THE NATIONAL BODY OF PROFESSIONAL BUILDING CONSULTANTS

Damage Surveying & Remediation of modern monolithic clad buildings.

At the August 2000 conference, Philip O'Sullivan, President of the Claddings Institute, spoke to our members on the problems associated with inspecting these buildings. His talk was accompanied by some photographs of extreme damage, caused by small amounts of water penetrating the cladding and reaching untreated timber framing.

The talk was aimed at helping our members identify problems, and as such is presented here in the form of a list of factors to consider. The general public may not glean a great deal of useful information from this, but the photographs are quite self-explanatory.

Site considerations:

Level of Exposure
Soil type/Drainage

Physical signs:

Exterior:
Parapets
Terminating apron flashings
Roof spreaders, type, location
Fascias
Pergolas (penetrating wall cladding?)
Balcony handrails (fixing / penetration)
Flat surfaces
Drains, and other penetrations, overflows
Junctions
Windows: colour, size, type
Flashings, or lack of, raking and curved heads, ends
Cracking: control joints, sand grading, swelling timber
Base: capillary break?

Interior:
Bottoms of windows, especially corners
Skirting and carpet smoothedge
Unexpected / unexplained movement

Non-destructive testing:

Moisture meters, comparative tests, re-evaluate physical signs

Predisposing factors:
Past repairs - waterproof coatings
Owners' observations; wind direction, rain intensity
level of timber treatment, and type of timber
Stucco - type of backing: Triple S, fibre-cement, non-rigid
Cold cladding effect

Destructive Investigation

Work in with tradesmen
Seeing is believing
Decay can be very localised
Can't predict what water will do, can explain after seeing
Type of decay: soft rot, white rots, brown rots

Repair Options:

Water water water
Risk assessment
Weathertightness (Deflection, Drainage, Drying (Evaporation), Durability)
Bold versus timid: see photos
Cost of repairs
Need to get it right.