When it comes to maintaining pipes in commercial buildings, why should you take a preventative maintenance approach? If you’re currently operating on a reactive maintenance basis, waiting for pipe failures to occur, upgrading to preventative maintenance can ensure you avoid costly, urgent major repairs.
Reactive maintenance vs preventative maintenance
Reactive plumbing maintenance is essentially waiting for when a failure happens before taking any action. Emergency repairs, water damage to buildings and disruptions to business make this a risky strategy.
Preventative maintenance, on the other hand, means having regular pipe inspections in order to catch the early warning signs of pipe failure scheduling repairs of critical elements before they fail.
Making a preventative maintenance plan
Pipes will generally age at the same rate, however various factors, including the environment, can cause some areas to wear over others. An audit provides clear guidelines on what is critical to do and maps out when the entire plumbing system will need restoration.
A preventative maintenance plan starts with a total building pipe assessment to identify the stages of pipe failure throughout the system. The aim is to provide a time-line for pipe failure and an action plan for restoring pipes to minimise cost and disruption.
The first stage of pipe failure
The first stage of plumbing failure is often corrosion. In your potable water lines, this could mean a drop in water pressure. For your drain lines, it could mean slow drains or more frequent clogging of your drain system.
The second stage of pipe failure
The second stage involves noticeable leaks. For your water supply lines, this could mean visible water marks on ceilings and walls. For your drain lines, it could mean a sewer backup.
The final stage of pipe failure
The final stage is complete failure. For your potable water lines, this could mean a major rupture and flooding inside your building. For your sewer lines, it could mean sewage leaking on your grounds and forming noticeable puddles and soggy areas.
Identify pipe issues in the early stages
Preventative maintenance is designed to prevent these types of plumbing failures by replacing or relining pipes before they develop significant leaks.
If you’re having trouble convincing stakeholders of the need for a building pipe assessment, our trained technicians can provide you with an estimate for the assessment and information on the benefits. You can use this as a comparison with your repair and replacement bills for the last 12 months. Our pipe relining technicians can also give you estimates for relining your pipes.
Book a pipe assessment
Make the switch to preventative maintenance with a comprehensive pipe assessment. This assessment details the age of your pipes and accurately describes their condition so that you can make a plan to reline or replace pipes well ahead of any problems.
To book in a pipe assessment visit our booking page or call 1800 683 569 within Australia or 0800 168 356 in New Zealand.
