Commercial electrical maintenance is a critical element in maintaining the health and safety of a workplace, ensuring that your business insurance policy covers you in the event of a malfunction, and for ensuring that your commercial power stays stable and operational when you need it. However, even if you are looking for a contractor to enter into an electrical service contract, you might not be sure exactly what you can expect.
While these types of electrical maintenance contracts can vary greatly from one contractor to the next, there are a few things that most good commercial electrical maintenance agreements will cover. This is what you should look for:
1. Preventive Maintenance
No matter how well maintained your business is, there will be wear and tear on all elements of the building. Your electrical is no different. A good commercial electrical maintenance agreement will set out how frequently preventive maintenance will be done, and what will be checked, switched out or repaired as part of the package.
2. Inspection for Damage
Even if you are careful in your building, there’s always a chance that something might get damaged during the course of operations. If your commercial electrical maintenance contract includes inspection for damage, then the company will have a checklist of commonly damaged items that they will check, and they will test a variety of readings. The list of items to be repaired and tested as part of the contract should be included with the contract document, and there may also be a list of common labor or parts charges (or a percentage markup on invoices) written into the document.
3. Emergency System Checks
If you have emergency systems like lighting or hard wired smoke alarms in your building, then testing them may be included in an electrical service contract. The contract will set out which systems will be checked, which parts are included, and what the process will be for any repairs that are deemed necessary.
4. Additional Work
Sometimes, when a technician visits your property to conduct an inspection of your electrical as part of a maintenance contract, they will find something that falls outside of the scope of the contract. An example would be corrosion, or wires that have been damaged by accidents or rodents. The contract will probably stipulate what the process will be in cases like those, and how they will be priced.
Compare Apples to Apples
The truth is, there is no real standard for an electrical maintenance contract, and there’s a good chance that if you ask ten different companies for a proposal, you’d get ten proposals that include and exclude different things. The best thing to do is to decide what you want each company to provide a proposal for, the frequency you need inspections and maintenance done, and which rates you want broken out (for instance, if you need a 24-hour emergency call out service, and you want a rate for the service included as a line item.)
The more details you can provide, the more accurate the contractors pricing will be able to make their maintenance contract proposals, and the easier it will be to make a fair comparison. Finally, when in doubt, ask. Not every contractor will provide details of every item included, so if you don’t see it, ask the question.
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