CONSTRUCTION MAINTENANCE ASSIGNMENT

NJUNGE EVANS KIMANI (B66/35234/2014)

UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
QUANTITY SURVEYING
Maintenance is very key aspect that is often ignored by many owners and users of properties. A
well maintained property is a plus in the long run for it prolongs the usage of the property and
hence results to sustainability of the property. So this goes to ask ourselves what is maintenance?
Maintenance is the act of restoring or retaining any material to an acceptable standard for a
longer useful – life. This results to the item being self-sustainable, to the sense that the item in
question will be able to operate effectively and efficiently without breakdowns or shutdowns.
Sustainability refers to the ability of an item to be able to meet its needs without affecting or
compromising the ability for future generations to meet their own needs. Therefore, proper and
efficient maintenance of property results to self-sustainability of the item in question.

Grounds in the construction industry, constitute of the area or piece of land on which its intended
purpose has been put into use, which in this case can be used for construction. Where a part can
be set aside to be used for landscaping, parkings or drive-ways. The maintenance of these
grounds is key to the management of the grounds. A well maintained ground is often referred to
as an asset to the user or owner of the grounds. Well maintained grounds change the overall
surrounding of the adjacent grounds resulting to the feeling of satisfaction to the owner or user of
the grounds. A well maintained ground increases the value of the ground in monitory terms and
also helps build prestige to the owner or user of the ground. The increased value of the ground as
a result of proper maintenance can be a boost to the owner or user of the ground as security if
he/she ever wanted to get financial assistance from financial institutions.

For all of these attributes to be relevant there are various activities that are necessary to result to
the proper maintenance of the grounds. These activities include retaining/ keeping activities.
These activities can be planned or can be carried out to prevent a future failure. These activities
are carried out to prevent the probability of a failure or poor performance of item in question.
These activities include; cleaning of drains. This can be done regularly and can be planned to be
carried out either weekly or monthly so as to ensure there is no clogging of the drain pipes and
ensuring free flow of the water. Testing and servicing of the pipes and hoses required to provide
water to the landscaped grounds. These pipes have to be ensured that they are maintained and
checked regularly this can be planned either monthly or even weekly this results to continuous
supply of water to the lawns and landscapes. Servicing and ensuring running of generators. This
can be planned either weekly. Thus can be done by ensuring all the generators have the required
fuel and oil needed to ensure efficient running of the generators. Cleaning of the parking floors
and drive ways should be also be carried out frequently. These activities can be planned to take
place daily to ensure there is no accumulation of dirt that would result to the lack of execution of
its normal use.

Corrective maintenance can be carried out to ensure the proper maintenance of the grounds.
These activities are done when failure has already occurred and its main purpose is to return the
so called item to its usable state. Failure has to occur for these activities to be carried out. These
activities include replacement of water pipes, hoses if found that they are torn and unfit for use.
Replacement of generator parts or the whole generator itself can be also activities that can be
carried out as corrective measures. Also murram drive ways that have developed pot holes can be
replaced with cabro drive ways or asphalt drive ways which can give a longer useful life than
murram parkings or driveways. The drains also can be replaced if they break or clog up. If they
clog, exhausters can be called to suck out the clogged drains to ensure a good flow. The
manicured landscape should be also well watered and if it isn’t watered the grass can dry up and
can result to the complete change and replanting of the dried grass.

Some activities can find the users or owners as an emergency such as the knocking down of the
generator by some unforeseen circumstances like fires and accidents and would result to the
immediate repair of the generator. Overnight rains may result to floods which may also clog the
drains and result to emergency situations to remove the nuisance in the drains. Earthquakes and
earth movements may also result to cracks on the driveways, pavement or the well-manicured
lawns and landscapes hence resulting to immediate action to fill the holes and the cracks
resulting thereof.

Improvement activities can also be carried out to help enhance the sustainability of the item. This
can be done on various items, like changing the grass to ones which require lesser water to
survive. Changing the generator to ones which are more environmentally friendly. Having
different options of the drive ways and parkings selection materials, like preferring cabro to
asphalt covering. Also adding specialized personnel to cater and do the maintenance activities
can help improve its effectiveness. For the activities would be carried out with some degree of
expertise leading to effective and efficient results. Decoration is also an improvement activity.
You can decorate the lawns and landscape with beautiful trees and good scented flowers this
enhances the aesthetics and the overall appearance and image. One can also enhance lighting by
putting various outdoor lights to the parkings, driveways and lawns giving out an enjoyable
lasting experience one would want. One can also put up some wonderfully decorated sculptures
which enhance the overall appearance and image of the grounds.

These activities if carried out results to the wonderful outlook of the grounds. These leads to
more appealing looks and results to a sense of satisfaction to the users and owners of the
grounds. This goes without say that proper maintenance of grounds results to more gain, the
economic value of ensuring proper maintenance of grounds cannot be compared to the overall
result got from the maintenance. For in the long-run proper maintenance is cheaper than lack of
maintenance hence the need for ensuring proper maintenance of the grounds.