IMPLEMENTING MAINTAINABILITY IN BUILDING MATERIAL SELECTION: A PRELIMINARY SURVEY

Abstract

The importance of maintainable designs has long been recognised. However, considering maintenance right from the beginning of choosing building material is rare. Building material selection without considering maintainability had posed greater maintenance problem in the post occupancy stage of building which have been emphasised by several researchers and practitioners in the construction industry. Conversely, the criticality of this issue to the implementation of maintainability in building material selection has yet to be empirically explored in the Malaysian perspective. As an effort to shed light into this issue, a questionnaire survey was carried out to architects, building maintenance engineers and structural engineers in Malaysia. Thus, this article discusses the benefits of implementing maintainability in material selection, the factors that thwart the implementation of maintainability in material selection, and the level of awareness and knowledge of practitioners in the construction industry on maintainability in material selection. Frequency calculations were carried out. The findings of this study is hoped to shed light to architects, building maintenance engineers and structural engineers on the critical aspects that demand examination and consideration of selection of maintainable building material in Malaysia.