In-service structural behaviour of buildings: The role and application of environmental monitoring in the assessment of the long term durability of precast concrete system built houses, Kennet district council, devizes

Abstract

A number of local authorities and housing associations in the United Kingdom have decided to overclad their stock of non-traditional system built houses and flats. This class of housing includes steel frame, cast-in-situ and precast concrete construction. As well as improving the habitability of these houses it is likely that overcladding will also increase the life expectancy of these system built houses. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) are particularly interested in the effects of overcladding on the durability of reinforced concrete components. This paper describes the study BRE are currently undertaking to monitor the environmental conditions within the structural components of two precast concrete houses prior to, and subsequent to, the properties being overclad. The houses were built in the 1960's by Messrs Reed and Malik using their Reema Hollow Panel system of construction. Environmental sensors have been installed in a selection of components within the two houses to measure temperature, relatively humidity and atmospheric oxygen content. The monitoring system is coupled to a sophisticated software driven datalogger which is interrogated remotely by a host computer via a modem facility. A brief review of a typical months data obtained from one of the houses in its unclad state is given.