GENERAL CONCEPTS ON BUILDING MAINTENANCE LECTURE NO.

INTRODUCTION All elements of buildings deteriorate at a greater or lesser rate dependent generally on: Material and methods of construction Environmental conditions, and The use of the buildings

INTRODUCTION CONT.. Property owners normally make an effort to keep maintenance expenditure to a minimum, ignoring or misunderstanding the adverse long term effect of such decisions. Neglect of maintenance has accumulative results with rapidly increasing deterioration of the Fabric and finishes of a building accompanied by harmful effects on contents and occupants.

 In Western countries, over one-third of the total output of the construction industry is devoted to maintenance of buildings, just to keep buildings in satisfactory condition.

DEFINITION OF MAINTENANANCE

In general, Maintenance means to hold, keep, sustain or preserve the building or structure to an acceptable standard. Acceptable standard is defined as one which sustains the utility and value of the facility. The question of what is an acceptable standard? is a matter of conjecture and is generally subjective.

Each owner or tenant will have to establish his own standards based on many factors, such as:
Usage of building Anticipated life Availability of capital, materials and manpower Change in Usage and personal Business prestige.

Types of Maintenance

Maintenance
Planned Maintenance Work directed to the prevention of failure within the expected life of the facility Unplanned Maintenance Unforeseen defects e.g. broken plumbing and sewer pipes, electrical fault etc.

Preventive Maintenance Done at predetermined intervals to reduce the probability of failure

Corrective Maintenance Work performed to restore a facility to an acceptable standard e.g. repair of wall cracks.

Corrective Maintenance Work performed to restore a facility to an acceptable standard e.g. replacement of missing tiles

TYPES OF MAINTENANCE
*

British Standard 3811 classified building maintenance as the followings: MAINTENANCE

Planned Maintenance Preventive Maintenance

Unplanned Maintenance

Corrective (including emergency Maintenance) Corrective (including emergency Maintenance)

Scheduled Maintenance

Condition-based Maintenance

AIM OF MAINTENANCE
*

Aims To preserve a building/facility in its original state (as far as possible) so that it continues to perform its intended functions To maintain the aesthetic appeal

TYPES OF MAINTENANCE CONT. Planned Maintenance: The maintenance organized and carried out with forethought, control and the use of records to a predetermined plan. Unplanned Maintenance: The maintenance carried out with no predetermined plan. Preventive Maintenance: The maintenance carried at pre-determined intervals or corresponding to prescribed criteria and intended to reduce the probability of failure or the performance degradation of an item.

TYPES OF MAINTENANCE CONT. 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

Causes of Maintenance 1) Physical wear and tear - As the building/facility ages wear and tear sets in -Climatic conditions affect the physical condition of the building and have greater effect to external elements of the structure e.g. fungal attack, salty moisture etc. 2) Faulty design - Settlement arising from under-estimation of the load to be carried in relation to the soil bearing capacity. - Designing windows not accessible for cleaning. - Wrong choice, of say window type not suitable to the weather.

3) Faulty Specification: Wrong choice of material not suitable for the type of construction e.g. use of parquet floor finishing for an institutional building subject to heavy/intensive use result: very high maintenance costs. 4) Faulty Workmanship Employment of incompetent workers lacking skill & knowledge & experience in construction may lead to defects in structure such as: Use of salty sand resulting in wall cracks

 Improper plumbing leading to poor flow of water and drainage poor bonding of brickwork leading to weak walls Lack of or incorrectly placed DPC 5) Vegetation Some types of trees have long & spreading roots which find their way into buildings foundation or extract water from soil and cause shrinkage resultcracking of walls of the nearby structures, kerbings etc.

6) Weather agents rain penetration leads moisture into the building e.g. where openings (windows) are badly positioned) strong winds may affect the roof cladding (if not properly secured) high water table (e.g. water logged areas) underground water rising to floor & walls if no proper protection is provided.

 Users/Occupants: may damage the building through their actions/activities undertaken in the premises: Change of use without necessary changes to the structure to match the new use. Overloading e.g. vertical extension where the foundation has no strength to support extra load.

 Vandalism theft i.e. Stealing materials & fixtures from the structure, breaking window louvers & panel, poor housekeeping e.g. noncleaning of sanitary facilities, use of energy (e.g. fuel) that fumes which affect decorations/decorative condition (e.g. painting). Keeping animals/poultry in residential buildings Change in fashion, tastes, habits and standards necessitate changes to some components to match the present standard.