Maintaining a building is expensive: it costs many times more to run a building over its lifetime than to build it, yet maintenance is often not accorded the priority it warrants. A poorly maintained building will be a drain on resources and will impair building use, whereas a well maintained building will function smoothly and represent an appreciating asset to its owners.

Building Maintenance is a core text on the technical aspects of maintenance for undergraduate degree students on built environment courses, particularly building surveying and facilities management. It addresses the ‘who, what, where, when, how and why’ of maintenance activities and shows that maintenance should be considered seriously at the design stage. Extensive case studies illustrate what can go wrong, how to put matters right and how to get it right first time, next time.

A professional approach is required to building maintenance. By encouraging maintenance managers to stand back and take a strategic view of building maintenance alongside their day-to-day tasks, this book will help practitioners and students to achieve that.

Brian Wood is a senior lecturer in the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University. He previously worked in the public and private sectors as an architect and surveyor. He was a contributor to Quality in Traditional House Building, published by the Building Research Establishment, and is author of Building Care (Wiley-Blackwell).

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