The only chapter that is not about a construction site
Everything else in the specialist set assumes a site with a perimeter, an induction and people who know what is going on. This one assumes somebody else’s live building, usually entered alone, for a job measured in hours, alongside members of the public who have been told nothing.
So the defining hazards come from the building rather than from the task: asbestos that was always there, systems somebody else installed and nobody documented, and occupants who will walk straight into an open floor because they have no reason not to.
The asbestos register is the single most important document
Maintenance workers are among the most exposed groups in the country, and the reason is structural. Demolition arrives expecting asbestos and surveys for it. Maintenance arrives to change a light fitting and puts a drill into a ceiling.
Asbestos insulating board looks like plasterboard. Artex looks like textured plaster. Neither can be identified by eye, and it is why the duty to manage puts the information in a register and requires it to be handed to anybody liable to disturb it. Asking for it takes minutes.
Short jobs are the dangerous ones
Nobody sets anything up for twenty minutes of work. That is why roof plant areas with no permanent edge protection, ceiling voids with no lighting and stepladders on uneven floors account for so much of the harm in this trade, while the rarer hazards that get all the attention account for little.
The other version of the same problem is scope creep: a half hour job turns out to be work at height, hot work, or asbestos disturbance, with none of the controls in place because the precautions were chosen for the job that was described rather than the job that was found.
Working alone, and what a phone does not do
A mobile phone is no use to somebody unconscious in a plant room, and telling the building manager you have arrived does not tell anybody that you never left. The control has to be a positive check that raises the alarm when it is not answered, which is a different thing from being contactable.
The building is still occupied while you work
A propped fire door, a blocked exit, a fire detection zone isolated to avoid a false alarm: each of these removes protection from people who do not know the work is happening. Reinstatement gets forgotten, and systems left isolated after a test are a recurring finding after fires.
Most of this paper is the core, not the specialism
Two papers of K questions from a bank of N share about K squared over N. This is the one chapter that is not about a construction site, so the core pool carries more of the paper here than the subject pool does. Both are reported above the test, and the revision mode comes back to what you keep getting wrong rather than drawing fresh.
Common questions
Who holds the duty to manage asbestos?
The person responsible for maintenance of non-domestic premises. They have to find it, record it, assess the risk, manage it and give the information to anybody liable to disturb it. That last part is what maintenance workers depend on, which is why asking for the register is the first action on any pre-2000 building rather than a formality.
Why is a maintenance worker more exposed to asbestos than a demolition worker?
Because demolition arrives expecting it and surveys for it. Maintenance arrives to change a light fitting and drills into a wall. Asbestos insulating board looks like plasterboard and artex looks like textured plaster, and neither can be identified by eye, so the register is the only thing standing in the way.
What is the biggest cause of injury in this work?
Slips, trips and falls, including falls from ladders and steps. The everyday injuries dominate because the everyday tasks dominate, and the fall from a stepladder while changing a fitting is the classic case. That is why access equipment choice matters more here than the rarer dramatic hazards.
Why is a permit to work used in maintenance?
To control work where the precautions have to be verified before it starts and cancelled after it finishes: hot work, confined space entry, live electrical work. The sign back matters as much as the sign on, because that is what confirms the system is safe to return to service.
What is the pass mark on the facilities maintenance paper?
Forty five out of fifty in forty five minutes, and five wrong answers is the whole allowance. Thirty five questions come from the core operatives chapters and fifteen from facilities maintenance. The trade fifteen are the odd ones out on this site, because they are not about a construction site at all: the hazards come from the building and from the people already in it.
Are these the real facilities maintenance questions?
No, and they are not trying to be. CITB sells the live bank rather than publishing it. These are written from free HSE guidance, mainly the fire safety, managing risk, slips and trips and safe electrical working material, and every answer links to the page behind it. For a chapter this broad that link does more work than the question does.
Is my progress kept apart from the other papers?
Yes. Each paper stores its own progress in your browser under its own key, so this record and the operatives one are independent, and none of it is uploaded. The facilities pool is twenty eight questions with fifteen per paper, so about eight come round again on a second sitting. That figure is reported on its own, because averaged across fifty it looks like a fresh test when it is not.