Facilities Condition Assessment

A physical condition assessment identifies condition deficiencies and determines the necessary actions to bring the building or infrastructure back to its original condition and to meet current codes. The assessment records observed conditions and determines remedial projects to correct deficiencies, including the following:

• Deficiencies in a critical category, that is, those requiring action in the next 12 to 24 months (usually as backlog or expected current year expired life)
• Future capital renewal projects, that is, those prioritized for the next two to five years
• Capital projects up to 10 years

Conducting a physical condition assessment requires a clear set of objectives before committing staff and financial resources. Whether a campus has previously conducted a condition assessment or is beginning one for the first time, thorough preparation is needed to ensure understanding and support of all staff involved in the process. Management and inspectors must collect reliable data, identifying deficiencies as objectively as possible.

A condition assessment can be comprehensive, collecting information on building and infrastructure subsystems and functional performance for all facilities; limited to a functional area, such as housing or athletic facilities; or selective for specific building subsystems, such as roofs; or specialized for safety or new regulatory requirements. A baseline survey of all facilities and routine updating via a computerized maintenance management systems supplemented by a third party survey at 3-5 year intervals is considered a best practice.

A hallmark of a successful assessment program is the introduction of a culture of observing and reporting conditions, not on a one-time basis, but as a regular part of supervisory and trades activities. Inspection planning includes this process of continually observing and reporting deficiencies, and flowing results into maintenance work and capital project planning.

Designing the Assessment

Building and infrastructure inspections represent a significant commitment of resources. The assessment design should be prepared to adjust staff schedules for in-house inspectors and allow adequate time for managing consultants when they are used. Direct costs must be budgeted for reproducing plans, preparing building histories, performing laboratory testing, and producing other information. If consultants are used, their costs must be budgeted as well. Thorough preparation for application of findings, including staff training, will ensure the usefulness of facilities assessment results.

Finally, an overall completion date for finishing inspections and assessing results should be factored into the scope to ensure timely presentation of accurate reports. Thorough planning of inspections enables observed deficiencies and costs for corrective measures to flow directly into maintenance work orders and capital project planning.

Scope Determination

A checklist for determining an assessment’s scope includes the following:

• Define assessment goals and objectives
• Determine the inspection methodology
• Define the intended use of results, and determine report formats
• Select the assessment team
• Prepare a list of the facilities and components to be assessed
• Review available information on facilities to be inspected
• Establish deadlines, availability of staff, and access to facilities

Goals and objectives can include determining a project cost threshold for major and minor maintenance, evaluating deferred maintenance reduction programs, prioritizing capital project guidelines, and providing cost estimates and schedules for capital renewal or replacement and renovation projects. The choice of specific facilities to be inspected depends on the assessment’s goals and often is influenced by deadlines, available resources (staff and budgets), building access, and seasonal conditions.

Preferably, the facilities condition assessment is repeated on an average three-year cycle. Although all facilities can be included, the assessment can be omitted for buildings in temporary use; buildings below a size threshold (say 5,000 gross square feet); or nonessential campus structures. Unique facilities with special structural systems or a high level of public use, such as arenas, performing arts complexes, or convocation centers, may warrant inspections at more frequent intervals. In practice, institutions with a comprehensive baseline of conditions can compile information on a “rolling” basis with updated information entered periodically.

Selecting the Assessment Team

Once the assessment scope has been determined, the team leader and team members are selected. An assessment team leader should be identified to guide the process from start to finish, supervise database preparation, select team members, schedule the assessment, assign team members, monitor progress, and report findings and recommendations. The team leader should be able to prepare written reports, skilled in inspection techniques, capable of estimating and planning, knowledgeable of maintenance practices and standards, and have good oral communication skills.

The number of physical condition assessment team members and qualifications vary with the amount of space and complexity of building and infrastructure to be inspected. Team members can include architects as well as structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers. Complex inspections can require landscape architects and specialists, for example, in code requirements and conveying equipment. A familiarity with facilities operations and maintenance (O&M) procedures is useful to ensure that inspections and assessments encompass the practical aspects needed for work orders and capital projects. Knowledge and skills in installation and maintenance of a subsystem are important when selecting an inspector and evaluating the qualifications of a consulting team.

The choice to use in-house staff or consultants has advantages and disadvantages. In-house personnel are most familiar with the facilities to be inspected. Maintenance supervisors or facilities planning staff that work with facilities on a routine basis have access to O&M information and can readily use existing knowledge of deficiencies. However, the conflict of performing current assignments often places in-house staff in the role of part-time inspectors who must defer inspection assignments or interrupt scheduled tasks. Thorough training of in-house staff can overcome the lack of inspection experience, provide uniformity and consistency of inspections, and contribute to the success of an assessment. Training should be conducted formally and should cover the inspector’s role and importance of the inspection, completion of forms and use of results, and inspection techniques.

Consultants are recommended when in-house staff are unavailable for inspection assignments. Advantages include completion of a physical condition assessment on a timely basis and objective inspections and reports. Consultants leave in-house staff free to perform their regular assignments. Consultants can offer specialized technical knowledge for diagnosing problems, recommend corrective measures, and estimate maintenance and capital projects. In developing and evaluating a Request for Proposal consider consultant experience as a contributing factor to credibility of FCA reports. The assessment scope must be carefully defined and monitored to manage costs and ensure that results meet goals and objectives. Consultants’ work should be organized to ensure that future assessments can follow a similar format, providing data that can be used for comparison in future inspections.

Data Sources

The physical condition phase of the assessment data sources include the following:

• A space inventory
• Building and infrastructure drawings
• Field inspections of buildings and infrastructure
• Observations from maintenance staff and records
• Building and infrastructure feasibility studies
• Proposed capital project reviews that incorporate condition deficiency remedial work
• Special studies previously completed by institution, e.g., handicapped accessibility, hazardous materials, etc.

Assembling the information into a relational database provides access to collected information and findings for maintenance planning and other purposes. Data may include a description of findings from inspections and other sources, preliminary prioritization of remedial work, and estimated costs.

Physical Condition Inspection Preparation

Thorough planning of the building and infrastructure subsystem physical condition inspections is essential to produce accurate, timely, and useful results. Several critical condition inspection factors pertain to scheduling inspections, inspection assignments, training, tools and equipment, notification to building occupants, and emergency work.

• Staff involvement. Regardless of the inspection team structure of in-house team or third party or combination of both, in-house maintenance and planning, design, and construction staff should be aware of the process, provide documentation as required, assist in inspections, and review and comment on draft reports.
• Scheduling Inspections. Inspection schedules are determined by the overall inspection timetable; the number of facilities, their size and age, and the type of facilities to be inspected; staff availability; facility access influenced by usage and seasonal weather; and the nature and extent of involvement with key building personnel.
• Inspection Assignments. Assignments for in-house inspectors or consultants are made by the assessment team manager. Disciplines should be matched with the inspection assignment. For example, primary systems inspectors could include a team with architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering skills. Two or more staff members should inspect a facility together to ensure safety and to improve communications between inspectors (i.e., identifying and diagnosing problems, selecting priority classifications, and estimating costs).
• Training. Training in-house inspectors and consultants as to the inspection’s purpose and schedule and proper use of data entry methods is essential to ensure uniform and accurate results. Knowing why, when, and how the assessment is to be conducted contributes to the quality of inspection results and develops interest and enthusiasm for incorporating inspections into regular plant activities and for reporting maintenance deficiencies. The facilities manager should recognize that staff may consider assessments to be an added burden to their normal assignments. The leadership of the facilities management department and the assessment manager should impress on the inspectors the importance of their tasks and their contribution to the overall organization’s operation and mission.
• Tools and Equipment. An efficiently performed inspection requires inspectors to be prepared for a day in the field without returning to the base of operations unnecessarily. Generally included items include floor plans and inspection documentation equipment, hand tools to enable access to equipment, a digital camera, and a tape recorder (optional). Guidance is necessary by experienced in-house staff for third party assessment teams to ensure safety practices are met and compliance is met for all regulatory requirements.
• Notification to Building Occupants. Building occupants should be notified before a scheduled inspection. A preliminary discussion with users or a survey soliciting information can identify many problems before the inspection. Access to the building or any planned service disruptions for testing should be coordinated to avoid interrupting normal operations. Inspection tours conducted while a building is occupied can uncover deficiencies and identify possible corrective measures. Care should be taken to avoid implying that inspections and identification of deficiencies will result in a specific program of remedial actions. Inspection results and any management actions should be shared with building managers.
• Emergency Work. Procedures should be in place for promptly remedying any emergency conditions observed during the inspection. Assessment team members should be instructed in these procedures during training.

Data Collection

The condition inspection of a facilities assessment includes a visual inspection and record of observations of buildings and infrastructure systems and subsystems. The design of the inspection and data entry methodology followed are based on how a building or infrastructure is constructed and how inspectors would logically proceed to make observations, collect data on deficiencies, and determine costs of corrective measures. Building inspections begin with how a structure is placed in the ground; travel upward to structural framing, exterior envelope including wall and roof; and then move to the interiors. Each subsystem of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), plumbing, and electrical is inspected separately. A comprehensive physical condition assessment provides an inspection of the architectural, civil and structural, mechanical, electrical, and safety components of each facility. Infrastructure inspections are conducted in a similar methodical manner.

Data collection is based on the taxonomy of building assembly by systems in UNIFORMAT II for Building Elements. Classifications provide a commonly used outline for data collection and permit comparison between institutions, including Level 1-Major Group Element; Level 2-Group Elements; and Level-3 Individual Elements.

Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the Level 1 and Level 2 Group Elements for building and infrastructure.

Figure 2.  UNIFORMAT II Classification for Building Elements

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology. UNIFORMATII Elemental Classification for Building Specifications, Cost Estimating, and Cost Analysis. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1999.

Figure 3.  UNIFORMATII Classification for Building-Related Site Work

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology. UNIFORMATII Elemental Classification for Building Specifications, Cost Estimating, and Cost Analysis. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1999.