Maintenance & repairs

Regularly scheduled maintenance must be done from day zero and it can never be neglected. All major repairs need to be done immediately and temporary fixes must be temporary, not a sloppy and quick job that gets forgotten.

Maintenance logs
Work with your management and engineering companies to create weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual maintenance schedules. You will also need to record records for some of the important building systems.

Make sure that all maintenance records are up-to-date. One of the directors should be checking to ensure that the superintendent is not merely pencil-whipping the check lists. (Faking the actual checks.)

Why Boards Should Never Defer Maintenance
Here is an article on why boards should not defer maintenance. If anything, this article is not strong enough.

The three major sins

All water leaks must be discovered, the source found, and the leak repaired as soon as possible. It is the same for deteriorating concrete.

Water damage will destroy a building whether it be a wood constructed townhouse complex or a concrete apartment tower. It doesn't matter if the leaks originate from the roof, the building envelope, the balconies or from the water pipes (risers) the source must be found and repaired quickly.

An engineering company should be doing annual inspections of the underground parking garage and the balconies to see if there are any signs of water penetration, rusting rebar and deteriorating concrete.

Exponential costs
The above mentioned items are very expensive to repair. must be done as soon as problem is identified. Ignoring these problems means huge future costs.

Water leaks and deteriorating concrete needs to be repaired quickly because the damage spreads exponentially. That means that it may cost $2.00 a square foot to repair damaged concrete that is caught and repaired quickly but it may cost up to $19 a square foot if the repairs are done years later.

That is why if an underground parking garage is neglected for years, the repairs can run into the millions.

It is like when you are driving down the road and you see the engine light come on. If you get it looked at right away, most likely it will cost you a couple hundred bucks. Ignore the red light and in a few days, or weeks, you will be paying for a tow truck and a new engine.

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