HARDWARE
Industry research sheds light on
ironmongery budget estimates
New research shows that some types of buildings can incur up to 19% of their
total maintenance budget on architectural ironmongery despite the average
spend on this being between one and two percent of the value of a new-build.
» THE RESEARCH FROM
the Guild of Architectural
Ironmongers (GAI) has analysed
what proportion of a project’s
overall cost and ongoing
maintenance is attributed to door
hardware such as handles, locks,
hinges, door closers and other
essential ironmongery.
Similar research conducted in
the early 1980s by the Property
Service Agency (PSA), a former
agency of the UK Government,
concluded that ironmongery
was worth one percent of project
value but accounted for 80%
of the value of the maintenance
budget.
The results from the GAI
research show that the average
percentage of build cost attributed
to ironmongery has increased,
and has now put a figure on likely
maintenance budgets too.
Douglas Masterson, technical
manager of the GAI, said:
“As a proportion of a project’s
value, the budget needed
for specifying architectural
ironmongery has increased over
the last 40 years, most likely in
response to increasingly robust
standards for safety, accessibility
and other improvements in the
built environment, advances in
technology such as access control
products, and the quality of
products themselves. The value
can now be up to 5.84% of a
project value, depending on the
sector.
“Maintenance regimes have
also moved on significantly since
the 1980s. New building elements
such as heating and ventilation
systems, air conditioning systems
and IT networks are now a
higher percentage of annual
maintenance costs. The demands
of increased health and safety
regulations and an increase to
the UK minimum wage has also
impacted on costs. Repairing
or replacing door hardware can
still be time consuming and now
we also understand its budget
implications too – for some
building types such as educational
establishments it can be as much
as 30% per year.
“This research underlines
the financial significance of
making better choices about the
architectural ironmongery in
our buildings. When it comes to
specifying products and asking for
advice on routine maintenance,
we would always suggest
consulting with a Registered
Architectural Ironmonger
(RegAI). Fully trained and
committed to keeping up to
date with the latest product and
industry knowledge, RegAIs will
be able to assist with choosing
the correct product for the
application, the best practises for
checking its ongoing performance,
and the best options for any
building owner’s budget.”
The research was conducted
on behalf of the GAI by AMA
Research. The research project
increased its scope from the
original PSA research to include
private offices; public sector
offices; retail; hotels; health;
education and transport facilities
such as airports and railway
stations. It also looked at both
mechanical and electrical
hardware to reflect current usage
of architectural ironmongery in
these types of buildings.
The first part used data from
Barbour ABI, AMA Research’s
own library of reports which
was supplemented with a series
of interviews with architectural
ironmongers, manufacturers,
distributors and installers of
ironmongery. The second stage
of the research involved facilities
management organisations, door
maintenance companies and
certified UK installers.
The full research results
are available for GAI and IAI
members to download on the
GAI website.
www.gai.org.uk
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