How Owners Get Real Value from Facility Condition Assessments

Episode Transcript

Mollie (Host)
Welcome to Briefly Speaking, the SEH podcast that cuts straight to the chase. We tackle big topics in architecture, engineering, and construction with quick expert insights. No fluff, just the essentials, all in a few minutes. Let's dive in. Today, we're looking at facility condition assessments, a tool that owners are using more and more to understand the true state of their buildings and infrastructure. These assessments can uncover hidden issues, guide maintenance priorities, and even help secure funding for capital improvements. But getting real value out of them takes more than just a checklist. Joining us today is Matt Massa. He leads our West Region mechanical and electrical engineering team and manages many of our facility condition assessment projects. Matt has overseen assessments across the country for federal, municipal, and private owners. He's seen firsthand how goals, priorities, and decision-making can shift depending on what the owner's needs are. Today, he's here to talk about what facility condition assessments are, why they matter, and how they can be tailored to meet each owner's goals. So Matt, welcome to Briefly Speaking.

Matt (Guest)
Thanks for having me, Mollie. I'm excited to talk facility condition assessments. It'll be very riveting, I'm sure.

Mollie (Host)
No, it's exciting and I think it'll be really useful to our listeners. So let's dive on in and we're going to start kind of with the basics here. What is a facility condition assessment and why are people seeking them more often today?

Matt (Guest)
A facility condition assessment is like a checkup at the doctor's office, but it's for your building or your site. It's a systematic evaluation, but it's by a team of experts. So we're determining current conditions, we're highlighting what needs attention now, and we're recommending how and when to address those issues. So why are owners requesting these more now? I think it's because budgets are tighter, but infrastructure is still aging, so there's a competition for funding. Condition assessment gives owners expert recommendations and the justification that they need to make smart targeted investment decisions.

Related Service: Facility Condition Assessments

Mollie (Host)
I love that comparison to it being kind of like a checkup at a doctor. Obviously with those, there's a list of things that are standard to look at. What would you say, you know, we're going to keep with this theme, what would you say are the items that you always tend to focus on and look at as you're conducting a facility assessment?

Matt (Guest)
So we review all major systems. We're looking at HVAC, plumbing, power, lighting, life safety, security. And then also it's the envelope of buildings. It's the finishes, the roofs, the exterior sidewalks, even the parking lots around the facility. All of this, and then also applicable ADA and code studies, all that stuff that's important. And so where do we focus? Well, we are always trying to prioritize safety, security, code compliance first. That's kind of our top priority. But beyond that, the focus is based on what the owner's priorities are. If we know that there are trouble areas, we'll dig deeper in there. We also like to talk to the maintenance staff or even the end users at the site to uncover issues that maybe aren't obvious during a site visit, but are problems that they're seeing anyway. A lot of times what we think we're going into find is not who we're going to come out with. So I actually have an example about that. We had one facility where an owner wanted us to come in and their main issue was plumbing. There were leaks all over the place. So they wanted us to come in and we did. We found all those issues, put together recommendations. But we also found this serious electrical code issue and it was very urgent, very impactful. And so we brought that to their attention. They weren't aware of it and it jumped right to the top of their priority list. It was something they wouldn't have been able to find otherwise, but we found it for them.

Mollie (Host)
Yeah, so maybe it's not as checklist as I thought. It sounds like it's a little bit different depending on, I mean, you have the things that you want to look at, right? But I would assume that age of building or type of structure would all make a difference too.

Matt (Guest)
Yeah, for sure. So like age tells you when a systems might fail, but usage patterns can sometimes speed that up or slow it down. So again, another example, we had a facility where there were two redundant chillers. Chillers like control the cooling of the facility. And speaking with maintenance staff, we found out that the controls for the second chiller had malfunctioned pretty early on. They were just running this first chiller the whole time. So we adjusted our equipment, design life estimates, for the two pieces of equipment, and we let the owner know after you repair the controls for the second one, just be aware that you're probably going to look to replace this first chiller sooner than you would anticipate, since it's been seeing so many more operating hours. So yeah, maintenance is huge. I say it tells the story of the building. But a really a well-maintained older system could very well outperform a neglected newer system. So we weigh all those factors when we make our recommendations.

Mollie (Host)
So from your perspective, what is the greatest value that an owner gets from this type of an assessment?

Matt (Guest)
I would say clarity. Condition assessments, they turn these vague concerns that you kind of know about or you've heard about. But now it's clear, data-driven findings. And each of those findings now has a recommended mitigation, an estimated cost tied to that, and a priority. So all of that is going to drive better decision making, whether you're budgeting, planning capital projects, or trying to make a case for funding.

Mollie (Host)
I actually just heard today that clarity is kindness. And like you want to know, even if it's not great, like a major electrical issue, you want to know what's wrong so that you can fix it. Kind of in that same vein, what are some common misconceptions people have when they first start these facility assessments?

Matt (Guest)
Yeah, I think owners sometimes think that a condition assessment is gonna be just kind of this like pass-fail inspection, or maybe it's like an audit of their maintenance staff and how well they're doing, but it's not that. We're here to work with you and come up with an action plan. That's really the end goal here. As an owner, you can kind of set yourself up for success by sharing facility history. If you have any plans or drawings, small projects, that's huge. Then share your long-term vision with us. That lets us tailor the assessment to your goals. And then we're providing more than just a to-do list. We had a client who asked us to do a condition assessment. They were looking to purchase a new facility and maybe move into it. We did our assessment and we gave them an idea of the facility's needs, which was actually a really nice facility. It was nothing major maintenance wise, but based on the future plans that they shared with us, it just kind of wasn't the right fit. There was too much office space and they had this new hybrid workforce and it was missing some of the key components that they really needed on site. So the assessment report kind of justified for them that even though the facility's in great condition, probably should be a pass.

Mollie (Host)
If it's not like a pass or fail, what do they get at the end of this? What does it look like?

Matt (Guest)
So it's a list of findings, but like I said, it's kind of like this action plan. We want to try to prioritize all of our findings and our recommendations by their urgency and their impact and also the mitigation costs, right? Right away, we want to identify any safety concerns, any code compliance issues. All of those are always our priority one items. Usually we'll inform the client if we see any of those before we even leave the site the day that we're there. For all the other findings, we kind of head back to the office and start working through a mitigation plan. We want to put forward solutions that are addressing the root cause of the issue, but that are also cost effective and take into account the future plans of the facility. So we're always trying to prioritize according to operational and budget realities. Our end product isn't just this to-do list, it's a roadmap and it's what actions should you take in six months, a year, three years, five years, 10, 20.

Related Content: Tailoring Facility Assessments for Federal, Municipal, and Private Owners

Mollie (Host)
That sounds like it's kind of laid out almost like a comp plan for a community, right? But it's just on a smaller scale. And it sounds to me very beneficial. You have it all laid out of the descriptions of what you're seeing, and then which ones are kind of the higher alarm bells that should probably be focused on first, or if they have only funds for a certain amount of projects, these are the ones that those should go towards. And since we're talking about funds, Have you seen any assessments like this directly help secure funding or justify capital improvements? I mean, that one I could see for sure about justifying it because you have the list, you have the descriptions that you already went through. But has it helped secure funding before?

Matt (Guest)
Yeah, absolutely. I think we see that a lot. So our detailed condition data that we provide is tied to cost estimates and then it highlights real impact on the end users. So all of that goes together and can strengthen grant application, a bond request, or a budget proposal. For some clients, the condition assessment is actually the evidence they use to move a project from wish list to approved. But I also want to highlight something else here. Sometimes an assessment can free up funding that's been earmarked or perceived critical issues. SEH has had a lot of success, specifically with the technology our subsidiary RAM Companies uses for roofing assessments, where we can very accurately pinpoint problem areas on roofs and come in with specific repairs instead of a full roof replacement. So maybe an owner is holding back like $1,000,000 for a full roof replacement they think they need. Now we can prove to them that they can extend the life of their roof the same amount for just a fraction of that budget. And suddenly we freed up all that funding for their other wishlist items.

Mollie (Host)
No, that totally makes sense. Your answer earlier of clarity really feels spot on because if you have this idea that, oh, we need our whole roof done, for instance, and then you can only fix one little spot, well, that's a lot of money. That frees up a lot more projects that you could do than elsewhere in the building. So that makes a lot of sense.

Matt (Guest)
Yeah, it's the checkup, right? You want to have experts tell you what to do instead of go on with MD and figure it out yourself, or you might not be right.

Mollie (Host)
So we're going to go back to the intro here where we talked about your background a little bit. You've led assessments for federal, municipal, and private owners. How do priorities and goals differ between those sectors?

Matt (Guest)
So for federal clients, I think what we see often is they're focused on compliance, long-term asset management. They really want the most robust and sustainable assets. Municipal owners, they tend to be more budget driven because they kind of have tighter budgets to work with. So prioritizing is something we do a lot with them, but they also have the strongest emphasis on public safety. And then private owners, I would say we are prioritizing return on investment. Often we're providing cost benefit analysis for them where they're weighing if they should continue to own and maintain this asset, or maybe it's time for them to consider selling it and purchasing something new. So we kind of tailored our condition assessment based on the goals of each of these sectors. But I'll also say that sometimes when we like to suggest lessons learned from one sector to another, because what we might find over here can help an owner over there be more strategic in that planning.

Related Content: 7 Signs Your Wastewater Facility Needs a Condition Assessment

Mollie (Host)
Can you give any examples? I know you've given a lot already today, so I'm just asking for more. But where tailoring your approach made a significant difference in helping meet an owner's goals.

Matt (Guest)
So for one client, we had, they had a large portfolio of facilities and their main goal that they shared with us was improving energy efficiency. So the thing we did was we built in an energy audit into the core assessment that we were going to provide for them. We created energy models and we benchmarked each of their facilities and we really, we highlighted which improvements would move the needle the most for them on their energy consumption. And this was really, it was key for them because now they could prioritize funding for specific facilities and those specific improvements that had the greatest sustainability impact. So we could tailor whatever it is that if your goal, we can tailor our findings and get you that information you need to really put your money to work the best that you can.

Mollie (Host)
How often do people need to be doing these? Is it, sounds like, you know, you're pretty thorough with it or can be, I guess we could really look fine-tuned, like we were just talking about with tailoring the assessment, or it could be more of an overarching one. How often are these typically conducted?

Matt (Guest)
We've seen it everywhere from three-year cycling to five years. I would say what my recommendation here is, once you get that first facility condition assessment, don't think of it as a one and done thing. Like this should be a living document. The best way you can get value out of one of these is revisit it regularly, especially around budget planning.

Mollie (Host)
Yeah, that makes sense. It's a living document, right? You don't just want to put it in a desk and then never look at it again. So if somebody, if an owner is planning on having their facilities assessed, where do they start? Who do they talk to? Where do they look? Do they need to come with information ahead of time? How do those conversations start?

Matt (Guest)
I think the best thing that an owner could do right up front is be honest with themselves about what their goals are. If you can start defining your goals up front, Are you trying to extend the life of your facilities or are you trying to be more sustainable? Or are you just trying to justify funding or figure out which assets maybe aren't really bringing you an ROI anymore? That's really the best thing to do right off the bat. Because then as soon as you engage SEH or anyone who is an expert with condition assessments, we know exactly what to bring to the table to get you to the information you need. It's a collaborative process. And the earlier we can be involved, the sooner we can start making sure that you get value and clarity on the information we provide.

Mollie (Host)
And contact you, Matt, to ask questions. If somebody did want to contact you, what's a good e-mail or way to reach you?

Matt (Guest)
Can reach me at mmassa, that's like beginning of Massachusetts, at SEHinc.com (mmassa@sehinc.com).

Mollie (Host)
That's all for our episode of Briefly Speaking. Thanks to Matt for breaking down what makes facility condition assessments a smart investment and how they can shape better planning, maintenance, and funding outcomes. For more on facility assessments or to connect with Matt, shoot him an e-mail or visit sehinc.com. And don't forget to subscribe to Briefly Speaking for more quick expert conversations on the issues that shape our communities.