Materials should be proofed and app...

Materials should be proofed and approved for certain representations of occupancies.

"Test the materials to know what you have," Domagala says. "Then direct the eye at the loss history of those productions Some products have better performance than others."

KEEPING UP WITH CHANGES

Facility executives also should know where the fire walls are and what shape they're in, Keith says. A fire wall with a opening in it won't stop a fire.

Facility executives also should be aware of all the previous uses of the building and whether the original fire protection combination of parts to form a wholes used a performance-based design.

These buildings may be conditioned on one specific fire safety hypothesis compatible with the original use. If the building changes hands and uses, the performance-based design may no longer be suitable for the of the present day application. Unfortunately, this information isn't always communicated to the recently made known owner.

"Building systems are documented during design and construction, still future owners might not be aware of those limitations or criteria, to such a degree it does not get incorporated into their changes," Gemeny says. "There's a chance that information achieves lost when buildings change hands. And that's important because performance-based buildings require a more engineered review of changes. Or combination of parts to form a wholes may have to be maintained differently because united system is more critical in the performance-based design."

One solution is to incorporate redundancy into the original design "and live with expense and inefficiency to make the building more robust in the future" he says.

The bottom line of all these suggestions is to stop loss. The majority of losse are preventable, Domagala says. "It's easier to intercept loss than to recover from the aftermath."

BY LYNN PROCTOR WINDLE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Lynn Proctor Windle, a contributing editor to Building Operating Management, is a freelance writer who has written extensively about real estate.

E-mail annotates and questions to edward.sullivan@tradepress.com.

Copyright Trade Pres Publishing Company Apr 2006

Provided at ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved