Indicative economic life expectancy tables - Guide M Appendix 12.A1 (2019) (pdf)

Chapter 12 of CIBSE Guide M addresses economic life factors and end of economic life, important factors in the life-cycle costing of constructed assets and in-use phases. This new appendix – produced by CIBSE, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) – contains updated life expectancy data.

This new table acknowledges the development of many task schedules produced by SFG20 since the publication of Guide M in 2014, and also includes amendments to align fully with the RICS New Rules of Measurement (NRM) 1 and 3. Otherwise, the content of the table is as published in CIBSE Guide M.

This table provides an industry consensus view of ‘common data classifications’ for all building engineering services, bringing together CIBSE Guide M, RICS NRM 1 and 3 and BESA’s SFG20 data standards:

• RICS NRM 3: asset description; coding
• CIBSE Guide M, Appendix 12.A1: indicative economic life expectancy
• BESA SFG20 task schedules (codes)

This common data classification may be used by clients, facilities managers and contractors to provide the structured asset information needed for the implementation of building information management (BIM) and effective data exchange during the operational phase of asset life.

Such data can support a number of key applications, including:

• project handover to operations and maintenance
• basis for tendering maintenance and renewal works
• asset inventory for setting up maintenance registers
• asset structure for condition surveying
• asset structure for life cycle renewal planning
• setting-up computer maintenance management systems, often known as CAFM/Asset Management systems
• asset information modelling for BIM projects throughout the asset life cycle (to provide 5D and 6D to 3D and BIM modelling)
• facilitates data sharing and exchanging data throughout the asset life cycle at various stages and levels of detail (e.g. product data templates).

The revised table should be viewed as the current version for use with CIBSE Guide M. The original (2014) version is still available and will be the version cited in many existing documents relating to ongoing contracts. Therefore it will continue to be available to support enquiries relating to those existing arrangements.