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Introduction - Analyzing Structural Integrity and Defects
There are different purposes for inspecting a building. Depending on the purpose the inspection of a building is done. In this project, the inspection of a selected building was done to find out the different key aspects of the building. The building that was chosen for this project is a residential building that is mainly used for living. The inspection of this selected building was carried out here in this project. It can be seen that inspecting a building is one of the methods to find out the current condition of a building. The main purpose of this project was to establish the benefits and characteristics of inspections of buildings.
For this purpose, the first thing that was done in this project was to provide the details of the building so that it becomes easy to know what type of building the project is going to be carried out. The details of the location of the building along with its address were provided in this project first. Moreover, the external view of the building was presented here in this project. The other details of the building such as design, method of building & materials used are also described in this report.
In addition to this, the description of the structural elements of the building is also presented here in this report. In this, the details of the foundation of the building and the materials with which this building was constructed were also presented. Moreover, the description of the superstructure of the building can also be found here in this report. In this, the details of the different elements of the superstructure of the building are presented. Furthermore, the description of the non-structural elements of the building also has their presence in this project. The condition of the materials that were used in this building was also inspected in this project.
Identification of the building
Location Map
![Location Map]()
Figure 1: Location Map
The building that was selected for this project is situated in the UK. This is a building that is present in the central part of the UK that is close to Manchester. The picture above shows the location of the building.
Postcode of the building
The building is present in the UK. The postal code of this building is 9C5VGV9C + 7V Oldham.
Main Facade
![Main Facade]()
Figure 2: Main Facade
The facade of a building describes the outside wall of the building or the external surface of the building. The external surface or wall of the building that was selected here is made of bricks (Mariano-Hernández et al., 2021). There is no finishing or plastering provided over the external brick surface.
Date of Building
The building was constructed 12 years ago. At the time of the preparation, the life span of the building was assumed to be 50 years. The coordinates of the building are Latitude- 53.5182 & Longitude- 2.1278.
Building Description
It is to be noted that different buildings are prepared for different purposes to serve. The use of the building that was selected here was for living. So, this building can be termed as a residential building (Awada et al., 2021). Also, the design of the building suggests that this is a residential building.
The design of a building describes the technique that was undertaken for constructing a building. In this case also there was a particular method was also adopted for designing the building (Hong et al., 2020). In this building, the usual designs of the residential building were adopted.
There can be seen a particular method that was undertaken for constructing the building. The main method that was adopted here was the design of a two-story residential building.
Different structural materials were used in this building. For the external walls brick was used. Also, for constructing the columns, brick was used. For internal separation, ply is used in this building (Jia et al., 2019). Moreover, the chimney of this building is also made of brick.
The substructure of the building
Foundation System
Different forms of foundations can be seen to be used in the buildings. For this building, the type of foundation that was used is the “isolated footing” foundation. In this form of foundation, the load that comes from the superstructure is directly transferred to the ground by the columns only. The components of this type of foundation are the column and footing around the column. It is to be noted that in this form of foundation, there is only one column is present on one footing (Yin et al., 2019). There are tie beams that connect all the footings. This helps in reducing the differential settlement.
Method of Construction
There are different methods of construction of the foundation depending on the type of foundation. In this case, the isolated foundation is present in the building. For preparing this type of foundation, the ground is excavated first (Vom Brocke et al., 2020). The excavation is done in the places where the footing and tie beams will be placed. After this formwork is placed for the preparation of the footing. On the footing, the column is constructed. After this, the column is prepared up to the ground level. This makes the foundations of the building.
Foundation Material
There are different materials used for making the foundation of the building. This is mainly dependent on the type of foundation, the load that comes on the foundation, and the materials available. Depending on these things it can be seen that certain materials were used in making the foundation of the building that was selected in this project. The footing of the building is made of brick (Churkina et al., 2020). The column of the building is also made of brick. It can be seen that the entire footing is placed over blocks of PCC.
The superstructure of the Building
Description
The superstructure of a building refers to the parts of the building that are present above the ground level. It covers all the items that are present above the level of ground. Hence, most of the components and places used by the occupants fall into this category. In this project, there can be seen different components of the selected building. The first component that can be seen in the building is the eternal walls. This component protects the inside of the building from the different outside natural forces of nature. Another component of the superstructure that can be seen here is the doors & windows (Himanen et al., 2019). These are the components that are used for the purpose of access in & out of the house. This is also used for accessing different rooms within the house. The roof of the house can also be considered as part of the superstructure. There are chimneys placed over the roof of the building. These are placed to move out the smoke created within the house.
Materials
There are different materials were used for making the different components of the house. The main facade of the building which is the external wall of the building is made of brick. The bricks are joined together with the use of cement mortar. Moreover, the doors & windows that are used in the building are made of wood (Wang and Hong, 2020). In addition to this, the roof of the building is a trace roof. This is a sloped roof that is covered with tiles. Also, there is the provision of asbestos pipes for the collection of rainwater and disposal of it to the drainage channel. Also, the internal separation of the inside space of the building is made of plywood. The floor of the building is made of tiles that are made of marble stone. In addition to this, there can be seen different forms of fittings can be there for the purpose of accepting the electrical connection for the different appliances.
Systems
![External Wall]()
Figure 3: External Wall
There are two types of walls are there in the building. These are external & internal buildings. The external building is made of brick. This protects the inside part of the building from outside forces (de Royston et al., 2020). This is made by joining clay bricks together with the help of cement mortar. Furthermore, there are walls inside the building that are used for separating the inside space of the building into different rooms. These walls are made of plywood.
![Floor System]( "Floor System")
Figure 4: Floor System
This is the component on which the internal activities of the house take place. In other words, this can be considered as the base on which the items in the building are placed. It can be seen that in this building for making the floors tiles made of marble stone were used (Costanza-Chock, 2020). In addition to this, finishings are also provided up to a height of 200mm for protecting the internal walls from the impacts of the different items placed inside the building.
![Sloped Roof]( "Sloped Roof")
Figure 5: Sloped Roof
The roof of the building is made of tiles. These are the tiles that are made of clay hence these can be said clay tiles. The roof is a sloped roof. In this roof there are several slopes are provided in different directions to drain out the water that falls on the roof.
Non-structural elements and materials
Floor Finishing
The floor bears the load of all the furniture and items that are placed in a building. Also, because of the presence of the different forms of materials and because of their impacts there any be seen different damage on the floors (Kiakojouri et al., 2020). So, keeping this in mind it is tried that the floor is strong enough that is able to resist the impact loads from the different items. It is also tried that there is no soaking of liquid or water through the floor. Taking all of these into consideration there was a particular material was used in making the floor of this building.
The material that is used in making the floor of the building is marble.
In making the floor with marble it can be seen that small pieces of marble along with marble stone dust are generated. This causes pollution of the environment.
- Mechanical Characteristics
Marble is a strong material that is good at bearing loads.
It is to be noted that the thermal conductivity of marble is less so there is less transfer of heat between the outside and inside space of the building.
Staircase
The staircase is the element of the building that is used for accessing the spaces of the building that are situated in different elevations. In this building, it can be seen that there are two floors are there (da Cunha and de Aguiar, 2020). For connecting these two floors there is a staircase is used in this building. In this building a “dog-legged stair” is present.
The material that is used for making the stair of the building is wood.
The stair is made of wood so there will be no environmental issue in terms of generation of waste or pollution. However, the use of wood should be reduced to save trees.
- Mechanical Characteristics
Wood provides the stair a medium “load bearing capacity”.
Wood provides good thermal insulation.
Windows
This is a component that is used to permit interaction of the outside environment with the inside space of the building. With the help of this accessibility requirements are also fulfilled. In this building, there are lintels are provided over the windows (Khajavi et al., 2019). These are provided in order to distribute the load to the wall around to avoid the weakness created by the hollow portion made because of the window opening.
The material that is used in making the window of the building is wood.
There are no environmental issues with wood.
- Mechanical Characteristics
Because of the wood, the windows of this building are strong enough to bear different loads.
The wood that is used in this building is a good thermal insulator.
Celling
The ceiling of the building refers to the upper side of the building that separates the different floors.
The ceiling of this building is made of RCC.
The main issue of this type of ceiling is that at the time of preparation, this generates a lot of waste and dust.
- Mechanical Characteristics
This is one of the most strong construction materials that is used widely all over the world.
The ceiling of this building is made of RCC and has a good thermal conduction property. Hence, this allows good transfer of heat between floors.
Interior Finishing
The interior of the building is made of ply. Plywood is used for separating the different spaces of the building.
Plywood is used for interior finishing.
There are no such environmental issues of using plywood.
- Mechanical Characteristics
Plywood provides a strong separation.
This material is a good thermal insulator.
The behavior of materials
Defect 1: Efflorescence on external wall
There can be seen a major defect on the external wall of the building. The defect that was identified here is efflorescence on the external wall. This can be seen in the picture of the building that white patches are present on the brick surface. From this, the problem of efflorescence can be identified.
The main cause of this is the presence of different soluble compounds in the brick. It can be seen that different inorganic salts that are present in the brick that are not at all contribute to the strength of bricks. For this reason, after soaking moisture from the environment the salts come out to the surface of the brick (Guest and Martin, 2021). This is called efflorescence.
The solutions that can be applied in this case are as follows.
- Wiping out the salt from the surface of the wall.
- Spray “vinegar solution” on the wall surface.
- Use detergent to remove the salt.
Defect 2: Presence of moss on the external wall
Another defect that can be seen in this building is the presence of moss on the external wall of the building. This is mainly seen near the pipe that carries out the drainage water from the building. For this moss, there can be seen a green layer on the surface of the external wall.
There are different causes that can result in the generation of moss on the wall of a building. Among these reasons, the main reason that is present here in this building is the leakage of drainage water from the drainage pipe of the building. Because of this, the surface around the drainage pipes can be seen to be affected by moss the most. The organic matter present in the wastewater allows the mosses to grow on the wall surface (Jin et al., 2019). Also, the shade from the sunlight is also another reason for this defect.
The possible solutions of this defect are as follows.
- The shading of the areas affected by the growth of moss should be removed so that it can come in direct sunlight.
- Sweeping the moss from the wall surface.
- Use of moss killer spray.
- Use of water & vinegar mixture.
Defect 3: Removal of brickwork pointing
Another defect that can be observed in the building is the removal of brickwork pointing. It is to be noted that the pointing of a wall is the mortar layer provided in between the two bricks for joining them together (TUHTA and GUNDAY, 2019). In this case, it can be seen that the pointing of the brickwork is getting removed. This will make the wall weak.
The main cause of this is the reaction of pointing with the natural forces such as moisture of the atmosphere. The different chemicals and moisture present in the atmosphere cause a reaction with the material present in the cement mortar used in the pointing. This resulted in degrading the pointing.
There are different solutions that can be applied for the mitigation of this defect. Some of these are as follows.
- Plastering the surface of the external wall.
- Painting the external surface of the wall.
- Use of weather-protective materials on the wall surface.
Defect 4: Soaking of water by the brick surface
The external surface of the external wall is seen to be soaked in water in a good amount. It is to be noted that this makes the wall weak. For this reason, it is needed that the brick of the wall is not in direct contact with water or moisture.
The main cause of these defects is the reaction of the brick present in the wall-soaking water. This is because of the pore spaces present in the bricks. Also, if before the use of the bricks, were soaked well in the water this would not have happened (Grondzik and Kwok, 2019). As there is no protective coating present on the wall, the moisture has a chance of directly interacting with the brick.
The solutions to this are as follows.
- Use of protective coating on the wall surface.
- Provision to make more sunlight fall on the wall surface.
Conclusion
In this project, the different aspects of the inspection of a building were found. It can be seen that inspection of buildings highlights the different details and current condition of the buildings. For this reason, one residential building was chosen for this project. The building is mainly used for the purpose of living. The details of the building were placed here in this project. It consists of the location and address of the building. Also, the description of the type of the building is also present in this report. Furthermore, the description of the substructure of the building is also present here. In this, the type of foundation along with the materials used in making the foundations were described. The description of the different components of the superstructure is also present here. The systems & materials used here for making these are present in this report. The details of the non-structural members along with their possible effects are also present in this report. The different forms of defects present in the building along with the possible solutions of the defects were discussed here.
References
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Costanza-Chock, S. 2020 Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need. The MIT Press.
da Cunha, S.R.L. and de Aguiar, J.L.B. 2020 ‘Phase change materials and energy efficiency of buildings: A review of knowledge’, Journal of Energy Storage, 27, p. 101083.
Grondzik, W.T. and Kwok, A.G. 2019 Mechanical and electrical equipment for buildings. John wiley & sons.
Guest, O. and Martin, A.E. 2021 ‘How computational modeling can force theory building in psychological science’, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(4), pp. 789–802.
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