By Justin Bayer, Knott Laboratory, LLC. 

Facility Condition Assessments (FCA), or Building Infrastructure Inspections (as some companies refer to them), have become increasingly more relevant in light of a handful of major, and catastrophic in some cases, structural failures in recent years.  This isn’t to say that they should have ever flown under the radar, but as with many examples in life, often times things like proper monitoring and maintenance aren’t top of mind until we see the real-life impact that deferment can have upon our buildings, our communities, our vehicles, our health, and so much more. 

What is a Facility Condition Assessment? 

So, what exactly is a Facility Condition Assessment? I feel like we can keep things fairly simple here; a Facility Condition Assessment is a report and report card for the civil, structural, and building envelope elements of your building/community.  They can also include mechanical elements like HVAC systems, boilers, pipesand more. 

Let’s provide a brief overview of these structural, civil, and building envelope elements. Structural elements cover things like stairs, balconies, decks, foundations, parking garages, and retaining walls, to name a few.  Civil elements involve grading and drainage, roads and sidewalks, and the earth around your building.  The building envelope serves to keep moisture (the building’s archnemesis) out of, well, the building itself, with elements like the roof, the windows, the siding, as well as preventing moisture from entering other areas like parking garages and crawl spaces.

A Facility Condition Assessment provides the building/community with a detailed report about all of the elements listed above, and assigns a grade to them, ensuring that the community knows what state of repair each of those elements are in.  A “report card” will also provide the community with the knowledge to navigate what to actually do with those grades.  An A grade? Things are good!  How about a C or D grade? Maintenance is likely required pretty soon, or even now, so start the process of prepping to repair (which hopefully the community is prepared for through careful planning and the many resources that CAI offers like reserve study companies, banks, and engineers/general contractors). 

To engage in this type of service, you can reach out to an engineering firm, many of which are active members of CAI-RMC. 

What Type of Property/Building Benefits from a Facility Condition Assessment?

The benefits of having a Facility Condition Assessment are far-reaching. The most obvious candidates are older buildings, with a history of deferred maintenance.  Maybe your building was constructed in 1960, or even 1990 (30+ years old now, where does the time go?!), and it hasn’t had much done to keep it up to date; an FCA can be monumental in prioritizing those maintenance tasks, and often times can catch potentially impactful and serious issues. 

Other buildings and communities pursue an FCA in order to be proactive and to plan ahead.  The cost savings of tackling a future issue before it becomes a current issue are legitimate.  Think of it like getting a check up on your vehicle and finding out that it needs new brakes and rotors. That is not an insignificant cost…although it’s a lot cheaper than having the brakes fail while driving and leading to potentially disastrous consequences. The cost delta between proactive and reactive is immeasurable. 

Lastly, a new building or community going through something like a developer transition, or coming to the end of their statute of repose, can use an FCA to ensure they are taken care of by a warranty or a developer before the cost of repairs transfer solely to the community. 

Why would a board need this type of service if there are currently no concerns, but the building is aging?

Great question, and quite understandable. 

Think of it like going to the doctor; you may not know anything is going on and you may feel great. It is not until they draw blood and run some tests that you find out you have a serious illness. The doctors know what symptoms or testing to run to find problems based on your health history, and their education and experiences. Similarly, with buildings, you need somebody who understands how buildings age and deteriorate. These minor signs might mean nothing to the average building resident or homeowner, but they mean a tremendous amount to an expert who diagnoses and witnesses these failures on a regular basis, and who knows what the early symptoms look like. An experienced forensic engineer will know what to look for, diagnose, and get out in front of before these minor issues become major problems, similar to how discovering an illness early can save a life. Diagnosing a major problem early likely does not save a life, but it certainly saves substantially on repair costs. 

Speaking of diagnosing problems early, it should not be understated that this does provide substantial cost savings to the community. As we have seen in Florida with the newly established regulations and requirements for condition assessments and funded reserves*, it is very difficult to get financing for major structural repairs. There is no collateral available when a building has financing on it already, so funding major repairs can be a huge problem, whereas incremental increases in expenses that are planned for are manageable for owners. 

Furthermore, reserve studies (a truly vital tool) are catching and helping communities plan for routine maintenance costs like replacing boilers or roofing, or repainting the decks, and much more. They are not, however, intended to act as a forensic engineer examining structural degradation of the buildings, nor do they advertise themselves as such. Our buildings are generally designed with around a 50-to-70-year service life, but that requires proper maintenance to achieve. Remember, modern construction is lighter and more economically built than those structures of the Romans, and that means there is less redundancy in the system. If you're planning to achieve this service life, you're definitely going to have rather significant repair/maintenance costs you need to budget for.

Impactful laws, regulations, and requirements are being implemented more often than ever in the wake of the tragedies and lessons of past failures. I implore you to stay vigilant and educated in these matters, as they are truly meaningful to communities, community managers, management companies, and Boards.  CAI has a plethora of resources to remain knowledgeable on topics like Facility Condition Assessments. Make sure to take full advantage of those resources; your building systems, and most importantly your residents/neighbors, will thank you for it. 

Justin Bayer is the Vice President of Business Development for Knott Laboratory, a forensic engineering firm.  He is an active and involved member of CAI in multiple states, including the immediate past president and a current member of the Executive Board for CAI-Rocky Mountain Chapter. 

* https://condominiumassociates.com/blog/2024/10/15/understanding-the-importance-of-reserves-for-your-condo-or-hoa-in-2024#:~:text=Answer%3A%20As%20of%202024%2C%20Florida,funded%20to%20cover%20future%20repairs.