Measures to maintain office and commercial buildings during COVID 19

• 3 April 2020
• Local News
• 3805 Views

How could we maintain our office and commercial buildings during the closure due to COVID 19?

While your office and commercial buildings are vacant due to the absence of staff and other occupants in the building due to COVID 19 fear, the focus on the measure of management and maintenance the buildings are very crucial especially for all property owners.

According to an article published by CBRE Cambodia on March 30, 2020, there are numbers of effective measures have been already implemented in the management of staff and equipment for the buildings. These measures are to manage office equipment works both in the event of a contagious situation and to prepare for after the disease is gone. They are as briefly presented as follows:

1) Managing the entries:

The best way to keep your building safe is to isolate your infected staff and to allow other staff to work from home. In addition, each office building should avail temperature screening and proper hand cleaning products in place at the entrances and put certain restrictions on outside access. Limiting the number of people on the escalator and on normal step commuting can also reduce the concentration of staff.

2) Prevention is better than cure:

Building managers may also issue contingency plans or plans in response to potential risks. The plan should include activities such as what to do with individuals? How to set them apart? How to get them home safely? What actions must be taken in the event of an infected case? With this plan, you will be able to minimize the risk and reduce anxiety when a particular incident occurs. It should be written in consultation with building owners, human resource managers and large shareholders.

3) Adherence to hygiene:

Coronavirus can live on the floor for up to 3 days. Improving the proper cleaning of all parts of the office building can help reduce the incidence of coronavirus 19 contagions. All staff is required to wash hands regularly especially before entering the building when leaving the bathroom, and before eating. All bathrooms in the building need to be clean, and the water system in the restroom must be ensured that there are available toilet facilities such as hand dryers, toilet paper, soap, and better if any alcohol for cleaning the toilet.

4) Indoor Air:

The air conditioning system in the building can cause virus infection by air humidity or water droplets that emit air. Therefore, diverting the air from the air conditioning to the unoccupied area and reducing crowded meetings in air-conditioned areas are also a way to reduce the risk of infection. (Read More)

5) Closure or partial closure of the building:

The building owner or manager may decide to entirely or partially close the entire building such as gym, lounge, and swimming pool, play area and play area. If these are still open, cleaning and pasteurization should be done regularly and access should be restricted so that staff can maintain a six-step gap.

6) Retrofitting of Building Equipment:

There are many building facilities that were generally not repairable during normal business days. Most of the time, they will have to wait for the weekend to be repaired. This Covid 19 break is a great opportunity for building owners or service companies to do this work. They should focus not only on the building structure retrofitting, but also on the type of energy efficiency equipment, and ventilation system in the building.

For ventilation system, building owners can choose to use Fitwel, a building modelling and mapping system to assist with the design of the building. What is special about this system is that it can be equipped with advanced air filter technology in the building.

7) Energy Management:

Energy is one of the most important parts of a building, as it contributes about 40% to 50% of the total cost of your building operation. For this situation, you do not need a sophisticated building management system, but you will just need to take care and manage the building’s equipment and facility more thoroughly, both during and after the virus crisis. These include ensuring that the lights and air conditioning are turned off at the vacant time, especially ensuring air quality and performance of the AC.

8) Continue to build good relationships with all components:

Keep up to date with all local newspapers and government departments so that you are ahead of the game and ready for any changes that may be enforced. Keep your company, clients, tenants and occupants up to date and, especially, avoid misinformation that will create confusion both in the business relationship and in the internal work performance.

Prepare office and commercial buildings for the COVID 19 post period

Once the building is reopened, it is clear that staff, customers and suppliers will have a new expectation of how the sanitation and environment inside the buildings are restored. According to the same article, the property owner needs to focus on a number of important factors, which include, but not limited to, as follows:

1) Operation: Inspect and test key building systems to ensure the building is safe and comfortable as everyone comes back to full occupancy.

2) Service Plans: allow all building service providers such as hygienists, housekeepers, building services, air conditioning systems (HAVAC) and security get their teams back on-site in order to ensure the environment is safe, environmentally healthy, and reliable.

3) Change Management: The last important thing is to manage the changes by ensuring that everyone in the building is well aware of changes that have made in the building during the crisis and in the post-crisis work environment. This includes physical and structural changes and additional precautions, if any, to ensure that all workers in the building have access to better health, safety, and more comfort in the workplace.

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