Why is it so hard to get budget approval for preventive maintenance?
Leadership easily approves visible upgrades like remodels and new signage because they are tangible, while preventive maintenance looks like an unexciting line item that nobody gets excited about. This lack of visibility stops crucial maintenance contracts from getting funded, ultimately leaving buildings unprotected and driving up costly emergency repairs.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Tracking deferred maintenance costs as a separate budget line and placing the eventual emergency repair cost next to the pushed PM contract to show financial impact.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“it's so much easier to get leadership to approve something visible — new signage, a lobby refresh, an office remodel — than it is to get a maintenance contract approved, even when the maintenance contract is the thing actually protecting the building.”source ↗
“Nobody gets excited about a preventive maintenance line item in a budget meeting.”source ↗
“This is the story of my life.”source ↗
Where this came up
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