The checklist
| Asset | What to check | How often | What is actually required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air conditioning | Filters, coils, drain line, refrigerant pressures, electrical connections | Full service about every six months in long trading hours; filters every four to six weeks in heavy use. Practice, set per unit by its history | Refrigerant work only by a holder of an ARCtick refrigerant handling licence |
| Box and eaves gutters | Leaves and silt at outlets, overflows, signs of ponding | Commonly twice a year, quarterly under trees or on dusty sites. Practice, set per roof | No interval. Design is AS/NZS 3500.3, with a 1:200 minimum fall on box gutters |
| Pest control (food retail) | Activity, entry points, door seals, bin areas, bait station placement | No interval in the Code. Set per site by location, climate, food and activity | Standard 3.2.2 clause 24: prevent pests entering, eradicate them, and keep records that show it |
| Entries, paths, trolley bays | Gum, spills, tyre dust, oil at docks and bin pads | No Australian standard. Set per surface, per store, after a walk | Wash water kept out of stormwater in NSW, Victoria and Queensland |
| Switchboards | Old fuses, limited RCD protection, heat marks, no spare ways | No set interval here. Assess every board the same way and rank them | Any wiring work by a licensed electrician, with the state's compliance certificate |
| Floors | Trip hazards, worn entry matting, slip resistance where wet | No set interval. Test an existing floor on site when there is doubt | The NCC regulates slip resistance on stairs, landings and ramps. Existing floors are tested to AS 4663 |
| Car park | Line marking, wheel stops, pedestrian routes | No set interval. Survey against the standard and rank the sites | AS/NZS 2890.1 bay and aisle sizes; wheel stops 90 mm to 100 mm high |
| Graffiti | New tags on shopfronts, roller doors and car park walls | As it appears | No state level legal deadline for a retailer in NSW or Victoria |
Each row is a summary. The guides linked at the end of this page carry the detail and the sources.
Why the practice intervals still matter
An interval that is not required is still the cheapest way to avoid a call out. Preventative work is the easiest line in a maintenance budget to cut, because nothing complains when it is done, and cutting it usually comes back as reactive call outs within a year.
The better question is not how often, but how often for this site. A roof under trees needs quarterly attention and one in the open does not. A bakery in a warm coastal centre and a bottle shop in a cool inland strip do not need the same pest interval. One number for the whole estate is a sign the schedule was set at a desk.
Turning it into a schedule for a store estate
- Start with one register: every store, every asset, its age and condition
- Put anything with a compliance requirement on the schedule first, then the plant that is costly to lose
- Set each interval per asset and per site, not per brand
- Log every reactive job against the same register, so repeat faults show up
- Move a fault that keeps coming back onto the planned schedule
That is how Nextage runs preventative maintenance across a fleet: one register, intervals set per site, licensed trades where the work needs a licence, and a photo record for every visit.
