How to Walk a Building Before You Sign the Lease
Why this matters
Everything you find before signing is the landlord's problem or a negotiating point. Everything you find after is yours. Shops sign leases on buildings whose overhead doors are too low for their vans, whose sprinkler system has not been inspected in two years, whose floor drains run somewhere the sewer authority does not allow, and whose rooftop unit is about to fail in the first July. A one-hour walk with a tape measure and a written sheet catches nearly all of it. The lease clauses that decide who pays for what you find are covered in Commercial Lease Clauses a Trade Shop Should Read First; this card is how to find it.
Before you go: measure your own fleet
Measure the tallest vehicle you own or plan to buy, with its ladder rack and anything mounted on the roof, and the longest. Write both on the top of the walk sheet. Note your heaviest electrical load (an air compressor, a welder, a pipe threader, van chargers) and its voltage and phase from the nameplate. Count how many people will be in the building at the busiest moment, usually the morning load-out.
Why: a building is only too small or too low relative to something. Without your own numbers you walk the building as a visitor and come away with impressions.
Step 1: Walk the outside first, and drive it
Start at the street. Drive your largest vehicle, or have someone drive it, into the lot, to the overhead door, and back out. Watch for the turn into the drive, the apron depth in front of the door, light poles, and whether a parked car in the lot blocks the swing. Count striped parking spaces. Look at where outdoor storage would go, whether it is fenced, and what the neighbors are.
Why: turning room is the one thing you cannot fix after signing. A door can be raised; a lot cannot be widened.
What breaks if skipped: the box truck backs in from the street every morning, blocking traffic, and the first complaint goes to the zoning office.
Step 2: Measure the overhead doors, clear
Count the overhead doors. Open each one fully and measure the clear opening: height from the floor to the lowest thing in the way (the bottom of the open door, the opener rail, the track), and width between the jambs. Nominal sizes on the listing describe the door, not the opening.
Why: the clear height is what your tallest vehicle passes under. A door sold as 10 feet often clears less once the opener and track are in the way.
Step 3: Read the electrical service, without opening anything
Find the main disconnect and the meter. Read the main breaker's amp rating and the service voltage and phase from the panel's label, and count open breaker spaces. Do not remove a panel cover; if the label is missing or you need more than the label shows, ask the landlord for the electrical drawings or have a licensed electrician look.
Why: a 120/240 V single-phase service cannot run a three-phase compressor, and a full panel means a service upgrade before you can add van chargers. Both are expensive, and a commercial landlord generally has no duty to volunteer either, so ask and get the answer in writing.
Step 4: Read the floor
Walk every bay. Look for cracks, and whether the two sides of a crack sit at different heights (offset), which suggests movement rather than shrinkage. Find every floor drain and ask where it discharges. Ask for the slab thickness, from drawings, if you plan to anchor pallet rack.
Why the drains: many sewer authorities require floor drains in vehicle and shop areas to pass through an oil and sand interceptor, and some prohibit them from discharging to a storm drain at all. A drain connected wrong is a violation that arrives with your name on the account.
Why the slab: rack anchors need a minimum slab thickness and edge distance from the anchor maker. See How to Anchor and Inspect Pallet Rack and Shelving.
Step 5: Look at the roof from below, and from the hatch if it is safe
Inside, look up: water stains on the deck or ceiling tiles, especially under rooftop units and around skylights. Find each rooftop unit's nameplate (from below if there is a gas or electrical nameplate inside, or from the roof) and record its manufacture date, which on many units is encoded in the serial number by a maker-specific scheme. Ask the landlord for the roof's age and any warranty.
Go onto the roof only through a guarded hatch or a fixed ladder, with the landlord's representative, staying well back from unguarded edges, and never near a skylight, which is the classic fall-through point. If the roof has no safe access, ask for photos and the service records instead.
Why: a 17-year-old rooftop unit is a near-term replacement, and the lease decides whether that is your cost. See related: Who Pays When the Rooftop Unit Dies Under a Lease.
Step 6: Check fire protection status
If the building is sprinklered, find the riser and its inspection tag. Annual inspection of the system is required under NFPA 25 in the edition your fire code adopts, which binds the building owner or whoever the lease assigns it to. Note the last inspection date. Find the fire alarm panel and confirm it shows normal with no trouble lights, and ask whether it is monitored and by whom.
Why: a lapsed sprinkler inspection is a fire marshal's citation waiting for the first inspection after you move in, and an unmonitored alarm protects nobody at night. If the building has no sprinklers, your plans for tall storage may need fire marshal approval.
Step 7: Count the restrooms against your headcount
OSHA's sanitation standard, 29 CFR 1910.141(c), sets a minimum number of toilets by employee count: one for 1 to 15 employees, two for 16 to 35. The plumbing code as your jurisdiction adopted it sets its own fixture count by occupancy, and may require separate facilities above a certain occupant load; that is a building department question. Check that the restroom works, and look for a mop sink.
Step 8: Ask for the certificate of occupancy
Ask for the current certificate of occupancy and the occupancy group it names. If it was issued for a different use than yours, you may need a change-of-use review, which can trigger code upgrades. See related: The Certificate of Occupancy and the Change-of-Use Trap. Zoning is a separate question with its own document; How to Ask the Zoning Office for a Written Use Determination.
Step 9: Turn findings into the landlord's work list
Every FAIL and every ASK on the sheet becomes either a line of landlord's work, completed before you take possession or before rent starts, or a negotiated term, or a reason to keep looking. Put the list in writing to the landlord and get the agreed items into the lease. A verbal "we'll take care of that" does not survive the move-in.
The walk sheet, filled in
A nine-van plumbing and HVAC shop walked a 6,200 square foot unit on September 10. Its tallest vehicle is a box truck at 12 ft 6 in; its high-roof vans with ladder racks stand 10 ft 2 in. It needs three-phase power for a 5 hp compressor and expects 11 people on site at load-out.
PRE-LEASE WALK SHEET 88 Foundry Rd, Unit B 9/10
Tallest: box truck 12 ft 6 in
High-roof van with rack: 10 ft 2 in
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APRON box truck in and out, 3-point turn OK
PARK 14 striped spaces OK
YARD fenced 30 x 40 ft = 1,200 sq ft ZONING
DOORS 2 overhead, listed 12 W x 10 H
clear under opener rail 9 ft 8 in FAIL
ELEC main 200 A, 120/208 V, 3-phase OK
open breaker spaces: 4 OK
FLOOR 2 drains, discharge unknown ASK
crack bay 2, 1/4 in, 1/8 in offset ASK
slab thickness unknown ASK
ROOF stain on deck under RTU-2 ASK
RTU RTU-1 mfd 2009, RTU-2 mfd 2018 ASK
SPRINK yes, riser tag 03/2024 FAIL
ALARM monitored, panel normal OK
TOILET 1 water closet, 11 on site ASK
CO on file: warehouse/storage ASK
Reading it. The doors fail twice over: 9 ft 8 in clear is 6 inches under the vans and 2 ft 10 in under the box truck. The sprinkler tag is dated March 2024, so in September 2026 the system is two and a half years from its last inspection, past the annual interval. RTU-1 is 2026 minus 2009, 17 years old, and RTU-2 is 8 years old with a stain under it. One toilet meets OSHA's table for 11 employees, which allows up to 15; the plumbing code's count is unknown until the building department answers. The CO names a warehouse use, and the shop is not a warehouse.
What went to the landlord. Two FAILs, seven ASKs and the zoning line, ten items:
- Raise one overhead door to at least 14 ft clear, as landlord's work before possession.
- Have the sprinkler system inspected and any deficiencies corrected before possession, with the report delivered.
- Confirm where both floor drains discharge, and whether an interceptor exists.
- Explain the bay 2 crack: any history, any engineer's report.
- Provide the slab thickness from drawings.
- Repair the roof leak at RTU-2 and provide roof age and warranty.
- State in the lease who replaces RTU-1 when it fails.
- Confirm with the building department whether the plumbing code requires a second toilet for this use.
- Confirm whether the change from warehouse to contractor shop needs a change-of-use review.
- The yard went to the zoning office as its own written question, not to the landlord.
How it resolved. The landlord agreed to items 1, 2 and 6 as landlord's work, produced drawings answering 3 and 5 (one drain to an existing interceptor, one capped; a 6-inch slab), and accepted replacement responsibility for RTU-1 for the first three years. Item 4 came back as shrinkage with no history of movement. The building department answered items 8 and 9: one toilet was sufficient for the occupant load, and a change-of-use review was needed but required no upgrades beyond the sprinkler work already agreed. The shop signed with all of it in the lease.
What would have changed it. Had the fleet been standard-roof vans under 8 feet, the door finding would not have existed and the landlord's work list would have been shorter by its most expensive item. Had the service been 120/240 V single-phase, the three-phase compressor would have needed either a utility service change, which takes months and the landlord's consent, or a different compressor, and that would have belonged on the list as a FAIL.
References
- 29 CFR 1910.141(c), toilet facilities, OSHA general industry
- NFPA 25, inspection, testing and maintenance of water-based fire protection systems, in the edition your fire code adopts
- See related: Commercial Lease Clauses a Trade Shop Should Read First; Who Pays When the Rooftop Unit Dies Under a Lease; The Certificate of Occupancy and the Change-of-Use Trap; How to Ask the Zoning Office for a Written Use Determination