Real estate maintenance is what counts
More and more devices and systems require constant service. A master builder from Salzburg has developed an app for private and commercial property owners.
Have you ever forgotten to have your annual sticker made for your car? Probably not, the fear of a traffic stop with subsequent fines is too great.
In other contexts, on the other hand, people are usually not so precise when it comes to inspection or maintenance dates. For example in real estate. There in particular there has been a mature trend towards new technical solutions for years, from the keyword smart home to air heat pumps. But these devices – and not only them – must be reliably maintained. The law stipulates this often enough, but many do not comply, whether through carelessness or ignorance. And that applies to private households as well as to large residential buildings or commercial properties.
App for the fastest maintenance of devices and systems
“Every homeowner is obliged to carry out certain maintenance”, knows Christoph Reinhartshuber. The trained construction engineer has therefore developed a digital application that is intended to counteract these negligence. “I’m not addressing a professional facility manager, but private homeowners or companies who prefer to deal with their core business rather than such issues.”
The trigger for his idea was an incident at a customer’s in which the contents of a boiler spilled over several floors. It was later determined that the trigger was a safety valve that had not been serviced. For his application called “MyBuilding24”, Reinhartshuber has now entered all known device types for the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) for applications such as heating systems, air heat pumps, etc. “The exact type and the maintenance regulations also depend on the respective country,” says the expert. Those who keep to the intervals not only have an optimally adjusted system – this is particularly relevant in view of the energy issue at the moment – but also be on the safe side in terms of hygiene, for example with ventilation systems or with liability, especially in areas where many people are to be found.
No more overlooking maintenance times and keeping an eye on the costs
MyBuilding24 is available either as an app for mobile phones or as a web version. “It’s free for private users for up to ten devices,” explains Reinhartshuber. After downloading the software, you have to insert the respective devices. You have to enter the maintenance intervals yourself, unless they have already been saved. If maintenance is then carried out, documentation, logs or even photos can be added. Manuals are often available as well. “There are now companies whose technicians enter this data directly if the user authorizes the necessary access.”
All costs incurred can also be saved. Reinhartshuber: “That’s interesting because you then have an overview of the maintenance costs and you can tell when it’s cheaper to buy a new one.”
In order not to overlook the maintenance times, there are the next monthly reports from the system, as well as automatic push notifications on the cell phone. “It works from the fire extinguisher to the heat pump, from the sewage system to the generation of energy,” says Reinhartshuber. Speaking of fire extinguishers: Maintenance not only requires technical equipment, but also fire extinguishers, fire compartments, emergency lighting and the like.
Large customers can use specially recorded badges with their own QR code, which the service company retrieves and immediately enters the latest logs for each individual device. “One of our customers is the Salzburg Hotelbetriebe Imlauer. They use MyBuilding24 for all their hotels, the required managers only in their own house.” A further level is then the individual objects, below which follow the floors and then the individual rooms. Documentation over the entire service life.” Possible service providers can also be found in the System as already concluded service contracts.
Maintenance is also important to Reinhartshuber because a lot is overlooked: “For example, fire protection doors: you have to do a visual inspection once a month. This also applies to escape route lighting. They should be checked once a week to see if they are working.” Ultimately, a lack of or insufficient maintenance can also become an insurance issue. If you can then produce a reliable record of all checks, protocols and measures, you can increase your chances of the insurance company covering the costs in full. “The system is also so flexible that it can also be used for any regular activities outside of statutory maintenance. For example, for the pick on the car or the intervals between mowing the lawn.”
And where is this partially sensitive data stored?
“We have a database in Europe for this, and the data itself can be accessed worldwide via the cloud,” explains the company owner. This has meanwhile led to the fact that the man from Salzburg already has customers in Australia, Saudi Arabia and the USA, although he is currently mainly concentrating on Austria and the German-speaking region with his company, which he founded in 2020. MyBuilding24 is currently available in German, English and Croatian, with Hungarian coming soon.
Reinhartshuber developed the system with his company REI Development, which he owns and which currently employs six people in Nonntaler Hauptstraße in Salzburg. The application has been on the market since the summer of 2022 and, according to its own statements, has met with great interest. He himself studied construction engineering at the HTL Salzburg, then worked in Germany and abroad as a site manager and project manager before he took over his father’s planning office 15 years ago. With this company with three employees, he offers planning, construction management and project management, both for private individuals as well as for trade and industry as well as the public sector.