Basic Building Condition
Assessment – Part 2
Prepared for Delivery through AGLEARN
Standard Terminology
Common Definitions
May be found at the following website:
http://fsweb.wo.fs.fed.us/eng/documents/mtcconst.htm
Maintenance
Maintenance is “the act of keeping fixed
assets in acceptable condition.” It includes
preventative maintenance, repairs, cyclical
maintenance (component replacement) and
addressing of statutory requirements needed
to assure that the asset achieves its expected
life. Maintenance excludes upgrade activities
aimed at expanding capacity or changing
function.
Annual Maintenance (AM)
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Work performed to maintain serviceability or repair
failures in the year in which they occur. It includes
preventative and cyclic maintenance performed in the
year which it is scheduled, as well as unscheduled or
catastrophic failures of components or assets.
Typically this is the work funded by the following
extended budget line items: CP09, CMFC and
QMQM.
OMB allows the agency to estimate this by
multiplying 3-5% by the Current Replacement Value.
Preventative Maintenance (PM)
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Scheduled servicing, repairs, inspections and
replacement of parts that result in fewer breakdowns
and fewer premature replacements to help achieve
the expected life of the fixed asset.
Inspections are a critical part of preventative
maintenance as they provide the information for
scheduling maintenance and for evaluating its
effectiveness.
A component of Annual Maintenance.
Deferred Maintenance (DM)
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Maintenance that was not performed when it should
have been or when it was scheduled and which,
therefore was put off or delayed for a future period.
Made up of 4 parts – a) cyclic (component
replacement) b) minor repairs not done when they
should have been, c) work needed to meet laws,
regulations, etc as long as the original intent of the
asset has not been changed, and d) functional
obsolescence.
There is no current OMB requirement to report
annual maintenance, only deferred maintenance.
Example of Functional Obsolescence
Due to its age (> 50 years) this building
needs to be evaluated for historic
significance prior to demolition.
From the Facility Master Plan:
“This building provides office space
for 7 FTE’s. It was originally a
garage, but was converted to an
office in the early 1990’s. The
building was constructed in 1955
and is 440 ft2 in size. The building
is in fair condition. Water seepage
into the interior after heavy rains
(>3”) has been a recurring problem.
It is recommended that it be
decommissioned and replaced with a
modern facility.”
Operations & Maintenance (O&M)
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The activities and resources required to
operate and maintain facilities (recreation,
administrative, etc.) at a level of quality which
meets management objectives and customer
satisfaction.
Costs associated with O&M are generally
recurrent, as opposed to capital investments,
which are generally one-time and nonrecurrent.
O&M (continued)
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O&M is like it sounds, part operations and
part maintenance
The maintenance portion, is not DM, it is not
all of AM, it is just a portion of AM, i.e. that
portion that is recurrent
O&M is funded by CP09, CMFC, NFRW,
QMQM, and a variety of other EBLIs
Condition Assessment
Objectives
Purposes of Condition Assessments
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Primary:
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serve as physical inventory for the asset
Show accomplishment (elimination of previously
identified maintenance work)
inform its valuation by determining the deferred
maintenance deduction to be applied to the “raw”
replacement value.
These are primarily financial upward reporting functions
to allow the agency to adequately respond to requests for
information and oversight
Purposes of Condition Surveys (cont.)
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Secondary
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identify future work needs, serving as a sort of periodic
“reconnaissance” of the asset. In most cases the actual
correction of deficiencies will require additional
investigation, as there may be a number of alternatives as
to how to best to address them
serve as an additional opportunity to note critical health
and safety, environmental degradation or other similar
conditions which need to be addressed immediately.
These two functions are more targeted to the actual dayto-day work activities.
How Condition Assessment Data
Relates to Building Value
Subtracting the deferred maintenance on this building from the current
replacement value computed by I-Web based on GSF gives a truer picture of
its value. It is often the case that deferred maintenance work items discovered
during condition surveys may never actually be done, as for example on this
building, where the building may not be really worth repairing, and the
building has been determined to be of low priority.
Coordination with Other Required Surveys
See FSM 7309 44.1 Exhibit 01
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Physical Inventory – Every 5 Years
Condition Assessment – Every 5 years
Health and Safety Inspection – Annual, except Maintenance Level 1
Buildings
Quarters Inspections– Annual, prior to each occupancy
Facility Performance (Master Plan) – Every 10 years
Accessibility - Every 3 Years
Vulnerability – Every 5 Years
Friable Asbestos Materials – Annual
Energy Conservation – As Needed
Pre-Occupancy – Prior to Leasing
ECAP Audits (Internal) – Annual
EACP Audits (External) – Every 5 Years
EMS – Annual/Every 3 Years
EMS Second Party – Every 5 Years
I-Web vs. Maintenance Management
Systems (MMS)
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It has been recognized that INFRA may not be the most useful
way to handle scheduling of the multitude of day to day
activities (preventative maintenance, minor repairs,) that are
often needed on a facility
Instead a more specialized maintenance management software
is more appropriate.
We will likely investigate the acquisition of a corporate
maintenance management system in the near future.
Condition assessment work items should consist of removal
and replacement of major building components. These work
items have the most impact on the value of an asset.
Minor vs. Major Items
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In the past we tended to focus more on minor work
items when doing condition assessments. As an
example, one Forest found that approximately 85%
of the maintenance work items which it had recorded
in I-Web were estimated to cost less than $2,000
each, but this only added up to about 6% in value of
the total maintenance work recorded for that Forest.
Therefore it is probably more productive to focus on
major items when doing condition assessments, and
keep up with the small stuff on a much more regular
basis.
Minor Items Left Undone Lead to DM
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It should be recognized that usually it is relatively
minor items left unaddressed that lead to deferred
maintenance.
Therefore as a matter of practice these items should
not be left to be discovered during a condition
assessment which might occur only on a 5-year
interval.
Correction of small recurring items such as replacing
a filter, a burned out light bulb or fixing a broken
lock should be addressed as ongoing “operations”
using appropriate fund types.
Preventative Maintenance Tips
Replacing furnace filters
on a regular basis will
prevent compressor
freeze-up, dirty
ductwork, fan failures,
etc.
Putting off repairing
a roof leak or a
waterproofing
project may result in
mold infestations
that are extremely
expensive to restore
to useable condition.
Non-functional exit signs, emergency
lighting, smoke detectors need to be
replaced immediately to prevent loss of
life in case of a fire.
You sure don’t want to wait long
before you address this
maintenance item!
Vegetation Removal
This is an example of some work that really ought to be done as a
part of operations & maintenance (O&M) on a regular basis, and
if done could result in reduced deferred maintenance later on.
Additional Condition Assessment
Objective
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Perhaps the most important objective for facility
condition assessments beyond those stated above
relate to the need to have standardized inspections
across the agency, standardized “acceptable” care,
and cost estimates that are consistent, repeatable and
defendable.
For the purpose of consistent upward reporting this
is more important than developing detailed
construction cost estimates.
Consistent Standard of Care
Standard work items shown on the inspection
form are “representative” of a consistent
standard of repair and/or replacement quality
across the agency, and should be used
whenever possible, otherwise custom work
items and minor improvement needs are
available in the system.
Consistent Costing Method
Costing is automated in the I-web module,
requiring only limited interaction by the user;
work item costs are based on R S Means, an
industry-standard construction and
maintenance cost database, with appropriate
multipliers applied to capture conditions of
the Forest Service business environment in a
consistent fashion.
Note about costs
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All costs are assumed to be based on
contracting, with overhead and profit as
described in R S Means
Costs may not be indicative of what would be
encountered using force account, local jacksof-all-trades, brother-in-laws, etc.
Consistent Replacement Schedule
Replacement will be based upon condition as
well as age and “typical expected life”.
Sources of Building Component Data:
 R S Means
 Agency Experience
Review Question #1
Which of the following work items would it be
appropriate to capture in a building condition
assessment?
a. Furnace filter replacement
b. Roof replacement
c. Window screen repair
d. Both “a” and “c”
e. Both “b” and “c”
Review Question #2
True or False If actual costs for performing a work item are
known by an inspector those values should be
used in lieu of the standard costs in the
system.
Answers to Review Questions 1 & 2
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Correct Answer to Question 1 – “b”
Correct Answer to Question 2 – “False. The
purpose of using standard work items and
standard costs is based upon consistency
across units.”