There’s One Asset Class That Often Goes Years Without Maintenance or Replacement

And that’s plumbing. Because of the longevity and inaccessibility of plumbing in facilities management, maintenance can be difficult to execute. While you might regularly adjust and replace plumbing fixtures and components that are more visible, other components (such as those inside walls or underground) may be left alone for decades. As you can imagine, it can be easy to forget about these assets over the years in favor of other needs in HVAC/R, lighting, electrical, fire/life safety, signage, and others.

However, this situation conflicts with many of the goals and focuses of facility managers today. For example, sustainability is likely one of your top priorities alongside managing costs and keeping locations up and running. Goals such as water conservation, leak detection, smart monitoring solutions, greywater repurposing, and implementing more sustainable materials (among countless others) all mean you need to be aware of existing plumbing systems, their performance, and where you can make improvements.

So, what’s the best approach to plumbing in facilities management? One that doesn’t equate to flushing your budget down the drain thanks to demolition and reconstruction expenses? One that doesn’t lead to facility closures, lost revenue for the business (or the tenant if you rent the space), and other financial setbacks? The answer is simple: work with a facility asset maintenance aggregator.

How an Aggregator Helps with Plumbing in Facilities Management

First, an aggregator is a company that manages a significant portion of your facility asset maintenance needs. Whereas you might currently be working with self-performing commercial service vendors near each of your locations, companies with anywhere from 50 to 500 locations benefit from working with an aggregator because they assume responsibility for this work entirely — and more.

Aggregators identify and manage vendors on your behalf, assess and analyze the assets across your entire footprint, build proactive maintenance plans, and assist in your annual budget planning. Some additional ways that an aggregator can help you get ahead on plumbing in facilities management include:

  • Addressing old infrastructure — Depending on your facilities, it’s not unreasonable that the plumbing infrastructure itself is just as old as the building — especially for systems located in walls/floors. By conducting testing and assessing asset documentation and other historical data, your aggregator partner will be able to help you build out a managed plan for addressing aging infrastructure before it turns into costly problems and damage.
  • Prioritizing maintenance to control costs — Plumbing assets can last a long time, but that doesn’t mean they don’t experience wear and tear that can dramatically shorten their lifespan. Proactive maintenance is critical for plumbing assets, but it can be prioritized based on need, financial/operational impact, asset age, and other variables. Your aggregator partner will be able to help you determine priority.
  • Vendor consolidation — Apart from the assets themselves, working with an aggregator reduces the amount of time and effort your team has to invest in finding, onboarding, and communicating with self-performing plumbing vendors that support the areas where your facilities are located. Imagine the productivity boost your team will receive in not having to deal with the back and forth with current and prospective vendors. Additionally, you won’t have to deal with finding a vendor should an emergency arise — your aggregator will handle it for you.
  • Budget planning using CapEx funding — Large-scale replacement of older plumbing assets can be expensive. Rather than waiting until a plumbing asset fails and paying reactively out of OpEx funds, an aggregator can help you identify facilities where such replacements may be needed ahead of time so you can factor those projects into CapEx budgets. This allows you to amortize the cost over time while keeping the location’s operational budgets dedicated to other needs.

Stop the Leak: Managing Plumbing Costs with a Facility Management Aggregator

Get your copy of our in-depth guide to commercial plumbing maintenance here and learn how to proactively manage plumbing maintenance costs across all of your locations.

Put Our Expertise to the Test

As one of the leading facility asset maintenance aggregators in the country, CLS Facility Services works with organizations across a variety of industries to help them with all manner of maintenance needs. As experts in plumbing maintenance, we know the challenges you’re up against. Entrust your plumbing needs to us, and benefit from:

  • Complete support for all of your locations across the United States
  • A partnership built on more than 50 years of experience and tenure
  • A single dedicated account management/emergency contact team
  • An online asset management portal available to you 24/7/365
  • A national network of tenured, proven commercial service vendors
  • Support with budgeting and CapEx planning
  • And much, much more

If you’re ready to take a new approach to plumbing in facilities management, our team is ready to help. Connect with us below or book a time that works best for you.