Erik Brandt

Assessment of building conditions

Abstract This paper describes the work regarding assessment of building conditions within the TOBUS project [1] , a European project to develop a tool for selecting Office Building Upgrading Solutions. The condition assessment covers the degree and extent of physical degradation and the work necessary to renovate office buildings including the associated costs. A common-agreed European checklist for building objects, which has been sub-divided into types, has been defined. The checklist is not only used for assessment of the need for retrofitting due to physical degradation, but is also used for the assessment of the functional obsolescence and to identify and redress the causes for complaints from the users of the building on indoor environmental quality (IEQ). A database has been prepared in which the physical deterioration of each object and each type is described by the use of four degradation codes: “a”, “b”, “c” and “d”. Accordingly, a database with four work codes has been prepared in which the nature of work required for retrofitting the building object is defined. Also a cost related database has been established.

Prediction of service life of building materials and components

ConclusionsData on the service life of building materials and components are essential to the cost-effective use of materials. For this reason, it is important that methods be available for reliably predicting service life. In the current state-of-the-art, test methods are most often useful for comparing the relative ‘durabilities’ of building materials as opposed to predicting quantitatively the service life.The need to advance the state-of-the-art of service life prediction of building materials has stimulated considerable interest in national and international activities in recent years. The technical barriers to meeting the need for improved predictions are numerous and formidable. Therefore, it is not practicable for one laboratory or even one country to pursue, on its own, the long-term, complex and costly research needed to address the barriers. But the barriers offer the opportunity for continued and increased international interactions and the opportunity for performing challenging research on building materials and their degradation processes. In this way, the needs can be met.

Development of a methodology for selecting office building upgrading solutions based on a test survey in European buildings

Abstract The potential for using the TOBUS methodology to select office building upgrading solutions have been investigated during field tests in 15 European office buildings in 5 European countries. The 15 office buildings represent a variety of building traditions, architectural designs, construction periods and energy and indoor performance. The buildings were audited following the TOBUS methodology developed within the project. The results of the test surveys were primarily used to improve the TOBUS methodology and secondly to suggest general upgrading solutions and energy retrofit measures for the surveyed buildings. This paper describes the development of the TOBUS methodology based on the 15 test surveys.

A Performance Assessment of Prefabricated Bathrooms Installed in the 1990s

This chapter describe the design and build up of wet rooms (bathrooms and rooms with similar exposure to water and high relative humidity) in Denmark with emphasis on wet rooms made as part of a Danish research project—Project Renovation. In this project, 19 different types of bathrooms were made in new untraditional ways. A number of these bathrooms covering 11 different types were surveyed after approximately 20 years of use. The survey aimed at evaluating the bathrooms’ condition based on a non-destructive inspection. In general, the bathrooms are in good condition and perform well compared with traditionally made bathrooms. The paper describes the methodology developed to assess bathrooms and gives examples of the results.