Professionals concerned with the built environment are all too often confronted with cases where building materials have failed prematurely. The information required for the understanding of the causes of such failures, or for the appropriate remedial action is available in a number of texts, however it is generally buried under a mass of other information.

A professional reference designed to assist surveyors, engineers, architects and contractors in diagnosing existing problems and avoiding them in new buildings. Fully revised and updated, this edition, in new clearer format, covers developments in building defects, and problems such as sick building syndrome. Well liked for its mixture of theory and practice the new edition will complement Hinks and Cook's student textbook on defects at the practitioner level.

This third edition of Bill Ransom's classic short textbook provides a solid introduction to the study of defects in buildings and, in consequence, to good practice in conservation and repair. Building failures continue to occur despite continuing experience and growing knowledge in the industry; they may even be on the increase due to cost-cutting measures, the inadequate testing of innovative products and techniques, a lack of maintenance, and user abuse and misuse. New material includes an outline of the principles of building pathology; new sections on deterioration mechanisms, service life prediction and dampness investigation. Complete with a handy glossary and bibliography, practitioners and students will find this an excellent source of guidance and information for investigating and avoiding building failures.

Professionals concerned with the built environment are all too often confronted with cases where building materials have failed prematurely. This title pulls together in one place information required for the understanding of the causes of such failures, or for the appropriate remedial action.

This is a practical guide for those who do the work of maintaining and improving the reliability of mechanical machinery. It is for engineers and skilled trades personnel who want to understand how failures happen and how the physical causes of the great majority can be readily diagnosed in the field. It explains the four major failure mechanisms, wear, corrosion, overload, and fatigue and, using easy-to-read charts, how they can be diagnosed at the site of the failure. Then, knowing the physical failure mechanics involved, the reader can accurately solve the human causes. To improve the reader’s understanding, all the diagrams and most of the tables have been redrawn. The number of actual failure examples has been increased, plus the last chapter on miscellaneous machine elements includes new material on couplings, universal joints, and plain bearings. Features A practical field guide showing how to recognize how failures occur that can be used to solve more than 85% of mechanical machinery failures Incorporates multiple easy-to-follow logic trees to help the reader diagnose the physical causes of the failure without needing detailed laboratory analysis Explains how the mechanics, corrosion, materials science, and tribology of components can fit together to improve machinery reliability Includes more than 150 completely redrawn charts and tables, plus almost 250 actual failure photographs to help guide the reader to an accurate analysis Contains clear and detailed explanations of how lubricants function and the critical roles of corrosion and lubrication play in causing mechanical failures

Building defects still continue to plague the construction industry. The lessons learned over the last forty years have not been fully applied. Many new or refurbished buildings still leak or crack. Lack of awareness by designers and installers as to the main mechanisms that trigger such failures remains a problem for the industry. Investigating and rectifying building failures form a major part of building surveyors’ bread and butter work. This book provides guidance on this work for typical residential, commercial and industrial buildings – with advice on how to diagnose a wide range of defects with an emphasis on evidence based practice throughout. It considers both modern and older construction methods, together with new and traditional materials. The particular problems of alteration and renovation work are also discussed. The first four chapters provide information and guidance on the methodology for investigating failures – how to prepare for and conduct an investigation into a building defect and subsequently diagnose its cause in a logical manner. This fourth edition has been updated and expanded to cover the latest diagnostic procedures and research. It also includes Appendices and a new Bibliography, and provides an extensive list of books on building pathology and related topics in the UK and North America. It is essential reading for all students and practitioners interested in building surveying and building conservation.

As existing buildings age, nearly half of all construction activity in Britain is related to maintenance, refurbishment and conversions. Building adaptation is an activity that continues to make a significant contribution to the workload of the construction industry. Given its importance to sustainable construction, the proportion of adaptation works in relation to new build is likely to remain substantial for the foreseeable future, especially in the developed parts of the world. Building Adaptation, Second Edition is intended as a primer on the physical changes that can affect older properties. It demonstrates the general principles, techniques, and processes needed when existing buildings must undergo alteration, conversion, extension, improvement, or refurbishment. The publication of the first edition of Building Adaptation reflected the upsurge in refurbishment work. The book quickly established itself as one of the core texts for building surveying students and others on undergraduate and postgraduate built environment courses. This new edition continues to provide a comprehensive introduction to all the key issues relating to the adaptation of buildings. It deals with any work to a building over and above maintenance to change its capacity, function or performance.

This book provides guidance on building survey work for typical residential, commercial and industrial buildings, with advice on how to diagnose a wide range of defects. It considers both modern and older construction methods, together with new and traditional materials. The particular problems of alteration and renovation work are discussed, with guidance on how to carry out measured surveys. A separate chapter covers survey problems after flood and fire damage, and the legal section takes account of recent developments in case law relating to inspections and surveys of properties. This new edition continues to provide a thorough treatment of all the key issues relating to surveying buildings, dealing with the problems that surveyors are likely to encounter when inspecting buildings. Changes for the new edition include: Examples and references have been updated Evaluation of condition rating systems for domestic and commercial buildings A new section on the home condition reports More information on slate defects Bibliography revised and expanded, to make it more comprehensive Additional appendix showing the home condition report format

This book deals with structural surveys for all types of building -domestic industrial and commercial - and includes diagnosis of awide range of defects. It considers both modern and olderconstruction methods, and deals with the particular problems ofalterations and restoration work. Guidance is given on how to carryout measured surveys and on report writing. The third editioncovers the latest definitions of types of property surveys, moreinformation on report writing and a range of detail updates. * Covers all types of building - commercial, industrial andhistorical - not just domestic * Deals with particular problems of conversion and renovation work- increasingly important today * New edition features latest definitions of survey types, more onreport writing and a range of other updates * ‘a valuable reference book’ - ASI Journal

Maintenance, Safety, Risk, Management and Life-Cycle Performance of Bridges contains lectures and papers presented at the Ninth International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS 2018), held in Melbourne, Australia, 9-13 July 2018. This volume consists of a book of extended abstracts and a USB card containing the full papers of 393 contributions presented at IABMAS 2018, including the T.Y. Lin Lecture, 10 Keynote Lectures, and 382 technical papers from 40 countries. The contributions presented at IABMAS 2018 deal with the state of the art as well as emerging concepts and innovative applications related to the main aspects of bridge maintenance, safety, risk, management and life-cycle performance. Major topics include: new design methods, bridge codes, heavy vehicle and load models, bridge management systems, prediction of future traffic models, service life prediction, residual service life, sustainability and life-cycle assessments, maintenance strategies, bridge diagnostics, health monitoring, non-destructive testing, field testing, safety and serviceability, assessment and evaluation, damage identification, deterioration modelling, repair and retrofitting strategies, bridge reliability, fatigue and corrosion, extreme loads, advanced experimental simulations, and advanced computer simulations, among others. This volume provides both an up-to-date overview of the field of bridge engineering and significant contributions to the process of more rational decision-making on bridge maintenance, safety, risk, management and life-cycle performance of bridges for the purpose of enhancing the welfare of society. The Editors hope that these Proceedings will serve as a valuable reference to all concerned with bridge structure and infrastructure systems, including students, researchers and engineers from all areas of bridge engineering.