Commercial planned preventative maintenance

What a PPM arrangement can cover

Scheduled servicing, plant-room checks, fault finding, safety observations and a clear record of recommended remedial work. Scope is agreed after we understand your site.

Why plan maintenance instead of waiting for a breakdown?

Most commercial heating failures give warning signs long before the building goes cold: a burner that is slow to light, a pump bearing that has started to run noisy, an expansion vessel that has lost its charge, or a pressurisation unit that tops up the system far more often than it should. A planned visit is the time to spot those signs and deal with them on your terms, rather than on the coldest morning of the year with staff, residents, pupils or guests waiting.

A schedule also keeps the paperwork in one place. Service sheets, gas safety records and defect reports build into a history of the plant, which is useful when a boiler nears the end of its life and you need to decide between repair and replacement.

Plant a PPM schedule can include

The asset list is built from what is actually in your plant room. Typical items are:

• Boilers and burners: combustion analysis, burner and ignition checks, heat exchanger and condensate trap inspection on condensing boilers, and safety device tests.
• Cascade and modular boiler sets: sequencing and lead-boiler rotation, so wear is shared rather than one boiler doing all the work.
• Pumps: duty and standby changeover, noise and vibration, seals and speed settings.
• Pressurisation units and expansion vessels: cut-in and cut-out pressures, vessel pre-charge, and signs of a hidden leak on the system.
• Controls: time clocks, weather compensation, frost protection, zone valves and the boiler interface with any building management system.
• Gas supply and plant-room safety: tightness testing of the installation pipework, gas solenoid and interlock checks, emergency isolation, ventilation openings and flue condition.
• Hot water plant: direct-fired water heaters and calorifiers, including thermostat settings, safety and relief valves and stored water temperature.
• Oil-fired plant: burner, nozzle and filter work by OFTEC trained engineers, plus a visual check of the oil supply line and tank area.

Choosing a visit pattern for your type of site

There is no single right frequency. The aim is to match visits to how hard the plant works and when the building can tolerate a shutdown:

• Schools and colleges: the main visit in the summer holiday, so any remedial work is finished before the autumn term, with a short check at half term if the plant is older.
• Care homes: heating and hot water are needed every day of the year, so work is staged one boiler at a time and visits are timed with the manager.
• Offices and commercial units: an early-autumn visit before the heating comes on, with work done early in the day or at weekends where that suits.
• Warehouses and industrial units: warm air and radiant heaters often sit alongside boilers, so they can share the same visit and the same records.
• Churches and community halls: plant that runs only a few hours a week benefits from a check before the first cold service of the season, as long idle periods can hide faults.
• Hotels, pubs and restaurants: hot-water demand peaks at set times of day, so visits are booked into the quieter part of the day.

How we set up a PPM arrangement

1. Tell us about the site. Call 0800 0996 007 or WhatsApp 07947 578332 with the address, the type of building, the number of boilers and the fuel. Photos of the boiler data plates help.
2. First visit and asset list. An engineer looks at the plant room, notes each item of plant, and records its condition and any existing defects.
3. Agree scope and timing. We propose which items are covered, what is checked on each visit and when visits happen. Nothing is added without your agreement.
4. Scheduled visits. Engineers from our team of over 10 local engineers attend as planned and leave a written record of what was checked and found.
5. Remedial work. Defects come with a clear explanation and a priced remedy, so you can approve, plan or budget the work.
6. Yearly review. Once a year we look back at the records with you and adjust the scope if the plant, the building or its use has changed.

Records you keep from each visit

Good records are a big part of the value of PPM. Depending on the agreed scope, you can expect an asset list for the plant room, a service sheet for each boiler with its combustion readings, gas safety records for the appliances checked, and a defect list. Unsafe situations are classified and labelled in line with the gas industry unsafe situations procedure, so it is clear what is urgent and what can be planned. Keep these with your building log book: insurers, landlords and auditors often ask to see them.

Compliance a PPM schedule helps you show

• Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998: employers and those in control of premises must keep gas appliances, flues and pipework in a safe condition, and landlords need an annual gas safety check on appliances they provide. Planned visits give you dated evidence of both.
• Pressure systems: some heating and hot-water plant falls under the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 and needs a written scheme of examination. We work alongside your insurer's engineer surveyor so maintenance and examinations line up.
• Hot water safety: keeping calorifiers and water heaters at the right stored temperature supports your legionella control plan. Your water-safety risk assessment sets the checks; PPM visits can record the boiler-side readings for it.
• Manufacturer and warranty conditions: many commercial boiler warranties expect yearly servicing by a competent engineer, and a schedule makes sure it happens.

All gas work is carried out under Gas Safe registration 985448, which you can check on the Gas Safe Register website.

Planned maintenance for commercial gas systems, not just the boiler

A boiler can pass its service while the gas installation around it slowly gets worse. A PPM schedule for gas systems looks at the whole installation, from the meter outlet to each appliance, so problems in the pipework, the safety controls or the air supply are found on a planned visit rather than during an emergency.

• Installation pipework: a tightness test to IGEM/UP/1, or IGEM/UP/1A on smaller installations, plus a look at pipe supports, corrosion where pipework runs through damp ducts or along outside walls, and labelling. Our gas tightness testing guide explains what the test involves.
• Emergency isolation: the emergency control valve, the plant-room isolation valve and any emergency stop buttons are checked to make sure they are easy to reach, clearly labelled and working.
• Automatic shut-off: gas solenoid valves, ventilation and extract interlocks and any gas detection system are tested so they really do close the gas supply when they should. Our kitchen gas interlock guide covers how interlocks work.
• Flues and air supply: flue joints, supports and terminals, and plant-room ventilation openings checked against the heat input of the boilers now installed, which may not match what was there when the openings were made. See our plant-room ventilation guide.
• Plant-room information: a current gas line diagram and clear valve labels help anyone attending in an emergency. If they are missing or out of date, we note it on the visit record.

An example PPM year for a heated commercial building

This is an example, not a fixed package. The real pattern is agreed for each site, but most heating schedules follow the seasons like this:

When	What the visit focuses on
Late summer	The main service: boilers and burners, combustion readings, gas safety checks, pressurisation and controls, so any remedial work is done before the heating season starts.
Autumn start-up	Heating brought back on under supervision: time clocks reset after the clocks change, frost protection tested, duty and standby pumps changed over, and condensate pipework checked for frost exposure. Our frost protection guide explains why.
Midwinter	A lighter check for plant that works hardest, such as care homes, hotels and buildings in use around the clock: system pressure, lockout history and any repeat faults.
Spring	An interim visit to review winter faults, take water treatment readings where that is in scope (see our water treatment guide), and plan any replacement or upgrade work for the summer.

Hot-water plant that runs all year, such as calorifiers in care homes and hotels, usually needs its own checks on top of this; our hot water temperature guide explains the readings that matter.

PPM, an annual service or repairs when needed: which suits your site?

• An annual service is often enough for a single boiler with simple controls in a shop, small office or church hall. One commercial boiler service and a gas safety check each year covers the essentials; our guide to what a commercial boiler service includes sets out what is checked.
• A PPM schedule makes more sense where there are several boilers or a cascade, calorifiers, pressurisation units or a building management system, or where losing heat or hot water would be serious, as in care homes, schools and hotels.
• Relying only on breakdown calls is the riskiest option for commercial plant. Faults tend to show up on the coldest days, when parts and engineers are busiest. If something has already failed, our commercial boiler repair team can help first, and we can talk about a schedule afterwards.

Several buildings? One record across the estate

Landlords, property managers, schools groups, care providers and retailers with several units often have plant spread across Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. For these clients, PPM keeps things consistent:

• an asset list for each site, with each boiler and pump given the same reference on every visit;
• visits to nearby sites grouped on the same days to keep disruption down;
• a defect list for each site, so remedial work can be prioritised and budgeted across the whole estate;
• records kept in a form you can pass straight to insurers or auditors, as described in our heating records for insurers guide.

If your facilities team already uses a written task list, such as one based on SFG20, send it with your enquiry so the proposed scope can be compared line by line. Landlords can read our landlord heating responsibilities guide for the usual split of duties between landlord and tenant.

Before the first PPM visit

• Access to every plant room, plus roof, loft or cellar plant, and any keys, permits or site induction needed.
• The last service sheets, gas safety records and any written scheme of examination for pressure vessels.
• Water treatment records and BMS details, if you have them.
• A note of known faults, recent repairs and anything that has been added or removed since the last service.
• The times when heating, hot water or kitchen gas can safely be off.

Our plant-room safety checklist is useful between visits. Oil-fired sites can read our guide to what an oil-fired commercial boiler service covers, carried out by our OFTEC trained engineers. Gas work is carried out under Gas Safe registration 985448. Call 0800 0996 007 or WhatsApp 07947 578332 to talk to our team of over 10 local engineers.

PPM questions we get asked

What is a commercial PPM arrangement?

Planned preventative maintenance is a schedule of visits agreed in advance for the heating and hot-water plant on a site. Each visit follows a checklist for the equipment on the asset list, the results are recorded, and any defects are reported with a recommended remedy, so faults are found and fixed before they turn into breakdowns.

Is PPM worth it for a site with a single boiler?

It can be. A single boiler serving an office, shop, church hall or small workshop still needs its annual service and gas safety check, and putting both on a schedule with the pumps, controls and pressurisation unit means nothing gets missed. We will tell you honestly if a simple annual service suits the site better.

Can you take over PPM from another contractor?

Yes. Send us the existing asset list, the last service sheets and any open defects. We review them, check the plant on a first visit and carry the records forward, so the history of the plant is not lost when the contractor changes.

How often will engineers visit?

It depends on the plant and how hard it works. Many sites have one main visit before the heating season with a lighter check in spring; plant that runs all year, such as hot water in care homes and hotels, may need more. The visit pattern is agreed with you after we have seen the site.

Do PPM visits cover oil and LPG boilers?

Yes. Commercial gas plant is maintained under our Gas Safe registration, number 985448, oil-fired plant by our OFTEC trained engineers, and LPG plant is covered too. Tell us the fuel for each boiler when you enquire.

Can visits be planned around opening hours or school holidays?

Tell us when the building is quiet and we plan the main visits around it where we can, for example school holidays, weekends at offices, or a staged shutdown at a care home so residents keep heating and hot water.

What happens if a fault is found on a PPM visit?

Small adjustments are made on the visit where it is safe and agreed. Anything bigger is written up with the cause and a priced remedy for you to approve. Anything unsafe is made safe and explained on the day, following the gas industry unsafe situations procedure.

Do you offer PPM for homes?

No. Fast Commercial Boiler Help is commercial only: plant rooms, commercial boilers, commercial water heaters and commercial heating.

Does a PPM schedule include the annual gas safety check?

It can. The gas safety inspection of the appliances and installation pipework is often built into the main PPM visit, so the written record is renewed at the same time each year and sits alongside the service sheets.

Do PPM visits check the gas pipework and safety interlocks, or just the boilers?

Where they are on the agreed scope, yes. Visits can include a tightness test of the installation pipework, checks on gas solenoid valves, ventilation and extract interlocks, emergency stop buttons and gas detection where fitted, as well as the boilers themselves.

Will planned maintenance stop every breakdown?

No, and we will not claim it does. Parts can still fail without warning. Planned visits make breakdowns less likely by catching wear early, and good records help an engineer find the cause faster if something does fail. If plant has failed, call 0800 0996 007.

Can one PPM arrangement cover several buildings?

Yes. Landlords, property managers, schools groups and care providers often have plant on more than one site. Each building gets its own asset list and defect list, and visits can be grouped so engineers cover nearby sites on the same days.

What should we have ready for the first visit?

Access to every plant room and any roof or cellar plant, the last service sheets and gas safety records, any written scheme of examination for pressure vessels, water treatment records if you have them, and a note of known faults or recent repairs.

Related commercial services

• Commercial boiler servicing: one-off annual services if you do not need a full schedule
• Commercial gas safety inspections (CP12)
• Plant room and boiler room repair
• Cascade and condensing boiler repair
• Commercial water heater repair
• Pressure loss and leak repair
• Warm air and radiant heater repair
• Commercial boiler repair and 24/7 emergency call-outs if something has already failed
• Sectors: schools, care homes, offices, warehouses, churches and halls, hospitality, landlords and property managers

We cover commercial sites across Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire from our base at CO10 8NN. Call 0800 0996 007 or WhatsApp 07947 578332 to talk through a PPM schedule for your building.