Often people wait until a building looks worn and dated with cracked and peeling paintwork before any painting work is carried out, rather than trying to maintain it so it consistently looks good.
It may seem like a cheaper strategy to leave painting work as long as possible. However it actually could cost more to remedy the appearance of a building after it starts to deteriorate as it’s likely to need extensive preparation and replacement of costly substrates prior to repainting.
Ongoing maintenance painting ensures a building always looks well presented and modern, but it can also reduce future replacement costs. An example of this is maintaining the paint finish on windows as part of a long term maintenance painting programme. This extends the life span of the windows and eliminates the cost associated with ongoing replacement.
The benefits of ongoing maintenance based on appearance are demonstrated in the graph below. Across a 6 year period with preventative maintenance painting the appearance of a building stays relatively the same, whereas in relation to ad hoc reactive painting the appearance of a building steadily declines.
Generally, a painting maintenance program is constructed over a set period of time (typically a minimum of 5 years). Usually it consists of a full repaint of all facilities followed by annual maintenance painting services. Externally this would include cleaning soiled and weather affected painted surfaces followed by painting of any painted surfaces that have been damaged by normal wear and tear.
In most cases the cleaning component will include detergent pressure washing of painted surfaces to remove dirt and grime. External paint cleaning is a critical part of the process and a simple analogy to this is cleaning our cars regularly to protect paint work from oxidation caused by the sun’s UV rays. This is no different to cleaning painted surfaces on buildings as these surfaces are exposed to the same harsh environmental conditions.
Below is a simplistic example of cost savings achieved by maintaining a typical external painted window.
As the window has not been maintained, it will need the following repairs:
Repair damaged window sill, seal and prime $240.00
Replace all loose window putty, re-seal and prime $190.00
Paint entire window and frames with 2 coats: $160.00
Total Cost $590
If this window was maintained annually during a 6 year period by washing and touch up work the cost would have typically been $160 in the first year, and then $40 per year for the remaining 5 years. The total cost of this comes to $360.00, which represents a saving of nearly 40%
Plus by engaging a company to manage your maintenance painting you have specialists prolonging the life of your asset while you stay focused on your core business. Extensive cost savings can be demonstrated when comparing the cost of employing full time trades people to outsourcing.
