Content Attributes
For centuries, church congregations have met in dedicated church buildings. Churches often feature tall steeples. While some view the steeples as an aesthetic choice that makes church buildings look nice, others see the choice to include a steeple as a way of pointing people towards heaven and God.
Like all buildings, churches must be maintained. Depending on their size and schedule, churches may have a single custodian or a custodial team. Read on to learn about what church custodians do and how church congregations benefit from their services.
Church custodians clean.
Custodians are also known as janitors or building cleaners. Their primary tasks include cleaning floors, which could include sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming. Custodians also wash windows and clean other surfaces, such as pews and pulpits. Depending on the materials used, custodians may wax or polish the pews and pulpits.
Church custodians also clean toilets, bathroom counters, door handles, kitchen appliances, and kitchen counters. Custodians also empty the trash.
Church custodians restock supplies.
Church custodians ensure each room’s stocked with essential supplies, such as toilet paper, paper towels, and soap. They may also restock essential items in the kitchen, such as coffee, coffee filters, and paper towels. The church may also have their custodians run the dishwasher and unload clean dishes. A custodian’s duties may even include restocking brochures in the church lobby.
Church custodians may also replace specific supplies, such as church offering envelopes. Offering envelopes make it easy for parishioners to donate funds during church services discreetly. It’s customary for churches to hold an offering during regular services and special occasions. When the offering plates are passed around, members of the congregation can contribute their offerings. Offering envelopes make it possible for church members to identify which funds they want to support with their church donations. They also make it easy for churches to prepare tax information for members.
Custodians may also identify the need for new supplies. They may be authorized to order new offering envelopes when necessary. They may also replace Bibles, hymnals, garbage cans, soap dispensers, and cleaning equipment that’s missing or damaged.
Church custodians identify maintenance issues and perform some maintenance tasks.
Your church custodian may modify a home maintenance checklist and use their church maintenance checklist to ensure all building systems are maintained correctly. A maintenance checklist can prompt the custodian to schedule services, such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) services, ensuring your church’s air conditioner runs during the summer and the furnace works correctly during the winter months.
Custodians may perform some seasonal maintenance themselves. Their duties may include shoveling sidewalks and mowing the lawn. They may also be responsible for cleaning the gutters every fall and spring and checking the smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.
Church custodians find suitable contractors to complete repairs.
Professionals may be needed to perform some structural repairs. Custodians may discover repair issues because their tasks involve working in different parts of the church building several days each week. It’s also common for people who notice a problem to report their concerns to the church custodian. In this case, the church custodian investigates the issue and determines whether it’s a quick fix or a complex repair.
Suppose a parishioner reports that a bathroom tap won’t stop dripping. The custodian may resolve the issue by removing the tap’s head and clearing out debris. However, signs of water damage from a leaking pipe may require the custodian to contact a plumber that can locate the source of the leak and repair the pipe.
Concrete repairs may be necessary to address internal and exterior structural issues affecting driveways, basement floors, or sidewalks. Custodians may locate and arrange for high-strength concrete contractors in Flushing, NY, to perform concrete maintenance tasks.
Church custodians perform several crucial tasks. Their work involves daily, weekly, and seasonal duties.