Making manuals that work

Thinking about printing O&M manuals

Modern O&M manuals are created as digital documents replete with hyper links, search tools and the type of navigation structures that we have become used to when browsing the internet. Denaploy is one of the leaders in this trend and as a consequence has documented approaching £1bn of construction projects for some of the most demanding customers in the industry, Jul 15, 2014

Our main contribution to Environmental Management ISO 14001, is by promoting the improvements that result from using digital manuals; saving the enormous volumes of paper, reducing transport costs in shipping paper around and preparing and reviewing drafts etc etc. A better end product that also helps the planet.

Modern O&M manuals are created as digital documents replete with hyper links, search tools and the type of navigation structures that we have become used to when browsing the internet. Denaploy is one of the leaders in this trend and as a consequence has documented approaching £1bn of construction projects for some of the most demanding customers in the industry.

Unfortunately it is still common place for the job specification to ask for 4x hard copies and 1 soft copy. Mostly this is because this is the same copy and paste bit of the spec that hasn’t been considered for the last 10 years and is therefore easier to leave in the contract chain than challenge.

Here are some of the discussions that should be considered.

  • Do we need a paper copy at all?  It might be a good idea to make a single archive copy as the building is likely to last many years and paper is a good archival material.
  • Is the paper copy the reference manual that will be used day to day? No! It is a lot easier to find information when it is on your computer system. If you then want paper copies of a specific page you can print it out. The manual for a £3m project typically runs to more pages than War and Peace, but nobody will read it from cover to cover.
  • What about the Drawings?There is very little point in printing all the drawings. The drawings are probably the most expensive part of the print process (anything from a third to half the total print costs).
    • If you are doing some further development then you will want the DWG files so your CAD designers can work with them
    • If you just need to reference a drawing, then you can either look at it on the screen or get it printed when needed.
  • It is very wasteful to print thousands of pages, just so they are available just in case they are needed.
  • Do User Guides need to be printed? Under the Code for Sustainable Homes, you do not need to print all the manuals. It is perfectly acceptable to post the manuals on a website and then give a letter to each user with their access details and the contents page.

Why we don’t include the cost of printing in our quotes!

We are happy to join with the main contractor in discussing these issues with the client in the hope that we can persuade them to co-operate in saving the planet and even if they only agree to having just 1 print copy and exclude all the drawings – then it will have a significant impact.

We are also aware that many of the Main Contractors have their own print facilities (either in house or by agreement with Call Print or Service Point et al) and can often get manuals printed more cheaply than we can.

For these reasons we do not include the actual print costs in our quote. We do however include all the management of the process – the conversion from hyperlinks to a print friendly layout, the detailed instructions for the printer and the control to get the job done.

ISO 14001

  • What are O&M Manuals?

    When any significant building work is undertaken, either as a NewBuild, a Cat A refit (of the basic structure) or a Cat B refit (tenants fittings), it is a legal requirement in the UK that an O&M (Operations and Maintenance) manual be provided as part of the Health & Safety documentation for the building.

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  • Home User Guides

    It is not only the O&M manuals that are going digital. It is the user guides for apartments too. The requirements of companies such as Paradigm are increasingly to provide detailed bespoke manuals for each apartment.

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  • Regulation 38 and the 'Golden Thread'

    Regulation 38 what is it? And what does this means for the future of fire safety and preserving the Golden Thread' of information?

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  • RiDR

    Rapid intelligent Data Retrieval A bespoke search and retrieval system that enables rapid access to all the information collected across multiple O&M manuals. Our objective is to increase the value of these documents beyond Handover.

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  • O&M manuals for clients with large property portfolios

    Clients with large property portfolios are increasingly determined to take control of the documentation relating to their properties and store them in data base silos with a common access and structure

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    Find out about the benefits of our Framework Agreements

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  • What are residual hazards?

    Since CDM 2007 there has been an increasing emphasis on providing a residual risks section in the health and safety Manual. Some sub-contractors find this particularly confusing because of the apparent similarity with the risk assessment that they are required to make before they start work.

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  • New building regulations will be in effect from 15th June 2023

    New Building Regulations require documentary proof that the build quality conforms to the build plan. Photos during the build and increased certification.

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  • What Makes a Good O&M Manual?

    Our objective is not to create great literature – many manuals are longer than War & Peace. Our aim is to capture large amounts of detail so that any of the wide variety of future users can find what they need whether it be the details of a floor tile that needs replacing following an accident with some inks, or a major overhaul of the Air conditioning.

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  • Why should you spend on a professional O&M Manual?

    Is it worth the cost? It's a no-brainer justifying our O&M services.

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  • The Future Homes Standard 2025

    The new Future Homes Standard being introduced will require significant additional information to be collected and documented to pass Building Regulations.

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  • Information that we need to start creating your Project Manuals

    A quick reference for Project Managers of the information that we need from you to start our work

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  • End of Project Checklist

    End of Project check list Having put together all the O&M information from all the subcontractors, there are several areas that need to be cross-checked, especially for the inclusion in the H&S file.

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  • About Us

    In 2019 we celebrated our thirtieth year in business, Denaploy are arguably the Construction Industry’s leading provider of digital O&M documentation.

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  • The Expectations of Quality in Documentation are Increasing

    Talk to any old time project managers about O&M manuals and you get the same response; a box ticking exercise in which it is only by the most extreme luck that you will find anything useful when you need it. As we move into the digital world everybody has much higher expectations.

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  • Thinking about printing O&M manuals

    Modern O&M manuals are created as digital documents replete with hyper links, search tools and the type of navigation structures that we have become used to when browsing the internet. Denaploy is one of the leaders in this trend and as a consequence has documented approaching £1bn of construction projects for some of the most demanding customers in the industry.

    Read More
  • As built drawings PDF or DWG?

    The final As Built drawings have always been a critical part of an O&M Manual, and it has always been clear that these need to be the final version of the drawings

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  • Digital Home User Guides

    People have a right to expect good quality documentation explaining how to use and maintain their property and the old way of throwing a few bits of product literature into a file is no longer acceptable.

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  • BREEAM

    BREEAM (Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method)

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  • What is a CIBSE TM31 Logbook?

    Log books provide a simple, easily accessible summary of a new or refurbished building rather than the detail contained in O & M manuals.

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  • Construction Bloopers

    This page is dedicated to the construction blooper. It's just a bit of fun and not to be taken too seriously

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  • BREEAM Meaning: A Deep Dive into Sustainable Building Practices

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  • Building Regulations for Greener Construction: Progress, Challenges, and the Path to Net Zero by 2030

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  • Comprehensive O&M Manuals for Schools: Ensuring Safety, Compliance, and Excellence in Education

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  • Denaploy Achieves Constructionline Gold Accreditation, Elevating Industry Standards

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  • The Future Homes Standard 2025: Progress, Delays, and the Path Forward

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  • Understanding The Purpose And Importance Of O&M Manuals

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  • Creating Effective Operations and Maintenance Manuals for Healthcare Facilities

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  • From Construction to Handover: Managing Residual Hazards for O&M Manual Compliance

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  • Understanding Regulation 38

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  • Constructionline Meet the Buyer Crawley

    Another jaunt for Constructionlines Meet the Buyer event in Crawley

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  • Denaploy on Tour-Constructionline Meet the Buyer Leeds

    Denaploy on tour again! This time for Meet the Buyer but in Leeds.

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    Our longest standing Monarch unfortunately passes away.

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    Annual trip to the National Construction Summit in Ireland.

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  • CIS and VAT reverse charge from 1st March 2021

    Please note that the provision of documentation services provided by Denaploy Limited are specifically excluded from the CIS and therefore the VAT rules applicable from 1 March do not apply. We will therefore continue to apply VAT to our invoices.

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  • Manuals for Small Projects

    Small Projects in the region of £200k+ can be really difficult for documentation. They are big enough to require careful documentation, but too small to justify the cost involved.

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  • Denaploy's New Offices

    Denaploy are pleased to announce that we have moved our entire Operations & Maintenance Manuals department into new offices.

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  • Common pitfalls in preparing O&M Manuals

    Advice to Project managers - 3 Steps to good quality O&M manuals

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  • Documentation in the event of Covid-19 lockdown

    As we prepare for a Covid-19 lockdown, we need to take simple precautions for the eventual restart whenever it comes. We want to help by collecting as much information as possible on the current status of the project

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  • Policy update on Covid-19

    The impact of Covid 19 is growing every day, so our response is under constant review. So far it is business as usual apart from lots of working from home.

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  • Earth day 2022 and Sustainability in construction

    A key talking point at the moment in the construction industry is of course net zero and sustainability.

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  • Constructionline Gold Member Accreditation for Denaploy

    As far as we are aware we are the only O&M Provider to hold this level of accreditation.

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  • Denaploy and Kier Unite for RCA Flagship Building

    After working on a large number of projects together Kier and Denaploy unite again for the RCA

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  • Thousands saved on refrigerators thanks to O&M Manual and RiDr system.

    O&M Manual and RiDr system saves client thousands through refrigerator changes.

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    Denaploy was appointed by BASE, one of our valued regular clients, to manage the documentation for this major stadium project

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  • Recent Projects

    Over the last 10 years we estimate that we have documented over £2bn of construction projects for many main contractors and some of the most demanding clients and consultants in the country.

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  • Denaploy Flashdrives

    One of the reasons O&M manuals are so disparaged is that they are never there when you need them!

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  • Data Supply Chain - BIM Systems

    One of our clients is a company that builds and fits-out high-end, exclusive homes in some of the most exclusive areas of North London. They approached us to create the O&M manual and User Guide for one of their latest luxury homes for a well-known TV personality who has a penchant for Apple products.

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  • Dagenham Park C of E School

    A new school built by Laing O’Rourke in record time using Laing O’Rourke’s model for delivering primary and secondary schools, using standardised building components manufactured and assembled at Europe’s leading construction offsite pre-assembly facility

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  • BSRIA Performance indicators

    O&M manuals have a terrible reputation. If you mention them to most people in the construction industry you’ll be met by a resigned shrug. They are considered a painful legal necessity and an afterthought to the main job of getting the building project completed. Nobody likes doing them and it requires a completely different skill set to those normally expected of a project manager.

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  • Denaploy Digital O&M Manuals

    About Denaploy and our processes

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    Undertaking projects for schools have some special requirements and these are also reflected in the documentation production

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    A new build hospital unit within the Ealing Hospital complex.

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