BUILDING MAINTENANCE

Maintenance is the work of keeping something (property) in proper condition, care or upkeep including: taking steps to avoid something breaking down (preventative maintenance) and bringing something back to working order (corrective maintenance).

 

Buildings cannot remain new throughout their entire life. All buildings start to deteriorate from the moment they are completed, and at that time the need for maintenance begins. A newly completed building also requires maintenance.

 

Moreover, it is not possible to replace or rebuild all buildings at one time. The value of a building decreases unless maintenance is carried out on the building (A. S. Ali, Kamaruzzaman, Sulaiman, & Cheong Peng, 2010; Lateef, Khamidi, & Idrus, 2011). Further, building maintenance and the performance of the building constantly affect people’s comfort and productivity. Maintenance works are the only way to maintain and increase the value of the property.

 

With the increasing costs of new construction, the effective maintenance of the existing building stock has become even more important. Increasingly, building owners are beginning to accept that it is not in their best interest to carry out maintenance in a purely reactive manner, but that it should be planned and managed as efficiently as any other corporate activity (D. Arditi & M. Nawakorawit, 1999).

Knowing that, it is impossible to produce buildings that are maintenance free, yet maintenance work can be minimized by good design and proper workmanship carried out by skilled experts or competent craftsmen using suitable codes of installation and requisite building materials and methods (Adenuga & Iyagba, 2005).

 

        AIMS OF MAINTENANCE

The primary aim of maintaining a building is to ensure that the building continue to serve the purpose for which it was put up. The purposes for which maintenances are undertaken include:

(I)          To maintain the value of a building- a better maintained building normally has greater value, however, increased value may be marginal as location and size of site all play an important in the determination of value(S. Afranie and E. Osei-Tutu, 1999)

(II)       To ensure optimum use of buildings- good maintenance should allow buildings to be used to their full potential

(III)    To create or maintain suitable appearance- can make a positive contribution to external environment and social conditions. Dilapidated buildings can contribute to social deprivation and badly maintained services and facilities, waste energy and resources and can affect the environment

(IV)    To maximize the life of main components and materials- maintenance can reduce cost of subsequent maintenance by extending periods between repairs and replacements;

(V)       To ensure that buildings do not detract from surroundings and also maintain a suitable appearance.

 

     TYPES OF MAINTENANCE

BS 3811 categorizes building maintenance by means of the following terms and definitions.

i.           Planned maintenance: The maintenance organized and carried out with forethought, control and the use of records to a predetermined plan.

ii.         Unplanned maintenance: The plan carried out to no predetermined plan. It refers to work necessitated by unforeseen breakdown or damages. For example, the ripping-off of a building, through the action of a storm, and its  remedial action constitute unforeseen damages. It can also be termed unexpected and unavoidable maintenance.

iii.       Preventive maintenance: The maintenance carried out at predetermined intervals or corresponding to prescribed criteria and intended to reduce the probability of failure or the performance degradation of an item.

iv.       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.

v.         Emergency maintenance: “The maintenance which it is necessary to put in hand immediately to avoid serious consequences.” This is referred to as day-to-day maintenance, resulting from such incidents as gas leaks and gale damage.

vi.       Condition-based maintenance: “The preventive maintenance initiated as a result of knowledge of the condition of an item from routine or continuous monitoring.

vii.     Scheduled maintenance: The preventive maintenance carried out to a predetermined interval of time, number of operations, mileage, etc.

viii.   Running maintenance: “Maintenance which can be carried out whilst an item is in service.

 

    COMPONENTS OF MAINTENANCE

Maintenance involves a considerable amount of work which Harper (1969) as cited in (S. Afranie and E. Osei-Tutu, 1999) has been categorized into three components namely; Servicing, Rectification and Replacement.

1.      Servicing: Servicing is essentially a clearing operation undertaken at regular intervals of varying frequency and is sometimes termed day-to-day maintenance. Daily sweeping of floors, monthly washing and cleaning of windows and regular painting for decoration and protection every four years are some examples of servicing.

2.      Rectification: Rectification work usually occurs fairly early in the life of a building; but it can also occur sometime within the life span of the building. It arises from shortcoming in design, inherent fault in or unsuitability of component, damage of goods in transit or installation and incorrect assembly. Rectification represents a fruitful point at which to reduce the costs of maintenance, because it is available.

3.      Replacement: Replacements occur at all costs in buildings. It is inevitable because service conditions cause materials to decay at different rates. Much replacement work stems not so much from physical breakdown of the materials or element as from deterioration of the appearance (Seeley, 1987). This is because the extent of exposure of materials to the vagaries of the weather varies, and the weather in specific locations also vary whilst the capacity of elements of buildings in withstanding changes and different intensities of the weather vary. This therefore becomes necessary as a result of material decay due to these differential rates of weather conditions. Physical breakdown of materials or elements as well as deterioration appearance may necessitate replacements.