Purpose: Effective building maintenance management is vital for reducing the impact of building defects and costly building maintenance work. Such practice significantly contributes to the public sector in terms of cost reduction, improved effectiveness and efficiency in maintenance works, increasing safety and well-being of the occupants, expanding the life of building stocks and expanding the value of investment for the government building assets. The maintenance practice in Malaysia is still emerging in comparison to many developed nations. The purpose of this study is to determine the current scenario of the building maintenance approach at the design stage in public buildings in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: An extensive questionnaire survey was held, involving 312 key players (38 per cent out of 820 predetermined participants) in Malaysia. Findings: The analysis showed that building maintenance in public building in Malaysia still uses the reactive approach. Despite the Malaysian Government’s adoption of a proactive maintenance approach, unfortunately, there are some misunderstandings among the key players regarding the approach. The research results demonstrate that the key players had a lack of understanding on the concept of the proactive maintenance management approach and that they were either ignorant or had insufficient awareness of proactive maintenance approach. Originality/value: The contribution of this study is useful for the government to adopt a more proactive building maintenance policy at the design stage, to give awareness on proactive building maintenance to the key players in their construction project and as a guide to the key players to adopt a maintenance plan at the design stage of work.

The dampness is a significant threat in the heritage building and a leading factors to the degradation and dilapidated building. The scientifically measured need to be implemented in mitigating such issues. Advance understanding of heritage building condition is a must in mitigating to prolong the building life cycle. The study purpose is to measure surface temperature, ambient temperature and relative humidity at the dampness point of the heritage building. The measurement calculation technically reveals the dew point temperature and indicates the prediction of thermal bridge and mould risk. In situ test conduct using natural infrared heat radiation to the same relevant surface. The preliminaries finding indicates the average temperature pattern at the surface in four (4) heritage building with nineteen (19) spot at (24.5-25.7)℃, dew point temperature (23.7-24.3)℃, ambient temperature (25.78-27.0)℃ and relative humidity (85.5-89.6)%. The preliminaries finding leads to the identification of no thermal bridge treat but with highly mould risk.

The construction industry has been identified as one of the more important sectors towards realizing the aim of making Malaysia a developed country by the year 2020. Towards this end, the construction industry needs to become more competitive and productive. One major strategy is the implementation of the industrialized building system (IBS). The implementation of IBS requires comprehensive studies to be undertaken to allow project stakeholders fully understand the benefits that may be gained from IBS. The selection of an appropriate installation system is vital in making IBS effective and successful. This paper identifies the on-site prefabricated component installation systems practised and appraises the factors for selection. Structured interviews were carried out with 32 parties directly involved in the on-site prefabricated components installation operation. The study reveals three main prefabricated component installation systems, namely the horizontal-, vertical- and mixed-based systems. Six main influencing factors were also discovered that allow for a more informed decision to be made on system selection. Out of the six factors, it was revealed that the availability of prefabricated components and crane mobility to be the most important factors in determining installation system selection.

Defects and damage to heritage buildings constitute a significant problem to be understood and addressed by the organisation. Lack of information on defects towards the heritage buildings results in decisions or actions made by the authorities not meeting the proper targets. Therefore, this research purposely to identify the types of defects inherent in the heritage buildings and to determine the degree of errors in the heritage buildings surveyed. Nine (9) heritage buildings from eight (8) states in Malaysia reviews and Systematic Visual Assessment (SVA) approaches apply to the main building comprises seven (7) major building component namely roof, wall, column and beam, windows, doors, floor, stair and apron including building services (air-condition). A total of thirty-three (33) defect generally occurs in the heritage building by previous researchers, and the assessment result indicates that twenty-two (22) type of glitch with dampness problems at twenty-nine (29.1%) dominates the cumulative count compares to others listed defect. The defect frequently occurs for nine (9) study building starts with wall component at (33.67%) deficiency followed by the column and beam (21.67%), roof (15.0%). Therefore to organise heritage building in general, the relevant authority and stakeholders' must prioritise the three (3) critical components and dampness problems as a framework in mitigating overall issues related to the heritage building.