How to brief a commercial maintenance job

A commercial maintenance brief should describe the outcome you need, the exact area or equipment involved, operating hours, access, known site risks, allowed interruptions and the documents needed at handover. Name the people who can arrange access, approve a change and receive the invoice. Send the same brief to each contractor so their quotes answer the same job.

This is for a business, facilities contact or property manager buying maintenance for premises. For construction work in Great Britain, a commercial client has duties under CDM 2015; a small price or short visit does not make the project domestic. Use HSE’s commercial client guidance to establish the arrangements your project needs.

List each work item and location. “Make good scuffed walls” leaves the quantity, preparation and finish open. “Repaint the marked sections of the ground-floor corridor to match the recorded finish, with areas confirmed at the site visit” gives the contractor a clear starting point while preserving what still needs checking.

Separate three things:

• Requested outcome: the work or assessment you want completed.
• Known site facts: drawings, equipment labels, earlier reports and occupied areas.
• Unresolved questions: measurements, underlying cause, work method, or permissions still needing confirmation.

If the problem needs diagnosis, ask for an assessment with a clear charge and report deliverable before a repair quote. Do not ask bidders to price an invented cause. For a service with a published scope, use the relevant service description to check what your request includes.

Share security and personal contact details through the direct job route rather than publishing them in an open tender document. Mark missing information clearly and agree who will supply it before the affected work is priced or starts.

HSE’s contractor guidance for employers covers identifying the job, selecting a suitable contractor, sharing relevant information, coordinating risks and checking the work. Tell the contractor about the operating environment; ask how their work will affect staff, visitors and other contractors. Agree the practical controls and site arrangements with the responsible people before the visit.

For premises subject to the asbestos duty to manage in Great Britain, HSE says relevant asbestos information should be supplied early for planned work, including when requesting a quote. The responsible site contact should provide the register, plan and arrangements relevant to the work. An empty box in a brief is not evidence that asbestos is absent. Obtain the information or assessment needed before work that could disturb the building fabric proceeds.

Give the contractor time to review the information and raise questions. A standard risk-assessment document attached to a quote is not, on its own, an agreed plan for this site.

Use the same revision of your brief and record each contractor’s exclusions. If one needs a survey, compare the survey stage before treating its later repair cost as fixed.

• Which listed items, quantities, materials and finish are included?
• Are access equipment, protection, making good and waste removal included where needed?
• Does the price cover the required working hours and number of visits?
• What interruption is proposed, who must agree it and what is the handback arrangement?
• Which reports, certificates or test records will be supplied for the actual work?
• What is the total and VAT treatment, and how are changes and payment handled?

The quote comparison guide helps organise scope differences. For a business purchase, agree the contract and purchase-order arrangements that apply to your organisation. Do not apply a household consumer cancellation rule to a commercial order.

Fictional example: a shop manager requests repair and redecoration of one damaged stockroom wall. The manager wants the existing finish retained. The wall dimensions and cause of damage need checking at a site visit.

The brief identifies the stockroom, photographs the visible damage, gives the shop’s opening hours and states that deliveries use the same corridor. The manager asks bidders to inspect before quoting, describe preparation and protection, and propose a work window. The building manager supplies relevant site information and confirms how the contractor will enter.

One quote includes preparation, matching the finish, protection and waste removal. Another says “paint wall” and excludes preparation. The manager asks the second contractor to price the same scope before comparing totals. Neither offer is accepted just because it is the lower number.

Before work, the named approver agrees the scope and the site contact confirms the corridor arrangement. If the contractor finds damage beyond that scope, the approver receives a separate change proposal. At handover, the manager receives the work summary and a list of any unfinished items. The invoice goes to accounts with the agreed order reference.

A one-off repair quote does not establish an ongoing response service. For planned recurring maintenance, ask for the asset or task list, visit frequency, included work, exclusions, reporting and renewal terms. Keep reactive callouts and out-of-hours charges separate. A promised response time should say whether it means answering, attending or resolving the problem.

For this first job, keep a copy of the brief, accepted quote, approved changes and handover record. Check that the area can be returned to the agreed use and that any outstanding action has a named owner. Then find a relevant tradesperson and ask whether they handle your commercial work and site requirements. Describe the setting when you start a quote request; a directory listing alone does not establish that a provider meets your procurement requirements.