Maintaining the Roof at Your Healthcare Facility With an Inspection Checklist
Hiring a specialist that can do a roof inspection of your hospital is a way to temporarily deal with this maintenance issue. Often, there are advantages to having your in-house maintenance team perform these inspections instead. Forming a proper hospital roof inspection checklist is the key to success.
Knowing When To Inspect the Roof and Who Can Do It
Accurate and regular roof inspections can help increase the longevity of your healthcare facility’s roof while also avoiding potential disasters. A good rule of thumb is to inspect the roof twice per year. Additionally, the best time to examine a hospital’s roof is just before and just after severe weather seasons.
There are many benefits to having your in-house team perform roof inspections:
- Available during work hours
- Much less expensive
- Faster than waiting for a service to come on site
- General knowledge helpful for staff
- More convenient
- Higher probability of catching a problem early
Creating a Great Hospital Roof Inspection Checklist
The value of a proper and thorough hospital roof inspection checklist can not be overstated. A checklist makes it simpler for the maintenance team to follow the process, while also adding legitimacy. Your file of checklists over time can serve as proof of proper maintenance in case you need it for submitting an insurance or warranty claim.
At Benton Roofing, we’ve been working with commercial roof systems for over 40 years. We have developed a thorough process for inspecting roofs on healthcare facilities and hospitals.
We have a premade checklist that you can download and print for immediate use. You should edit the checklist to better fit your facility. These are the 11 most important points of the inspection checklist:
- Exterior structural components
- Interior signs of roof problems
- The roof surface
- Expansion joints
- Stairs and railings
- Drains
- Flashings
- Pipe and equipment supports
- Safety signage
- General cleanliness check
- Old repairs
Using the Checklist for Roof Inspections
Now that you’ve assembled your hospital roof inspection checklist, it’s time to put it to use. Print out your checklist, or download the one we have made available already and print it out. Grab a clipboard, extra scratch paper, and a pen or pencil, and put on your proper PPE for walking around the roof.
Develop a Priority System
It’s a good idea to create a rating system that works like triage. Rate issues on a scale of GOOD-FAIR-POOR to indicate the level of attention needed.
GOOD
This would indicate the item being inspected is in working condition with no perceived issues. It currently doesn’t need any repairs or replacements outside of its planned life cycle.
FAIR
This rating indicates items that are showing wear or are near the end of their life cycle; however, they are not causing any problems yet and there is currently no emergency. These items should be added to a list for future attention or checked to ensure they are already scheduled for future repair or replacement.
POOR
This rating is reserved for items that need immediate attention. Depending on the severity of the issue, scheduling a repair service or purchasing materials to attempt an in-house repair need to be done as soon as possible. A rotted section of pipe that is forming a small drip would obviously be labeled POOR.
Other Important Notes for Your Inspection
Other important things to go along with your hospital roof inspection checklist include a document outlining which future repairs will be performed in-house or via a hired service, and a list of all items that are covered under warranty or the accompanying insurance information.
Your checklist should be made for your particular hospital or healthcare agency, since no two buildings are the same. Knowledgeable maintenance staff can help ensure the longevity of your building and the safety of the people working in it. Your roof inspection checklist is the key to educating your staff and making the personnel and patients in the building that much safer.
Free Roof Inspection Checklist for Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities – Download our checklist to help you to make sure your facility has a solid roofing system in place.