Brian J.B. Wood

Maintaining a building is expensive: it costs many times more to run a building over its lifetime than to build it, yet maintenance is often not accorded the priority it warrants. A poorly maintained building will be a drain on resources and will impair building use, whereas a well maintained building will function smoothly and represent an appreciating asset to its owners. Building Maintenance is a core text on the technical aspects of maintenance for undergraduate degree students on built environment courses, particularly building surveying and facilities management. It addresses the ‘who, what, where, when, how and why’ of maintenance activities and shows that maintenance should be considered seriously at the design stage. Extensive case studies illustrate what can go wrong, how to put matters right and how to get it right first time, next time. A professional approach is required to building maintenance. By encouraging maintenance managers to stand back and take a strategic view of building maintenance alongside their day-to-day tasks, this book will help practitioners and students to achieve that.

Building care encompasses everything from maintenance of a building to energy conservation and range of approaches, including the effects on design. A range of approaches to looking after buildings and their users is covered in this book. The rationale and conditions that support them (e.g. PPM - preventative planned maintenance; JIT - just in time) are explained, together with the commercial and environmental imperatives driving new approaches to building care.