Reactive maintenance services, nationwide and 24 hours a day
Reactive maintenance services from DBF put right what breaks, wears or gets damaged in a building: doors, walls, tiling, floors, fencing and the work up high. We work for commercial premises, landlords and homes, from Rotherham and nationwide, with 24-hour working. Tell us what has gone wrong and we will price the repair.
Reactive maintenance is the repair you did not plan for. A door splits along its edge, a run of tiles comes loose, a fence post rots through, a wall gets scuffed and marked until it lets the whole room down. Nobody schedules those. They turn up, and they need putting right by someone who will come back to you.
That is the work we take on. DBF has 20 years in property maintenance and refurbishment, so a reactive job is rarely the first time we have met the fault.
Most of what we are asked to fix falls into a handful of trades. If yours is not on the list below, ask anyway: a reactive maintenance company is only useful if it can cover the odd job as well as the obvious one.
What we fix: the reactive jobs we take on
Decorating and making good Marked, patched or tired walls brought back, including painting above existing wall tiling in a food store.
Wall tiling Loose, cracked or missing tiles, and new tiling where a wall needs a hard-wearing finish.
Doors and washrooms Split, sagging or sticking doors repaired and rehung so they close properly again.
Flooring and carpets Worn or damaged floors and stair carpets replaced, with nosings on the treads.
Joinery Doors, shelving, cupboards and the timber details that take the knocks.
Fencing and gardens Fence posts replaced and overgrown outside space cleared.
Gutters, fascias and signage Ask us about high-level repairs like these: we reach them with our own cherry picker.
When does a repair turn into a bigger job?
Sometimes the fault you report is the only thing wrong. Sometimes it is the first thing you noticed. A damp patch can mean a gutter or a pipe somewhere else, and a door that keeps failing can mean the frame around it has moved.
When we find more than you asked about, we tell you what we have seen and leave the decision with you. You can have the single repair done and keep an eye on the rest, or put it all right in one go. Because we take on refurbishment as well as repairs, the bigger option does not mean starting again with a different firm. One house came to us with a door punched through, floors ripped up and kitchen units broken, and went back with a new bathroom, kitchen, flooring, doors and decorating.
How does a reactive job run, step by step?
01
Tell us what has gone wrong
Ring or WhatsApp 07801 477016, or answer the four quick questions in the quote form. Say what the property is, what has broken and the postcode.
02
Send a photo if you can
A picture of the fault on WhatsApp tells us more than a paragraph. A wide shot and a close-up are ideal.
03
We look at it and price it
We work out what the repair needs and come back to you with a quote. If we need to see it first, we will say so.
04
We agree a time and fix it
We book the work in at a time that suits the property, including outside your opening hours, then do the repair.
Can the work be done outside our trading hours?
Yes. We offer 24-hour working, which matters most to commercial premises. A shop, a food store or an office rarely wants a ladder, dust sheets and the smell of fresh paint in front of customers, and some jobs simply cannot be done safely with people walking past. Working before you open, after you close or overnight means the repair happens without the doors shutting.
Night work runs smoothly when a few things are settled before we arrive:
Access. Who lets us in, or where the keys are, and the alarm arrangements.
The area. Which part of the building we are working in, and anything that must not be moved or switched off.
Parking and deliveries. Where the van can go, especially if a delivery is due before opening.
Sign-off. Who on your side should hear from us when the job is done.
Put any of that in your message and it saves a phone call later.
What about reactive repairs up high?
A lot of reactive work happens above head height: a gutter that has come away, a fascia board that has started to drop, a sign that has worked loose, lighting on the outside of a building. Waiting for access equipment can be the longest part of a small job.
We own a cherry picker and do the high work ourselves, so it arrives with us rather than being hired in. Ask us about gutters, fascias, signs, lighting, painting at height, upper windows and cladding. It is part of our own work: we do not hire it out, with or without an operator. There is more on our cherry picker page.
Our own cherry picker, set up with barriers out.
Who do we carry out reactive maintenance for?
Commercial premises. Shops, food stores and business premises, where a repair has to fit around trading. These come first for us. Read more about our maintenance for commercial premises.
Landlords. Rental property needs repairs between tenancies and, now and then, in the middle of one. A garden left to grow over, a fence that has given way and a door that no longer shuts are all the same kind of job to us. See our landlord property maintenance.
Letting agents and property managers. If you look after buildings for other people, a contractor who answers and prices the repair is half the battle. Send us the address and the fault and we will deal with it from there.
FM companies. If you need a reactive maintenance contractor for sites in our area or further afield, ring us and talk it through.
Homes. Plenty of what we fix is in people's houses, from a single door to a whole property brought back into use.
Recent reactive jobs
Three jobs from our own photographs. The washroom door had split along its edge: we repaired it, and it now closes on its closer. In a food store we painted the walls above the large grey wall tiles. At a rental, three new fence posts went in. You can see more on our work.
Three repairs from our own photographs
Washroom door: the split edge before the repair.
Food store: walls painted above the tiling.
Rental: three new fence posts.
Which areas do you cover?
We are based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, and we take on reactive maintenance nationwide. There is no radius on the work we quote for. Put the postcode in the quote form, or in your first message, so we know where the property is from the start.
If you have buildings in several places, tell us all of them at once. It helps us plan the visits, and it means one contractor knows every site rather than a different one for each town.
Reactive maintenance FAQs
What counts as reactive maintenance?
Any repair carried out because something has failed or been damaged, rather than because it was on a schedule. Planned maintenance is the opposite: work booked in advance, like repainting on a cycle, to stop faults happening. Most buildings need both, but reactive work is the part nobody can put in a diary.
What should we do while we wait for the repair?
Stop using whatever has failed if it is not safe, keep people away from it and take a few photographs. The photos help us price the job, and they are a record of the damage if you need one later. If water or electrics are involved, isolate the supply only if you know how and it is safe to do so.
We only have one thing broken. Is that worth a job?
Yes. The quote form has "A small repair" as an answer to how big the job is, and "As soon as possible" for when you want it done. Pick those and tell us what has broken.
Can you take on a whole list of repairs at once?
Yes. Send the list in one WhatsApp message, with a photo of each item and the postcode. We price the lot together, and you tell us which to do first.
Do you do reactive repairs on houses as well as businesses?
Yes. Commercial premises come first for us, and we take on homes and rental property too. The process is the same: tell us the fault, send a photo, and we price it.
Request a quote
Tell us about the job.
Four quick questions about the property and the work, then where to reply. If you would rather talk it through, ring or WhatsApp us.
