An ounce of prevention
The cost of building maintenance is not usually greeted with open arms, especially façade maintenance which often has little effect on the building’s aesthetic or the day-to-day functionality of the building. However, in our industry we are well placed to observe the stark benefits of preventative maintenance, routine periodic inspections and the maxim often proclaimed by my mother: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.
Insite Engineering has spent the beginning of 2021 conducting a relatively simple assessment of cladding panels installed post-construction, to determine whether or not the panels were installed in accordance with design documentation. Our assessment, conducted via twin-rope access techniques (ie, abseiling), indicated that for one high-rise tower building, 20% of post-installed panels did not include fixing details in accordance with the design intent. The risks associated with a single improperly installed panel at 140m above the street located in the heart of Melbourne need no further elaboration, and renders the costs associated with proactive façade inspections negligible.
But risk does not only arise in relation to falling objects, personal injury, or property damage.
A recently completed comprehensive visual and ‘hammer-sounding’ inspection conducted on an aging conventionally reinforced concrete façade, again in Melbourne’s CBD, painted a clear picture of the long-term benefits of a properly specified and applied protective coating. The building in question had received a protective coating to approximately half of the exposed surface area, while the rest remained raw, un-protected concrete. Unsurprisingly, the concrete without the protection of a simple coating system requires extensive remedial works to reinstate the integrity of the building fabric – an expensive exercise which would have been largely avoided through preventative maintenance in the form of an appropriately specified and applied protective coating system.
While we hear “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” often enough, when it comes to asset maintenance –on the external side of a high-rise façade, or under the deck of a elevated roadway or out of sight on an industrial chimney stack, “broke” can be as subtle as a shift in the chemical composition of the structure, or a new crack or stain that will not be identified unless a qualified and experienced professional goes looking for it. Early identification and a properly informed response are often the difference between minor maintenance works and a major remedial project, suggesting that perhaps your mother was correct all along: an ounce of prevention is worth at least a pound of cure.
