Attempting to be good stewards of church finances, many building committees opt for the cheaper construction methods and materials when they should also consider the facility’s maintenance costs throughout the years, experts say.
“What seems at first consideration to be the least expensive construction may turn out to be the most expensive to maintain,” Gwenn McCormick writes in “Planning and Building Church Facilities.” “Thus, what is saved in construction costs can quickly be expended for maintenance. If these maintenance costs must be repeated over and over, the church will be saddled with unnecessary financial obligation for years to come.”
Gary Nicholson, an architect in LifeWay’s church architecture department, agreed.
“Churches often make the mistake of thinking cheaper is better and they pay the price for the next 30 to 50 years with higher maintenance costs, equipment replacement and utility bills,” he said. “They will end up spending a lot more than they saved.”
To avoid these mistakes, McCormick recommends that building committees consider life-cycle cost analysis in the planning stages.
“This analysis factors construction costs and maintenance costs together and compares them with similar data from other alternatives,” he wrote. “Through such a study, a committee may discover that after a few years the church will be better off financially with the more expensive product or the more durable material.”
McCormick also advises churches to hire a skilled company located nearby that can easily maintain their mechanical equipment.
“Few problems with a new building are as troublesome as the chronic malfunction of heating and air-conditioning equipment,” he noted.
Church leaders also have the opportunity to improve the maintenance efficiency of their facilities when selecting materials, according to building professionals. Nicholson suggests using easily maintained materials like washable paints and the appropriate flooring.
“One of the things I tend to caution churches against is using two different types of flooring in the same space without considering the maintenance equipment that will be required for the upkeep of each type of flooring,” he said.
Overall, McCormick believes that maintenance efficiency issues “must not become the overriding issues dictating design and materials” even though they are important.
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