Enhancing Longevity With Building Inspection Software - Guide For New Businesses

The Importance of Sturdy and Eco Friendly Buildings

Buildings exert a more profound impact on our health than we might realize, considering that people spend between 85% and 95% of their time indoors. 

Health concerns such as headaches, nausea, exhaustion, and an increased likelihood of bacterial spread can arise from poor ventilation and indoor air quality, noise, incorrect materials, poor design, and humidity levels. Long-term consequences may encompass respiratory disorders, a heightened risk of significant health problems, and fire hazards.

Recent years have witnessed various viral epidemics, including COVID-19, SARS, and Swine Flu, significantly impacting both individual health and corporate outcomes. Improving building ventilation systems and constructing buildings appropriately, such as providing adequate sinks for handwashing, can help mitigate the effects of these viruses.

Buildings also influence people's productivity and cognitive performance, thereby impacting tenant satisfaction rates. Healthcare institutions, schools, office buildings, shops, hotels, and other structures are all affected by their health status. 

Downplaying the importance of healthy buildings may result in increased costs for later system upgrades and legal expenses if health risks are associated with a building.

Research suggests that high-performance ventilation systems can lower respiratory diseases by 9-20%, contributing to a productivity increase of 0.48–11%.

Healthy buildings offer numerous benefits, including reduced healthcare expenses for tenants and workers, shorter patient recovery times, higher staff retention, and increased production levels.

Considerations such as acoustics, lighting, air quality and filtration, temperature control, adequate HVAC systems, materials, humidity levels, and amenities play crucial roles in maintaining healthy buildings. 

Which Buildings Need Health Optimization The Most?

1. Healthcare Facilities

Improved physician and nurse staff retention, shortened patient recovery times, lower energy and water use, better newborn sleep patterns and development, and lower operational expenses are some advantages of health-optimized buildings. 

For instance, a hospital's pressurization building restrictions might result in a 20% reduction in the power expenditure for the air conditioning system.

2. Residential Buildings

Building safe home structures becomes a need rather than a luxury. According to certain statistics, healthy buildings might command a 20% higher rental price. 

For this reason, making the most of recently created or existing structures is crucial.

3. Office Buildings

Typically, salaries make up up to 90% of the operational expenses of a company. A company's bottom line depends on employee engagement, retention, turnover, and productivity. 

Workplaces also have an impact on the health and happiness of those who occupy them, such as workers. It makes perfect sense to design healthy workplace buildings because of this.

4. Schools and Other Educational Facilities

Research shows that when schools are well-maintained, students' health, attendance, and academic achievement all increase. Everyone can see that healthy buildings are great for society as a whole, but especially for educational institutions like schools.

Optimizing Efficiency through Preventive Measures

A well-maintained system will function more efficiently, resulting in less disturbance.

By taking preventative action, you can minimize downtime brought on by malfunctioning or broken equipment, which can enhance production. The following are some essential tactics to maintain efficiency:

• Routine checks: Make sure to check for any problems on a regular basis so you can catch them before they become expensive fixes.‍
• Servicing: Maintaining your systems at top performance requires regular servicing, such as filter cleaning and setting adjustments according to use patterns.‍
• Timely repairs and replacements: If problems are caught early on, they can be fixed on a smaller scale, avoiding costly component failure and premature unit replacements.

Which Elements Need To Be Inspected For a Healthy Building?

These initiatives (commissioning, green certifications, sustainable design, and more) contribute to healthier buildings. But what particular features in buildings need to be optimized? Let's look at the most crucial aspects of healthy structures.

Indoor Air Quality

Our health is significantly impacted by the quality of the air we breathe. The fact is, that air pollution poses a serious risk to human health. However, how can the quality of indoor air be raised?

To receive a WELL certification, several prerequisites must be met, some of which include replacing ventilation and/or air filtration systems, monitoring air quality, controlling humidity, ensuring that airflow is optimal, enforcing a no-smoking policy indoors, controlling outside air quality, managing construction pollution, and monitoring airflow.

Lighting

Individual productivity can increase by 0.7-23% with proper illumination, and headaches and sick building syndrome can be reduced by 10% to 25%. Choosing high-quality lighting fixtures and making the most of natural light are two actions that can be made to enhance a building's lighting.

Thermal Control

It has been shown that giving each employee their temperature control reduces symptoms of sick building syndrome, lowers absenteeism, and boosts productivity by 0.2–3%. Because of this, a vital component of a healthy structure is sustainable and healthy temperature regulation.

Mold

Keeping a healthy interior environment requires regularly inspecting buildings for mold. In places that are prone to dampness, ventilation systems, HVAC performance, and appropriate airflow should all be closely examined. It is important to inspect windows, walls, and roofs for leaks or water damage. 

Any problems should be fixed right once to stop the spread of mold. To prevent condensation and water infiltration, insulation and external features should be assessed, and plumbing systems, basements, and crawl spaces should all be thoroughly inspected for leaks and moisture.

Water Quality

For a building to be healthy, excellent water quality must be maintained. Plumbing systems must undergo regular inspections to detect and fix any problems that might jeopardize the purity of the water. This involves making sure pipelines and fixtures are made of materials that adhere to safety regulations and inspecting them for leaks and corrosion. 

On top of that, it is essential to do routine testing for pollutants and to verify compliance with legal criteria by thoroughly inspecting all water sources, including wells and municipal supplies. 

How Building Inspection Software Can Help

Quality inspection software provides a complete answer to the problems the construction sector faces. Among the ways it may enhance productivity and quality assurance are as follows:

• Streamlined Communication: A project's ability to be completed successfully depends on the team, clients, and stakeholders all having effective communication. By giving all stakeholders a unified platform for communication and collaboration, inspection control software lowers delays and misunderstandings.‍
• Real-Time Monitoring: Project managers can monitor projects in real-time using maintenance inspection software, which enables them to see problems early and take swift action to resolve them. This aids in upholding project timelines and guaranteeing prompt completion.‍
• Quality Control Checklists: Customizable checklists are a feature of many quality inspection software programs, assisting in making sure that all required quality control procedures are followed throughout the project.‍
• Document Management: There is a lot of documentation involved with construction projects, so keeping track of everything may be difficult. All papers may be digitally handled and kept using inspection control software, which enhances accessibility and organization.‍
• Data Analytics: Throughout the course of a project, data is gathered by building inspection software, which offers insightful information on the project's performance and potential improvement areas. It helps in increasing productivity and spotting any possible problems with quality control.

Building Certification and Standards

Building Certification #1: WELL Building Standard

With an emphasis on the health and wellbeing of building inhabitants, the WELL Building Standard is an internationally recognized accreditation.

It is a performance-based system that evaluates, validates, and tracks built environments to support human health and well-being. It was created by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). Air, water, food, light, mobility, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind, and community are the 10 categories that make up the standard.

Gaining a competitive advantage in the market and showcasing your dedication to creating healthy environments are two great reasons to get certified as WELL designers.

Building Certification #2: LEED Certification

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) created the internationally known LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification system.

Energy efficiency, sustainability, and occupant health are given top priority in LEED-certified buildings via the integration of diverse built environment solutions. For new construction, existing buildings, interiors, and community development, LEED certification is offered.

A building may become Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum certified based on how many points it has accrued.

The certification is based on a points system. A LEED certification raises the marketability and value of a home while demonstrating a commitment to sustainability.

Building Certification #3: BREEAM Certification

Assessment Method (BREEAM) is another well-known green building certification program that was developed in the UK.

Energy usage, water management, health and well-being, pollution, transportation, materials, waste, ecology, and management procedures are all taken into consideration when BREEAM evaluates a building.

Similar to LEED, BREEAM certification shows a dedication to environmentally conscious construction methods and may draw in customers and renters who share that priority.

Building Certification #4: Living Building Challenge

Intending to create self-sufficient and regenerative built environments, the Living Building Challenge (LBC) is a strict green building certification program. Strict performance standards in seven categories, called Petals (health and happiness, location, water, energy, materials, equity, and beauty) must be met by LBC-certified buildings.

By requiring net-positive energy and water performance, strict material selection standards, and fostering occupant health and well-being, LBC certification pushes the envelope of sustainable design and construction.

Xenia - Overall No. 1 Building Inspection Software

Xenia, a top-notch building inspection software, offers digital solutions that prioritize mobile devices and easily combine everyday safety operations, inspection administration, and compliance monitoring.

A readily available repository of operations templates can be used to plan and execute operations, set up work orders, and track everything in real time as processes progress through multiple stages of completion. Say goodbye to maintaining a paper trail and welcome to the digital age.

The platform highlights its feature set via an aesthetically pleasing interface, placing equal focus on the user experience (UX) and functioning as building inspection software for iPad, iOS, and Android smartphones.

You can execute work orders, operations, SOPs, Final Inspection Construction Checklist, and much more linked to inspections by seeing all of your crucial shortcuts in one convenient location.

Speaking of standard operating procedures, Xenia offers a powerful AI-powered SOP generating module that anybody may use to draft SOPs focused on many facets of other company areas besides construction-related operations. 

Consider property management, facility management, safety inspections, and operations for food and beverage businesses, and vice versa.

Accessible on desktops, tablets, Apple and Android devices, and provides a user-friendly platform. With Xenia, you can quickly and easily plan and carry out safety inspections, create personalized checklists, monitor outcomes, and provide thorough reports.

Conclusion

Building Inspection Software is a game changer in the construction business, bringing reliable answers to the inherent issues of projects, quality control, risk management, and compliance.

Building inspection software transforms building management by improving communication, system integration, inspection procedures, and documentation. Implementing such software leads to dramatically increased productivity, decreased risks, and better project quality, all of which contribute to greater customer satisfaction and successful project delivery.

As the construction industry evolves and grows, the use of advanced tools such as quality inspection software will become not only beneficial but also necessary for businesses seeking to remain ahead in this competitive market.