The cost of maintenance work

Citation

(2000), "The cost of maintenance work", Facilities, Vol. 18 No. 13/14. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2000.06918mab.003

The cost of maintenance work

Keywords Building maintenance, Materials costs

The drive for value for money and best value delivery across the entire built estate has highlighted the need for reliable independent cost advice at the most detailed level.

The BMI Building Maintenance Price Book 2000, issued recently, provides just such independent guidance. It is the only annual guide to estimating and pricing exclusively for building maintenance, repairs and rehabilitation.

The Price Book covers all trades and includes:

1. 1.

   Labour constants in hours for skilled and unskilled operatives.

2. 2.

   Current prices for each item showing:

   • •

     total labour costs;

   • •

     total materials costs;

   • •

     all-in rate including labour, materials, overheads and profit.

3. 3.

   Calculation of all-in labour costs for builders, plumbers and electricians.

4. 4.

   Basic costs of materials.

5. 5.

   Hire rates for plant.

6. 6.

   Guidance on letting maintenance work and contract conditions.

The Price Book is used by several organisations as a schedule of rates for letting maintenance work and the results of these competitive exercises are used to ensure that the rates in the Price Book reflect the current market for this type of work.

Controlling maintenance expenditure will have a significant effect on any organisation's financial efficiency for, although money spent on maintenance is spent in small amounts, it all adds up so that nationally maintenance expenditure now represents over 5 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.

Maintenance is big business

Total expenditure on maintenance in the UK was £4.2billion in 1998, according to an estimate prepared by BMI. At constant prices, maintenance expenditure rose 2.4 per cent between 1997 and 1998. The replacement value of the total stock of buildings and works also rose by 2 per cent in 1998 to £2,095 billion.

Alan Cowan, BMI technical consultant, commented that:

The overall significance of the maintenance market is often underestimated as it is made up of minor expenditures from every organisation and individual that owns property. Maintenance as a percentage of capital stock remained unchanged at 1.87 per cent in 1998. This figure is widely used as a rule of thumb to estimate maintenance expenditure, but probably underestimates the maintenance requirement because of the levels of backlog maintenance.

Housing maintenance, consisting of contractors' maintenance and expenditure on DIY goods, accounts for 56 per cent of total expenditure (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 Total maintenance expenditure 1998

Maintenance expenditure now represents over 5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and is increasing as an input to the economic growth of the country.

BMI Building Maintenance Price Book 2000 (individual price £59.50) and BMI Special Report 286: The Economic Significance of Maintenance (individual price £30.00) are available as part of the BMI subscription service, or contact BMI, 12 Great George Street, Parliament Square, London SW1P 3AD.