The maintenance cupboard
Your home has one maintenance person, perhaps shared with another home. Their week is a list of routine checks: the weekly fire alarm test at a different call point each time, emergency lighting, fire doors, water outlet temperatures, flushing little-used outlets, bed rails and window restrictors, call bells. Each has its own logbook or clipboard.
On top of that come the repairs. A carer mentions a dripping tap in room 14. A nurse writes 'light out in corridor' on the whiteboard. The laundry says the dryer is making a noise again. The maintenance person hears about some of these and not others.
When they are on holiday, the checks mostly stop. When a visitor from the fire service or the local authority asks to see records, someone spends an afternoon in the cupboard.
Why checks and repairs slip
Paper logbooks record what was done. They say nothing about what was not done. A missed weekly check leaves a blank line that only shows when someone reads the book.
Out-of-range readings have the same problem. A water outlet recorded too hot or too cold on a sheet is visible only to whoever reads that sheet. If the follow-up is not written next to it, nobody knows whether it was dealt with.
Repairs come in through conversations, whiteboards and notes, with no single place to see what is outstanding, who reported it and whether it affects residents. The maintenance person prioritises from memory.
What the logbooks leave hidden
| Gap | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Missed routine check | Seen only when the book is reviewed |
| Reading out of range | Follow-up not recorded or not done |
| Repair reported verbally | Forgotten, reported again, or never fixed |
| Cover during leave | Checks stop because nobody knows the schedule |
| Records requested | Hours gathering books for a visit |
A dripping tap is a nuisance. A broken window restrictor or a fire door that does not close is not. Without one list, those get the same treatment as whatever was mentioned most recently.
What we build for maintenance
- A check schedule set up from your own maintenance plan: each check, its frequency, the location list and who is responsible.
- A phone app for the maintenance person showing today's and overdue checks, with quick recording of readings and results at the point of the check, including photos.
- Acceptable ranges for readings that you and your advisers set. A reading outside them creates a follow-up task and alerts the manager.
- A repair request form any staff member can use from the unit tablet, with location, description, photo and a priority, so nothing relies on a passing conversation.
- A repairs list for the maintenance person and manager, with status, notes and contractor details where a job is passed on.
- Escalation when a routine check is overdue or a high-priority repair is open past the time you set, and a cover mode so a colleague can see the schedule during leave.
Records export by type and date range, so when someone asks for the fire test records for the last six months they can have them in a few minutes.
A cupboard with fewer logbooks
The maintenance person starts the day with a list of what is due, and records each check where they stand. Readings out of range raise a task instead of sitting on a sheet. Staff report repairs in one place, and can see when they are fixed.
When your maintenance person is away, cover staff see the schedule. When records are requested, they come from the app, complete and dated.
Does your home run like this?
- Checks are recorded in several paper logbooks
- Repairs are reported on whiteboards and in passing
- Missed checks only show when someone reads the book
- Routine checks stop when the maintenance person is on leave
- Gathering records for a visit takes an afternoon