Almost every published set of maintenance statistics is American, about manufacturing plant, and built on vendor surveys. This one is about UK buildings, and it is built by counting: every task in PM Assist's published maintenance checklist library — 1,409 items across 133 asset types — grouped by how often it comes round and what kind of work it is.
Citing this analysis?
PM Assist, "UK Planned Maintenance Statistics", analysis of the PM Assist maintenance checklist library (133 asset types), 2026. https://pmassist.co.uk/planned-maintenance-statistics
This is an analysis of a published maintenance specification: what UK building plant is specified to receive, compiled from manufacturer guidance, statutory intervals and industry standards. It is not a survey of real estates, contracts or CAFM systems, and it says nothing about what maintenance buildings actually get, how much is deferred, or what any of it costs. Please quote these figures as statements about the specification — that is what they can support.
Every scheduled task in the library, grouped by its frequency band. The last column annualises each band — a weekly task counts 52 times, a quarterly one 4 — which is why the small bands dominate the actual work even though they are a fraction of the specification.
| Frequency | Tasks | Share | Annualised events |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annually | 506 | 48.1% | 506 |
| Twice a year | 106 | 10.1% | 212 |
| Quarterly | 217 | 20.6% | 868 |
| Monthly | 158 | 15% | 1,896 |
| Weekly | 55 | 5.2% | 2,860 |
| Daily | 11 | 1% | 2,750 |
Annualising each task by its frequency band, the median asset type in the library carries 30 scheduled maintenance events a year, against a median of 7 distinct scheduled tasks. The spread is enormous: from 4 a year at the low end to 1,160 for steam boiler. Any "average maintenance load per asset" figure hides a distribution this wide.
How this was computed: Each task multiplied by its band's occurrences per year — annual 1, twice-yearly 2, quarterly 4, monthly 12, weekly 52, daily 250 — summed per asset type, then the median taken across asset types. The daily figure assumes 250 working days; only the 11 daily tasks in the library are sensitive to that choice.
The library covers 133 asset types across 11 equipment categories — HVAC, heating, cooling, ventilation, pumps, electrical, fire safety, water systems, controls, metering and vertical transport — with 1,409 individual checklist items, of which 1,053 are assigned a maintenance frequency. Every asset type in it carries at least one scheduled band.
How this was computed: Counted directly from the published checklist library at build time, so these figures cannot drift from the checklists on the site. Each asset type's page lists the same items this count is taken from.
Every checklist item in the library, grouped by the kind of work it requires. The record-keeping share is the one most maintenance planning underestimates.
| Kind of work | Items | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Functional testing | 617 | 43.8% |
| Visual inspection | 377 | 26.8% |
| Record keeping | 172 | 12.2% |
| Safety | 140 | 9.9% |
| Cleaning | 103 | 7.3% |
Annualised maintenance events by asset type, highest first. The gap between the top of this table and the median asset type — 30 events a year — is why per-asset averages mislead when you are planning resource.
| Asset type | Category | Scheduled tasks | Events per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam Boiler | Heating & Hot Water | 11 | 1,160 |
| Kitchen Extract | Ventilation | 10 | 790 |
| Air compressor | HVAC | 11 | 620 |
| BMU & Access Cradle | Lifts & Escalators | 8 | 266 |
| Compactor & Baler | Electrical | 4 | 253 |
| Process Chiller | Cooling | 20 | 222 |
| Cooling tower | Cooling | 13 | 208 |
| Generator | Electrical | 11 | 197 |
| Biomass Boiler | Heating & Hot Water | 10 | 196 |
| Grease Trap | Water Systems | 9 | 195 |
| Fire Alarm Panel | Fire Safety | 13 | 178 |
| Boiler | Heating & Hot Water | 15 | 173 |
Each asset type links to its full published checklist, which is the source these counts are taken from. All 133 are listed in the maintenance checklist library.
The figures are computed at build time directly from the maintenance checklist library published on this site, so they cannot drift from the checklists they describe. Add an asset type and every number here moves with it.
It depends entirely on the asset, and the spread is wider than most schedules assume. Across 133 UK building asset types, 48.1% of specified maintenance tasks are annual and 20.6% quarterly, but the median asset type still carries 30 maintenance events a year once every band is annualised, and the busiest carries 1,160. Statutory intervals — LOLER thorough examinations, gas safety checks, fire damper drop tests — set a floor that the asset's own manufacturer guidance often raises.
12.2% of checklist items across the library are record-keeping tasks: logging readings, updating the asset register, filing certificates, recording test results. That is more than cleaning and safety items combined, and it is specified work rather than overhead — an inspection nobody can evidence is, to an auditor or an insurer, an inspection that did not happen.
The median asset type in this library carries 7 distinct scheduled maintenance tasks, which annualise to 30 maintenance events a year. The distribution is heavily skewed: a handful of assets with daily or weekly duties — steam boilers, kitchen extract systems, air compressors — carry hundreds of events a year, while most carry a few dozen.
No, and the distinction matters. This is an analysis of a published maintenance specification — what UK building plant is specified to receive, compiled from manufacturer guidance, statutory intervals and industry standards. It is not a sample of real estates, contracts or CAFM systems, and it says nothing about what maintenance buildings actually get, how much is deferred, or what any of it costs. Any figure here should be quoted as a statement about the specification, not about the building stock.
Yes. These are PM Assist's own figures, computed from our published maintenance checklist library — please credit PM Assist and link to this page. Each finding has its own anchor so you can link to the specific figure you are citing, and every underlying checklist is published on this site.
If 48.1% of maintenance happens once a year, the engineer doing it has not seen that asset for twelve months — and needs the last visit's readings, the commissioning figures and the manufacturer's tolerances to judge what they find. See the wider UK facilities management statistics, what planned preventive maintenance involves, or browse all our research and data.