The essential guide to why, what, and how

Maintenance is a topic that is often up for discussion – from how much you need to do through to how much it will cost to do it. Unfortunately, we live in a world where, particularly for public sector estates managers, budgets are often constrained. As a result routine maintenance is often trimmed to the most essential items only, and instead dealing with repairs on an ‘as and when’ basis.

Unfortunately this approach can come with devastating consequences such as complete failure of systems that are far more costly to replace than they would have been to maintain in the first place.

Building Health Checks are a well-known part of preventative maintenance plans. However, completing regular Building Health Checks is just the start and, in our experience, the value of them can be variable depending on what happens next.

What is a Building Health Check?

It is not the intention in this article to delve into the regulations surrounding your buildings maintenance. These are far too complex and detailed for a short article and are highly dependent on factors such as the building use, location and construction. You can obtain more information from sources such as CIBSE.

In more general terms, a Building Health Check is a periodic assessment of the building including the fabric of the building and its services. It enables estates and facilities managers to monitor the condition of the building, plan and schedule routine maintenance and identify where and when repairs may be required. 

The health check should be completed by a suitably qualified and competent person for example, a chartered surveyor for the fabric of the building or a chartered engineer for the mechanical and electrical building services. 

The Building Health Check is critical to your compliance with H&S legislation and to creating a healthy and comfortable environment for staff and all users of the buildings you manage. 

If you would like to discuss your specific obligations in detail, please get in touch as the team will be happy to assist.

Why do you need a Building Health Check?

Legal obligations aside, as mentioned above, having a Building Health Check facilitates the proper planning of maintenance activities. This is important for both reactive and planned preventative maintenance (PPM), but also for ensuring that your building services remain compliant with regulations, are operating safely & efficiently and to maximise their life cycle.

Having an expertly compiled report that details the current condition of your building services, together with graded recommendations means that you can apportion your budget appropriately. 

How is a Building Health Check carried out?

For a thorough Building Health Check to be completed, the appointed surveyor will need to access all areas of your building in order for services to be properly inspected. Building services plant will be examined to check for compliance with all regulations. 

You will need to produce records of maintenance and testing that has been carried out, and testing will be completed as part of the inspection. For example, to test light, noise, air and water quality. Risk assessments will be carried out to inform the recommendations made as part of the report. 

Typically a Building Health Check will review the following areas:

• Air Quality
• Fire Risk Assessment
• Gas Safety Risk Assessment & Certification
• Air Conditioning Inspection
• Hot and Cold Water Safety, including Legionella Testing & Inspection
• Boiler & Heating System Certification
• Emergency Lighting
• Electrical Testing (Fixed and Portable Appliance Testing)
• Electrical Installation Condition 
• Asbestos Risk Assessment
• Lift Inspections
• Other checks as appropriate to the building’s fabric, services and use.

Depending on the size of your building, it can take 1-3 days to complete a full Building Health Check, and even longer for large buildings. Some buildings, for example heritage properties, may require specialist inspections due to the nature of the fabric of the building. 

What should you do after a Building Health Check?

On receipt of the Building Health Check it’s important to take some time to read and understand the recommendations. 

A ‘good’ Building Health Check will go into some detail about the current situation and the recommendations to improve or maintain that position. Unfortunately, we have seen Building Health Check reports that do little more than tell the client what they already know and, whilst that may be a tick in the box, it is far from being useful to proactively manage the building in the future. 

Having digested the contents of the report, it’s time to create an action plan for the building services maintenance. We strongly urge against simply filing the report away and forgetting about it until the next one!

When a thorough and comprehensive report is paired with a robust action plan and adequate resources (both people and finances), the result is a well managed programme of PPM, building services that are efficient and reliable, reduced running costs, less breakdowns and, in some cases, even extended life cycles for expensive plant and machinery.

How can Demiurgic help?

Demiurgic Consulting Engineers is experienced in the delivery of comprehensive Building Health Checks which provide graded recommendations for you to use in compiling your action plan. The team has extensive established relationships with contractors and specialist consultants so that, if needed, you can be confident that you are appointing reputable suppliers. 

To find out more and to discuss the exact requirements for your building or estates, please contact email Gary Jones or call the team on 07511 004818.