Facility Maintenance

Running a building, whether it is a housing society, an office complex, a hospital or a mall, means looking after a long list of systems you never see until they fail: the electrical panels, the AC plant, the pumps and pipes, the lifts, the DG set and the fire systems. Most building fires and many accidents start where one of these was neglected, or where work on one quietly disabled another.

Good maintenance is not just a calendar of jobs. It is knowing what you have, who is responsible for it, what can go wrong, and proving that each job was finished and the system was put back as it should be.

Start with a list of what you have

Make one register of every important asset: the structure and outer walls, electrical supply, HVAC, plumbing, lifts, fire alarm and sprinklers, hydrants, pumps, emergency lighting and the DG set. Give each one a named person who is responsible for it. Mark which jobs are required by law or by your fire NOC, which the maker recommends, and which you do because of a risk you have seen on site.

Electrical systems

Electrical faults are a common cause of building fires in India. Keeping the system in good shape costs far less than a breakdown or a fire.

• Get panels cleaned, connections tightened to the maker’s torque and breaker trip settings tested by a licensed electrician, with the panel safely isolated first.
• Thermal (infrared) scans can show hot joints under load. A scan shows temperature; it does not prove a joint is tight or that a breaker will trip, so it supports testing but does not replace it.
• Test and check switches, fittings and sockets, and take damaged ones out of use.
• Never keep resetting an MCB or breaker that trips again and again. Find the fault.
• Follow the Central Electricity Authority’s safety regulations (2023) and keep single-line diagrams up to date in the electrical room.

HVAC

• Get the cooling plant serviced before summer by a competent contractor.
• Check air filters regularly and change them when they are loaded. How often depends on the dust at your site, not just on a calendar.
• Keep drip pans and drain lines clear. A blocked drain can leak water into ceilings and electrical rooms.
• Remember that the AC is part of fire safety: in a fire it should shut down or switch to smoke control, so smoke is not pushed into other floors. Test that link with the fire alarm.

Plumbing

• Fix small leaks in pipes, taps and fittings before they grow. Water near switchgear is an electrical hazard as well as a plumbing one.
• Look for rust and corrosion, and check water pressure.
• Check that water heaters are at the right temperature and are not leaking.
• Where your fire system connects to the drinking-water supply, get the backflow preventer tested as the water utility requires.

Fire protection systems

Work with a qualified fire protection contractor. Gauges, valves, alarm panels and power supplies need frequent checks. Alarms, sprinkler heads, pipes, pumps, hydrants and the fire brigade inlet need periodic inspection and testing, and some parts need deeper internal checks every few years.

The exact intervals for your building are not universal. They come from the Indian Standards that apply, such as IS 15105:2021 for sprinklers, the National Building Code of India 2016, your fire NOC conditions, the approved drawings and the maker’s instructions. The weekly, quarterly, yearly and five-yearly schedule published in an earlier version of this article came from US practice and should be treated only as an example.

Where things go wrong

Buildings fail where trades meet and where work is handed over. A plumber’s leak drips into a panel. An electrician switches off the fire alarm to stop it ringing during work and forgets to switch it back on. A sprinkler valve is closed for a repair and left closed. So:

• Use a permit-to-work and lockout/tagout for electrical isolation, hot work, confined spaces and work at height.
• Use a written impairment procedure whenever a fire system is taken out of service, and tell the people who need to know.
• Do not accept “checked OK” on a job card. Ask for readings, photographs and confirmation that valves, switches and alarms are back to normal.
• Now and then, go and look at a job that was closed last week, to see whether it really was done.

Today, ask your maintenance team one question: is any fire alarm zone, sprinkler valve, pump or DG set switched off or bypassed right now? If the answer is yes, find out why and when it will be back.