Developing Your Building Maintenance Budget

Writing a building maintenance budget is not an easy task. What items will come up? How should you plan for that? What categories should you include? Well, we can’t tell you exactly what your building maintenance budget should look like, but we can help you get a good framework of what to include. If you have the items we cover below and reference past expenditures, you should be able to write a pretty accurate building maintenance budget. These categories and parts of the descriptions were taken from a very thorough budget writing tool found here.

Condition assessment is the process of inspecting and reviewing equipment and facilities already in place. This is a method of finding out if an asset will soon need maintenance, in an effort to keep anything from ever “going down” unexpectedly. Condition Assessment programs are a requirement in some countries to ensure safety. Regularly inspecting your assets is an important way to keep people safe and keep your business running smoothly, even if it is not required.

This category covers mandatory maintenance enforced by local regulations. Fire protection systems, air quality systems, and other safety features are all often required to be maintained at a certain level. You should include maintenance that you know will be required to keep up with these regulations in this category.

Your equipment, building, and vehicles should all be serviced on a regular basis as a preventative measure. Vehicles should receive oil changes and new tires periodically. Your heating and air units should receive new filters, tune-ups, and freon refills. Your roof should be inspected and repaired regularly. This preventative maintenance should be performed on a written schedule and never come as a surprise. Preventative maintenance keeps your equipment, building, and vehicles up and running so you don’t lose money to downtime.

Condition-Based Maintenance is the result of the Condition Assessment program. As you go through your property and evaluate the condition of your buildings, vehicles, and equipment, you will find areas in need of improvement. When your Condition Assessment identifies a point of concern with one of your assets, it then goes into the Condition-Based Maintenance category and is brought up to par. When the condition of an asset fails, it is repaired and comes out of this budget line-item.

This category covers exactly what you would expect: Unplanned Maintenance. Because this line item is unplanned, it is inherently difficult to plan for. However, it is not impossible. You can look at past years’ expenditures to get an idea of what be required. You can also take into consideration the age of your assets. Are all your vehicles 15 years old or older? Your unplanned vehicle maintenance will be higher than a company with a brand new fleet. Is your building 30 years old? You can expect some unplanned maintenance to pop up.

Someone must perform and you must pay for all of the maintenance and inspections lined out above. Someone else must manage the process, purchase the items for repairs, and pay the vendors. All of these personnel costs go into the Management Overhead category. You can’t always trace these expenses a specific repair or maintenance task. It’s a good idea to keep track of these items in teh budget when you can trace them.

Running a building can be a difficult task, but a good building maintenance budget will keep your spending on track and help you know if your building is still an asset or is becoming a liability. For more tips on facility maintenance, check out some of our other blog posts or give us a call.