Many schools are in desperate need for renovation or rebuilding. Because schools are funded largely based on property taxes, not every community has the resources they need for a proper renovation or rebuilding. Today, we’ll take a look at how to approach the question of whether or not a school should be renovated or rebuilt.
Steps to Determining School Repair and Renovation
When setting out to determine if a school needs to be rebuilt, repaired, or renovated, it is important to make an informed decision. You will want to assess the current state of the building, create goals for the project, and develop a sensible budget. Let’s take a deeper look at each of these now.
What is the current state of the building?
The first step is to assess the current state of the building. Many commercial demolition contractors will provide an assessment service to help determine the condition of the building.
A good analysis will take into account every aspect of the building. The report will include:
- Estimated life expectancy of a component
- Cost of replacement or upgrade
- Condition of each component
With the analysis in hand, you can then get a clear picture of the state of the building. A school that needs extensive repairs or renovations may be worth keeping if budget allows. Otherwise, school repair and renovation may not be on the table. A trusted Oregon demolition contractor can help you make that call.
What are the goals of the project?
You should next consider what the goals of the project would be. Some high level goals can be established before calling a demolition contractor and then broken down into more specific goals once the assessment is complete. Goals can always be modified after assessing the budget and the condition of the building.
Start by asking some of these questions:
- Do we need to improve the school’s function?
- Do we want a like-new facility?
- Do we want a more energy efficient or environmentally friendly school?
- How will our school need to grow in order to respond to changing demographics in our community?
The average age of a school is 40 years old, and often the school was originally built to service the needs of the community at that time. What factors have changed since then? What new needs have appeared?
Once you’ve taken some time to thoroughly answer these questions, you can then move forward with developing a budget.
Developing a sensible budget
After receiving the analysis from a demolition company and setting some specific goals, the next step in school repair and renovation is to develop a budget. With the information in hand, you should be able to assess the cost of renovation versus demolition and rebuilding.
Generally, school renovation is less expensive than rebuilding. If the analysis performed by the demolition contractor shows a long life for the majority of the components of the building, then perhaps a renovation to meet the needs of your school is in order.
One thing to keep in mind is the burden of the cost of maintaining an older building. What will it look like in five or ten years? Will the new components have to be replaced again? In such cases it might make sense to just rebuild, so you do not have recurring renovation costs.
A design professional can help you make the determination about how the school repair and renovation would affect the use of the current facility. Other questions to consider are:
- What is the cost of a new facility and how long would it last?
- What option provides the greatest value?
- What funds are available to build a new building or renovations?
- Is the money needed available, or will financing need to be considered?
Many demolition companies offer asset recovery services in order to reduce costs associated with demolition and to divert waste from landfills. Metals, wood, machinery, and equipment can all be repurposed or reused, and can create a way to mitigate the costs of demolition.
Partner with Our Expert Demolition Services Company in Oregon
Renovations may sound like the way to go, but there are limitations. Older buildings come with their own set of maintenance issues that a renovation cannot address. Some buildings have older building materials that may be hazardous or require creating a workaround in order to upgrade the facility.
Whatever decision you arrive at, having an expert Oregon commercial demolition contractor on your side will make the process easier. You’ll get a clear picture of what to expect from a rebuild or renovation. Elder Demolition offers a wide range of demolition services in Portland, Oregon, throughout the state and in Washington and Montana. Contact us today.