Module Name: Basic Building Maintenance

Module Code: CET 04211

Taught by: Nicolaus Andimile Cosmas

Academic Year: 2020/2021

Learning Objectives:

 Identify defects in Civil Engineering structures

 Identify types of maintenance for building structures
 Select maintenance methods for building structures
 Repair defects in building structures
 Identify defects in building services
 Identify types of maintenance for building services.
 Select maintenance methods in building services
 Repair defects in building services.

Learning Materials

Audio/Video, power point slides, site visits

References:

Required References

1. Allen, E. (2008), Fundamentals of Building Construction Materials and Methods

2. Ching, F. D. K. (2008), Building Construction Illustrated

3. Mehta, M., Armpriest, D., and Scarbough, W. (2007), Building Construction:Principles,

Materials and Systems

4. Pumia, B.C., Ashok, K.J. and Jam, A.K. (2009), Building construction 10th edition,Laxmi
publications (P) ltd.

Integrated Method of Assessment

Continuous Assessment Components 60%

Test 1: 15%
Test 2: 15%
Assignments: 25%
Attendance: 5%

Final Examination 40%

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What is Building Maintenance?

This refers to the process used to hold, keep, sustain or preserve the building or structure to
an acceptable standard or normal functioning conditions. Maintenance is also the process of
ensuring that buildings and other assets are in good condition and operate with good
efficiency.

Importance of Building Maintenance

 Extends Building or Equipment Life

 Reduces Costs or saves funds
 Saves Energy( expenses)
 Improves the Experience of Your Occupants.
 Limits the dangers e.g in case of gas leaks

Defects in Buildings

Building defects can be identified by the users themselves or by inspection by those

concerned with maintenance management. Practitioners have the capability to identify
defects that are not yet obvious, at least to users. The appraisal of defects is usually
undertaken through a sequence of site procedures that provide the necessary information
on which to make an assessment as to the condition and fitness for purpose.

The extent to which a building is maintained is driven by the necessity to protect the
building performance, increase productivity and increase user’s satisfaction. Maintenance
could emanate due to different factors, e.g. problems arising from poor design, bad
workmanship, substandard materials and components, as well as the unaccommodating
behaviour and nature of the users and occupants. Maintenance costs increase with the age
of the building. However, older buildings constructed of well-established materials
andcomponents and using well-tried and tested techniques (and which in all probability have
been updated and improved) may not be subjected to heavy maintenance works or
expenditure. The major sources of maintenance are as follows:

1. Poor Design:
This is a maintainability issue. Building maintainability is a design characteristic. It is
concerned with ease, accuracy, safety and cost of building maintenance. Some
buildings are designed without considering the maintainability aspect, thereby
making maintenance difficult, expensive, risky, unsafe and tedious. A building should
be designed/constructed so that its maintenance can be performed with
minimum cost and time.

2. Poor Workmanship:
Labour plays a very important factor towards reducing maintenance works. The
consequence of labour on the performance of construction projects are multifaceted
as the workforce factor starts from the concept and design stage and continues
throughout the construction and building operation stages. The design and

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 construction team as well as the maintenance personnel must display a high level of
competency and be able to work in sync. It is not difficult to postulate that even
with high-quality materials and components, the building will eventually fail if the
workforce that put the building together are not good at the job. Poor workmanship
could be the result of lack of know-how, know why, know when, know what,
training and skill, or just plain negligence.

3. Defective Materials and Components:

Substandard and defective materials and components will lead to maintenance
problems, if not at the commissioning stage then surely later, when the building is
operational. In order to reduce the impact of the problem, durable and
industryproven materials and components should be given priority.

4. Usage and Age:

All built facilities, irrespective of materials, components or workmanship used will
with usage and time, encounter structural and systemic deterioration and decay.
Maintenance in terms of usage is hinged on, and very much related to, the culture of
the occupants. However, a question that must be addressed is who is the design/
building meant for? A suitable answer to the question is very important towards
reducing the impact of maintenance due to usage and age of the buildings.

5. Climatic and Environmental Factor One of the characteristics of the construction

industry’s outputs is that they are remarkably different from the outputs of other
industries. By and large, the products are exposed to atmospheric weather condition.
Buildings are constantly subjects of sunlight, rain, frost action, humidity,
condensation, wind and pollutions of all sorts.

Buildings are affected by climatic and environmental factors. This is even if the
architects and/or engineers designed the building correctly and the contractors
constructed or built correctly. Hence, a major cause of maintenance problems in
buildings is exposure to climate and weather conditions. Different building materials
and components react differently to weather. Therefore, to minimise the
maintenance expenditure, there must be a proper selection of materials and
components, as well as alternative designs for different atmospheric conditions and
geographical locations.

6. Nature of Users:
In certain types of building, especially university, hospital and market buildings,
because of the complex nature of the users, the users are the human enemies of
these buildings, through various activities, namely vandalism, violence and
arsonists. In university buildings, due to the intriguing nature of the users coupled
with constant changes of users that could have diverse backgrounds, there seems to
be high demand for maintenance or improvement.

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 Types Of Maintenance:

Preventive Maintenance

“Preventive maintenance is a scheduled program of regular inspections, adjustments,

lubrication, or replacement of worn or failing parts in order to maintain an asset’s function,
and effciency.”

Preventive maintenance is intended to keep minor problems from escalating into major
problems.

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Predictive Maintenance (PdM)

PdM stands for predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance is similar to PM (preventive

maintenance) in many respects. The difference between the two is that PM is time-based
while PdM is condition-based. That means that PM tasks are scheduled according to a
calendar while PdM tasks are scheduled when indicated by some sort of measurable wear
factor.

Changing air flters every 3 months would be considered PM since the schedule is time-
based—every 3 months. Changing air flters only when the flters are getting dirty would be
PdM. Many commercial air conditioners offer this feature. Many AC units have pressure
sensors in the air flters compartment and will flash the word “flter” on the thermostat
display when the air flters are beginning to get dirty and the air flow is starting to become
obstructed.

Corrective Maintenance

Corrective maintenance is also known as “reactive maintenance” or just “repairs.” Corrective

maintenance is fxing something that is already broken. This type of maintenance is probably
the most common type of maintenance done in most facilities. In organizations that do not
do PM or do very little PM, the amount of corrective maintenance can become
overwhelming. The purpose of a PM program is to reduce the amount of corrective
maintenance that needs to be done. Even with an effective PM program is in place,
corrective maintenance can never be completely eliminated.

As its name implies, corrective maintenance is any maintenance that corrects a problem; as
opposed to PM that attempts to prevent problems before corrective maintenance is
necessary. A few familiar corrective maintenance tasks would include patching leaking roofs,
replacing motors with seized bearings, and replacing burned out fluorescent bulbs.

Most corrective maintenance comes to the maintenance department from complaints by

building users.

Deferred Maintenance

Deferred maintenance is another way of saying “no maintenance.” Deferred implies that we
will do some maintenance in the future but not today. Maintenance is often “deferred” when
there are budget crisis.

Emergency Maintenance

Emergency maintenance is the more urgent sibling of corrective maintenance. While

corrective maintenance needs to be done timely, emergency maintenance needs to be done
immediately. Emergency maintenance can include gas leaks, broken water pipes, roof leaks,
broken windows, backed up sewer lines, no heat calls in winter, no cooling calls in summer,
snow and ice removal, or any maintenance issue that puts your facility or people at risk of
further harm. Safety, health, and environmental compliance items usually make up a large
percentage of emergency maintenance.

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Call-back Maintenance

After making repairs, front-line maintenance personnel should be expected to do two things.
First, verify the original problem is gone. This means to not only replace the obviously
defective part but to also operate the equipment after the repair is made to verify that it is
operating properly. The second expectation is that they spend a few minutes inspecting the
rest of the equipment and looking for other problems that might arise.

Maintenance personnel need to always be on the lookout for anything that might become a
problem later. An attitude of continual improvement is invaluable and is what PM is all
about.

Classification of Maintenance (Maintenance Techniques)

 Routine Maintenance/ Ordinary Repairs

 Periodic Maintenance
 Major Repair or Restoration