Stairwells and communal areas in Nancy buildings
The entrance hall is the first room visitors and prospective buyers see. It is also the one nobody feels responsible for.
The round of a Nancy building
One round covers the entrance hall and its lobby, the letterboxes and the area around them, the treads and risers of the stairwell, the landings on every floor, handrails and balustrades, stairwell glazing and reachable transoms, flat doors on the communal side, the lift — floor, walls, mirror, buttons — as well as the bin room and the bicycle store where they exist.
Nancy has a great many period buildings, with stairwells in stone or timber, wrought-iron railings and sometimes cement-tile floors. These materials do not tolerate the same products as a modern block: limestone is attacked by an acid detergent, a timber landing dislikes standing water, and an old cement tile is permanently dulled by an over-alkaline product. We treat them accordingly.
The bin room is often what shapes how residents feel about the building. We put the containers out and bring them back in on collection days where the contract provides for it, we wash and deodorise the room, and we report the fly-tipping that builds up there — bulky items, unflattened cardboard — so the managing agent can act.
Frequency follows the size of the building and how it is occupied: weekly for a twenty-unit block or a student residence, fortnightly for a small building of six flats. A report goes to the managing agent or the residents' committee after every round, which heads off arguments at the annual general meeting.
Questions from agents and residents' committees
How is the price for a building worked out?
On the number of floors, the area of the communal parts, whether there is a lift and a bin room, and the frequency chosen. A site visit is necessary: a four-storey building without a lift does not take the same time as a block of the same height with two stairwells.
Can you present your offer at the general meeting?
We provide a detailed, readable quotation that the residents' committee can project and compare line by line with other proposals. Attending in person is possible if the managing agent wishes, but the essentials are in the document: length of the round, exact scope and monthly price.
Who provides water and electricity during the round?
The building does, as is customary: an accessible water point in the communal parts and a socket are needed. If the building has neither — common in the older stock of central Nancy — tell us: we adapt the equipment, which changes the duration and therefore the price.
What do you do about damage or graffiti?
We photograph it and report it to the manager the same day. Fresh graffiti on a smooth surface sometimes comes off during routine cleaning; on porous stone or render it needs specialist anti-graffiti treatment, which we do not carry out.
Around the building
What managers entrust to us beyond the communal parts.
Your building deserves better
We come and look at the communal parts and hand back a quotation you can compare line by line.