Purpose -The purpose of this study is to focus on identifying building elements with design defects and established the relationship between design defects and difficulties in carrying out maintenance works. Design/methodology/approach -A total of four cases have been selected covering primary-and secondary-level for both National and National-type schools (commonly known as vernacular schools). Interviews with school management were carried out throughout the study to assess the common design defects in the buildings. Findings -A list of the design defects that have caused high maintenance cost was tabulated. It could be concluded that the most common design defects are building fac¸ade and missing slot underneath the floor slab which led to more defects. Research limitations/implications -Only four schools in Penang, Malaysia were involved in this study. Data were gathered from the school management and maintenance personnel. No data have been obtained from the designers because difficulties in tracing the designers record since the school age are more than 20 years. Practical implications -The study recommended that expert maintenance personnel shall be employed in the design stage to minimize design defects in school projects which in turn minimize the cost of building maintenance. Social Implications -Safety and health of the students could be affected if there is no accurate measures being adopted to overcome the issue. Originality/value -A very limited study has been carried out with regards to design maintenance for school buildings in Malaysia.

Construction projects are commonly afflicted by risk due to their uncertainty and complexity in nature. Thus this requires the contractor to have an effective risk management approach. Previous studies revealed that there was no formal risk management being used by the contractors in Malaysia. Hence, the study concentrated on the types of risk involves during construction project, the application of risk management by contractors in Malaysian construction industry and the strategy taken by them to mitigate risks. The research conducted surveys to the contractors registered with the Construction Industry Development Board, Malaysia (CIDB). The finding shows that there is a lack of standardization in the practice of risk management. Risk management has been mandated by the company and that the application has improved project performance. Besides formal approach and educating the people to conduct risk management, it is recommended that a standardized guideline of risk management is needed to improve the application of risk management among contractors in Malaysia.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to establish the impacts of good maintenance work for heritage buildings in Malaysia. This purpose is achieved through identifying factors that lead to the lack of maintenance of heritage buildings, establishing strategies to overcome the lack of maintenance of heritage buildings and analyzing the impact of good maintenance work on heritage buildings in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative method was employed for this study to identify the variables that most influence the maintenance of heritage buildings in Malaysia. The respondents were the owners of the heritage buildings in Peninsular Malaysia. There were 65 owners of heritage buildings identified from the official website of the Department of National Heritage, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia. Simple random sampling was used to obtain the sample size of the targeted respondent. A total of 56 questionnaire surveys were distributed to the owners of heritage buildings. In total, 37 respondents returned the completed questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 66 percent. The data were analyzed by Descriptive Statistics using Statistical Package for the Social Science software version 20. Findings Results show that the factors that lead to the lack of maintenance of heritage buildings are limited finance, the absence of maintenance guideline and ill-defined maintenance policy. The strategies to overcome the problem include providing a financial budget by the respective authorities, establishing a standard maintenance guideline and revising the existing policy. Research limitations/implications The paper is limited to the identification of factors that lead to a lack of maintenance and strategies to overcome the problem for the heritage buildings in Malaysia. The respondents are the owners of heritage buildings in Malaysia. The focus is given to them due to the fact that it will help them in understanding the importance of managing and operating for their buildings. Practical implications The results offer value-added information to building managers who are responsible for maintaining heritage buildings. Findings show that good maintenance work on heritage buildings can enhance the value and safety of the building as well as preventing heritage buildings from deteriorating. Social implications The quality of maintenance could be enhanced by focusing on the important variables that affect the quality of maintenance works of heritage buildings. Originality/value Limited studies had been carried out in the context of the maintenance of heritage buildings, especially in Malaysia.