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Housing & Conference Services

Living At McMaster

Cleaning, Maintenance & More

Part of Housing & Conference Services, our Residence Facilities Team is responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of our residences buildings. Here are some of the most common ways you’ll interact with our RFT staff.

Information Box Group

Common Area Cleaning

Our custodial team, who are in our buildings every day, are here to take care of the cleaning of communal washrooms and common areas. But remember – they don’t do dishes (or clean suite/apartment common areas)!

It’s everyone’s responsibility to tidy up after themselves and ensure common areas and hallways are clean and comfortable for everyone. Please remember to:

  • Put food away and clean dirty dishes
  • Wipe down counters, and don’t leave crumbs behind
  • Clean any spills
  • Throw away any expired food that is in the fridge
  • Keep non-perishables tightly sealed

Please also remember to regularly disinfect your hands by washing them with soap and water or using an alcohol based hand sanitizer.

Garbage Disposal

Every building has a different location for garbage, recycling, and in our pilot buildings, organic waste.

Full garbage bags or cans can be emptied in the garbage room on your floor.

The custodial staff will clear these rooms on a regular basis. For Bates and Mary E. Keyes residents, you can dispose of your garbage in the garbage chutes located on your floor. Please take your garbage out regularly and be sure not to plug the chute by stuffing oversized items into it. If you notice a plugged chute, report it to the Service Centre immediately.

Work Orders Work Order Requests

A work order is required for any maintenance related issue in your residence room or building. Our Residence Facilities Team is present Monday through Friday, from 7 am to 3:30 pm, to keep all of our Residence buildings in good repair. This is the team that will be handling the majority of the work orders you submit.

To understand how to complete a work order and to know how work orders are prioritized, follow the link.

Heating and Cooling Heating and Cooling Information

We strive to keep you comfortable in residence, and when we face unseasonable weather temperatures there are a few things you should know in order to stay cool or warm!

Room Decorating Damage-free decorating

We want you to feel at home in residence and decorating is an important part of that. We just ask that you don’t damage or alter any part of your room by drilling holes, nailing, painting, etc.

We recommend using 3M Command products and sticky tabs as adhesives. Don’t use Scotch tape, duct tape, masking tape or thumbtacks as they damage the paint and you will be responsible for all damages. Need more sticky tabs? The Service Centre has them for whenever you need to hang up a new poster!

Laundry Laundry FAQs

It’s easy to do your laundry in residence as washers and dryers are located in all residence buildings. Learn how to load your laundry card and safely do laundry at the link below.

Bed Bugs What to do about bed bugs

With increased international travel and reduced use of pesticides, North America is experiencing an increase of bedbug occurrences. Found in fine hotels, hostels and college and university residences, bedbug infestations are becoming a common occurrence. Read on for what you should do if you think there are bedbugs in your space.

Damages and Room Inventory Room Condition form

When you first arrive in residence, you will be asked to complete a room condition form by Friday, September 23. You can do so by logging into the Student Residence Portal. This gives you the opportunity to note any damages or missing items in your room, so that we don’t charge you for them at move-out.