Numerous forms of maintenance must be performed on commercial property, regardless of its size or nature, including routine upkeep, emergency repairs, and special inspections, all of which must be completed (such as may be directed by an insurance company). Prevention (or preventative) maintenance, on the other hand, is particularly crucial for safeguarding buildings, equipment, and landscaping.

What Is Preventive Maintenance, and How Does it Benefit You

Maintaining the facility’s critical assets in optimum functioning condition is the goal of preventive maintenance. It is a proactive approach to building maintenance. Periodic inspections follow predetermined periods based on usage or time and, if necessary, choose maintenance and repairs to the building’s equipment. However, we need to emphasize that the service offered in this regard is not reliant on the status of the component in question.

Regular preventive maintenance is necessary to further the service life expectancy of equipment and minimize unexpected failures. It will reduce unplanned downtime and overall maintenance costs by identifying and correcting defects before they become serious problems.

Illustrations of Preventive Maintenance

When it comes to preventative maintenance, a building is comparable to changing the oil and checking the brakes and tire air pressure on a car. It will save you a significant amount of time by taking these steps in the long run, reducing the need for costly repairs and extending your vehicle’s life. When a doctor evaluates a patient’s condition via physical exams and laboratory testing, they recommend a course of action based on their current state of health.

Beyond cost savings, preventive maintenance is essential for the safety of buildings, which involves both the preservation of assets and the loss of human life. Consider the need to maintain a fire alarm system in an emergency or the importance of maintaining the HVAC system to avoid the spread of Legionnaires’ disease.

The downside of preventative maintenance is that it can be over-maintained in some instances. Extreme care may result in crucial assets losing their ability to perform correctly. Besides that, preventive maintenance takes a significant initial expenditure and may be time-consuming.

Different Types of Preventive Maintenance

The following are examples of several types of preventive maintenance techniques:

Regular Maintenance

It includes doing routine inspections, cleaning, and providing machine servicing (weekly, monthly, annually, etc.). Most of the time, this strategy takes just minor steps, such as changing filters.

Proactive Replacements

It is replacing old, damaged, or defective building equipment before repairs on the building. Such reserves avoid the need for unnecessary expenditures and the occurrence of unanticipated downtime that may arise after a breakdown.

Scheduled Refurbishments

A famous example is a college or school and other institutions that get a lot of traffic. Utility companies and continuous process-type facilities are examples of enterprises that are achievable—repairing or replacing all known damaged or decaying components.

Monitoring Conditions

This promotes predictive maintenance by using sensors on equipment to deliver real-time data to preventive maintenance software, which improves efficiency. Servicing, like predictive maintenance, is performed only when necessary and depends on the condition of the component.

Repairs and Maintenance of Other Sorts

Instead of preventing, we do reactive maintenance only when a component breaks down. Often referred to as “breakdown maintenance” or “run-to-failure maintenance.” Reactive maintenance is widely related to unanticipated problems and high repair or replacement costs.

Maintenance Considerations for Different Types of Buildings

Building maintenance considerations differ based on the kind of structure. Specialized systems on buildings are often the main focus of maintenance. In contrast, others are more difficult to complete due to financial and budgetary constraints and compliance with safety codes and regulations.

Here is a list of elements similar to all building types yet are distinct from each one:

Condominiums and Apartment Buildings

Condominiums and apartment buildings are examples of this.

Apartment buildings and condominiums are often well-maintained because decent people are concerned about their surroundings. Custodial and aesthetics are majorities of reasons why we do maintenance. Still, the machinery and mechanical systems of the building are also vital for the comfort and safety of the occupants.

Whether public or privately owned, the ownership of a property has a considerable influence on the care of an apartment building or a condominium complex.

Private housing may vary from high-end condos to run-down and abandoned structures in various stages of decay. The amount of cash spent on upkeep is entirely up to the discretion of private owners. Decision-makers might include the building’s owner, property manager, or a homeowners association.

Resources for Educational Purposes

Students in colleges and universities, elementary, middle, and high schools, among others, provide an effective learning environment, even though they operate on a different scale. For example, a university may resemble a town in that it has several different building styles (libraries, apartments, retail spaces, etc.). The necessity for specific equipment in both types of educational institutions is evident, such as child-friendly rooms and scientific labs.

Another peculiar maintenance element is that many primary and secondary facilities built during the 1950s and 1960s are still in operation today, which means neglected old equipment often poses significant challenges. Furthermore, buildings constructed during this period are neither as energy-efficient nor as easily accessible as those before. Some of the facilities still in operation today are hundreds of years old, which presents challenges in maintaining their historical integrity.

Hospitals and Clinics

Hospitals and clinics are places where people go to get well.

The primary contrast between healthcare facilities and other types of buildings is the sort of patient care provided to them. These facilities are tough to keep up to date because of the sensitivity of ill patients and the possibility of life-or-death situations if essential systems go down during an emergency. Moreover, since most healthcare facilities are open 24 hours a day, maintenance may inevitably cause someone or some patient services to be interrupted.

Medical-grade special equipment in hospitals is also complicated and critical to patient operations, such as gas systems for oxygen, nitrogen, and other medical-grade gases, air-conditioning system filtering needs, and electrical power distribution for medical devices. One or more of these systems may fail and result in fatality.

Century-Old Structures

Historic certification may already be in place for an older building, or the owner may seek to have the building certified as such. The landmark designation has both advantages and disadvantages in terms of property upkeep, including the need for repair and replacement of original components and systems. There is often wiggle room in the conformance of a historic structure to current building codes, which state and municipal agencies specify with jurisdiction to enforce them. The AHJ must typically authorize plans for renovations before work can begin.

Improving energy efficiency and accessibility are frequent improvements made to historical constructions. Standard features include adding functionality to a facility that did not exist at the time of construction. These are such as a change in use and occupancy, an underground lawn sprinkler system, installing or upgrading a fire-protection system, etc.

It is also possible that historic buildings may incorporate unique features and materials, such as stained glass, enormous timber frames, and brickwork. These features and materials will influence the technical aspect of maintenance. Historic building owners and inspectors should partner with construction companies. It is to educate about historic buildings in general and the specific building in question.

Real Estate in the Hospitality Industry

Hospitality real estate includes hotels, motels, resorts, and conference facilities. However, these properties are part of a franchise in many cases. It compels the franchisee to maintain and repair the property. The fact that they comprise several aspects that vary depending on the building makes them sophisticated constructions (retail spaces, commercial kitchens, office spaces, etc.).

Often, hospitality real estate has a preventative maintenance plan to provide guests with a pleasant and safe environment. This plan ensures that the grounds are well-maintained and that the equipment is functional and reliable. Many in-house maintenance teams may be responsible for the components and systems of a single building or a larger property.

Manufacturing Plants

Because industrial facilities depend on production to generate profit, downtime and equipment failure may be very costly to the company’s bottom line. It is the lifeblood of the enterprise. As a consequence, preventative maintenance is essential in a manufacturing facility. The complexity of the property varies depending on the kind of facility. It might range from food-processing facilities to assembly plants and light manufacturing.

The industrial facility faces several challenges that are peculiar to the setting. Depending on the property, specialized equipment and environmental standards may be in use. The environmental requirements may vary from one property to the other.

You can do reporting and recording preventive maintenance duties, among other things, on complicated premises using maintenance software. Other equipment operation monitoring technologies exist to monitor and analyze the functioning of the equipment.

Offices Buildings

Office buildings are typically the least complicated property in basic layout and installed systems. However, they may be more complex if flex space or a high-rise structure. Flex space and high-rise structures are particularly problematic. Much of the office maintenance is predictable and routine. It is only sometimes disrupted by a tenant change, which may need modifications such as increased power to a specified level. It is to accommodate a tenant’s sophisticated electronic equipment, which is rare but sometimes necessary.

The building’s owner or management company typically engages a maintenance crew. It is to ensure that their office building is in excellent working order. While some lease agreements clarify that the lessee is responsible for building care, others do not. It may delay maintenance until after the lease time has expired.

Retail Establishments

Retail establishments are also less complex in general than many other types of commercial assets, such as office buildings. On the other hand, shops face intense competition in attracting clients. Building owners have challenges renting out their spaces due to the rising popularity of online shopping. This has put many businesses in a challenging financial position.

As a result of these concerns, some – maybe even most – merchants may be obliged to operate on a razor-thin profit margin to stay afloat. Unlike hotels and residential complexes, retail businesses do not have the same regular and routine building maintenance level. Merchants’ efforts to improve their bottom line may result in complaints about neglected upkeep.

We employ full-time maintenance personnel at certain retail facilities, such as shopping malls and power centers. However, the responsibility for maintaining some modest retail assets, such as pad sites and individual flats, lies on the shoulders of the building’s tenant in most cases.

Preventive Maintenance Inspections

Make sure to have a regular inspection of your preventive maintenance program. The complexity of the subject property determines the frequency and the unique demands put on it. Industrial facilities, higher education institutions, hotels, and other large and complex venues like stadiums often employ full-time maintenance personnel. Commercial property inspectors should conduct interviews with these persons during the research portion of an assignment to get insight into a particular facility.

On the other hand, property managers with less sophisticated assets may hire a commercial property inspector or another tradesperson to do periodic checks on their properties. The purpose of the inspection is to establish a baseline for the property’s current physical condition. Its information is critical to the effectiveness and efficiency of a project management program.

Conclusion

To maintain the safety of commercial buildings and prolongs their operability, all commercial buildings need some level of upkeep. When performed correctly, preventive maintenance is a kind of proactive maintenance that may help extend the service life of equipment while also preventing equipment failure. Preventive maintenance strategies also reduce total maintenance costs. While reactive maintenance is often associated with unforeseen downtime and high repair or replacement costs.

There are several things that almost all commercial buildings have in common, including essential assets such as water, electricity, and mechanical infrastructure. Certain architectural styles, on the other hand, need specific maintenance considerations. Some property management programs employ a group of full- or part-time staff to oversee the operation of a building. For other maintenance plans, it requires hiring a commercial property inspector to conduct the inspection element of the program.