Building Conditions/Facilities Audit

The Facilities Audit
Fort Lewis College performs physical audits on its buildings and grounds approximately every three years.  The evaluations provide the campus with critical information as to the conditions of its physical resources. 

Building systems and their components are evaluated every three years by a team of facility experts.  Personnel identify system and component deficiencies which are evaluated against the life expectancy of the specific component. Utilizing a national database of building and component costs (RS Means, Inc.),the Facilities Audit incorporates the relative importance of each building component to determine the overall Facilities Condition Index (FCI) for each building. The FCI is an instantly recognizable figure that represents the overall condition of each building and provides a useful tool to evaluate how each building compares to others on campus.

The Facilities Audit is also used to estimate the Renewal cost for each building component and to establish the Current Replacement Value for each building based upon the type and size of building. This provides an important planning and budgeting tool for facility managers. Repair and replacement projects may be planned and implemented using the priorities established from the Facilities Audit. Buildings with low FCI's take on a much higher priority than those with higher FCI's.

The Facilities Audit also impacts capital planning processes. Programmatic issues usually drive capital needs, but when a building has deteriorated to a low FCI level, its repair needs will likely impact capital priorities.