The 8 Best Facility Maintenance Blogs and Online Magazines

Are you a facility maintenance professional looking to up your game? If so, you’re in luck—dozens of trustworthy online resources are available for facility managers and technicians wanting to deepen their skill sets. While surfing the Web, we noticed several commonly recommended free maintenance resources were no longer in service. So, we decided to release an updated list of dependable facility maintenance educational materials.

Below are some of our favorite free blogs and online magazines for facility management teams right now. Feel free to bookmark this page and return whenever you find yourself deep in problem-solving mode or simply wanting to enhance your maintenance knowledge on a Sunday afternoon. Without further ado, here are the best facility management blogs and online magazines:

8 Free Facility Maintenance Blogs and Online Magazines

1. Maintenance World

The site houses one of the Internet’s oldest, most trustworthy, and most versatile collections of user-submitted articles for reliability and maintenance professionals. Each submitted article is vetted by the site’s editors for substance, accuracy, and readability. Its archives include articles on engineering, equipment knowledge, CMMS solutions, maintenance management, scheduling and logistics, preventive maintenance, root-cause analysis, and more.

Here’s an excerpt from an interesting article titled “A Framework for Achieving Best Practices in Maintenance”:

"There will probably be a gap in the way your Maintenance processes operate now and the way they will need to operate in the future in order to provide better service to your organisation. You may already perceive the need to introduce a new set of pointedly relevant performance measures to measure Maintenance efficiency and effectiveness."
Maintenance World

The home page also has a handy search bar that allows users to find relevant articles based on keywords. The site features a robust video library that delves into topics like How does a component fail?, How do you measure reliability? and How reliable are your belt drives? The site is definitely worth bookmarking and perusing during your downtime—you just might learn some tips that help reduce equipment downtime too!

2. FMLink

The site is the only facility management publication that combines information from in-house professional sources with those from leading FM associations. In other words, if the organization doesn’t have the answer to your question, they can help you find it.

Founded by Peter S. Kimmel, former president of the internationally recognized facilities management consulting firm Peter S. Kimmel & Associates, the publication is maintained by a full-time staff of facilities, computer, and publishing professionals. Editors catalog articles by both maintenance topic (e.g., building type, sustainability, health, and safety) and resource type (e.g., white papers, case studies, magazine features).

It’s worth mentioning that the publication also boasts a database of facility management resources and training providers, vendor directories, event calendars, and notification of pending FM legislation. Interested in staying in the loop with the latest FM news? Subscribe to the publication’s weekly newsletter or follow it on popular social media platforms.

3. i-FM

Here you will find a wealth of interesting FM content in the form of industry news, professional interviews, and international perspectives. Since launching in 1999, the UK content provider has consistently evolved to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding facility maintenance sector.

Here’s an excerpt from the recent article “2 Ways That Technology Is Changing FM as a Career”:

"It’s almost too obvious to say. Like pretty much every other aspect of life, the implementation of new technologies–and the pace of continued new development – is reshaping FM. The benefits are considerable and measured in terms of greater efficiency, improved service delivery, better management, reduced environmental impact and much more. . . . Probably the greatest challenge, however, is simply to understand–to understand what a particular piece of new technology means, what it offers, what its real benefits and costs might be, whether it is the right choice for a particular situation."
i-FM

Unfortunately, though iFM is comprehensive in scope, it isn’t super easy to navigate. With no limited topic categories, users must visit the site with a specific idea as to what they are seeking. A quick search bar entry is your best bet for discovering relevant news articles, white papers, and interviews. Another downside to browsing i-FM is the publication’s newsworthy content requires a subscription for access. However, folks can sign up for free limited access to most of the site’s services, which includes news. However, overall, i-FM remains one of the best facility maintenance blogs online.

4. MaintainX

Obviously, we’re MaintainX! We provide a mobile-first, task-management platform designed to lighten the load of facility management teams. Not only is the smartphone app completely free to download, but it includes everything managers need to start creating work orders, tracking assets, executing preventive maintenance programs, and enhancing regulatory compliance.

With that said, we also maintain an educational blog with the goal of helping industry professionals streamline standard operating procedures, cut unnecessary costs, and run world-class maintenance programs. Are we one of the best facility maintenance blogs on the Internet? Let’s just say it’s a working goal. We organize our content into several categories, including maintenance, safety and inspections, regulatory compliance, checklists, facility maintenance, work order software, and more.

Here’s an excerpt from the recent article “How Managers Save 12-18% With Facilities Preventive Maintenance Programs”:

"It’s no secret that expensive pieces of equipment require routine care. Consistently monitor your assets, and they will perform longer; the less often you have to replace assets, the more capital your facility has to invest in things like hiring top talent, developing new products and services, and expanding grounds in the future."
MaintainX

We stay on top of current research and scour the Web to synthesize the most relevant content for our readers. Over the next couple of years, our goal is to develop a complete technical resource library and certification program for both operational managers and maintenance professionals. Companies using MaintainX to track assets, stay connected with team members, and run flawless preventive maintenance programs include McDonald’s, Marriott, and Hilton.

5. FacilitiesNet

Facility Maintenance Decisions is both a print and online magazine that is accessible via facilitiesnet.com. Impressively, the organization’s online archives go all the way back to 2002! The best part?

The content is organized by both issue and article titles, making it super easy to navigate. Unlike many other free maintenance resources, the presentation of online articles is clean, organized, and aesthetically pleasing. Below is an excerpt from the recent article “Why Facilities Professionals Should Care About Cleaning Protocols”:

"Facilities managers are now tasked with determining what the best cleaning protocols are in order to create a safe and healthy environment. However, some products can create other health concerns that will need to be addressed in the future."
‍FacilitiesNet

Overall, FacilitiesNet is a fantastic resource worth checking out. It gets our approval for one of the best facility maintenance blogs available for free.

6. Building Operating Management

Next, we have Building Operating Management magazine. This resource is also housed on the facilitiesnet.com website! However, this publication specifically covers all aspects of building operations for facility executives. Here you will find technology updates, industry trends, and business tips.

Facilities managers are Before Before the pandemic, many people never gave a second thought about the quality of the air circulating around the office buildings, schools, or healthcare facilities they occupy during the day. Once the pandemic hit, indoor air quality (IAQ) became a common term for building occupants.
Building Operating Management

While the magazine may not be the best resource for troubleshooting a faulty HVAC, it’s a fantastic way to sit down with a cup of coffee and “have an imaginary chat” with real FM professionals. It’s definitely one of the best facility maintenance blogs out there.

7. Facilities Manager Magazine

Another magazine worth including in your reading rotation is Facilities Manager Magazine. The publication is produced by APPA, a 100-year-old community dedicated to “supporting educational excellence with quality leadership and professional management through education, research, and recognition.” Essentially, the organization is a gathering place for facilities professionals wanting to better their craft. APPA’s members include FMs from non-profits, libraries, museums, and various industry partners.

In addition to providing professional certifications, the organization maintains a rich arsenal of magazine articles on facilities management in colleges, universities, schools, and other educational institutions. Here’s an excerpt from a recent article on “Leading the Smart Campus Revolution”:

"Schools must adapt to the changing needs of applicants and not only provide the optimal environment for student learning, but also create spaces that are safe and healthy. Through strategic infrastructure improvements and renovations, universities and colleges can transform campuses to deliver a clean environment upon reopening while simultaneously appealing to highly discerning applicants. But these campuswide efforts can often put a strain on budgets, and applying for grants and loans is simply not a viable option for all institutions, especially during these uncertain times."
‍Facilities Manager

Not only do the articles include professional illustrations but they are backed by solid academic research. Add Facilities Maintenance Management to your reading list—you won’t be disappointed!

8. Facility Executive

Finally, we encourage you to browse the Facility Executive Website. One of the first things you will notice is how easy it is to find what you’re looking for via the site’s menu navigation. Content is organized into categories like workplace culture, products and services, education, and more.

You can browse articles on specific topics like HVAC, building exteriors, interiors, security, training, and more. The site also includes a handy search feature for keyword browsing. We recommend heading to this site when searching for answers to more specific or technical questions.

Here’s an excerpt from the recent article “Propane Heating and Cooling”:

"The HVAC system is the lifeblood of any commercial building, which means choosing the proper system is a critical decision for the operational success of a facility. Whether selecting a system for a new building or replacing systems in an existing facility, there are several key features to consider when choosing an HVAC system for a commercial space. Reliability, cost-effectiveness, carbon footprint, efficiency, and facility location are all important factors. . . Propane HVAC systems offer benefits that impact all of the stated factors above, but it’s only natural for facility managers to do their homework before deciding on an HVAC system and the energy source to power it."
‍Facility Executive

Another cool thing about Facility Executive is their extensive, free educational library. Users can choose from podcasts, webinars, and videos on several different topics. Not only does this make the site outstanding for career development, but it also lends itself to FM maintenance education, making it a balanced resource for FMs from all industries.

Running World-Class Facilities Maintenance Management

As anyone at the top of their field will tell you, education is a life-long pursuit. You may never know everything there is to know about facility maintenance, life cycle management, preventive maintenance, and team leadership.

However, you can accomplish amazing things by maintaining a dash of curiosity and committing to learning something new each week. We hope you have enjoyed this article on the best facility maintenance blogs and magazines. Perhaps you discovered a new blog worth adding to the reading list? Or, maybe you were inspired to return to an old resource you had long forgotten?

If your organization is seeking an intuitive, scalable, and cost-effective facilities management tool—on the path to running world-class operations—we invite you to download MaintainX for free. Our users enjoy drag-and-drop form creation, recurring work order assignment, cost analysis metrics, team member instant messaging, and more.