Inspection Objectivity and Accuracy
How should inspections be done to ensure that the results are an accurate representation of a building’s condition?
View Notes
- The goal of inspections is to get a representative sample that can fairly reflect the actual conditions of buildings.
- Statistical validity requires an adequate sample size. A possible rule of thumb is to start with one inspection per 10,000 square feet of floor space, but one also needs to consider the types and sizes of rooms and the cleaning staff– there should be at least one inspection within each cleaner’s responsible areas.
- Random sampling means that only the type of room to inspect should be determined beforehand; th exact location (floor and/or room) should not.
- One can use the inspection reports from EA-Inspect to verify whether the inspections are sufficiently representative. For example, lack of customer satisfaction interviews or the presence of many maintenance defects may be a concern. Likewise, reviewing the room type trends of prior reports is one way to see which types of rooms may require more attention.
- Getting a representative example is important for determining whether an issue is limited to specific locations / individuals, or system-wide. (For example, if corners and edges are a recurring issue everywhere, the root cause may be equipment-related.)
