Maintenance of Historic Buildings: A Practical Handbook

Maintenance helps to preserve the significance of a historic building, retaining both the structural integrity of the building fabric and its appearance. Maintenance can extend a building's life, reduce or remove the need for repairs and ultimately offers a sustainable approach to the conservation of our heritage. It is therefore recognized by conservation professionals as one of the most important activities involved in caring for historic buildings. Despite this, it is still often considered a low priority by building owners. This extremely useful sourcebook provides a model for planning a maintenance programme which will reduce unnecessary subsequent costs. By following this guide building managers and conservation advisors can produce a definitive logbook covering all maintenance needs, including timing for repairs and accurate budgeting. Using simple work cards, it sets out responsibilities, explains the nature of the tasks, shows how they should be performed, where they are and who should undertake them. It also demonstrates how routine inspections can be undertaken with minimal disturbance by the owner/manager. The useful checklists and spreadsheets act as an aide-memoire to assist with the process.