Trello-based maintenance management system

At Pentillion Construction, I implemented a Trello-based maintenance management and documentation system for recurring work across a dozen commercial properties. The work involved routine inspections, seasonal tasks, urgent repairs, subcontractor follow-up, site-specific knowledge, safe work practices, and a lot of small details that needed to be available when someone was actually on site.

I had previously worked in the maintenance technician role myself, so I understood how quickly the work could become difficult to track when the system depended on phone calls, personal notes, memory, and individual site knowledge. A technician might visit several properties in a day, deal with routine checks, unexpected issues, tenant concerns, small repairs, and subcontractor coordination, then still need to remember what should happen next week, next month, or next season.

The problem was not that people were not trying. The problem was that too much important information lived in separate places. If a task, photo, decision, manual, contact, or site detail only lived in one person’s memory or text messages, it was too easy for context to be lost, the same questions to be asked repeatedly, or follow-up work to become invisible.

Building the boards around the real maintenance workflow

I structured the system with dedicated Trello boards for each site and a general knowledge board for shared procedures, sourcing information, contacts, safe work practices, and recurring references. Each site board was organized to track active tasks, completed work, projects, recurring templates, and site information.

Cards became the working record for each issue or task. They could hold checklists, photos, comments, links to manuals, storage locations, water shutoff information, sourcing notes, and other details that are easy to lose but important when someone is standing in the building trying to solve the problem.

The system was designed around how maintenance actually happens. Weekly, monthly, and seasonal template cards could be copied into the active task list with due dates, keeping recurring work visible before it became urgent. The recurring work included items such as filter changes, bird checks, vacancy checks, janitorial reviews, fire and generator tests, exterior lighting checks, pest inspections, equipment servicing, salting preparation, annual fire and pump checks, anchor inspections, painting reviews, and pressure washing reviews.

Making responsibility and follow-up visible

I also built the workflow around accountability. Cards are assigned to the person responsible for seeing the task through. Priority labels help show what needs attention first, and subcontractor labels identify work that requires outside follow-up.

That structure matters because maintenance work often fails at the handoff. Someone notices an issue, someone else talks to a subcontractor, another person waits for a quote, and then the original context disappears. Keeping comments, photos, due dates, labels, and assignments on the same card makes the work easier to pick back up without needing a separate explanation.

The photo history became another important part of the system. Photos could document problems, site conditions, completed work, recurring issues, and past repairs. That created a practical historical record for planning, liability, trend review, and training.

Extending Trello with n8n reporting

Trello’s built-in automation handled some recurring task creation, but it had limits when the system had to scale across multiple users and sites. To extend it, I connected Trello to n8n and used API queries and filtering to build custom reporting.

The system can send HTML email reports with direct links back to the relevant Trello cards. Reports can summarize completed work, upcoming tasks, overdue items, assigned responsibilities, due dates, labels, subcontractor follow-up, and other filtered information across all sites.

A weekly report gives a snapshot of what was completed and what still needs attention. Upcoming-task emails help keep maintenance visible before it becomes urgent, making it easier for the technician to plan ahead, pick up materials, or coordinate subcontractors before arriving on site. Reports can also be tailored for different people depending on their role, including the maintenance technician, me acting as maintenance manager, and ownership.

Creating a company knowledge base

The maintenance system also became a knowledge base. It gave the company a practical place to store manuals, procedures, site-specific details, photos, sourcing notes, contacts, and institutional knowledge that would otherwise stay with whichever person happened to know it.

That made the system useful beyond daily task tracking. It helped new people learn the sites faster, gave management better visibility into maintenance activity, and created a stronger record of what was done, when it was done, and why.

Handoff and refinement

This project combined my experience in the maintenance role with process improvement, workflow design, documentation, automation, training, and hands-on implementation. I designed the board structure, templates, labels, due-date logic, automations, reporting, documentation, and training materials, then continued checking in with users to refine the system around how the work actually gets done.

Information needs a home

The result was a maintenance workflow that captured more site knowledge, made responsibilities clearer, improved follow-up, reduced reliance on individual memory, and helped recurring work stay visible.

This is one of the clearest examples of the kind of system I like building. The system is useful because it gives people an operating structure: less lost context, better handoff, clearer accountability, and enough automation that important work is harder to forget.

Maintenance performance dashboard

At Pentillion Construction, the property maintenance role covers a wide range of responsibilities across roughly a dozen commercial properties, including outdoor malls, tenant spaces, and mixed-use sites. The work includes routine inspections, garbage removal, cleaning, minor repairs, contractor coordination, task tracking, and responding to issues raised by tenants, property managers, and owners.

Although the role is important, the expectations were not always easy to define. Good maintenance often goes unnoticed. When the work is done well, tenants and customers simply experience a clean, functional, well-managed property. That can make the role feel thankless, but it also makes clear expectations more important.

Small visible issues, such as mud on a front door, overflowing garbage, or damaged finishes, can quickly create complaints and reduce confidence in the maintenance team. I identified a need to better define what successful performance looked like for the maintenance role, especially because the job required more than simply completing assigned tasks.

Technicians needed to take ownership of their sites, understand priority and billing boundaries, use Trello consistently, communicate clearly, and know when work should be escalated or subcontracted rather than handled in-house.

To address that, I created a job dashboard for the Property Maintenance Technician role. The dashboard condensed the role into four key performance areas: Site Ownership & Accountability, Task Management & Prioritization, Communication & Coordination, and Professionalism & Tenant Interaction.

Each category included a plain-language summary, detailed expectations, measurable indicators, and reflection prompts that could be used for onboarding, coaching, and performance discussions. The idea was to make the role easier to understand without reducing it to a checklist of disconnected tasks.

The dashboard helped translate informal feedback into a shared standard. Instead of expectations being passed along through phone calls or individual training styles, the technician had a clear reference point for what mattered most: keeping sites visibly cared for, tracking tasks properly, spending time on approved work, communicating before problems escalated, and identifying work that should be handled by outside contractors.

The result was clearer role definition for new hires and existing technicians. It reduced billing mistakes, encouraged more consistent use of Trello, and helped management evaluate performance more fairly. It also reinforced the larger operational goal: maintenance should create confidence. Property managers, owners, tenants, and customers should be able to see that the site is being looked after, even when the best result is that nothing appears to be wrong.

Bespoke farm wedding venue

For our wedding, my wife and I transformed an overgrown working farm into a full private venue for 240 guests. The site had never been used as a venue of that scale before. It was primarily set up for cows and goats, with rough ground, overgrown vegetation, limited infrastructure, and no ready-made event layout.

Planning began roughly a year and a half before the wedding, with much of the physical site preparation completed on weekends in the months leading up to the event while living several hours away. The goal was to build an unconventional and inspiring wedding venue; something personal, functional, memorable, and resourceful. We wanted a place where people could gather, celebrate, camp, dance, eat, and experience something that felt like us.

My role combined lead planning, site coordination, logistics, layout design, vendor coordination, hands-on building, and day-of problem solving. Many people stepped up to help with site prep, flowers, food, service, setup, teardown, parking, and coordination, but I was responsible for turning the overall idea into a workable plan and making sure the major pieces came together.

Turning a working farm into a venue

The site needed to support a ceremony, reception, camping, parking, washrooms, photo areas, food service, live music, gathering space, and guest flow. I designed the layout around how people would arrive, move through the site, find the main areas, and safely use a space that was not designed as a venue.

Preparing the site meant removing rocks and windfall, filling holes, levelling ground, cutting back vegetation, creating paths, preparing camping areas, and planting and watering grass in levelled areas before the event. The work was practical and physical, but it was also about imagining how the site would feel once hundreds of people were using it.

The 100′ x 40′ tent became the centre of the reception, with space for tables, head table, food service, bar, band, dance floor, lighting, and gathering. I created a site plan that could be shared with guests and volunteers so everyone understood how the event should flow.

Temporary infrastructure

Because the farm didn’t have venue infrastructure, several systems had to be built temporarily. Washrooms, handwashing, water, power, lighting, audio, parking, and camping all had to work for one day without becoming fragile or confusing.

Water was one of the more difficult infrastructure problems. I built temporary sink stations, with water supplied roughly 250 feet using fire hoses connected to domestic water. The hoses also provided an additional fire-readiness measure, which mattered because the wedding was held in mid-August and the surrounding area was dry.

I handled power with two generators and an EV with an inverter. The layout had to support lighting, PA equipment, the band, and other event needs while avoiding overloads and reducing trip hazards. I placed the band on its own generator, so the most critical load was isolated.

I built guest safety into the layout through cord routing, lighting, paths, parking control, and keeping higher-traffic areas away from rougher parts of the farm. Weather and fire risk were also part of the planning, with umbrellas, extra tents, and site-wetting leading up to the event as practical backups.

Building the dance floor

I designed and built a 20′ x 32′ dance floor using pallets and recovered forming plywood. The ground had to be levelled, uneven areas were shimmed with scrap wood, and the surface was sanded and painted.

The floor was intentionally simple, low to the ground, and practical. It had to support a full reception dance floor without feeling temporary or unsafe. It performed well through the night and became one of the main pieces that made the farm feel like a real venue rather than just an outdoor gathering.

Guest experience and personal details

The event also included custom-built photo and hangout areas. One was called “Grandma’s,” built around an old floral farm couch, a rug, wooden accents, an old phone, and a large hanging macrame plant holder made by my grandfather. It was partly a tribute to family and partly a quiet place for guests to step away from the busy party. It became one of the most loved and photographed areas of the wedding.

A second installation was built in an alder grove with hanging mirrors, a vanity, and lights. It created a surreal forest photo area that felt personal, handmade, and unique.

The bouquet was launched from a homemade catapult my friends and I built during the bachelor party, using materials we had on hand. It included a safety release pin and worked perfectly on the day.

Planning and coordination

I set up Trello as our planning hub for tasks, deadlines, rentals, materials, volunteer roles, budget, guest logistics, setup schedule, and day-of details. The board helped turn a large, informal family project into something trackable and executable.

The biggest challenge was the number of interacting pieces: weather, parking, camping, washrooms, power, water, food, rentals, music, guest movement, volunteer coordination, setup, teardown, and the fact that the site was not designed to be a venue.

Got hitched without a hitch

Several guests said it was the best wedding they had ever attended, which was nice to hear, but the more useful proof was that the temporary venue actually worked. People arrived, parked, found their way around, ate, danced, camped, used the washrooms, gathered in the custom spaces, and experienced the farm as if it had been designed for that day.

For me, the project is a good example of how I like to work when the answer does not already exist. I understand the site, imagine the use, build the missing systems, coordinate the people, and leave enough personality in the result that it feels intentionally made.