Exploring the Different Types of Maintenance with Commercial Buildings

Maintenance costs can eat away at your bottom line. The expense of keeping a building properly maintained can easily skyrocket by year’s end—and that’s even before taking into account unexpected downtime or purchasing. This is especially true in industrial settings, where the building is an integral part of the functionality of the business and must be kept in top shape year-round.

The importance of industrial maintenance cannot be overstated, and it’s an unavoidable expense on your accounting books, but knowing as much as possible about the best practices and commercial building maintenance types can help you save money when it comes to commercial building maintenance.

Here are some commercial building maintenance types you should know about.

Planned maintenance

The best kind of maintenance is the kind that keeps problems from happening. One of the types of maintenance that does this is planned maintenance. This can be performed by property managers as well as in-house staff for regular maintenance and minor issues. Larger projects should be handled by trained and experienced experts.

This includes regular maintenance of major systems, including HVAC systems. The cost of regular, planned maintenance like this is much lower than constantly replacing parts or entire units when they break. It also avoids unplanned downtime for these aspects of the building and fewer complaints from those inside the building.

Corrective maintenance

Corrective maintenance is the term used to refer to fixing things that are broken or need urgent attention. This is sometimes confused with emergency maintenance (more on that later), but it is not as high of a priority, as it does not pose an immediate risk or threat to anyone in or around the building.

For example, a burnt-out light bulb may be a corrective maintenance issue, but a broken front window may be an emergency maintenance issue. Corrective maintenance issues do not need to be addressed immediately but will require service sooner rather than later.

Emergency maintenance

When something needs to be fixed right away due to safety concerns, that falls under the category of emergency maintenance. For example, while a dripping leak in a roof should be addressed for comfort concerns and to make sure the problem doesn’t get any worse, a collapsing roof needs to be fixed right away, as that may endanger the safety of everyone in the building. These situations usually require the service of an experienced professional who can come fix the problem immediately.

Cosmetic maintenance

Not to be overlooked is the aspect of cosmetic maintenance on a commercial building. This refers to the appearance of the building, both inside and out. Aspects of exterior cosmetic maintenance may include repairing exterior stucco, power washing built-up dirt and grime, landscaping and more. Interior cosmetic maintenance can include painting, cleaning or replacing the carpeting or flooring, replacing light bulbs or any number of large or small issues. This can be part of a planned maintenance program, or it can be required as part of corrective maintenance.

While it’s always best to be ready for maintenance expenses, sometimes the unexpected can throw a curveball into your plans. No matter what commercial building maintenance type you need help with, contact the professionals Knauss Property Services, LLC. in Indianapolis, IN for the best service and expertise today.