Whether we're talking about a living space or a workplace, there are two criteria that must always be met: safety and functionality. It’s difficult to be productive if you get stuck in an elevator, have constant internet connectivity issues, or lack heating in the middle of winter. Whether you're working from your apartment, going to an office to do your job, or even stopping by a gym on your way home, building maintenance is here to keep those issues at bay.

Building Maintenance: Ensuring Safe and Functional Spaces

Whether we're talking about a living space or a workplace, there are two criteria that must always be met: safety and functionality. It’s difficult to be productive if you get stuck in an elevator, have constant internet connectivity issues, or lack heating in the middle of winter. Whether you're working from your apartment, going to an office to do your job, or even stopping by a gym on your way home, building maintenance is here to keep those issues at bay.

What is Building Maintenance?

Building maintenance encompasses all activities performed to ensure that a building is a safe environment and that all its systems function properly. In other words, the goal of proper maintenance is to ensure that you don't bump into a broken light cover while heading to the bathroom to use a toilet that flushes, and that you return to a well-lit and air-conditioned office where you can make another cup of coffee without electrical issues. Every asset used regularly will deteriorate over time; buildings are no different. For a maintenance team, a building is just a giant machine that needs to be inspected, maintained, and repaired.

What are the Common Types of Building Maintenance Tasks?

Building maintenance consists of a wide variety of different tasks. While the maintenance team's focus may vary depending on the building's purpose or the company using it, the basic set of tasks that need to be performed remains the same:

• Cleaning and washing different surfaces (bathrooms, floors, windows, handrails, etc.)
• Maintaining and repairing all assets within the building (HVAC, elevators, servers, emergency generators, etc.)
• Maintenance and repair of electrical systems, plumbing, and other utilities.
• Maintenance and repair of the building itself (doors, windows, walls, roof, etc.)
• Maintenance of the property outside and around the building (driveways, sidewalks, lawns, etc.)

In addition to the type, building maintenance work is often classified by priority, which might look like this:

• Emergency repairs (tasks that must be performed as soon as possible to eliminate a safety risk, address physical damage to the building, or repair a failure causing a major disruption in one of the utilities)
• High-priority tasks (tasks that must be performed within a few days so that problems don't become a safety risk and continue to cause significant inconvenience to people inside the building)
• Medium-priority tasks (includes most routine maintenance tasks performed weekly or monthly)
• Low-priority tasks (includes maintenance work that can be done months later, as long as resources are available)
• Deferred maintenance tasks (often low- or medium-priority tasks that move to a deferred maintenance backlog due to time or budget constraints)

List of Common Building Maintenance Jobs

When reviewing the list of tasks described above, it’s not difficult to assign building maintenance jobs to their respective work areas. Here is an overview of common building maintenance jobs:

• Janitors: They keep the building clean by mopping floors, taking out the trash, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming, washing windows, etc.
• Maintenance Technicians: They perform routine maintenance tasks, repair and maintain equipment like HVAC systems, and handle simpler electrical issues and similar tasks.
• Facilities Managers: They coordinate all maintenance work, handle all kinds of administrative tasks, manage renovations, develop a property strategy, enforce EHS standards, and more. For large buildings or properties, facilities managers often hire maintenance supervisors to oversee and manage daily maintenance work.

Given the broad scope of work, it's not uncommon for building owners to partner with building maintenance services and outsource some of the maintenance work.

From everything we've covered so far, it should be intuitively clear that building maintenance is used everywhere: gyms, casinos, zoos, schools, apartment complexes, commercial offices, stadiums, theaters, banks, libraries, and more. That said, not all businesses have to deal directly with building maintenance companies. For example, if you only rent a few offices in a large building, your rent will usually cover maintenance services. Any maintenance issues that arise will be handled through the facilities manager or maintenance supervisor hired by the building owner.

Other industries, like manufacturing, for example, will use the term "industrial maintenance" to describe their maintenance activities.

How to Improve Building Maintenance and Reduce Operational Costs

Initially, I planned to split this into two sections for improving maintenance and controlling costs, but there is so much overlap between the two that it made more sense to group them.

#1) Implement a Proactive Maintenance Strategy

Having a proactive maintenance strategy addresses two very important things: reducing overall maintenance costs and improving safety. Having critical assets on a preventive maintenance plan will lower your maintenance costs by reducing the number of costly emergency interventions and extending the life of your assets.

#2) Control Maintenance Work with a Modern CMMS

A common problem companies face is controlling their maintenance costs. The main driver of this issue is their inability to accurately track maintenance expenses. If you don't know where you're losing money, how can you close that gap?

With EasyMaint Software, you can track which assets are costing you the most, whether you're meeting established maintenance KPIs, see if you might have productivity issues, get an in-depth cost comparison for different locations, see how many hours you're spending on planned and unplanned maintenance work, and much more.

For maximum productivity gains, you’ll want to ensure you implement a mobile CMMS so your employees can use it in the field to access asset history, accurately track things like time spent, spare parts used, and other advantages that come with having a mobile maintenance app like EasyMaint Mobile.

Whether at work or home, we've all experienced how annoying it is when a certain building system doesn't work properly. In a business setting, that’s a bigger problem because these kinds of issues often negatively impact productivity. This is why building owners and facilities managers should not avoid using all the tools at their disposal to stay on top of their responsibilities and keep buildings in top condition. For those seeking more information on how EasyMaint Software can specifically help improve their building maintenance efforts, call EasyMaint at +52 (55) 5671 9090.