Third Party Property Managers and Property Owners: How To Keep This Relationship Stress Free
Simple record keeping helps everyone stay on the same page Third party property management can relieve building owners of the liability and stress of an in-house staff. However, the responsibility of servicing and maintaining property owned by someone else can be problematic. What happens when things go wrong and unanticipated problems…
Are You Excited About Maintenance?
Without maintenance, our built environment would fall apart. Maintenance quite literally keeps the lights on. Our culture, on the other hand, seems to value “innovation” over all else, and it’s leading to unfortunate consequences. Andrews Russell and Lee Vinsel’s excellent article, Let’s Get Excited About Maintenance, aims to turn that…
You’re (Probably) Doing PMs Wrong!
If you use a work order system to generate tickets for routine maintenance tasks, it’s time to rethink your process. Work orders are really great at some things, but tracking routine preventative maintenance tasks isn’t one of them. When you dump your PMs into your work-order system – usually the…
Moving On Up – Getting Your Equipment Above The Flood Line
Hurricane Sandy had many far reaching repercussions, especially for Manhattan’s buildings and the people who maintain them. The storm served as a wake up call to the danger catastrophic flooding poses to the equipment we depend on. This has caused a shift in the way equipment is being positioned in…
Being An Old School Engineer In The Age Of Technology
Technology continues to drive big changes in every industry, and facility maintenance is no exception. With increasing focus on BMS/BAS programs and sensors, as well as more connected equipment, it can be hard to tell where engineers and operators – the people who actually make buildings work – fit in….
Boiler Inspection Checklist, ASHRAE 180 2012
Is it really November already? It seems like just yesterday we were looking forward to the warmth of summer. Now for many of us, consistently cooler weather means that our boilers are running: heating season is here. Like all equipment, boilers require routine inspections and maintenance. The specifics of those…
Shutting Down Your Cooling Equipment The Right Way
Fall means a lot of things to different people, but for us in facility management in most of the country, it means the end of cooling season. Properly shutting down the cooling equipment, including cooling towers, is very important. As fall progresses into winter, rain and snow will put your…
Standing Water: A Building’s Nightmare
The greatest dangers in life are the ones that we don’t see. That biggest frustrations are the problems we face that we could have avoided. For a building, one of the greatest dangers comes from water in the form of leaks, moisture, frozen pipes, and standing water. In fact, water-related…
As Universities Slash Maintenance Budgets, Data Helps Facility Teams Fight Back
A university’s maintenance team is crucial to the success and safety of its staff and students. Unfortunately, management doesn’t always get this, and facilities budgets are often one of the first to go when times get tough. Facilities management needs to harness the power of the data they collect on…
How Constantly Learning Protects FM Jobs, With Dan Holohan
Annmarie Bhola is a former engineer and the owner of Enhanced Building Solutions, LLC – EBS is committed to transforming the culture within the building industry through training and leadership. I was never an A student in high school or in college. Only my math and science classes helped me…
