5 Types of Building Maintenance: A Deep Dive
Posted on Apr 16, 2024 at 12:04 AM
Building maintenance is akin to overseeing the constant care and attention given to a vast machine, where various components may degrade, necessitating periodic updates and maintenance.
To ensure the optimal condition of a building, it is imperative to implement a meticulously devised system encompassing inspection, maintenance, and repair services.
This comprehensive approach ensures that the property remains secure, aesthetically pleasing, and fully operational for those who utilise its facilities.
Whether you're here to explore the world of building maintenance services, aspire to a career in construction, or learn about the 5 types of maintenance activities, this guide is the answer!
What is Building Maintenance?
Building maintenance refers to ongoing practices that keep the structural integrity of a residential facility in good condition through cleaning, organising, and maintaining electrical systems. The primary focus is to provide customers with a safe and comfortable environment, with the added benefit of enhancing the property's value.
Activities encompass cleaning public areas, repairing damaged elements, and conducting inspections and maintenance of the facility's electrical, heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. Maintenance activities may extend outdoors, managing gardens, irrigation systems, and landscaping, balancing customer comfort and property value improvement.
What is the Importance of Building Maintenance?
Imagine living in a damaged building that could collapse at any moment, risking the lives of its occupants!
This scenario is one of the outcomes of neglecting regular building maintenance management. This is an urgent need despite the high cost and difficulty for several reasons:
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The passage of years affects the maintenance company or building and its functional efficiency due to climate factors, daily use, and the deterioration of its mechanical and electrical components, turning it into a hazardous and unhealthy environment for its inhabitants.
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Neglecting preventive and routine maintenance will eventually result in unexpected and costly expenses.
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Simple issues escalate into serious ones in the building due to non-compliance or incorrect completion of maintenance.
Therefore, property maintenance services exhibit a variety of functions and reasons, leading us together to explore the 5 different types of maintenance…
What are the 5 Types of Maintenance?
The various aspects of building maintenance fall under 5 divisions, and here they are:
1. Routine Maintenance
This type of maintenance is designed to protect the building from deterioration and prevent malfunctions. It is carried out regularly, whether daily, weekly, monthly, or annually, following a predetermined schedule.
Building maintenance courses, which specialise in training for maintenance and acquiring necessary skills, play a vital role in achieving these operations.
Facility or building maintenance tasks are straightforward, requiring no specialised training, expertise, or equipment. This allows any employee, including maintenance technicians, to perform these necessary services.
2. Preventive Maintenance
This type is vital because it serves as the linchpin for successfully and efficiently managing facilities. Utilising preventive maintenance services helps uphold the structural integrity of the building, ensuring the well-being of equipment, assets, and employees and thereby averting future financial burdens.
Preventive maintenance for facilities also includes sustainable precautionary measures during design and construction to withstand storms and other disasters. This necessitates scheduling various proactive maintenance tasks to include precautions early on. Here are these types:
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Time-Based Maintenance (TBM):
Essential tasks are scheduled at specific intervals, such as every 7 days.
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Usage-Based Maintenance (UBM):
It is implemented once criteria reach a specified level, such as scheduling routine maintenance jobs for HVAC every 2 weeks.
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Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM):
CBM involves monitoring the equipment to determine the necessary actions when indicators of malfunction appear. For example, a slow startup or sudden halt in elevators indicates the need to replace or lubricate their motors.
Focuses on monitoring equipment using tools and techniques like checking thermal points in electrical systems. This action is taken only when specific thresholds or parameters are exceeded to control asset performance.
3. Corrective Maintenance
It is a service aimed at improving the operational performance of the building. Despite the impossibility of preventing damage, implementing a corrective maintenance strategy can significantly reduce the risk to the property. So, why not apply it?
Therefore, to maximise the benefits of this type, companies should provide courses for employees, especially in the maintenance department, such as a program for the evaluation, repair, and rehabilitation of concrete buildings as per ACI-562.
This program provides information about the building's lifespan depending on construction practices and craftsmanship quality. It emphasises that signs of building deterioration appear early, requiring identification and understanding of the decay before costly repairs.
A proper program helps detect challenges through visual inspection, maintenance and rehabilitation from an advanced industry in the construction field.
Hence, companies are always advised to provide appropriate training for their employees to raise awareness of how to address challenges promptly and restore things to normalcy before disasters occur.
4. Interactive Unplanned Maintenance
It's the unplanned response to maintenance requests, though not considered emergencies.
Here, the CMMS will facilitate building maintenance operations by promptly responding to anything affecting smooth egress. The system will also efficiently address inquiries about the immediate maintenance of accessibility features and devices, providing practical solutions.
5. Emergency Maintenance
This maintenance offers the service of immediate repair, maintenance, replacement, or restoration of facilities, their components, and hardware that require instant attention due to a system's vital performance decline or a threat to health, safety, or life security. Emergency maintenance serves as an immediate alternative to all other types.
In Conclusion,
Housing and commercial building maintenance offer regular care for structures and facilities, preventing costly expenses and risks resulting from neglect. This encompasses assessment, preventive and corrective maintenance, inspections, and effective management.
Zone maintenance is essential to ensure the ongoing well-being of your property 24 hours a day. These efforts increase property value while providing a protected and comfortable environment.
