Condition Assessment

Condition assessment is a process of predicting the maintenance strategies and repairs required for existing components, fittings and physical of the building. It also useful in order to measure the amount of repair and cost required. It requires some of process to make it useful to assist in decision making of maintenance future planning. Based on Ahluwalia (2008), there are four steps for condition assessment.

1. Asset Hierarchy

• Inspection Level

• Inspection Techniques

2. Evaluation Mechanism

• Condition Scale

• Required Data

• Required Analysis

3. Field Inspection

• Detect Deficiencies

• Measure Severities

4. Condition Analysis

• Rate Inspected Components

• Calculate Condition at any Level of Hierarchy

The steps are begins with inspection

Most condition assessment methods classify the degree of defects of distinct building components with minor, serious and critical. Critical defects significantly affect the function of the building component. Example of critical defects are material intrinsic defects like corrosion and dry rot, defects that threaten the building structure, e.g. stability and distortion, and ‘functional defects’ ; defects that already associated with a breakdown in performance, e.g. leaking. Serious defects are gradually harming the performance of building components, for example defects in the material surface. Defects to secondary components, for example finishing coats, are classified as minor defects. Usually those defects do not affect the primary function of building components. However, it is inaccurate to classify all defects of finishing coats as minor defects. The classification and degree of defects is a compromise of theoretical knowledge, a methodically approach and pragmatically reasons. Not meeting with current building regulations is classified in some methods as a critical

Some methods name this the depth of the defect or the visible distance. We consider that expertise and well-trained building inspectors can easily assessing the intensity of a defect. Theoretically, one could question what the need to indicate intensities of defects is. This comment deals with the reason of defects. Ageing defects like material intrinsic defects involving the material surface, e.g. wear and soiling, develop over a certain period and will occur in several intensities. But defects caused by accidental damages, for example glass breakage, just occur in one stage. Other methodological problems form so-called functional defects, e.g. the already mentioned leaking. In this case one or more technical defects have been developed a long way off. The leakage is the end result. Once again the pragmatism is more important than the theoretical methodological correctness, as long as the method remains objective and leads to useful information. For example one may register the frequency of defects instead of intensity. The frequency of failures is particularly a useful condition parameter for condition assessment in the case of building services