Facility condition assessment

Facility condition assessment (FCA) or Property Condition Assessment (PCA) is an industry term that describes the process of a qualified group of trained industry professionals performing an analysis of the condition of a facility or group of facilities that may vary in terms of age, design, construction methods, and materials. The industry professionals are typically architects and engineers of various disciplines and skilled-trade technicians; though engineering and architectural work are not part of the assessment and are excluded in the scope of the assessment. Building diagnostics go beyond FCAs and PCAs to determine solutions to the problems found and predict outcomes of the soulutions.

This analysis can be done by walk-through inspection, mathematical modeling (see Mathematical Model), or a combination of both. But the most accurate way of determining the condition requires walk-through to collect baseline data.

This analysis can be performed on government/public, commercial, and private facilities. Commercial property assessments are more product/service driven, and private inspections are typical of home inspections. ASTM 2018 is a guide for Property Condition Assessments, or PCA, and is used in the Commercial real estate environment.

Another sort of facility assessment is a Building Inspection. Most often, the job of a building inspector is looking at a single facility that is needed or required to be in compliance with a building permit, or with a set of codes or statutory requirements.

When referenced today, the term FCA describes work accomplished for Federal, State, and local government agencies or entities. The term PCA may describe work for governmental agencies or private entities.

Architectural and Engineering (A&E) firms, or organizations, have assessed facilities as a part of their duties since those professions were conceived and formalized; though engineering and architectural work are not part of the assessment and are excluded in the scope of the assessment. The end product was usually an extensive narrative, supplemented with drawings and photographs, as to what conditions were observed, with a summary budget for correction of all deficiencies.

In the 1970s the term Facility Audit was commonly used. The term Facility Audit was later phased-out as it suggested a review of the way a facility manager spent money on the facility; something that might be done by an ‘Auditor’. Modern-day FCA work took on its current form around the time of the founding of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) in 1980, although the two were not related.

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