A study into the impact and suitability of building maintenance practices of local council buildings On performance of floor finishes: case study of Nairobi city hall and Kisumu town hall

Abstract

This research is a study in to the impact and suitability of building maintenance practices of local council buildings or performance of floor finishes. The aim was to explore the maintenance practices adopted by the councils and their suitability to the building fabric with regard to floor finishes. Two case studies of local councils have been selected for examination. These are; Nairobi's city hall and Kisumu town hall. The study established that, the local councils have no maintenance policy as such but practice ., unplanned maintenance of the . emergency type on their building 'assets. As such, the floor finishes of the councils are in such a sorry state which continues to worsen due to other contributory factors such as; lack of sufficient funds due to bureaucratic budgetary allocation, lack of regular building inspection, indiscriminate cleaning of floor finishes with undue regard to the type of floor finishes among others. These are covered comprehensively in Chapter 4 of this research The first part of this study comprises of the introductory chapter and includes the problem statement, the objectives and the hypothesis. This is followed by Chapter 2 which establishes the theoretical framework on maintenance generally, life cycle costing with regard to the same and the various types of floor finishes and their performance under different conditions. Chapter 3 contains the methodology employed in the study including data collection instruments, procedures and analysis of the same. Chapter 4 reports the results obtained from the field study. The last Chapter involves discussion of the main findings based on the literature review done, conclusions ahd recommendations stemming from the findings of the research.