FOCUS MAINTENANCE
36 MAY 2020
REFERENCE NOTES
(1) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/
abs/10.1002/9781119572626.ch1
(2) www.sfg20.co.uk/whats-new/sfg30-
mothballing-reactivation-out-now/
(3) www.sfg20.co.uk
to provide a bespoke maintenance regime
than carrying out PPM (planned predictive
maintenance) by rote. For clients this might
mean a reduction in the number of PPM visits,
with a lowering of their service charge to
reflect the reduction. “When a ‘hibernation’
process is undertaken it is normally agreed
what maintenance can be reduced, what can
be modified (through increased periodicity)
and what can be deferred (or cancelled).”
There is one silver lining. Unoccupied
buildings provide maintenance teams with
the opportunity to go in and tackle issues that
would be di icult to undertake if the building
was occupied as normal.
Says Shaw: “Our advice to clients is to reduce
the planned tasks and o er them a rebate for
the variance to the agreement. Then where
we identify reactive jobs and raise them, that
is an area where we as a service provider can
retain our revenue and income. The customer
can reap a reduction in their planned tasks,
but benefit from our ability to carry out jobs
we can complete more easily by having access
to the building without inconveniencing
occupants.”
HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES
Even if most sta are based at home, Derek
Parker, Head of Business Development at
Artic Building Services, warns that owners,
landlords and tenants still need to maintain
their buildings for health and safety purposes.
This includes security, maintenance of
statutory compliance, and monitoring of
critical systems. Particularly important are
water systems, fire protection, handling of
refrigeration gases, electrical and gas safety
checks, ventilation hygiene, security and li s.
Buildings should be maintained in line
with the industry standard SFG20 (3), he
advises, which is continually updated to
reflect changing regulatory requirements. “In
normal circumstances, planned preventative
maintenance is implemented, scheduled
months in advance, which in turn keeps
buildings safe and compliant. However,
through this time of uncertainty,
organisations have an option to ‘mothball’
their building or reduce their maintenance
regime to a lower level.”
He agrees that SFG30 (2) is a good
starting point for shutdown procedures
and eventual reactivation of a building,
providing a guide to best practice. If a
building, or a system within a building, is
not required for the immediate future, full
or partial isolations are possible where
SFG30 can be applied.
He picks out a few important
considerations:
If shutdown is for a significant period,
you will need to notify your insurance
company. They will want fire alarms
and sprinklers maintained, especially
if the building is left empty for periods
of time.
For buildings that are still occupied
with a skeleton workforce, emergency
lighting, fire alarms, generators and all
aspects of life safety must continue to
be maintained as normal. If emergency
generators are still being relied upon
to provide power in an emergency,
they will need to be tested.
Fire suppression systems still need
to be checked if they are being left
active while the building is shut
down. Contact your local fire brigade
to discuss assets such as hydrants
and other firefighting facilities. They
will have individual allowances and
expectations.
For occupied buildings, lift
maintenance needs to continue.
However, if it can be shown that lift
journeys are reduced, you may be able
to cut this down. Where lifts are still
operating ‘as normal’, they will require
thorough maintenance to be carried out
as normal. If there is more than one lift
in a building, consider removing one or
more from operation. This will need to
keep in line with building risk and fire
strategies.
Heating systems could potentially
be turned on to ‘winter mode’, not
necessarily drained down.
“The key consideration when applying a
revised maintained strategy is the cost,”
says Parker. “You need to weigh up the cost
of ongoing reduced maintenance versus the
cost of mothballing and the reactivation of
assets and services.”
Unfortunately, this will be determined
by how long the building is out of action –
something that so far has been impossible
to predict.
/9781119572626.ch1
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/www.sfg20.co.uk
