Building Maintenance Practices towards the Common Defects and Resident’s Satisfaction of Elderly Homes

Abstract

The growing population of elderly globally gives rise to the importance to provide better home for elderly. The homes for elderly need special features to support the decrease in physical to mental capabilities of elderly and enable them to lead an active and well-being lifestyle. Maintenance of this special feature and basic elements in the building play an importance role to ensure the homes are safe to live and will not endanger the users. This research aims to investigate the relationship of maintenance practices (staff behaviours) towards the common defects and resident’s satisfaction of elderly homes. Questionnaire survey forms were distributed to the elderly to determine the types of defects and rank the behaviour of maintenance personnel. In addition, semi-structured interview was conducted with the maintenance personnel to validate the current maintenance practice in elderly homes. The findings proven that the behaviours of maintenance personnel were critical to convince the residents in executing the maintenance tasks and to reduce the occurrence of defect. In addition, the findings also proven the maintenance practice for active aging home is differ from usual building maintenance practices. The failure to differentiate the nature of operation could indirectly affect the maintenance performance of the buildings.