Understanding Housing Defects

Understanding Housing Defects provides a concise, coherent and comprehensive introduction to the causes, investigation and diagnosis of defects in domestic buildings.

For this new edition, many of the chapters have been substantially updated and new photographs have been added. There are four new chapters covering:

• How defects are defined
• An overview of building and architectural history
• External joinery and painted finishes
• Environmental and health- related building problems

Many of the 21 chapters cover a specific building element and include a brief introduction setting out construction principles and the evolution of current practice. All of the chapters consider the identification, cause and diagnosis of common (and sometimes not so common) defects. This book is a must have for all those students and practitioners who require a broad understanding of housing defects.

Building surveyors, general practice surveyors, architects, estate agents, housing officers and anyone involved in the management and maintenance of property as well as its construction will benefit hugely from this highly informative full-colour text. Written by the authors of The Construction of Houses, the book is also the natural companion to this bestselling textbook.

CONTENTS

• 1. Understanding Defects – an introduction
• 2. Building history
• 3. Building Movement – Foundations
• 4. Building Movement -Walls
• 5. The investigation of structural defects
• 6. External Walls –Brickwork and Stonework
• 7. Ground Floors
• 8. Upper Floors
• 9. Pitched Roofs
• 10. Flat Roofs
• 11. External Rendering
• 12. Plastering and Plasterboard
• 13. Internal walls and partitions
• 14. External joinery
• 15. Timber Pests
• 16. Dampness
• 17. System Building
• 18. Environmental and health- related building problems
• 19. Water and Heating
• 20. Drainage
• 21. Electrical Installations