19 Pages
4760 Words
I. Introduction - Detailed Analysis of Structural Elements and Defects
There are different ways of estimating the condition of a building. These are the methods that are also used for measuring the efficiency of the building. It can be seen that with the help of these methods, several aspects of the building are found. In this project, the main objective is to do an inspection of a building. Hence, one building was selected for this project. Different photographs of the building were taken at the time of the inspection of the building. From the pictures, the uses of the components of the building, the type of building, and the other details of the building were obtained. This type of inspection is called a “visual inspection”. The building that was selected for this purpose was a building present in the UK.
The first thing that was done in this project was to present the details of the “location & address” of the building. Moreover, the details of the external view in the form of the description of the facade of the building were also presented here. Moreover, other details such as the design and use of the building are also present in this report. Moreover, there can be seen the presence of the description of the substructure present in the building. It includes the details of the type of foundation and materials used in making the foundation. Also, the description of the different items of the superstructure of the building is also present here. It can be seen that different “non-structural” elements are present in the building. The key details of these elements are present in this report. Like all buildings, with the passage of time, there can be seen different details in the building. Though this building was recently made still there were some defects were still observed in this building. The details of these defects were presented in this project.
II. Building Description
A. Location of the building
![Building Location]( "Building Location")
Figure 1: Building Location
The building is located in the country of the UK. More specifically it is situated on “Thorton road”, in Haslington.
B. Building postcode
The postcode of the building is CW15AF.
C. The facade of the building
![Building Facade]( "Building Facade")
Figure 2: Building Facade
The facade of a building describes the external covering of the building. In this case, the facade of the building is made by a simple brickwork structure.
D. Building date
The construction of the building was started in 2022 and finished in 2023.
E. Building details
It is to be noted that there are different forms of buildings are there in actual practice. This variety of buildings is there because of the different needs of the buildings. The building that was considered here was made with the aim of living (Liao et al. 2022). Considering this, the building can said to be a residential building.
There are different forms of designs can be seen in the buildings. Depending on the purpose of the building the design of the building is decided. In this project, the building that was selected is a residential building. It is to be noted that this form of the building is mainly used for the purpose of living. In this building, the foundation was designed in the form of the design of a “shallow foundation”. Moreover, the superstructure of the building was designed in the form of a “low-rise building”.
Depending on the desired outcome of buildings it can be seen that there are different methods employed for making buildings. In this project, the building that was taken here is a residential building. Here, shallow excavation was done to make the substructure of the building. Moreover, the storey of the building was limited to 2 storey (Thanh et al. 2021). The roof of the building is sloped.
The main material that was used in making the building`s structural elements was brick. Burnt clay brick was used in making the outside elements and the foundation of the building.
III. Substructure
The substructure is the part of the building that is present beneath the ground surface. This is the portion of the building that does the work of transmitting the load coming from the upper portions of the building to the ground (Schnurbus et al. 2020). Hence, this can be considered as the direct connection of the building with the ground.
A. Foundation Type
There are different forms of foundations are there. This selection of the foundation mainly depends on the type of soil present in that area, the amount of load coming, and the materials available at the location of the building site. Depending on all of these it can be seen that in this building a shallow foundation was used. Here, the depth of the foundation is less as compared to its breadth (Pan et al. 2020). Here, a continuous wall foundation throughout the building.
B. Construction of foundation
From the above, it can be seen that in this building a shallow foundation was used. There was a particular method was used in making this foundation. It can be seen that for making this foundation a continuous excavation for the wall foundation was made (Kawabe et al. 2020). In this excavation, the wall foundation was built. The rest of the superstructure was built on this foundation.
C. Foundation material
There are different materials are used in making foundations. It depends on the load coming on the foundation and the materials that are available in that place. Depending on all of these it can be seen that in this building the main material that was used in making the foundation was brick (Grosso et al. 2020). The brickwork that is present here has a cavity inside.
IV. Superstructure
A. Walls
A wall is a structural element of a building that covers it from the outside environment. There are two types of walls present in the building that were selected here. These were the external & internal walls. The design of these walls is different from each other.
![Building wall]( "Building wall")
Figure 3: Building wall
The external wall of the building is a cavity wall. The main characteristic of this is that there is a cavity present between two walls of the building. This cavity does the work of reducing heat transfer between the outside building and the inside of the building (Topchiy & Bolotova, 2019). The internal walls are the components that separate the space of the building into different rooms.
For both types of walls, there are different materials were used here. For the “external wall,” the main material that was used here was brick. Burnt clay bricks were used here. Moreover, for making the internal walls, plywood was used.
The system defines the system of work of the structural item of the building. The cavity wall system was used in making the external walls of the building (Chen et al. 2023). In addition to this, two layers of plywood were used for making the internal partition walls of the building.
B. Floors
The floor is a member of a building on which the different items present in the building rest. It supports the live loads present in the building. Moreover, the load coming from it is directly transferred to the foundation.
![Building floor]( "Building floor")
Figure 4: Building floor
It can be seen that a particular form of floor was used in this building. This is a simple floor made with PCC. The floor is directly connected to the wall. There are sealing protections placed on the floor to restrict leakage.
There are different materials that were used in making the floor of this building. The main material that was used here was PCC. It is a hard composite material that has a good strength to bear the loads that come on it. Moreover, there is a covering of tiles on the floor (Luli? et al. 2021). It was done in order to provide a smooth finish to the floor and also to prevent the leakage of liquids.
There is a particular system present on the floor. The floor is directly connected to the walls. From the floors, the loads are directly transferred to the walls. This load is then transmitted to the foundation of the building.
C. Roof
It is the uppermost structural element that is present in a building. This is assumed to be the upper covering of the buildings. In this case, there is a particular form of covering is present in the building. Here, a sloped roof was used.
![Building roof]( "Building roof")
Figure 5: Building roof
There are different forms of roofs are used in the buildings. The selection of the type of roof is mainly dependent on the use of the roof along with the weather conditions of the area. Here, a sloping roof was used. This is a roof that is not accessible or used by the occupants (Mboga et al. 2020). On trusses, the covering materials of the roofs are placed.
There are different components of the roof are there that were used in this building. The first one is the truss that formed the framework of the building. The truss of the building is made of steel. Also, on the truss clay tiles were used for covering the building.
There is a particular system that can be seen on the roof of the building. On the upper face portion of the wall, the truss is placed and clamped. This forms the support of the roof truss. On the truss, purlins are placed in order to allow materials to be placed on it (Hwang et al. 2021). After this clay tiles are placed on the roof for covering the roof.
V. Non-structural material and elements
A. Floor Finishing
The description of the floor finishing present in this building is as follows.
Like other buildings, there is a particular form of flooring present in this building. The floors transmit the load to the walls and from the walls, the load is transferred to the foundation.
The main material that was used in making the floor was PCC. It is to be noted that different forms of live loads are present inside buildings. For this reason, the floor needs to be strong enough that it can bear different forms of loads (Chen et al. 2021). Also, there is a covering of tiles on the floor.
There is no environmental issue in it other than the generation of dust and wastage of material at the time of preparation of the floor.
- Mechanical Characteristics
The floor of this building has good mechanical characteristics. The main feature of this is that it is hard enough to resist different forms of loads such as “gradual load”, and “impact load”.
The floor has a moderate “heat transmission”.
B. Staircase
The staircase of a building is a member that helps in accessing the spaces of a building that are present in different elevations. In this case also, because of having three storey, a staircase was provided to the building.
There are different forms of stairs are there that are used in buildings. This mainly depends on some factors. The type of stair that was used here was the “dog-legged” stair. This is a stair that has two runs (VidalMata et al. 2020). Both of these runs are opposites to each other and also in different elevations.
There are different materials are there that were used in the building. The main materials that were used in making the staircase were wood. In addition to this, the railings and similar items like balusters are made of wood.
There are no such environmental issues are there in the staircase of the building. However, the material PCC can create some issues (Yusof et al. 2020). Because of the wastage of materials there can be seen air pollution is created.
- Mechanical Characteristics
The staircase has enough strength in order to support the loads coming on it.
There is a very small amount of transfer of heat through the staircase.
C. Windows
This is an element of the building that is mainly used for the interaction of the inside environment with the outside atmosphere.
![Building windows]( "Building windows")
Figure 6: Building windows
There is a particular system that can be seen in the windows of the building. The windows of this building are three-paneled windows. Lintels are present above the windows.
The material that was used for preparing the window frame was wood. Moreover, the panels of the windows are made of glass.
There is not much issue because of the windows. However, it is to be noted that the defective parts of the windows should be removed properly to avoid the generation of waste.
- Mechanical Characteristics
The strength of the windows is good enough to resist any unforeseen loading.
This provides a good amount of thermal insulation to the building.
D. Ceiling
There are two floors in the building. The ceiling of the ground floor is made of RCC. This takes all the loads that come on it and transfers them to the wall (Chen et al. 2019). On the first floor of the building, it can be seen truss is covered by a false ceiling with ply material.
![Building ceiling]( "Building ceiling")
Figure 7: Building ceiling
The main materials that were used for making the ceiling are RCC and plywood.
There was no environmental issues were observed because of this element.
- Mechanical Characteristics
The RCC ceiling is very strong in resisting loads.
RCC is a good conductor of heat. However, because of the presence of the upper floor plywood ceiling, there can be good thermal insulation.
E. Interior Finishing
The interior walls are made of plywood material. The walls are covered with tiles.
![Building interior finishing]( "Building interior finishing")
Figure 8: Building interior finishing
The main material that was used in covering the wall was tiles. These tiles are made of stones.
There is no such environmental issues were observed because of this element.
- Mechanical Characteristics
The finishes are very strong.
The interior finishes provide a good amount of thermal insulation.
VI. Material Behavior
A. Defect 1: Efflorescence on the external wall
In this building there were some defects were observed. Among these defects, one of the defects was the efflorescence on the “external wall” (Jacob et al. 2021). There can be seen white patches on the wall surface surface. This is the prime indication of efflorescence. It can be observed mainly in the backside of the building.
![Building efflorescence defect]( "Building efflorescence defect")
Figure 9: Building efflorescence defect
Causes
There are different reasons are there that are mainly responsible for causing efflorescence. These are as follows.
- The first one in this regard is the absence of sunlight.
- Another reason for this is the presence of salts that are soluble in water in the brick.
- Moisture present in the brick structure is also a reason for this.
- Also, the reaction of the brick material to the atmosphere is responsible for this.
- The porosity of the brick material is another reason for this.
Mitigation measures
There are different techniques that can be applied to tackle efflorescence. These are as follows.
- The first thing that can be done is to apply chemicals such as vinegar on the surface of the wall where efflorescence is observed.
- Another way is to apply diluted acid such as HCl on the wall to remove the white patches.
- The use of efflorescence-removing chemicals is also the reason behind this.
- Also, natural weathering is needed to be allowed for removing the ill effects of atmospheric moisture.
B. Defect 2: Absence of external surface coating
It can be seen that the surface of the building is not covered. For this reason, many defects can be generated in the building. First of all, the moisture present in the environment gets the chance to directly with the brick material. For this moisture is soaked by the bricks and the strength of the bricks gets reduced (Martin et al. 2021). Because of the absence of finishing the wall of the buildings remains rough.
![Building moss growth defect]( "Building moss growth defect")
Figure 10: Building moss growth defect
Because of the absence of the wall coating, there can be seen different defects in the building. The reasons for these defects are as follows.
The reaction of the brick surface with the atmospheric moisture is the prime reason for the efflorescence, reducing the brick strength of the bricks, and providing pale patches on the wall surface. Moreover, without wall finishing it is not possible to provide a smooth surface.
There are some measures that can be taken in order to overcome this. These measures are as follows.
- Application of paints on the wall surface.
- Plastering of surface
- Protective coating on the surface.
C. Defect 3: Growth of moss on the wall surface
Description
One of the defects that can be seen in the building is the growth of mosses on the walls of the building. As a result of this, it can be seen that at some places of the walls, there are greenish patches. This signifies the growth of moss. The main ill effect of this is that this affects the aesthetic view of the building (Mohanty et al. 2019). Moreover, the reaction of this with the wall material reduces the strength of the wall material.
Causes
- The main reason that is causing the growth of moss on the external wall is as follows.
- Less amount of sunlight.
- Presence of organic matter that is suitable for moss growth.
- Reaction with the atmospheric moisture.
Mitigation measures
The mitigation measures for this are as follows.
- Removing the shed any allow sunlight to fall directly on the affected wall surface.
- Removing the moss by scrubbing.
- Removing organic matters present there.
- Applying bleaching powders.
- Applying moss-removing sprays.
Conclusion
In this project, the different aspects of a building inspection were highlighted. It was found here how the inspection of a building can be helpful in establishing the different details of the building. For this reason, one building in the UK was selected here. The inspection of the building was done by taking pictures of the different locations of the building. After this, the location & address details of the building were presented here. Moreover, the description of the foundation present in the building is also present in this report. In this the details of the form of the foundation along with the materials used in making the foundation are present. Moreover, the description of the different components of the superstructure of the building was presented in this report. The details of the “non-structural” elements of the building are also present here. It can be seen that there are some defects present in the building. These defects along with their causes & mitigation measures were described here.
References
Journals
Chen, J., Liu, D., Li, S. and Hu, D., 2019. Registering georeferenced photos to a building information model to extract structures of interest. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 42, p.100937.
Chen, J., Lu, W. and Lou, J., 2023. Automatic concrete defect detection and reconstruction by aligning aerial images onto semantic?rich building information model. Computer?Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 38(8), pp.1079-1098.
Chen, K., Reichard, G., Akanmu, A. and Xu, X., 2021. Geo-registering UAV-captured close-range images to GIS-based spatial model for building façade inspections. Automation in Construction, 122, p.103503.
Grosso, R., Mecca, U., Moglia, G., Prizzon, F. and Rebaudengo, M., 2020. Collecting built environment information using UAVs: Time and applicability in building inspection activities. Sustainability, 12(11), p.4731.
Hwang, Y.S., Schlüter, S., Park, S.I. and Um, J.S., 2021. Comparative evaluation of mapping accuracy between UAV video versus photo mosaic for the scattered urban photovoltaic panel. Remote Sensing, 13(14), p.2745.
Jacob-Loyola, N., Muñoz-La Rivera, F., Herrera, R.F. and Atencio, E., 2021. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for physical progress monitoring of construction. Sensors, 21(12), p.4227.
Kawabe, K., Horie, K., Inoguchi, M., Matsuoka, M., Torisawa, K., Liu, W. and Yamazaki, F., 2020, September. Extraction of story-collapsed buildings by the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake using deep learning. In Proceedings of the 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 9c-0021, Sendai, Japan (Vol. 27).
Liao, K.C., Wu, H.Y. and Wen, H.T., 2022. Using Drones for Thermal Imaging Photography and Building 3D Images to Analyze the Defects of Solar Modules. Inventions, 7(3), p.67.
Luli?, L., Oži?, K., Kiši?ek, T., Hafner, I. and Stepinac, M., 2021. Post-earthquake damage assessment—Case study of the educational building after the Zagreb earthquake. Sustainability, 13(11), p.6353.
Martin-Brualla, R., Radwan, N., Sajjadi, M.S., Barron, J.T., Dosovitskiy, A. and Duckworth, D., 2021. Nerf in the wild: Neural radiance fields for unconstrained photo collections. In Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (pp. 7210-7219).
Mboga, N., Grippa, T., Georganos, S., Vanhuysse, S., Smets, B., Dewitte, O., Wolff, E. and Lennert, M., 2020. Fully convolutional networks for land cover classification from historical panchromatic aerial photographs. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 167, pp.385-395.
Mohanty, V., Thames, D., Mehta, S. and Luther, K., 2019, March. Photo sleuth: Combining human expertise and face recognition to identify historical portraits. In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (pp. 547-557).
Pan, N.H., Tsai, C.H., Chen, K.Y. and Sung, J., 2020. Enhancement of external wall decoration material for the building in safety inspection method. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 26(3), pp.216-226.
Schnurbus, M., Kabat, M., Jarek, E., Krzan, M., Warszynski, P. and Braunschweig, B., 2020. Spiropyran sulfonates for photo-and pH-responsive air–water interfaces and aqueous foam. Langmuir, 36(25), pp.6871-6879.
Thanh, M.T.G., Van Toan, N., Toan, D.T.T., Thang, N.P., Dong, N.Q., Dung, N.T., Hang, P.T.T., Anh, L.Q., Tra, N.T. and Ngoc, V.T.N., 2021. Diagnostic value of fluorescence methods, visual inspection and photographic visual examination in initial caries lesion: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Dentistry journal, 9(3), p.30.
Topchiy, D. and Bolotova, A., 2019, December. Assessment and inspection of the technical condition of monolithic reinforced structures in transportation infrastructure facilities. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1425, No. 1, p. 012005). IOP Publishing.
VidalMata, R.G., Banerjee, S., RichardWebster, B., Albright, M., Davalos, P., McCloskey, S., Miller, B., Tambo, A., Ghosh, S., Nagesh, S. and Yuan, Y., 2020. Bridging the gap between computational photography and visual recognition. IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, 43(12), pp.4272-4290.
Yusof, H., Ahmad, M.A. and Abdullah, A.M.T., 2020. Historical building inspection using the unmanned aerial vehicle. International Journal of Sustainable Construction Engineering and Technology, 11(3), pp.12-20.
