“Input is Error”- Elon Musk. The majority of maintenance is error correction. Eliminate the Errors through subsequent designs. Use maintenance as a learning opportunity and eliminate the issue from the next project.
Winter is coming - Issues are caused and exacerbated in the winter. We spend the warm dry months sharpening the saw and correcting issues from the previous year for the coming winter.
Maintain upwards - “ Leave everything a little better than you found it” - Jackson Brown Jr. The common way is to maintain down. Meaning a fix, although functional, will never be as good as the original. It will look, fit and potentially operate slightly less well than the original. Instead maintain up and use these occurrences for improvement. e.g, where there is damage to an internal wall, repair it and use the opportunity to update the colour of the whole wall or room, rather than leaving a clearly patched and newly painted section.
Be curious - Check-ups on houses will flag a lot of things before they become issues. Feel for damp on walls, wobble furniture to see if it needs tightening. Test the seals and trap on a shower, ensure extraction systems have not been turned off etc…
Make quick informed decisions - An issue that arises will always get worse over time. Catch it early.
Observe your systems under load - E.g.
When it’s pouring with rain take the opportunity to observe, roofs, gutters and drains. You will spot issues instantly, that may not have yet manifested. Note where the ground water sits and if it’s being correctly channelled away from the building.
In cold weather use the FLIR camera to detect cold spots and drafts.
Listen to a running tumble dryer, does it sounds as if it is working correctly or is a bearing starting to wear?
How does the boiler sound when it’s firing.
Identify weak points and monitor them - We cannot avoid the fact that we’ve inherited many aspects t our houses with sub-optimal deigns and materials. We need to identify these and place them on our “most wanted” list. Then frequently check on them especially when conditions such as weather could be stressing them.
e.g. Gulleys and parapet roofs. Felt flat roofs. Kitchens with too little storage.
Clear the blockage - A lot of maintenance issues are a case of “the straw that broke the camels back”.
We see it with shower traps that drain more and more slowly until, they cannot clear water fast enough and overflow causing water damage.
Common areas in houses accrue junk which builds, and takes away storage and free space. Often this junk is from previous tenants but current tenants are none the wiser. - Isolate it, offer an amnesty to reclaim it, all that remains is removed.
Tumble driers and vacuums cleaners will clog with dust and lint but nobody take responsibility to clear them. They underperform and break and household cleanliness suffers as a result.
Don’t underestimate nature - Vegetation and weather are be our biggest threat. Invasive plants such as bind weed, bamboo, buddleia will grow quickly, damage a building’s fabric and prove hard to remove. Weather is always being described as “worse that usual” which is why an issue happened - Design for “worse than usual”.
Sweat the access - When a maintenance issue requires access such as scaffolding, use is as an opportunity to do the most thorough fix possible not just a repair. Use it also to address any other future maintenance issues. The access is the biggest cost and is therefore put off until the fix becomes urgent. If the fix were to be undertaken earlier, it would have caused less damage and even less cost. The access will also be used to carry out as much preventative work possible, such as painting woodwork, clearing gutters and repointing. This act reduces long term maintenance because the next time the access is needed will have been pushed much further downstream.