Building Condition Assessment and Documentation

Part II – Overview and Direction

Randy Warbington, PEFacilities Program ManagerSouthern RegionUSDA Forest Service

Mark McDonough, PEAssistant Station EngineerSouthern Research StationUSDA Forest Service

3 Day Course Prepared for Presentation at ESRU, March 10-12, 2008Edited for Presentation at National Facilities Meeting, April 30-May 2, 2008

Standard Terminology

Common Definitionshttp://fsweb.wo.fs.fed.us/eng/documents/mtcconst.htm

MaintenanceMaintenance is “the act of keeping fixed assets in acceptable condition.” It includes Preventive maintenance, repairs, cyclical maintenance (component replacement) and addressing of statutory requirements needed to assure that the asset achieves its expected life. Maintenance excludes upgrade activities aimed at expanding capacity or changing function.

Annual Maintenance Work performed to maintain serviceability or repair

failures in the year in which they occur. Includes preventive and cyclic maintenance performed in the year which it is scheduled, as well as unscheduled or catastrophic failures of components or assets.

Typically this is the work funded by CP09, CMFC and QMQM.

OMB allows the agency to estimate this by multiplying 3-5% * CRV.

Preventive Maintenance Scheduled servicing, repairs, inspections and

replacement of parts that result in fewer breakdowns and fewer premature replacements to help achieve the expected life of the fixed asset.

Inspections are a critical part of preventive maintenance as they provide the information for scheduling maintenance and for evaluating its effectiveness.

A component of annual maintenance.

Deferred Maintenance Maintenance that was not performed when it should

have been or when it was scheduled and which, therefore was put off or delayed for a future period.

Made up of 4 parts – a) cyclic (component replacement) b) minor repairs not done when they should have been, c) work needed to meet laws, regulations, etc as long as the original intent of the asset has not been changed, and d) functional obsolescence.

There is no current OMB requirement to report annual maintenance, only deferred maintenance.

Example of Functional ObsolescenceFrom the Facility Master Plan:

“This building provides office space for 7 FTE’s. It was originally a garage, but was converted to an office in the early 1990’s. The building was constructed in 1955 and is 440 ft2 in size. The building is in fair condition. Water seepage into the interior after heavy rains (>3”) has been a recurring problem. It is recommended that it be decommissioned and replaced with a modern facility.”

Does this building need to be evaluated for historic significance

prior to demolition?

Operations & Maintenance (O&M) The activities and resources required to

operate and maintain facilities (recreation, administrative, etc.) at a level of quality which meets management objectives and customer satisfaction.

Costs associated with O&M are generally recurrent, as opposed to capital investments, which are generally one-time and non-recurrent.

O&M (continued) O&M is like it sounds, part operations and

part maintenance O&M is funded by CP09, CMFC, NFRW,

QMQM, and a variety of other EBLIs

Condition Assessment Objectives

Purposes of Condition Assessments Primary:

Serve as physical inventory for the asset Show accomplishment (elimination of previously

identified maintenance work) Inform its valuation by determining the deferred

maintenance deduction to be applied to the “raw” replacement value.

These are primarily financial upward reporting functions to allow the agency to adequately respond to requests for information and oversight

Purposes of Condition Assessments (cont.) Secondary

Identify future work needs, serving as a sort of periodic “reconnaissance” of the asset. In most cases the actual correction of deficiencies will require additional investigation, as there may be a number of alternatives as to how to best to address them

Serve as an additional opportunity to note critical health and safety, environmental degradation or other similar conditions which need to be addressed immediately.

These two functions are more targeted to the actual day-to-day work activities.

Purpose of a Condition Assessment

Subtracting the deferred maintenance on this building from the current replacement value computed by I-Web based on GSF gives a truer picture of its value. Often, deferred maintenance items discovered during condition assessments may never actually be done. For example, this building may not be really be worth repairing, and the building has been determined to be of low priority.

Coordination with Other Required SurveysSee FSM 7309 44.1 Exhibit 01

Condition Assessment – Every 5 years Physical Inventory – Every 5 Years Health and Safety – Annual, except ML 1 Quarters – Annual, prior to each occupancy Facility Performance (Master Plan) – Every 10 years Accessibility - Every 3 Years Vulnerability – Every 5 Years Friable Asbestos Materials – Annual Energy Conservation – As Needed Pre-Occupancy – Prior to Leasing ECAP Audits (Internal) – Annual EACP Audits (External) – Every 5 Years EMS – Annual/Every 3 Years EMS Second Party – Every 5 Years

Integrated Assessments Efforts are underway to try to integrate the some or all of the

following: Facility Condition Assessments – 5 Year Cycle ECAP Audits (Internal) – 1 Year Cycle Health and Safety Inspection – 1 Year Cycle

It may make more sense to integrate preventive maintenance (PM) and repair assessments with health and safety inspections and ECAP audits, rather than facility condition assessments, which primarily target cyclic replacement and deferred maintenance

Although there is no manual requirement for preventive maintenance and repair assessments, they are still needed in order to responsibly operate and maintain facilities to the desired standard and provide customer satisfaction

Facility Condition Assessment Scheduling Buildings, Water Systems, Wastewater

Systems, Developed Recreation Sites – All of these require real property inventory and condition Assessment on a 5 year cycle

Efficiency then suggests that assets located near each other geographically should be scheduled for inspection concurrently in order to save travel time and costs

Example of Spreadsheet that Can be Used to Schedule and Balance Workload

ftp://sv1.r8.fs.fed.us/pub/Facility%20Condition%20Assessment%20Training/

I-Web vs. MMS It has been recognized that INFRA may not be the most useful

way to handle scheduling of the multitude of day to day activities (Preventive maintenance, minor repairs,) that are often needed on a facility.

Instead a more specialized maintenance management software (MMS) might in some cases be more appropriate.

We will likely investigate the acquisition of such a system in the near future.

Regardless, however, most items which would be expected to be collected during a condition assessment would not normally cost less than $2,000 (individually), the minor purchase limit for construction, but instead would consist of major component repair and replacement, which really has the most effect on asset value.

Minor vs. Major Items As an example, one unit found that approximately

85% of the maintenance work items which had been recorded in I-Web during past assessments were estimated to cost less than $2,000 each, but this only added up to about 6% in value of the total maintenance work recorded for that Forest.

Therefore it is probably more productive to focus on major items when doing condition assessments, and keep up with the small stuff on a much more regular basis.

There are Always Exceptions

The major exception would be noting critical items (health and safety, environmental degradation or mission delivery) which absolutely must be addressed immediately.

Example: Non-functioning smoke detector in a sleeping quarters.

Minor Items Left Undone Lead to DM It should be recognized that usually it is relatively

minor items left unaddressed that lead to deferred maintenance.

Therefore as a matter of practice these items should not be left to be discovered during a condition assessment which occurs only on a 5-year interval. Previously we discussed funds available to do operations and maintenance work with.

Correction of small recurring items such as replacing a filter, a burned out light bulb or fixing a broken lock should be addressed as ongoing “operations” using these fund types.

Preventive Maintenance TipsReplacing furnace filters on a regular basis will prevent compressor freeze-up, dirty ductwork, fan failures, etc.

Putting off repairing a roof leak or a waterproofing project may result in mold infestations that are extremely expensive to restore to useable condition.

Non-functional exit signs, emergency lighting, smoke detectors need to be replaced immediately to prevent loss of life in case of a fire.

You sure don’t want to wait long before you address this maintenance item!

Foremost Objective Perhaps the most important objective for

facility condition assessments beyond those stated above relate to the need to have standardized inspections across the agency, standardized “acceptable” care, and to develop cost estimates that are consistent, repeatable and defendable.

This is probably even more important than developing detailed construction cost estimates.

Consistent Standard of Care

Standard work items shown on the inspection form are “representative” of a consistent standard of repair and/or replacement quality across the agency, and should be used whenever possible, otherwise custom work items and minor improvement needs are available in the system.

Consistent Costing Method

Costing is automated in the I-web module, requiring only limited interaction by the user; work item costs are based on R S Means, with appropriate multipliers applied to capture conditions of the Forest Service business environment in a consistent fashion.

Note about costs All costs are assumed to be based on

contracting, with overhead and profit as described in R S Means

Costs may not be indicative of what would be encountered using force account, local jacks-of-all-trades, brother-in-laws, etc.

Consistent Replacement Schedule Replacement will be based upon condition as

well as age and “typical expected life”. Sources of Building Component Data:

R S Means Agency Experience

Available Sources for Component Life Expectancy Tempering of Means data with corporate

experience as captured in the Standard Work Items shown on the standard forms

ASHRAE (Association of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers

National Association of Home Builders Building Cost Information Service (British)

Typical Life Expectancy of Building Components – Appliances (NAHB)

Typical Life Expectancy of Building Components – Bathrooms Footings

Typical Life Expectancy of Building Components – HVAC Paint

Typical Life Expectancy of Building Components – Plumbing Windows

Progressive Levels of Inspection All inspections must look at each of the standard

work items as an agency minimum, as applicable (comparable to the concept of using “standard” specs in construction)

Additional work items shown in Means but not in the standard list may be also be considered – these are one type of “custom work items” (comparable to “approved supplemental specs” in construction)

Custom work items not included in Means may be needed for specialized assets – (comparable to “special project specs” in construction).

Tailoring the level of Assessment Detail to the Building’s Expected Use Buildings such as a barn might only need the

“standard” work items collected on them. Buildings that are used on an everyday basis

might need more detailed work items to be collected.

Specialized buildings might require “custom” work items to be collected; these items may not be found in the MEANS database.

Example of an asset for which “custom” work items that may be found in “Means” might apply

Example of a specialized asset requiring “custom” work items not found in “Means”

Replacement of “chinking” for a log building. This work would not typically be covered by RS Means Cost Data.

Performing Building Condition Assessments

Overview of Tasks Obtain a Basic or Complex Condition Assessment Form from

I-Web for each building, as applicable Verify header info and/or fill out blanks for each building User input will be required for inspector name, inspection date

and remote travel time Consider each standard work item for each building and

determine if it applies, based upon typical life and existing condition. See the Work Items Data Dictionary

Obtain applicable quantities for each item Consider whether non-standard or custom items should be

included as well Note any other significant or critical maintenance or operation

items in the blanks provided on the form

Header Information to be Verified Unit, Site Name, Bldg ID, Bldg Name, Size, Bldg

Category, Sub-Category, Maintenance Level, Historic Status and Real Property tie, as well as date of last Assessment will all come out of the I-Web database

Confirm whether the form is appropriate for the actual building – basic or complex, and if not make a note; if required schedule for alternate inspection

Verify the accuracy and make changes on the form where needed; recall that CRV cannot be changed, it is computed by INFRA, and is based upon GSF, category and sub-category

Additional Tasks Print out I-Web Report BLDWK03L:Building

Work Item Details for the building to be inspected

Note work items that have been accomplished since last condition assessment

Recording date and cost for accomplishment will no longer be mandatory

Header Information to be Input Inspector Name – Initials are not OK, need full name Inspection Date Remote Travel Time – Record to the nearest hour

based on the average number of hours it normally takes to travel to the site from a populated area, such as a small community, where materials for repair or restoration may be obtained

Base travel time on the most likely method that will be used to transport labor and materials to the jobsite (one-way trip time)

Travel Time will be used by INFRA to compute the “remoteness” factor, which affects work item cost

Travel Modes

Work Item Input (for all items) Input the quantity needed for the appropriate

standard or custom work item Input the year the work is needed (planned year), or

the fact that it has been deferred As input requires mm-dd-yyyy use last day of FY Realize the work will be recorded in I-web as annual

or deferred maintenance not depending upon the nature of the item, but instead based on the year the work is needed, with DM as the default

Input reason and priority – H&S, mission or resource, critical and non-critical – with mission non-critical as default

Lunch – 12:00 to 1:00