Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
INTRODUCTION 8 quantified as the estimated cost of the maintenance and repairs needed to bring a facility up to a minimum acceptable condition (NRC, 1998). The existence of deferred maintenance is significant in that it implies that the quality and reliability of service provided by infrastructure on which maintenance has been deferred are lower than they should be, and thus the infrastructure is not, or will not later be, adequately serving the public (The Urban Institute, 1994). Figure 1.1 Effect of adequate and timely maintenance and repairs on the service life of a building. Source: NRC (1993). FACILITIES MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR PROGRAMS The appropriate level of maintenance and repairs expenditures for facilities can be influenced by many factors, including building size and complexity; types of finishes; current age and condition; mechanical and electrical system technologies; historic or community value; types of occupants or users; climate; tenancy turnover rates; criticality of role or function; labor, energy, and materials prices; and distances between buildings in inventories (NRC, 1990). An effective program for facilities maintenance and repair employs a combination of strategies and approaches. These include preventive maintenance, programmed major maintenance, predictive testing and inspection, routine repairs, service calls, and run-to-failure (FFC, 1996).
