What is Maintenance and Repair of a building?

What is Maintenance and Repair of a building?

Definition of maintenance by British Standards 3811 – 1974,

Maintenance – The combination of all technical and assorted administrative action any action carried out to retain an item in order or restore it to a state in which it can perform its required function.

Definition of maintenance by Committee under Government of India,

Maintenance – Building maintenance is work undertaken to keep, restore or improve every facility, i.e., every part of a building, its services and surrounds to a currently acceptable standard and to sustain the utility and value of the facility.

Why Maintenance and Repairs of Building are Important?

If we want to keep anything in proper working condition, then it becomes very important to be maintained. If we take the example of our body and if we want to keep our body fit. it is essential to maintain it in proper working condition by having a regular checkup and consulting doctors. Same in case of a building, we have to look after its operations and if we feel like there is a problem arising in some area of the building. Then it has to be identified and try to resolve the problem in the initial stage itself by consulting the Engineer. So that it will not increase the cost for maintenance of the same in further.

Why is Proper Maintenance of Building is Required?

The assets which are created by us are initially being maintained but after passing a few years they are neglected. So that lot of problems arises due to this negligence, and the capital which we have invested in creating the building or any structure is just becoming a useless junk.

By neglecting and lack of maintenance of any structure its life decreases. So ultimately it has to demolish and removed in a short period of time. This is the reason due to which the historical monuments and old structures are degrading day by day. It’s the National loss.

Operation is the activity of running the building in proper working condition. While maintenance is the activity carried out for the proper up-keeping of it and repairing is the activity carried out to repair the defect or damage present in the structure.

Servicing is a very important aspect of the building. Due to servicing the building or a structure, it can be kept in a proper working condition. Servicing is the activity which is required for maintaining the supply of water, electricity, plumbing and cleaning the building and the surrounding area.

It is essentially required for the building to keep it suitable for the purpose it was built. Services is the heart of any structure so it has to be maintained. Services like power, water supply, ventilation, and lifts, etc, if these services are not in proper working condition then the building is just useless. So it is very important to provide any structure with proper services immediately after completion and before occupation.

Servicing and maintenance are the two activities which go hand in hand or we can also say that they are interdependent. If the services are not maintained in proper working condition then it renders the building unsuitable for use and due to this ultimately causes premature decay of the structure and reduces its life.

Importance of building maintenance?

In normal practice, if take the example of the automobiles or any vehicles, they require immediate servicing when they roll out of the factory because they are the moving objects, due to which you can say that they require a lot of attention. But the building is a stationary object, but still, it has a large number of accessories installed in it, which require equal attention.

The accessories such as :-

1. Power supply installations – Transformers, switch gears.
2. Water supply installations – Motors, pumps, valves.
3. Ventilation – Air conditioners, ventilators, air circulatory.
4. Water heating installations.
5. Tube-wells with pumps.
6. Elevators.

The above-mentioned services require regular maintenance. If it is not done on a regular basis it causes problems to the occupants and also increases the cost for the same problem in the future because it was not maintained when it was required.

Due to lack of maintenance, these accessories start decaying at a very early stage. This means its expected life is not reached but still, the accessories and the building is damaged and its life is shortened. Only by creating an asset or a building, the responsibility does not end here. The continues efforts are required to prevent the conversion of the asset into a liability in a long period of time.

It is very tough or difficult to create such a building which is 100% maintenance free. But during planning or designing we can reduce them to a certain extent. The buildings life depends on many factors like materials used for construction, method of construction, age, an environmental condition in that area and the use of the building.

Aim of maintenance is as follows :

1. To preserve the operating condition of machinery and building services, structures, etc.
2. To restore them back to their original standards.
3. To improve the facilities depending upon the development that is taking place in the concerned or relevant engineering.

So all in all to increase the life of the building or any structure it has to be maintained on a regular basis.

I hope you understand What is Maintenance and Repair of a building?