About District Business
Our Story
At District Business, we're passionate about helping people access the information they need to succeed. This includes code books, regular scheduled preventative maintenance. From best practices to learning from shortcomings of not understanding controlling cost of operations and best practices in keeping maintenance costs low and maximum operation of assets for benefit of staff and students and best use of taxpayer funds. Should you fund error in information provided please email us so we can correct errors We also welcome requests for additional information and content thats fits into our goals of making public sector organizations more efficient and cost effective for taxpayers. Though many of us would believe many are wasting money which they are it is more out of ignorance than willful misconduct or so we hope.
Pitfalls
The saddest part is where too many in the public Building Services, Construction Services and Preventative Maintenance in the public sector have a starkly different prospective than them in the private sector. Preventive Maintenance in the private sector happens regularly where as in public it is not as important because when it fails from improper use and maintenance public entities simply "pass the hat" and replace things because there is always more money and few safeguards or incentives on spending over cost of goods. On the construction side when you are a for profit organization keeping costs down maximizing equipment "up time," because down time not only costs the business money, it hinders profits by customer dissatisfaction from lack of on time delivery, poor quality of product and/or customer service, or worse of all "Failure to perform" per contract of products or services. In "the real world" you deliver or the customer simply goes elsewhere. when you are a school, Federal, State, County or city government you get what you get and costs are "someone else's problem." Contractors to public organizations put in what they want without concern of "cost of ownership" and lining up opportunities for long term reoccurring revenue for their sub contractors is "just part of doing business." In a sole proprietor, small or large corporation or other private business you specify what systems are as part of the build because "cost of ownership" is a benefit or hinderance to your "bottom line." The HVAC system, alarm system, irrigation system, fire prevention systems kitchen hoods or sprinkler system, monitoring for burglar and camera systems all these parts shoild be planned and specified to insure compatibility of "fleet wide" compatibility of certifications of personnel tasked with its maintenance, The cost and availability of parts and testing of systems are all important considerations for proper maintenance and facilities ready for use and enjoyment by employees, citizens or others who use the taxpayer owned facilities. Case and point NFPA ( National Fire Protection Association ) has a prescribed schedule for doors in the NFPA 80 manual. "fire doors shall be
inspected and tested annually." Now few public departments ever even check these doors and should they not close as designed the fire is allowed to spred from building to building. The same is true for Kitchen hoods. Tf you have ten building in the fleet and ten different hoods the cost of parts the complexity of testing and repair of hoods would require ten different certifications one for each manufacture of each hood. The contractors love this because you are on the hook to more than one and you are "easy pickings" for the less than honest contractor knowing you have no idea the frequency of testing or scheduled change outs.There is requires ie SHALL of bi-annual inspection will ensure that your kitchen hood fire suppression system. Annual testing for Sprinkler systems on a building per NFPA25. Having a compitient building supervisor can be the diffetrence in tens fo thousands in wasted efforts to to contractors hiring multiple sub contractors to maintain your systems of having as in the case of Southwest Airlines who only flys 737 Boeing plains to keep certifications of Pilots, maintenance personel, parts to maintain the plains etc low to inture offer the lower price to the customer and enjoy a healthy profit margin. Again the public sector is seldom concerned over "cost or operations" due to their ability to "pass the hat" and shake down the tax payers for more at will.
Building occupant capacity and egress is covered by IFC (International Fire Code) Chapter 10 Covers the amount of people allowed with in a space depending on the use of the space, number of exits and decorations to still allow safety systems operation as well as lighting and signaling to notify emergency situations. and covers ceiling height amount of "clutter" permitted in hallways or other means of egress. Wall hangings and such are great decorations but when they cover exit signs fire strobes or ventilation it can make for trouble should a fire or active shooter not allow proper timely notification to save as many lives as possible. Safe passage is like having a fire extinguisher "it is bey\tter to have one and not need it than need one and not have it."
Discover Building Safety and Overall Signature Workmanship Photo Gallery
Sadly this fence was added without any understanding of 40 inch rule for wheelchair and other ADA conditions. The actual with from support poll to fence post was about 20 inches so few had safe path without going into landscaping. Overall design met few if any building codes.
Installed by electrical contractor with limited or no understanding of "water shorting device bad." Location and proper care of sealing design of device caused failure of electronics in addition to the angree site personal; hearing constant alert of fire alarm due to the ground fault from water in device. Installed so seeming rain water could short out device and make fire alarm drive office staf
Painters have no idea what the fire alarm horn or PA speakers are nor their function and the fact the paint makes them useless in many cases. Good project preplan and proper project management and site inspections yield better outcomes
Older install with nice routing of wires to termination blocks. Looks better that the train wreck in other wire box.
Obviously an installer that never was trained to NFPA standards or IFC code.
Paper conduit Who knew!
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Discover Safety Operations Photo Gallery
When you are in a hurry and don't pay attention you risk your life and the lives of others. This guy end of shift on a Friday and ended up leaving later than he hoped also while making many houses in area suffer from the lack of power and the comfort of air conditioning for blocks untill the power company was able to replace cable a few hours later.
In an emergency how many people will tripped over while tripping over items blocked safe exit from facility. Just like with money "It is better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it."
Fire risers when blocked the longer it takes to get to shutoff valve the more flooded your building gets should a sprinkler get broken by mistake. There is a reason fire code is 40 inches clear. NFPA 25 violationpath and also around the riser itself.
Again in an emergency how many people will tripped over while tripping over items blocked safe exit from facility. Just like with money "It is better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it." IFC Chapter 10 violation.
Propane storage as well as boxes in an electrical room is just ignorance in search of a disaster.
I'm wondering how someone will know which breaker to turn off to stop the staff member from being shocked in their office. Actual description for original schedule rather than "Existing" as description from recent upgraded panel. Again lowest bid not usually yielding best workmanship.
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