maintenance work (politeknik)

C3001 / UNIT 3 / 1MAINTENANCE WORK

General Objective : To understand the scope of circulation system in tall buildings.

Specific Objectives :

At the end of this unit you should be able to:

Explain the concept of maintenance.

Describe maintenance and the need for maintenance.

Explain and identify the types of building maintenance.


3.0 INTRODUCTION

Building maintenance has until recently been a neglected field or technology,

being regarded by many as a ‘Cinderella’ activity. It possesses little glamour, is unlikely

to attract very much attention and frequently regarded as unproductive, although many of

the managerial and technical problems are more demanding of ingenuity and skills than

those of new works. A Government ‘Committee on Building Maintenance’ described

how this class of work is accorded little or no merit and that while it remains a neglected

backwater, the morale of those involved in its management and execution must suffer and

productivity will remain low.

Property owners all too frequently endeavour to keep maintenance expenditure to

a minimum, ignoring or misunderstanding the adverse long-term effects of such a policy.

Neglect of maintenance has accumulative results with rapidly increasing deterioration of


the fabric and finishes of a building accompanied by harmful effects on the contents and

occupants. Buildings are too valuable assets to be neglected in this way. In excess of one-

third of the total output of the construction industry is devoted to this activity, inadequate

though it is to keep the nation's buildings in a satisfactory condition.

3.1 Concept of Building Maintenance

It is highly desirable but hardly feasible to produce buildings that are

maintenance-free, although much can be done at the design stage to reduce the amount of

subsequent maintenance work. All elements of buildings deteriorate at a greater or lesser

rate depending on materials and methods of construction, environmental conditions and

the use of the building.

3.1.1 Definition of Maintenance

BS 3811 define 'maintenance' as: "The combination of all technical and associated

administrative actions intended to retain an item in, or restore it to, a state in which it can

perform its required function." The requirements for maintenance must not be less than

those necessary to meet the relevant statutory requirements, and 'maintained' is defined in

the Factories Act 1961 as: “maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and

in good repair.”

The Committee on Building Maintenance defined ‘acceptable standard’, as quoted

in the first edition of BS 3811, as “one which sustains the utility and value of the facility”


and this is found to include some degree of improvement over the life of a building as

acceptable comfort and amenity standard rise. Cleaning will also constitute part of

building maintenance activities.

BS 3811 categories building maintenance by means of the following terms and

definitions:

Planned maintenance: “The maintenance organized and carried out

forethought, control and the use of records to a predetermined plan.”

Unplanned maintenance: “The maintenance carried out to no

predetermined plan.”

Preventive maintenance: “The maintenance carried out at predetermined

interval or corresponding to prescribed criteria and intended to reduce the

probability of failure or the performance degradation of an item.”

Corrective maintenance: “The maintenance carried out after a failure has

occurred and intended to restore an item to a state in which it can perform

its required function.”

Emergency maintenance: “The maintenance which it is necessary to put

in hand immediately to avoid serious consequences.” This is sometimes

referred to as day-to-day maintenance, resulting from such incidents as gas

leaks and gale damage.


Condition-based maintenance: “The preventive maintenance

initiated as a result of knowledge of the condition of an item from routine

or continuous monitoring.”

Scheduled maintenance: “The preventive maintenance carried out to a

predetermined interval of time, number of operations, mileage, etc."

Another approach to maintenance classification has been adopted by Speight, who

sub-divided maintenance into three broad categories:

Major repair or restoration: such as re-roofing or rebuilding defective

walls and often incorporating an element of improvement.

Periodic maintenance: a typical example being annual contracts for

decorations and the like.

Routine or day-to-day maintenance: which is largely of the preventive

type, such as checking rainwater gutters and servicing mechanical and

electrical installations.

Maintenance work has also been categorised as ‘predictable’ and ‘avoidable’

Predictable maintenance is regular periodic work that may be necessary to retain the

performance characteristic of a product, as well as that required to replace or repair the

product after it has achieved a useful life span. Avoidable maintenance is the work


required to rectify failures caused by poor design, incorrect installation or the use of

faulty materials.

With building services, minimal neglect can result in potential danger.

'Appropriate condition' could be interpreted as the maintenance of buildings in a state

which allows them to be used for the purpose for which they were provided for the

minimum capital expenditure. The main problem is to determine the standards to be

applied in a particular situation, and these are more readily assessed for services and

finishing than for the fabric. The appropriate condition will be influenced by many

factors, including the function of the building, its public image, or even national prestige.

Building maintenance is characterised not only by the diversity of activities but

also of the interests involved. A prime aim should be to obtain good value for the money

spent on maintenance but there are conflicting views on this— public/private; long/short

term; and landlord/tenant.

A system which is based on planned inspections and maintenance will have

higher overhead costs than one that is not, but the planning should lead to lower

maintenance expenditure. A fully planned system is not always the most appropriate and

care is needed in devising the best system for the particular estate. Figure 3.1 shows the

cost relationship of planned and unplanned systems.


Figure 3.1: Cost relationship between planned and unplanned system


3.2 Maintenance Needs

A prime aim of maintenance is to preserve a building in its initial state, as far as

practicable, so that it effectively serves its purpose. Some of the main purposes of

maintaining buildings are:

Retaining value of investment;

Maintaining the building in a condition in which it continues to fulfill its function;

and

Presenting a good appearance.

The amount of necessary building maintenance work could be reduced by

improved methods of design, specification, construction and feedback of maintenance

data to designers. In addition, effective maintenance management embraces many skills.

These include the technical knowledge and experience necessary to identify maintenance

needs and to specify the right remedies; an understanding of modern management

techniques; a knowledge of property and contract law; and an appreciation of the relevant

sociological and economic aspects.

The Building Conservation Trust has described how its permanent exhibition at

Hampton Court Palace shows quite dramatically how through neglect and deterioration

every building faces certain death from progressive decay. The process can be


accelerated by neglect or delayed by proper care. Proper maintenance is cheaper, quicker

and easier than major repairs.

Chudley has identified the principal criteria which could influence the decision to

carry out maintenance work, such as cost, age and condition of property, availability of

adequate resources, urgency, future use and possibly sociological considerations.

3.2.1 Assessing Maintenance Priorities

It is difficult to formulate a precise order of priorities of maintenance activities as

they are so diverse and any assessment is likely to be a subjective evaluation. Some of the

principal functions of maintenance are: to ensure the safety of occupants, visitors and the

general public; to maintain services, such as heating, lighting, escalators and fire alarm

systems; to maintain decorative surfaces and carry out adequate cleaning; and to prevent

or diminish significantly deterioration of the fabric.

Some organisations have formulated maintenance priority guidelines which, in

times of financial stringency, dictate how monies are to be spent. Typical is the following

approach, adopted by one county council.


Work required for health and safety, such as emergency exits and fire precautions.

Work required to preserve the structure, such as essential roof repairs and external

painting.

Work required for occupational efficiency, such as increased lighting.

Amenity work, mainly internal, such as interior decorations.

The Local Government Operational Research Unit identified three separate

categories of building maintenance work—fabric maintenance; day-to-day repairs; and

improvements and modernisation. The Unit endeavoured to establish techniques for

determining whether a particular job should be done immediately or deferred.

For instance to draw up a long-term maintenance programme for the fabric of

buildings, a maintenance manager must make many decisions. First, he must decide

which of the various elements of the building, such as walls, floors, roof, windows and

doors, merit detailed inspection. Upon inspection he needs some criteria for ranking them

in order of priority coupled with a technique for assessing their condition. Finally, he

must decide in each case whether work is necessary, and if so whether patching or

replacement is more appropriate. To make these decisions he must not only know the cost

implications of the various alternatives but must also know the minimum acceptable

conditions of the elements, appearance being an important factor in deciding what type of

repairs should be undertaken. Adhoc maintenance with an open-ended budget may seem


attractive but it is unlikely to obtain full value for monies spent or an efficient

maintenance system.

There is a need to improve the method of managing and executing building

maintenance. Maintenance budgets should be clear and well reasoned and supported by

full information on the consequence of neglecting maintenance. Decision making in

building maintenance could be assisted by the application of operational research and

computer aided techniques. A prime aim should be to improve efficiency and

productivity. There is a backlog of several years in the maintenance of many buildings

and more effective use of resources will help to reduce these arrears and assist the

national economy.

Feedback from occupier to designer should be improved in order to assemble

information on both the preference of the user, and the performance of materials,

components and constructional methods. There is a general lack of essential basic data

and appropriate recording systems. Design teams all too frequently neglect consideration

of maintenance aspects and there is a great need to reduce the gulf between design and

maintenance. Occupiers of new building should ideally be provided with maintenance

manuals listing the materials and equipment used in building.


3.3 Type of Maintenance

This area represents a comprehensive program that includes long-term

maintenance and repair of buildings as well as the daily requests received from the

community. Maintenance categories include: HVAC, electrical, carpentry, painting,

plumbing, emergency maintenance, and sign production. We have some of the finest

skilled craftsman in the industry working in Facilities Management.

Maintenance will repair a component that was originally furnished and/or built

with the initial construction, or was added later as part of an approved previous capital

expenditure. Equipment will be serviced by maintenance if it was installed with the

building and/or renovation, and if it would stay with the building in the event that the

using department moved.

Most corrective maintenance is requested by the user of the facility to solve an immediate

problem.


3.3.1 Emergency Service Requests (Emergency Maintenance)

Emergency Maintenance is a 24-hour per day operation and can be accessed by calling

Work Control. A worker will respond immediately to resolve any problem, which

threatens life safety. Examples of emergency situations are major electrical power

failures, water main breaks, and serious structural problems.

3.3.2 Routine Service Request (Current maintenance)

A work order will be computer generated for the scheduling of routine/non-emergency

situations such as wall patching, room painting, replacing damaged ceiling or floor tiles,

repairing leaky faucets and hanging pictures.

3.3.3 Preventive Maintenance (Schedule maintenance)

Preventive Maintenance (P.M.) is the scheduled work performed on the mechanical,

electrical, and structural portions of our facilities. This work is performed on a systematic

basis to maintain the integrity and reliability of these components. Our P.M. program

includes daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annually and annually scheduled services.

Other types of maintenance are:


3.3.4 Urgent Service Requests

Prompt attention will be given to such problems such as leaks, broken windows or other

security problems, out of service elevators, defective electrical fixtures or localized

power outages, heating/air conditioning problems, and plumbing problems such as

clogged drains.

3.3.5 Mechanical Maintenance

Mechanical components of our buildings include environmental control (i.e., heating,

ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration), and plumbing. Utility Systems provide for the

distribution of water, heating and cooling up to the building, whereas Mechanical

Maintenance is responsible for the distribution and maintenance of all utilities (except

electrical) within the buildings. Window air conditioning units are also serviced by

Mechanical Maintenance.

Figure 3.2 Mechanical Maintenance


3.3.6 Structural Maintenance

The Structural Maintenance Department's provide carpenters, painters, and plasterers to

perform interior and exterior painting, plastering, glazing, lock repair, carpentry (e.g.,

repair of hardware, doors and windows) and many other duties. They also maintain

handicapped door access and furniture such as seating, desks, and etc.

Figure 3.3 : Structural Maintenance


Figure 3.4 : Structural Maintenance (before maintenance)

Figure 3.5 : Structural Maintenance (current maintenance)

Figure 3.6 : Structural Maintenance (after maintenance)


3.4 System Operation Maintenance

Normal

Servicing

Rutin Cleaning

Rectification, Repairing

Replacement

Extension

Renovation

Upgrading


Complete the sentences below by the providing the correct answers.

1. BS 3811 defines 'maintenance' as …………….

2. List two of categories of ‘building maintenance’ based on BS 3811

i. ………….ii. ………….


Answers:

1. "The combination of all technical and associated

administrative actions intended to retain an item in, or

restore it to, a state in which it can perform its required

function."

2. i.Planned maintenance: “The maintenance organized

and carried out forethought, control and the use of

records to a predetermined plan.”

ii.Unplanned maintenance: “The maintenance carried

out to no predetermined plan.”


Question

1. What are the concepts of maintenance?

2. List down one activity of Mechanical Maintenance.

3. List and describe two types of building maintenance.

REMEMBER ……If you have problems in this question…please refer your notes…


Answer

1. It is highly desirable but hardly feasible to produce buildings that are

maintenance-free, although much can be done at the design stage to reduce the

amount of subsequent maintenance work. All elements of buildings deteriorate at

a greater or lesser rate depending on materials and methods of construction,

environmental conditions and the use of the building.

2. An activity mechanical maintenance is

Environmental control (i.e., heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration)

3. Emergency maintenance and Schedule maintenance

Emergency Maintenance is a 24-hour per day operation and can be

accessed by calling Work Control. A worker will respond immediately to

resolve any problem, which threatens life safety. Examples of emergency

situations are major electrical power failures, water main breaks, and

serious structural problems


Preventive Maintenance (P.M.) is the scheduled work performed on the

mechanical, electrical, and structural portions of our facilities. This work

is performed on a systematic basis to maintain the integrity and reliability

of these components. Our P.M. program includes daily, weekly, monthly,

semi-annually and annually scheduled services bad wear and tear on the

existing equipment

maintenance work (politeknik)

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