What is a healthy building?
When you likely attended the Community Associations Institute’s M:100 Essentials of Community Association Management course, whether it was last month, last year, or last decade, you reviewed a number of checklists and maintenance management tools that can help you both determine what is a healthy building and if yours is one. A few questions that you can use to get started are:
Does the building look run down? i.e. chipped paint on door frames, scuffs on
the walls, dirty grout in the foyer, snags or pulls in the carpet, stains in the carpet, etc.
Are you seeing an increase in calls for maintenance? i.e. roof leaks in a high rise,
plumbing backups, pot holes in the parking lot, etc.
Are you experiencing increased down time on major building components? i.e. more
HVAC calls, hot water heater issues, garage doors, etc.
If you answered yes to any of these questions your building might not be in tip- top shape!
How do we keep our buildings healthy?
There are several ways that you can get your building or physical elements back into good health and keep them that way. Let’s start with getting those buildings back into prime health! First, you’ll want to do a physical inspection of the building – top to bottom, inside and outside, looking at everything. During the inspection, it is important to document areas of concern by taking pictures and making a list. A picture is worth a thousand words! It can help you in several ways: A) it can help your maintenance staff, business partners and board members see the issue and B) it can help you educate your board of directors and owners of issues going on in the building. If you have a larger community, numbering areas of concern on a property map can help you find them or direct others to them.
Once you’ve got your basic assessment down, it is time to start the follow up. Communicate to the board so that directors are aware of what areas of concern or what awesome things you found. The inspection can also bring positive things to light, such as– your cleaning company is doing a fantastic job. This is a great time to say thank you and give the board positive feedback. Next, you’ll have to issue work orders
to fix or address areas of concern, or prepare requests for proposals to repair larger issues.
When you complete a repair or address one of those areas of concern, you need to make sure you keep that component healthy. Don’t wait until the whole building is back in shape! There are times when getting your building healthy will be a long- term project. As you get components working well you want to make sure they stay that way. For example, if one area of concern was an HVAC system that was constantly going out, you’ll want to look at a long-term preventative maintenance program to change filters, oil pumps, and check belts regularly to keep the system working full steam ahead. Likewise, if you had issues with sewer backups every other week and just had all the sewer lines cleared out, maybe it is time to look at contracting to have the lines rodded out on a regular basis to prevent the backups from occurring. It is equally important to set up smaller items, like door closure tightening, paint touch-ups, carpet cleaning/spot cleaning on a consistent rotating schedule. Creating a maintenance calendar to outline what services need to be done on which building components is a great way to communicate maintenance needs to your staff and business partners. It is also a great way to educate your board of directors on the scope of behind-the-scenes work that goes on.
Follow up is a constant necessity. Now that the building components are running smoothly, you need to inspect the building, survey the residents, monitor work orders and calls to ensure that they stay that way.
Who can we “send” our buildings to for a “checkup”?
As managers we are often a jack-of-all-trades, but when it comes to maintenance, we manage the program, we don’t do the maintenance. Your existing contractors are a good resource for completing repairs or performing preventative maintenance. However, you may have an issue come up that you don’t have a contractor for at one particular site, or it might be something that has to go out to bid. That’s when having a large network of business partners comes in handy! How do you build that network? If you’re lucky enough to work for a management company, your fellow managers are a great resource. Emailing your colleagues for recommendations on a particular issue can provide you with good leads from people you trust. The CAI Illinois website is also a good resource –
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