Dee Davis (00:00)
Have you ever walked into a building and thought, what happened here?
I always wish I knew the story. And let's be honest, if someone had to put their name in writing on the wall next to their decision, maybe they would consider it more carefully.
Hi, and welcome to the Management Under Construction podcast. I'm your host, Dee Davis, and today I want to talk to you about design and installation decisions that impact long-term building operations. I have been a long-time proponent of installing signs that explain what happened for future building occupants and facility staff. Have you ever walked into a building and thought, what happened here?
I always wish I knew the story. And let's be honest, if someone had to put their name in writing on the wall next to their decision, maybe they would consider it more carefully. I think they would.
You may have recently seen my write-up on LinkedIn on fixture choices in restrooms. I showed a photo of a beautiful fixture set in a brand new building that didn't work worth a darn. It was one of those setups with three fixtures over each sink that had water, soap, and hand dryer.
It took two sinks for me to get soap, one to get water, and every hand dryer I tried would either not work at all or activate for about three seconds at a time. Because I'm that kind of nerd, I tried different restrooms to see if I got different results. I did not. The fixture looked nice, and I actually liked the idea of not slopping water all over the counters and the floor, trying to get to the hand dryer or the paper towels or whatever.
but it simply didn't work. I've seen these setups in different places and they did work in most cases,
it's anyone's guess as to whether or not they will work on any given occasion. And it's
a dig on this particular setup or hand dryers or anything like that. The dig is on things that don't work like we're supposed to that create maintenance problems in the future. This fixture setup,
is an example of a design choice that we make that impacts long-term building operations. This is one that we can relate to on a daily basis, but it happens every day on projects around the world with fixtures, paint, equipment, joint sealants, metals, and hundreds of other kinds of things that people just never think about.
This is the kind of maintenance nightmare that actually haunts you really frequently in a building. And it comes with battery operated fixtures. The more fixtures you have, the more batteries you need. Besides the cost of buying batteries and the environmental burden that comes with that, there's the manual process of changing them out, which comes about every six months in a high traffic facility.
Somewhere along the way, two decisions were
to use a sensor fixture. It's less reliable than a manual fixture every single time. Number two was to make it battery operated, reducing reliability further and increasing long-term maintenance cost. Just in case you don't already know,
Sensor fixtures have little eyes that are adjustable for sensitivity at how long they turn on, how long the valve actually opens. This needs to be adjusted on each one of these after installation and over time they will experience drift and need to be readjusted. They're electronics and just like people...
The older they get, the more cranky they get.
Another example of design decisions that result in maintenance challenges are coatings. Let's say for whatever reason, you end up with multiple manufacturers of intumescent paint on your project. Each one has its own application process, thicknesses, primer, curing requirements. They look visually similar to the naked eye. During construction, we all know what's happening. Maybe we even know why it happened.
But put yourself in the facility maintenance shoes five years down the road. There's a remodel
and some chipping and patching needs to be done in various members. Which members have which material on them? How do we know what materials were used where? These issues are usually not considered or discussed during whatever design or substitution process brought this up in the first place, when we have more than one manufacturer of any given product.
Sealants are another one that comes up on almost every job. Projects that have multiple sealants used in various applications, but making sure that we not only limit the number of sealants used and thereby limiting the number of materials that facility management needs to keep on hand.
but ensuring that it's clear which ones were used in which applications. Sealants are selected for temperatures, chemical compatibility, elasticity, and many other properties. But one thing they all have in common is they will dry out and crack, eventually.
How often they require maintenance and reapplication can be measured in months to years, depending on many factors.
Cheaping out on sealants during design and construction impacts the facility in the long run.
Can you think of a building that you've been in where there was clearly a design or installation decision made that just made you say, what happened here? Wouldn't it be cool if we could scan a QR code and get an explanation? Just a suggestion. Email me at heydee at management under construction with your pictures and your stories about decisions that impact long-term maintenance in your facility or facilities that you've been in.
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