Mailrooms, Parcels And The Space Nobody Planned For

Almost every residential building in Sydney was designed for a letterbox and now receives parcels.

The result is a stack of boxes in the entry, which is the first thing anyone sees when they visit the building.

Why it matters more than it sounds

The entry sets the impression of a building, for residents, for visitors and for anyone looking at an apartment to rent or buy.

A tidy lobby with a parcel solution reads as a well-run building. The same lobby with a pile of boxes against a wall reads as one nobody manages, and that perception affects what an apartment lets for.

It is also a safety and compliance matter. Parcels stacked in a corridor or a lobby obstruct egress, and in a fire stair or in front of a fire door they are a defect rather than untidiness. Same category as anything else covered by the [fire door](/blog/fire-doors-in-residential-buildings) requirements.

The mailbox itself

Most older buildings have the original bank of boxes, and they are usually the wrong size and frequently broken.

Locks and keys. A bank of boxes with mismatched locks, missing keys and a couple of doors held shut with tape is very common. Rekeying the bank to one restricted system fixes the security and the administration at once, which is the argument in [key systems and restricted keys](/blog/key-systems-and-restricted-keys).

Size. Old boxes were sized for letters. A larger box takes a small parcel and removes a share of the problem immediately.

Position and accessibility. A bank of boxes where the bottom row is at floor level and the top row is above reach does not work for a resident using a wheelchair or for anyone who is not tall. Any replacement should put an accessible box within the reach range and allow clear approach to it.

Weather. An external bank without a hood delivers wet mail. A hood or a recess is a small job.

Parcel options

A parcel locker bank, where there is space. A courier puts the parcel in a locker and the resident gets a code. It solves the problem completely and it takes floor area and capital.

A secure parcel room, which suits buildings with a store room near the entry. Needs access control, and it needs somebody to manage what is left in it for six months.

Oversize lockers within a new mailbox bank, a small number of larger compartments shared across the building. A good middle option for buildings with no room for a full locker bank.

A concierge or building manager, which only exists in larger buildings.

Nothing formal, managed well. A defined shelf or trolley out of the path of travel, checked and cleared. Not elegant and far better than parcels against a fire door.

The access question underneath it

Most of the parcel problem is really an access problem. Couriers cannot get through the front door, so they leave the parcel wherever they can.

Which means an intercom that works, and a delivery arrangement that does not depend on a resident being home. An [intercom and access control upgrade](/blog/intercom-and-access-control-upgrades) frequently reduces the parcel mess more than any amount of storage does.

The rest of the entry

If a building is spending money on the mailbox area, it is worth doing the entry at the same time.

Lighting, which is usually poor and often the single biggest improvement available. A clean floor surface, which for an entry means a slip rating appropriate to a surface that gets wet, as covered in [common area flooring](/blog/lift-lobby-and-common-area-flooring). Paint, which is cheap. Working door hardware and a door closer that actually closes. Signage with the building number legible from the street.

Done together it is one job and the building looks different. Done one item a year it never quite looks finished, and it costs more in total.

For an agent

The entry is the part of the building you cannot photograph around.

It is also the cheapest part of a building to improve relative to the effect on what an apartment lets for, which is why it is worth raising with a committee before the items that cost ten times as much.

Ample handles entry and mailbox upgrades with the locksmithing, electrical, painting and flooring under one team.