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However respectful well and behaved your students are, you are going to at some point encounter damage in some shape or form.. Whether it's a couple of broken locks or a missing door you will need to make that call and source some spares.
No one can prevent that from happening but you can take steps to ensure it happens less often. Below are our top five tips to get the best and longest life out of your school lockers
1). Location of lockers
Where your lockers are positioned makes a huge difference when it comes to damage. Under stairwells, in dark corners and in areas of low footfall can lead to damage.
It's always advisable to position lockers in plain site of teachers and other members of staff. This will help greatly reduce the amount of damage you'll suffer.
2). Damage breeds damage
This is the best piece of advice we can give you, it's a amazing how quickly one dented door or missing lock can turn into a total write off of that section of lockers.
The reason for this is simple, as soon as students see a damaged locker they will lose all respect for the bank of lockers and further damage may quickly occur.
The best way to overcome this issue is to have a few spare doors, locks and shelves in reserve so they can quickly be changed without having to wait for them to arrive from your supplier.
It's also worth carrying out a monthly locker inspection which may reveal issues that require attention.
3). Don't overload the lockers
This is one that most people don't consider but the shelf that separates one locker compartment from another is normally manufactured using a single skin of steel. This means that if students belongings are too heavy they can over time cause the shelf to bend or in extreme cases fail altogether.
You can't go around weighing students bags but you can advise them to only store things they will need for the day in their locker.
4). Don't position steel lockers outside (even under cover)
It doesn't matter what your locker supplier tells you never position steel lockers outside, even under a weather proof shelter.
Whist they may be protected from direct rain and snow, they can't escape the locker killing effects of airborne moisture and dew.
We have seen locker installations supplied by other companies that have gone completely rusty only a few weeks after they were first installed.
If you need to fit lockers externally then our advice is to go for plastic lockers
5). Lift lockers off off of mopped floors
Another way to ruin your lockers with water is to position them directly onto hard floors that will be mopped. Water builds up around the base of the locker and can quickly cause the bottom of the locker to rust.
This is easily avoidable by simply installing the lockers on stands, these lift the lockers up off of the floor, thus avoiding any residual water.
I hope that helps in some way to reduce the headaches you suffer when trying to maintain your school lockers. We are always on hand to offer any advice and the best part is we never charge, Why not get in touch with our team today wand we will be more than happy to help.