Estimating Optimum Investment Cost for Obsolete School Buildings

Area Offices of Education in Korea assign and execute government budget based on the evaluation of school buildings` safety rating and degree of their deterioration. However, it is never easy to estimate the most appropriate investment amount for old buildings under consideration of their service lives and residual values together. A model of estimating optimum investment cost for obsolete school building is developed taking its life cycle cost into account. The model is also applied to six old buildings in five different schools and found that some of the facilities hardly needed further investment and were better to be rebuilt. The study results will be a great beneficial for officers to make right decision on maintaining obsolete school buildings and to maximize tax payers` money.