Facilities maintenance guide
SFG20 explained: what it is, whether it's a legal requirement, and how to actually deliver it.
SFG20 is the UK's recognised library of planned preventive maintenance (PPM) task schedules. This is a plain-English guide for facilities and maintenance managers — what it is, the honest answer on whether it's the law, and how to turn a schedule into evidenced, completed work.
What is SFG20?
SFG20 is the industry-standard library of planned preventive maintenance (PPM) task schedules for building engineering services, published and maintained by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA).
Each schedule sets out the maintenance tasks a given asset type needs, how often, and to what standard — so a facilities team maintaining a chiller, a fire alarm, or an emergency lighting system is working to a common, recognised specification rather than a spec someone wrote from memory.
SFG20 is a subscription product with its own software: you licence access to BESA's schedule library and it is kept current as regulations change. Fixray is not an SFG20 schedule library and does not resell one — this page explains the standard and where a maintenance system like Fixray fits alongside it.
Is SFG20 a legal requirement?
No — SFG20 is not itself a law, and using it is not legally mandatory. It is the widely recognised way to demonstrate that your planned maintenance meets the statutory duties that ARE law.
UK building owners and duty holders carry statutory obligations under legislation such as the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and — for higher-risk buildings — the Building Safety Act 2022. In healthcare, the Health Technical Memoranda (HTMs) set the expected maintenance standards; for water systems, the Approved Code of Practice L8 governs Legionella control.
None of those name SFG20. What they require is that in-scope assets are maintained to a suitable standard and that you can evidence it. SFG20 is the maintenance industry's answer to "what does a suitable standard actually look like, task by task?" — which is why insurers, auditors, and clients so often ask for SFG20-aligned PPM even though no statute names it.
This is general information, not legal advice — a competent person or your responsible person should confirm what applies to your buildings.
What SFG20 covers
SFG20 covers the planned maintenance of building engineering assets, with each task classified by criticality so teams can prioritise the work that carries statutory or safety weight.
Asset types
Schedules span the building services estate — HVAC and air handling units (AHUs), fire alarms and fire dampers, emergency lighting, fixed-wire (EICR) and portable appliance (PAT) testing, water treatment and Legionella control, lifts, and more.
Red / amber / green task coding
Every task carries a colour: red for statutory or safety-critical work you cannot skip, amber for tasks that optimise performance and efficiency, green for aesthetic or minor discretionary work. It makes the non-negotiables obvious at a glance.
Schedule structure & frequency
Each schedule lists the individual tasks, the skill level required, and the frequency — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual — so a maintenance regime can be built and resourced from a recognised baseline rather than guesswork.
How to actually deliver SFG20
Owning the schedule library is the start, not the finish. The standard only protects you once the tasks are scheduled, assigned to someone, completed on time, and recorded with evidence an auditor will accept.
- 1
Scheduled
Turn the relevant SFG20 schedules into a live maintenance calendar — recurring jobs at the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual cadences each task specifies, so nothing depends on someone remembering.
- 2
Assigned
Every task needs an owner — an in-house engineer or a contractor — with the skill level the schedule calls for, so red statutory tasks never sit unallocated.
- 3
Recorded
As work is done it is logged against the specific asset: who did it, when, and the outcome. A gap in the record is, in practice, a gap in compliance.
- 4
Evidenced
When an insurer, an EHO, or a client asks, you can produce the per-asset trail — photos, timestamps, and sign-off — that shows the statutory tasks were completed, not just planned.
How Fixray helps you deliver SFG20
Fixray is the execution layer, not the standard. You bring the SFG20 schedules; Fixray is where the recurring tasks get scheduled, assigned, completed, and evidenced — on any phone, with a record that never resets.
- Recurring & scheduled maintenance in the shape SFG20 describes — daily, weekly, monthly, annual cycles, each with a due date and an owner.
- Assignment to an engineer or contractor, so statutory (red) tasks are never left unallocated.
- A completion record on every job — assignee, timestamp, and a photo — building the per-asset evidence trail auditors and insurers ask for.
- Per-asset history that persists, so a recurring problem or an overdue statutory task is visible rather than lost in a chat group or a spreadsheet tab.
Fixray supports the record-keeping SFG20-aligned maintenance requires; full SFG20 task-code mapping is on our roadmap, and the cycle-tracking, assignment, and evidence shape is in production today. It does not replace the SFG20 schedule library, and it does not replace a competent person — your responsible person still signs off.
SFG20 questions
- What does SFG20 stand for?
- SFG20 stands for Specifiers' Guide 20 — the twentieth in a series of specifiers' guides originally produced by the Heating and Ventilating Contractors' Association, now published and maintained by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). Today it is the recognised UK standard library of planned preventive maintenance task schedules.
- Is SFG20 free?
- No. SFG20 is a subscription product from BESA — you licence access to the schedule library and its software, and it is kept current as regulations change. Fixray is separate: it is a maintenance system where the SFG20-aligned tasks you plan get scheduled, assigned, completed, and evidenced. Fixray's Log tier is free forever for your whole team.
- How often should SFG20 maintenance be carried out?
- It depends on the task. Each SFG20 schedule sets its own frequency — some checks are daily or weekly, others monthly, quarterly, or annual — based on the asset and the risk it carries. The value of a maintenance system is turning those varied cadences into recurring jobs that come due automatically, so nothing is missed.
- Does Fixray replace SFG20?
- No. SFG20 is the standard that defines the tasks; Fixray is the execution layer that helps you deliver them — recurring scheduling, assignment, completion evidence, and a per-asset audit trail. You keep your SFG20 schedules and run the work through Fixray. Fixray makes no claim of SFG20 certification, licensing, or endorsement.