Evaluations are often put on the back burner, which causes problems later.

“You need to do things to improve water tightness and improve the integrity of the building, including putting on a new roof, restoring walls, replacing windows for energy efficiency, and upgrades that improve energy efficiency,” says Paul Totten, WSP vice president, Building Enclosures Division.

“You want to do a pre-warranty expiration walk well in advance of when those warranties expire,” Totten says. “If the average warranty for the building is one year, then do this walk at eight months, so you have four months to get the companies to do any work that’s needed. You do not want to do this walk on the last day of your warranty, because if there is pushback, you will be out of warranty.”

Although visual checks are beneficial, Lstiburek says adding infrared scanning systems, which cost less than $500 and attach to a smartphone, offer more accurate assessments.

“Use these systems to scan the entire perimeter of your building and roof to see if there is a problem,” he says. “When you do this, you’re going to find problems early when they are still easy to fix. If you find them five to 10 years down the road, they are going to cost many thousands of dollars to repair.”

Totten also recommends bringing in qualified engineers to examine the building envelope every two to three years.

He says evaluations are often put on the back burner, which causes problems later.

Managers should use an electronic calendar to remind them to do inspections before any problems pop up, says Totten. Then, set a reminder eight months ahead and continue reminders as the date gets closer. This system will help keep maintenance on schedule, he says.

Totten says take care of low-hanging fruit and perform repairs before systems fail.

“This prevents long-term and larger problems,” Totten says. “You need to really understand what the space is being used for, what critical infrastructure is there that you need to keep watertight, and what’s below grade that might be impacted by water leakage.”

“You may not be able to budget the repairs for today, but you have the ability to dynamically budget to get them done over time,” Brandt says. “If you know it’s a $100,000 problem, you can do a phased repair, spending $10,000 a year for 10 years. Even that is better than just ignoring it for several years.”

Totten also recommends having a rainy-day fund for unforeseen expenses.

“Set this money aside and make it untouchable for any other project,” he says. “Keep it for those projects you do not expect.”

Ronnie Wendt is a freelance writer based in Minocqua, Wisconsin. 

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