Maintenance and Repairs of Structures 22602

Unit No.1 Basics of Maintenance and Repairs Marks: 08

Syllabus:
 Necessity, objectives and importance of maintenance and repairs.
 Repair, retrofitting, re-strengthening, rehabilitation and restoration.
 Factors influencing the maintenance and repairs.
 Advantages and limitations of maintenance and repairs.
 Approach of effective management for maintenance and repairs.
 Maintenance and its classifications Periodical maintenance, pre and post monsoon
maintenance.

1. Introduction
An infrastructure not only provide shelter but also have good potential to make comfort
environment, therefore it is necessary to inspect and maintain in a good functioning during expected
service life.

It is observed that no structure will have ever been maintenance free but quality of design and
workmanship can minimise the level of maintenance and repairs required. Further, depending upon
planning, material quality, construction methodology, function, location ete then the building may
have different rate of deterioration and respectively required different level of attention. The
operation, maintenance and repairs of a structure become the post constructional activities required
to perform the structure effectively.

In broad sense, maintenance is a process of ensuring the buildings and assets under good condition
and operates at optimum efficiency. Further, maintenance is essential to keep the building fit for
proper utilization in terms of strength, safety, serviceability, durability etc. Over recent past,
requirements of housing demand has been increased as a result construction quality is compromised
to a greater extent which reflects the inferior quality of structures being constructed at many places.
This entire scenario leads to have and perform the maintenance and repair activities

External exposure due to natural environment such as rain, sun, wind etc cause deterioration in the
structure. Therefore, to prevent the structure from deterioration, regular maintenance is needed so
that the same could be timely fixed. It is well established that maintenance of structure is a routine
inspection.

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1.1 Maintenance
 Maintenance is the work undertaken to keep, restore or improve every facility to a currently
acceptable standards and sustain its utility and facility at required level.
 It may also define as the process in which actions are carried out to restore or retain a
structure to its original state to perform function.
 Maintenance is essential to sustain utility value of every building element such as structural,
electrical wiring, plumbing-water supply-sanitation, finishes on floors and walls, roof
terrace, service platform, veranda, lift, doors, windows and other elements.
 When the maintenance is carried out regularly then structural elements becomes more
durable and functional. The maintenance and repair play a crucial role in the life of
structure.
 A successful maintenance and repair depends on solid performance of other aspects of
building management, budgeting, committee participation, rent collection and
communication.

2. Necessity of Maintenance and Repairs

In order to ensure the operational and functional requirements of structures, it is necessary to plan
and regularize the maintenance of structure to re-store the every facility from every parts of
structure.
 Early decay of structure or its parts may arrested in time.
 Due to the regular, periodical and planned maintenance, the structure will have to up-keep
and enhance their serviceability.
 Structure becomes sustainable and stable to an acceptable standard of serviceability.
 Regular maintenance work is undertaken to restore or improve the every facility of a
structure.
 Due to maintenance and repair, it prevents and slows down the rate of deterioration.
 Being house owner, house becomes his/her most valuable possession which should be
preserved and improved the facility with time as possible.
 Due to lack of maintenance and repair, there is normal wear and tear then finally failure of
structure.

3. Objectives of Maintenance
The basic aim of maintenance is to avoid as far as repair or replacement of structure or structural
elements. The main objectives of maintenance are,

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 To ensure the services of structure for desired period of time with high degree of reliability.
 Even though deterioration occurs in building, maintenance will restore the building and
services.
 To improve the serviceability and utility value of structure.
 To keep the structure in serviceable condition and upgrade the improvement whenever
required.
 To avoid and reduce the deterioration rate of structure.
 To restore the structure and its parts to their original standards so as to ensure the safety,
efficiency and durability.
 Prevention of damages in structure and keep them in a good appearance and working
condition.
 To ensure the security of assets and occupants.

4. Importance of Maintenance and Repair

Ever heard of the famous saying "precaution is better than cure" moreover it is also easy and
economical than curing, therefore it is essential to perform the maintenance and repair activities
regularly. Following are the points that imply the importance of maintenance and repairs of
structure.
 It ensures to remain in such a state so as to retain its investment value for a long period of
time.
 Buildings of today are valuable and are generally required to provide safe and healthy
environment while performing the human activities.
 Dilapidation and irregular maintenance leads to loosening of tiles, spoiling of items etc are
not safe and also threaten the public safety.
 Ensure the desired characteristics of facility which retain the safety and serviceability.
 Regular inspection and maintenance of structure ay enable the timely identification
deteriorated structural elements.
 External parts of building will be weathered quickly when exposed to the natural
environment then such parts without proper maintenance will deteriorate easily.

5. Factors Influencing the Maintenance and Repairs

The factors influencing to ensure the suitability of maintenance and repair techniques along with
their effectiveness are,

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 Cost:
The cost of maintenance comprises the direct and indirect cost. Before coming to a decision
to do maintenance, indirect cost factors most also be considered along with the direct cost.
The direct cost includes the material cost and operation cost which are generally from 70%,
to 80% of total cost. Further, indirect cost includes restricted access, safety aspects, duration,
overhead charges ete.
 Faulty workmanship:
Overall building workmanship is one of most common factor affecting the building
maintenance. It is also observed that a faulty workmanship increases the problem and
reduces the life of structure.
 Age of building:
A structure and its elements consist of materials and components that are linked together to
form desired unit. The materials and components will start aging from the day used in
construction. Further, over the period, construction period and components wear out and
reduces the building serviceability which will effect on its remaining useful time. Hence, to
obtain the maximum life of structure, maintenance schedule should be planned immediately
after construction of building.
 Use of sub-standard materials:
Use of sub-standard materials leads to the structural deformation within a short period of
time.
 Insufficient funds:
Maintenance and repair of structure against deterioration requires money and time. Lack of
fund is one of the most common factors affecting maintenance. Insufficient fund routine
maintenance leads to more serious condition in future.
 Availability of physical resources:
The required materials, components, services, equipment’s an necessary to undertake the
maintenance and repair activities.
 Urgency of maintenance:
The maintenance and repair hour or days then accordingly action must be undertaken.
 Non application of maintenance policy:
Maintenance policy is a written document that provides maintenance strategy to be adopted
by the maintenance professionals in order to extend life cycle of structure.

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 Future use:
Use of structure as a whole must be considered while maintenance to be carried out at any
given period of time.
 Owner's attitudes and wrong behavior of occupants:
Most of the owner does not showing interest or excitement toward the maintenance as a
result, it leads to more serious problems. Further inefficient of occupants can results to lack
of maintenance which leads to serious deformation of structure or structural components.
 Misuse of structure and structural components:
The misuse of structure and structural components will result in their damage when
construction work is completed then owner must use the structure and structural components
in proper way.
 Social consideration:
Agencies carrying out maintenance can produce disturbances such as noise safety, dust,
smell etc, being social consideration and responsibilities, plan the maintenance activities in
such a manner that disturbances must be control and kept to a minimum level. It is known
that pleasant and comfort environment should be created by regular and planned
maintenance activities.

6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Maintenance and Repairs

Advantages
 When regular maintenance activities are performed then in future, maintenance cost
decreases.
 As decreased number of maintenance operations causes reduction of human error which an
influencing.
 As precaution is always easy and economic than cure, therefore there is saving of money.
Further it is also observed that emergency maintenance and repairs are more expensive than
periodic one
 Less risk factor, if the structures are being regularly checked as a result they are having less
risk to damage without notice.
 Saving in money and less energy wasting.
 Due to regular maintenance and repairs, there is longer building life with maximum
performance.
 Regular maintenance gives safer work environment.

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 It prevents the process of decay and degradation from the climate or general usage.
 It maintained the structural stability and safety.
 Maintenance and repair help to give the guidelines to plan for the renovation, retrofitting or
new construction.
 It identifies the causes of defects that help to prevent the re-occurrence or repetition.

Disadvantages
 High installation cost for minor equipment’s, offers more than the value of equipment’s.
 Sometimes more money and skilled workers needed.
 Due to maintenance and repairs, reduction in performance and tends to more decay of
structure and structural components.
 It increases the cost of maintenance and operations.
 As maintenance and repairs are carried out, possibility of less safety for workers and more
possibility of accidents and damages.
 Once the maintenance and repairs are undertaken, more possibility of reduced performance
and effects on health of structure and structural elements.
 Non-availability of design records and detailing to evaluate the increased stiffness.
 Possibility of increase in self-weight of structure and structural components.

Common Terms
1.Repair
 Repair is the process of reconstructing or renewing any damaged part of structure so that
structure performs its function before it was.
 Repairing in which removal of existing structural components so as to make them in
operational condition with safer.
 The repairing is also carried out to improve the architecture and aesthetic shape of damaged
structures in order to bring back the normal functioning as quick as possible.
 It is also observed that repair and maintenance do not restore the original strength of
structure or structural components.
 Some of the common types of repairs such as patch work, filling of cracks in masonry walls
replacing of damaged utility services, replacing glass panes, repairing doors and windows,
repairing or electric wiring, gap pipes, water pipes, plumbing services, rebuilding non-
structural elements plastering, re-arranging disturbed roofing tiles, relaying cracked floor
tiles at ground level etc.
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2 Retrofitting
 It is a process of enhancing the resistance of damaged or weak structure by appropriate
technique of maintenance and repairs.
 It is also defined as the operation or process in which replacing. 1 strengthening, repairing
etc to be carried out to improve the performance of damaged structure Retrofitting of
damaged structures is done by repairing and strengthening damaged portions of structure
and making it reusable.
 The technique of retrofitting proves to be a better option catering to the economic
considerations and immediate shelter problem rather than replacement.
 The basic purpose of retrofitting is to upgrade the strength, rigidity and ductility of existing
buildings in order to meet the requirements of safety and comfort
 The retrofitting technique is adopted due to Structure was not initially designed by the
structural designer.

3 Restrengthening
 It is the process of adding strength to any part of an existing building to provide higher
strength than its original. The basic objectives of strengthening any structure are,
 Increasing the strength.
 Increasing the integral action of various elements of building.
 Reducing the sources of weakness and irregularities of the structure.
 Increasing the structural properties such as ductility, stiffness etc.
 The basic theme of strengthening is to upgrade the resistance of existing structure or
damaged structure by restriction or removal of parts to provide better functioning.
 The restrethening shall be carried out to improve the performance under existing design load
or to increase the strength of structural elements to carry an additional load.
 The term, re-strengthening is making the structure more strong again so that relatively
structure becomes stronger.

4 Rehabilitation
 Rehabilitation is a process of returning a structure to its earlier condition or prior to damage.
It may also defined as the act or process of making optimum use of property through repairs,
alternations and additions while preserving those portions or features.
 The term rehabilitation is related to the reconstruction of damaged structure to the same
function as that of structure prior to the damage, As per the opinion of Newman (2001),

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rehabilitation is one of the technique in which up-gradation is required to meet the present
needs and matching to the original construction along with functioning.

5 Restoration
 It is the most restrictive term than rehabilitation in which replication of structure as
originally it was built. The term restoration is a process of regaining the original strength of
structure before damage occurs.
 The restoration is mainly carried out to increase the strength of loud bearing elements by
addition of temporary structure, addition of more structural elements, increasing the
dimensions of load bearing elements etc.
 The technique of restoration may even involve the removal of certain portion and replacing
it with new and stronger elements.
 Restoration is the process in which return the structure to its original condition. The resistor
may involve cutting the portion of elements and rebuilding them as simply adding more
structure material so that original strength is more or less restored.

7. Approach of Effective Management for Maintenance and Repairs

 It is absolutely necessary to maintain the structure and its components, one has cared to
preserve and protect from natural environment and its effect.
 To perform this task, an effective maintenance management necessary to implement so that
professional's become competent to restore the structure and keep to its initial functioning.
Moreover, use of effective maintenance management approach not only up-keep the
structure but also satisfy the primary aim of maintenance.
 The activities under maintenance management are categorized into two attributes such as
management and maintenance.
 The term maintenance is an act to sustain the utility value and maintain the services of
structure to a remarkable level so as to accomplish the goals without interruptions. Another
attribute is the management which deals the act of dealing, planning, controlling and guiding
for achieving the desired goal.
 Hence an approach of maintenance management is an act of dealing, planning, controlling
and guiding to the maintenance team for keeping the structure in good functioning.
 Most of the problems that arise in maintenance related to the services then appropriate
instructions to show an access an essential for effective maintenance management.

The effective maintenance management includes the fundamental approach involving

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 Planning, designing and detailing of maintenance system

 Coordinating, communicating and controlling of maintenance activities.
 Motivating, directing and guiding to the maintenance team.

These above approaches will help to use effective maintenance management so as to up-keep the
structure and fulfil the requirements of users, In order to have effective maintenance management
following approach of maintenance management cycle is to be considered as shown in Fig.

Fig. Approach for Effective Maintenance Management Cycle

8. Classifications of Maintenance
1. Periodical Maintenance
 Periodical maintenance is a process of maintaining the structure and its components to keep
in functioning to an optimum condition at the performance level for which it was designed.
 The periodical maintenance involves checking, cleaning, lubrication, re-tightening screw,
usual inspection for which rein extensive training is necessary.
 The periodical maintenance is also known as time-based maintenance their (TBM) is a
strategy that requires maintenance task at set time interval while asset is operational.
 The identification of interval and frequency of service tasks are evaluated depending upon
specific parameters of the asset to maintain the condition or operational state of structure
and its components.

This type of maintenance strategy is applicable to the equipment's or building elements that ha
expected life span. The periodical maintenance activities are done based on a set time interval may
weekly, monthly etc. The importance of periodical maintenance due to the following reasons,

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 It is the only way that damage of structure can be prevented.

 It enhances the service life of structure and its elements.
 It saves cost in terms of time, money and energy.
 Activities under periodical maintenance to be carried out without any signal of danger.
 Due to regular scheduled maintenance, this type of maintenance minimizes the chances of
failure of structure and its components in addition to increase in life span.

2. Maintenance Manual
 The basic aim of preparing maintenance manual is to keep long way in ensuring proper
maintenance so that the same in operational condition.
 The maintenance manual becomes an important document for facilitating maintenance and
repairs throughout the life of structure for any specific information which is useful for
maintenance and repairs.
 This manual will be quite useful for carrying out the adaptation work and other
modifications, if required.
 The operation and maintenance manual (O and M manual involve the information required
for the operation, maintenance, decommissioning and demolition of structure.
 Maintenance manual is prepared at the time of planning, design and construction of building
structure. This manual illustrate the various building plan, material resources, reinforcement
details, building components, plumbing services and frequency of equipment's along their
maintenance.
 The maintenance manual provide accurate details of alterations, additions, construction
process, operation of completed structure carried out from beginning along with history of
any defects.

The maintenance manual should be prepared to provide the following information as

 Maintenance manual specifying the various details and special requirements for complicated
maintenance work.
 The manual specifies the construction materials for all these components.
 It also includes the method of their repair and maintenance along with their maintenance
cycle for various components.
 Maintenance manual provide the hidden details of building components such as location of
embedded pipelines, electric conduits, structural reinforcements very clearly shown for the
future repair and maintenance.
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 Maintenance manual must contain the design principle, drawings as constructed, details of
finishes test results, guarantees or warrantees certificates, maintenance instructions, bill of
quantities etc for maintenance items.
 Maintenance also gives the information about path and location of rain water pipes, sanitary
and drainage lines, telephone lines etc must be indicated very clearly for future use.
 Maintenance manual provide the information about the need of repair, need of attention and
protection along with the required drawings.
Manual also provides the detailed information about the environmental controls, access,
security and safety system.

3. Pre-monsoon Maintenance
 In order to get structure ready for the monsoon, pre-monsoon maintenance needs to be
carried out so that functioning of structure and its elements becomes effectively.
 The pre-monsoon maintenance during which activities are undertaken such as cleaning of
drains checking of roof leakages, collection of materials and equipment's so that minimum
leakage and damages take place.
 In pre-monsoon maintenance, examine the structure or property before onset of the monsoon
season and do the necessary maintenance or repairs for the damaged structure, if any so that
further damages get minimise and structure will be functioning well.

4. Post-monsoon Maintenance
 Post monsoon measures are taken in spite of pre-monsoon maintenance, during the post-
monsoon period, generally replacement, rehabilitation, retrofitting, and restoration work has
been carried out.
 The various structure and its elements are many times affected during the monsoon and
cyclones particularly in coastal areas.
 Immediately after monsoon all important structures and services should be inspected by all
disciplines of concern with the maintenance.
 Some of the important areas like water supply. Sanitation, overhead cables, uprooted light
poles restoration of power supply.
 Restoration of sewage pumping station, embankments, roads, bunds etc are to be attended
immediately after monsoon.

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 Immediately after monsoon, detailed inspection should be carried out to ensure the broken
false ceiling, broken glass, panes, cladding, door and railing shutters.
 Even after monsoon, proper up-keeping of building parts through maintenance and repairs
even in case of minor damage

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