Abstract
Climate conditions affect buildings’ performance and durability. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of climate conditions on roof deficiencies. 763 cases of such deficiencies were analyzed in this regard. Once the construction deficiencies were quantified, they were characterized from a climatological point of view and their ‘climate location segments’ were studied to obtain ‘ranges of concentration of anomalies’ according to the obtained percentage. A direct relation is shown to exist between the location of the building (latitude, situation, type of climate, precipitation, thermal demands, and average wind speed) and a greater or smaller concentration of deficiencies found in both flat and pitched buildings. It was also found that an annual average wind speed greater than 3 m/s increases the appearance of deficiencies in roofs. A higher prevalence of deficiencies was also found in those geographical zones with a thermal demand of 1800–2800 heating degree days or 450–700 cooling degree days. It was found that a higher percentage of construction deficiencies are concentrated in buildings located in the northern coastal climate segments of Spain. With these results, technicians will be able to take more appropriate precautions during both the building process and the use and maintenance phase.
Highlights
Climate is considered to be a factor extrinsic to buildings, they and their occupants are affected by it [1]
The general figures resulting therefrom were: apartment blocks (BT1 = 57%), detached houses according to type of construction deficiency and building typology are shown in Figure 2 (BT4 was (BT2 = 21%), semi-detached houses (BT3 = 20%) and other typologies (BT4 = 2%)
This may be due to the fact that geographical zones with lesser thermal demands are those wherein there is a higher ambient temperature, which facilitates the thermal expansion of brick parapets, and their subsequent fissuration
Summary
Climate is considered to be a factor extrinsic to buildings, they and their occupants are affected by it [1]. Architecture affects the indoor climate and construction quality [3]; this is seen, for example, in the ‘albedo effect’, with the reflection of solar rays by building roofs directly influencing air temperature and moisture, which in turn affect the possibility of condensation [4]. The main factors affecting buildings and their occupants’ well-beings are temperature, moisture, solar radiation, wind, cloudiness and precipitation [5]. These are known as climate conditions or parameters and should be taken into account in the initial phases of a project [6]. Indoor air temperature and relative humidity in residential buildings significantly affect moisture, material durability, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning systems’ performance, and occupants’ comfort [7]
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