Inspections
to Establish a Baseline Condition Report
Robert
S. Michaud, P.E.
April 30, 2020
One
of the most important, yet often overlooked, reasons for building
and/or site inspections is to establish a baseline report of the
condition of those assets at a particular point in time. This can be
extremely useful to various interested parties for a number of
reasons. They include:
- Building owners: Baseline information gives them a starting point for their capital and maintenance planning
- Maintenance managers: It provides them with important information on the current state of the site and building and their current needs. It also gives them data that can be used to begin prioritizing their maintenance approach.
- Building occupants / tenants: It provides them with key information about the building and its equipment that can be used to negotiate with the building owners for the purposes of planning and determining responsibility. For instance, if a problem is noticed by the building owner at some point in the future, but the tenant can show that it had been identified at the time of the baseline inspection, the responsibility for correcting the problem may change.
- Maintenance service providers: Similar to the case for maintenance managers and tenants – it allows them to develop a road map and a plan to provide prioritized, effective service to their clients while at the same time, protecting them from blame in the case of pre-existing conditions.
After
determining “why” you should conduct a baseline inspection, the
next question to ask is “how”. There are a few facets to this
answer.
The
first consideration is who should conduct the inspection. The best
answer is a disinterested third party – specifically a qualified
inspector with the requisite experience to provide a thorough
analysis of the buildings and / or site, but does not have a stake in
the outcome of the inspection. This firm or individual should not
have ties to the client or other interested party, nor to a
contractor or other firm that may benefit by way of future contracts
as a result of the findings.
Next
is the level of detail required for this baseline report. This
really depends on the client and the intended use of the data in the
future. If the primary need for the baseline is to simply establish
a “snapshot” of the facility, site and equipment at the time of
the inspection, then a basic inspection with photographs, annotated
floor plans, and a narrative descriptive report of the conditions
observed would be sufficient. On the other hand, if this report is
going to be used to prioritize maintenance efforts and capital
replacement spending, then a more thorough and detailed facilities
condition assessment may be in order. This condition assessment
would include estimated values of the various building components and
systems along with estimated costs for correcting problems found
during the inspection.
The
above paragraphs cover the topics of “who”, “how”, “why”,
and “what” baseline inspections are, so the last item to be
covered is “when”. This is an extremely important consideration
as well, and to a certain extent, it depends on “who” is calling
for the inspection. For building owners and facilities maintenance
managers, the answer should be – as soon as possible. The sooner
this data can be collected, the sooner a plan of action can be
established to address any problems found. In the case of a tenant
or facilities maintenance service provider, the best answer is before
move in or the start of contracted services. This baseline will
provide the cleanest look into the conditions at the facility before
the introduction of the new party. Having said that, it can still be
performed later, but the benefits are not as great as having that
“clean slate” to start with at the beginning of a contract or
lease.
Robert
S. Michaud, P.E. is a licensed engineer in three states and has been
providing detailed building inspections for over 15 years.
© Michaud Engineering Inc. 2020
