You’re probably wondering whats the best paint maintenance program for my school or commercial property. Heres a bit of background and some tips to help you get setup.

The original legendary Funded Maintenance Program dates to the 90’s when the education board made significant changes to its funding structure by moving the responsibility for school maintenance from a national model to the BOT control. While they partially funded this transition, this still left many school boards with assets in poor condition and not enough funds to cover the upgrade work.

The Funded Maintenance Program (see fig. 1) was designed to repaint the whole school in year 1, while the BOT paid one 1/7 each year for the next seven years. Schools could now supposedly ‘afford’ the full repaint and the overall model was largely a success.

In recent years, this model has been used less and less and many companies have stopped this practice totally. Our predictions are that it will die out during 2022/23, and the key drivers behind this are:

7 year liability
MOE has taken a dim view of this model as it is essentially a liability against the school, and when you consider the involvement of a Risk Management Scheme, this can easily be deemed unnecessary.
Warranty dodge
In theory, having the contractor coming back every year to do minor touch up etc, sounds great. But in practice, you are actually paying the contractor to come back and fix items that should have been covered by warranty! Note: contractors may advise that the programme is essential for the manufacturer’s warranties to be valid. This is largely incorrect. In fact, the standard manufacturer’s warranty commences at the date the original painting was completed – so are generally voided by the end of the 7 years anyway.
Service curve
During the first year of a 7 year plan the customer receives a good level of service. However, you have signed yourself away for a long period of time and naturally the level of service typically drops quickly for a few years until it picks up again 12 months prior to the contract renewal date.
Can you predict the next 7 years?
Many schools that have signed up to a long programme are happy for the first 2 years and then wish to get out of it because their situation has changed. For example, a school gets an additional grant for new buildings in year 4, and the existing buildings are demolished. The maintenance programme is set in concrete however and the school continues to pay for touch ups etc which aren’t required.
Credit suppliers
Painting contractors are best used for painting projects. Banks are best for providing loans. Why confuse the two?!

Is there something else I can do?

Staged Flexible Plans (fig. 2) can be an ease of mind option if your school doesn’t require a full repaint now, and they are much more flexible. As requirements change, the plans can easily be changed along the road if your school changes its structure or buildings and you can still have a budget for peace of mind over the next 7 years!