade the plumbing system and replace older tanks and pipes. Yes, this will be costly, but there is no price to high if human health is at risk. During the upgrade and replacement process, it is important to conduct legionella testing. This testing will help to pinpoint the exact source of the containment.
While the legionella tests and risk assessments are being conducted it is important to consider the risk of legionnaire's disease. It is important to understand the consequences of the disease and how to protect people from it. Clean water is an important factor in these risk assessments. This risk will increase until the legionella is contained and removed from the property. This can be done all at once, if the building is unoccupied. It may take an extended amount of time if the building is occupied. As a result, it is important to make sure there are alternative sources of water available to tenets until the needed repairs and upgrades can be completed. Once the upgrades and repairs are complete, make sure to run the tests again to ensure that the legionella has been maintained, contained, and removed.
The plumbing and clean water are only one part of the containing process. The second part is assessing the human risk and possible complications. If the building is home to those who have a weaker immune system either because of age or health conditions, it is important to get them tested. Landlords can set up these medical tests as part of legionnaire's disease risk assessment.
Clean water is something that the majority of the Earth's population takes for granted. While many will have access to this water at work, it is important they also have it at home. The human body requires a certain amount of water to survive. Water is also required for activities of daily living such as cooking, bathing, and cleaning. These are just some of the reasons that conducting regular legionella testing and risk assessments are important.
If a landlord or letting office has any concerns whatsoever, they should contact a professional. A company like Bluewater Plumbing Ltd will carefully go through the process until all parties understand risk, probability, and the way to lower both.