Plumbing system upgrades remain popular options for maintenance and engineering managers, according to an article from Facility Maintenance Decisions on the FacilitiesNet website.

Each new generation of plumbing products — flush valves, faucets and toilets — offers a host of potential benefits to institutional and commercial facilities, increasing the appeal of upgrades.

One key challenge in ensuring the success of upgrades is identifying the specific goal of the upgrade clearly and early, whether that goal is minimizing maintenance, saving water or improving restroom hygiene. Without a clear goal, it will be difficult to measure the return on the investment and the overall success of the finished project.

Among the maintenance considerations that most often drive the decision to upgrade plumbing systems are the components’ age, previous upgrades, severity of use, regulatory mandates, and increases in workloads due to facility add-ons.

The older a plumbing system is, the more an upgrade will benefit its operational and maintenance efficiency. If a building is 40 years old, the amount of deferred maintenance, including the need for replacement with more modern fixtures and piping, probably has grown to the point where these costs are much higher than the costs for more modern fixtures.

Read the article.