Maintenance Matters

Samuel Grafton’s observation — that focusing too much on pennies obscures our vision about more important matters — certainly applies to your church’s property maintenance program. If you fail to budget and plan for regular maintenance and repair, you might face significant financial demands later. Ultimately, you will pay more in the long run than the cost of regular upkeep.

If your church puts such planning on the backburner, you’re not alone. Faced with the choice of buying new furniture or reinforcing the crumbling foundation on the house, most of us would decide to fix the foundation — begrudgingly. After all, home repairs and remodeling fall low on most people’s wish lists. We want to spend our money on things that bring us pleasure.

So it is with maintenance and repairs to churches. Most congregations would rather buy a state-of-the-art sound system to appeal to teenagers than repair leaky windows in the youth building. As a result, many budgets for property maintenance are small. Maintenance and repairs are neglected or piecemealed for years, until one day the building incurs significant damage, requiring a large capital investment.

Make It Routine

Most church maintenance staffs have widely ranging responsibilities — from HVAC systems to plumbing in bathrooms and kitchens, to floor care, to tending plants indoors and out to hanging the wreaths at Christmas and keeping the building open in the evenings for Bible study. Smaller congregations might rely on volunteers to handle these responsibilities and perhaps take on larger jobs such as painting and carpeting the sanctuary.

It is understandable, then, that busy maintenance crews and volunteers often fail to conduct regular inspections and to make minor repairs to church property. They simply have too much else to do. You can guide these busy employees in establishing a program of regular inspection and minor maintenance. This program quickly will become routine and can be accomplished as they go about regular chores.

The Biggest Enemy

Church maintenance personnel and volunteers fight a formidable and dangerous foe: water damage. Seepage and moisture can cause costly damage to buildings of any age or composition, no matter where your church is located.

Church staff often fail to inspect the outside of the building, looking only for interior signs of water damage. By the time water damage is evident inside a building, the exterior envelope — be it brick, stone, stucco, concrete or plaster — might have suffered significant damage. To prevent this from happening, the maintenance staff should plan regular inspections of the building aboveground. Inspecting the roof and associated flashing is the best place to start. Obviously, if a roof section or flashing area is defective, water will enter the building. Also, guttering and downspouts must be kept clean and intact for water to be appropriately transported.

Other key areas of inspection include checking the condition of mortar joints and caulk joints in exterior walls. Water penetration into these areas can create a multitude of problems, including structural damage from corrosion of steel components and freeze/thaw cycles that cause masonry components to expand and contract.

There are a number of ways to keep water away from your building: Position downspouts properly, design landscaping that is beautiful and functional (terraces and ground coverings, for example), and consider ways to channel water from hard-surface parking lots away from the building.

If exterior damage is discovered during regular inspections, typical repairs should be sufficient. These might include tuck-pointing, brick or stone replacement and concrete repair. The main issue is to keep the water out.

Work with your maintenance staff to hire properly trained craftsmen for these types of repairs. A good source for qualified contractors is the Sealant, Waterproofing and Restoration Institute, an international trade association dedicated to quality work. More information is available at www.swrionline.org.

More Havoc is Wrought

In northern climates, the greatest water-related damage danger is from the freeze/thaw cycle: Autumn rains penetrate the soil, followed by freezing temperatures that cause moisture that has seeped into a building’s exterior envelope to expand. This creates cracks that weaken the building materials, which eventually allows more water to enter the building and cause even more damage.

In warmer parts of the country, destructive water damage to church buildings is even more problematic, given constant high humidity levels and the possibility a building will be lashed with wind-driven or hurricane-force rains. These conditions require regular monitoring of the building’s exterior.

Man-made materials pose their own complications. Churches in the southeastern part of the United States might be constructed with exterior insulating finish systems (EIFS), which essentially are made of Styrofoam covered with an acrylic coating. EIFS have significant insulating properties, but they do not “breathe,” thus creating airtight buildings in which water that reaches the interior might fail to evaporate. As a result, indoor air quality might be affected and, at worst, could result in the growth of toxic mold. Potential liability from mold lawsuits is an important issue for churches all over the country, especially those that offer schools or daycare programs where children might be exposed to the mold every day.

A Win-Win Proposition

Most congregations believe member retention and recruitment hinge on programming, the minister, priest, rabbi or even the church or temple’s location. All of these, to a great extent, are true, but a welcoming, comfortable environment is another component of that special chemistry that draws church members and keeps them coming back. If your building is in good shape, visitors make three assumptions: the congregation is planning for a bright future; your finances are in good shape; and members really care about their church.

In other words, everyone wins.

Frank Halsey is president of Mid-Continental Restoration Co. Inc., a 50-year-old exterior masonry repair and restoration company serving 25 states from offices across the country.