‘This book provides a wealth of useful guidance on whole life costs of building services.’

Reviewed by Peter Chapman
Engineering Management Consultant

This book provides a considerable quantity of detailed cost information for those involved in the provision, operation and maintenance of building services.

The experience of the authors in developing information sources for building economics has long been recognised and this latest book now applies that experience to deal specifically with building services.

Designers and Premise Managers need to be able to forecast costs associated with the operation, maintenance and eventual replacement of building service elements.

This book provides a wealth of useful guidance on whole life costs of building services.  The authors have provided detailed information on capital costs, life cycle replacement costs, maintenance costs and energy costs for four typical building designs.

Cost information is given for four basic building designs and presented in simple tabular formats, which provide a simple means of effective cost comparison.

The detailed information is broken down into individual building services elements and for those unfamiliar with building services, a series of useful services schematic diagrams have also been included.

For ease of cost comparison there are also a series of aggregated whole-life costs for each of the service elements in all four building designs.

The guidance included on indicative life expectancy for building service elements will also appeal to those engaged in maintenance management as it provides a useful aide-memoire for forward maintenance cost planning.