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Chew, M.Y.L.;  Gan, V.J.L. Façade Defects and Inspection Practices. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/26583 (accessed on 27 July 2024).
Chew MYL,  Gan VJL. Façade Defects and Inspection Practices. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/26583. Accessed July 27, 2024.
Chew, Michael Y. L., Vincent J. L. Gan. "Façade Defects and Inspection Practices" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/26583 (accessed July 27, 2024).
Chew, M.Y.L., & Gan, V.J.L. (2022, August 29). Façade Defects and Inspection Practices. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/26583
Chew, Michael Y. L. and Vincent J. L. Gan. "Façade Defects and Inspection Practices." Encyclopedia. Web. 29 August, 2022.
Façade Defects and Inspection Practices
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This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/s22166070

The increasing number of accidents arising from falling objects from the façade of tall buildings has attracted much attention globally. To regulators, a preventive approach based on a mandatory periodic façade inspection has been deemed as a necessary measure to maintain the functionality and integrity of the façade of tall buildings.

automated inspection building façade laser scanning

1. Introduction

A regular building inspection and condition assessment have been deemed as a necessary measure to maintain the functionality and integrity of buildings and civil infrastructures. Since there is an increasing number of old buildings, the exposure of façades persistently experiencing adverse outdoor environmental conditions catalyses the degradation [1]. The percentage of public residential buildings in Singapore exceeding the age of 20 years was 74% [2] (see Figure 1). The city has reported more than 90 incidents in the past three years where parts of the façades fell off. It is expected that more and more façade defects and incidents of falling objects from heights will incur, leading to serious public safety issues [2]. As such, structural health monitoring is becoming an indispensable inspection task during façade condition assessment as falling objects from tall buildings can cause potential damage to the public and trigger structural safety considerations [3]. Periodic monitoring and building inspections are necessary to rationally secure the safety of building components [4]. This leads to the necessity of new knowledge about the types and characteristics of façade falling objects, the critical factors affecting the falling and the effectiveness of various inspection techniques.
Sensors 22 06070 g001
Figure 1. Percentage of public residential buildings in Singapore exceeding the age of 20 years [2].
The current practice relies on visual inspection by certified inspectors. The surface defects detected during each inspection are documented by photos and sketches. As such, the conventional inspection practices are insufficient to holistically understand the building condition at the reviewing stage. To resolve this problem, researchers have leveraged unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to support automatic visual inspection [5]. Since UAVs have relatively lower payloads, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) or ground robots were more easily stabilised to carry advanced sensing devices such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) laser scanners for point cloud acquisition [6]. Such 2D images or 3D point clouds were further used to identify building defects and analyse potential damages. This included the identification of concrete spalling defects using laser scanning [7], concrete surface defect quantification with UAV-based laser point clouds [8] and change detection and deformation monitoring [9]. For instance, image data obtained with UAVs were used to detect different types of concrete cracks on buildings [10]. The use of infrared thermography to capture delamination defects before crack formation was also investigated [11][12]. Recent studies have also focused on using point clouds for quantifying building defects [13]. Furthermore, image-based 3D reconstruction was explored to support building condition evaluation and damage assessment [14].

2. Façade Defects and Inspection Practices

2.1. Types of Façade Defects and Anomalies

The serviceability of the building façade is affected by the physical property of the building materials as well as the exposed environment. Table 1 summarises the common defects and anomalies from different types of façades which potentially cause falling objects from tall buildings. The typical problems highlighted include cracking, water penetration, misalignment, discolouration, efflorescence, corrosion, etc. Concrete is one of the most common construction materials for building façades, in which case cracking, spalling, biological growth, drying shrinkage and delamination are typical surface defects that cause falling objects. The localisation and quantification of concrete cracking and spalling defects have been studied with various sensing techniques [7][10]. Other types of façade materials include brick masonry, plaster and tiling, which would lead to falling objects. In particular, their defects such as cracking, rising dampness, biological growth, efflorescence and delamination are common in tropical climates with high temperate and humidity [15]. However, a study on the design and maintenance at the outset during the planning stage for façade components is still lacking in the literature. One other potentially high fatal falling object is cladding. This involves stone cladding, metal cladding and glass cladding. The main reason for falling includes damage and cracking on the façade materials, joint or connection failures and the inadequate design and maintenance of the support system. Investigations showed that casement windows constitute 80% of the fallen windows because of the corrosion of aluminium rivets, as well as improper design, installation and maintenance [2]. As such, there is a research need to improve the identification and classification of common façade defects and anomalies.
Table 1. Common defects and anomalies from different types of façades.
Type of Façade Common Defects and Anomalies Examples
Concrete Crack, spalling, biological growth, drying shrinkage, concrete delamination, etc. Sensors 22 06070 i001 Sensors 22 06070 i002 Sensors 22 06070 i003 Sensors 22 06070 i004
Brick masonry Crack, rising dampness, biological growth, spalling, efflorescence, brick delamination, etc. Sensors 22 06070 i005 Sensors 22 06070 i006 Sensors 22 06070 i007 Sensors 22 06070 i008
Plaster Crack, biological growth, efflorescence, delamination, crazing, etc. Sensors 22 06070 i009 Sensors 22 06070 i010 Sensors 22 06070 i011 Sensors 22 06070 i012
Tile Crack, biological growth, efflorescence, chipping, tile buckling, tile delamination, staining, joint failure. Sensors 22 06070 i013 Sensors 22 06070 i014 Sensors 22 06070 i015 Sensors 22 06070 i016
Stone cladding Damaged/cracked cladding, inadequate support system, staining, uneven surface, etc. Sensors 22 06070 i017 Sensors 22 06070 i018 Sensors 22 06070 i019 Sensors 22 06070 i020
Metal cladding Corrosion, inadequate support system, joint failure, biological staining, deformation buckling, etc. Sensors 22 06070 i021 Sensors 22 06070 i022 Sensors 22 06070 i023 Sensors 22 06070 i024
Glass cladding Glass cracking, condensation, inadequate support system, joint failure, staining, etc. Sensors 22 06070 i025 Sensors 22 06070 i026 Sensors 22 06070 i027 Sensors 22 06070 i028

2.2. Overview of Façade Inspection Practices and Regulations

Table 2 shows the relevant global standards and legislations worldwide for façade inspection. Chicago’s (US) Department of Buildings [16] requires frequent inspections between 4 and 12 years for high-rise exterior walls and enclosures for buildings 80 feet tall and higher. The consideration of building service life relating to maintainability is incorporated into the inspection standards and protocols. For example, Cincinnati’s (US) General Inspection Programs [17] require an inspection schedule of 8 or 12 years for buildings with five stories and that are 15 years old. Likewise, buildings of five or more stories must be inspected every 5 years in compliance with Quebec’s (Canada) Safety Code from the Building Act [18]. In general, buildings with more than five stories or that are more than 75–80 feet tall require a regular inspection schedule of 4–12 years. Such inspection applies to buildings varying from 15 to 30 years old.
Façade inspection consists of two stages. The first stage is to assess the general condition of the building under inspection. Visual aids such as binocular cameras and infrared thermography cameras mounted on a drone [10][19][20] are some of the methods used for inspection. Specifically, it involves a visual inspection of the entire façade area to detect anomalies for the entire building from the ground level. To streamline the management of UAV-collected information, the aerial images are integrated with a geographic information system (GIS) [21] or building information modelling (BIM) [22] to support the automated detection of the dilapidation of façade elements. The retrieval and analysis of the images are performed for detecting and documenting façade anomalies. Airborne images are processed with different image processing and detection algorithms, from which the surface detections of buildings (such as concrete cracks) are extracted and identified [10].
Following the visual inspection, the second stage emphasises the hands-on inspection of each elevation. In practice, at least a 10% inspection shall be conducted for each building face [23]. This requires the application of non-destructive and destructive tests to examine the severity of the defects and anomalies [24]. The inspection may include different kinds of measures (such as tapping, the partial removal of façade elements and material testing). Recommendations of remedial and maintenance measures shall then be provided based on the evaluation of façade elements.
Table 2. Legislations worldwide for façade inspection.
Region/Country Standard Description References
ASTM, US Standard Practice for Periodic Inspection of Building Façades for Unsafe Condition - [25][26]
Chicago, US Maintenance of High-Rise Exterior Walls and Enclosures Buildings of 80 feet tall. Inspection frequency between 4 and 12 years. [16]
Cleveland, US Exterior Wall and Appurtenances Inspections Buildings with five stories or that are 75 feet tall and 30 years old. Exterior inspection every 5 years. [27]
Cincinnati, US Chapter 1127—General Inspection Programs Buildings with at least five stories or sixty feet and that are 15 years old or greater. Inspection schedule of 5, 8 or 12 years for different categories of buildings. [17]
New York, US Local Law 11 of 1998 Buildings of six stories or more. [28]
San Francisco, US Building Code—Building Façade Inspection and Maintenance and Establishing Fee Buildings of five or more stories. [29]
Quebec, Canada Safety Code—Building Act Buildings of five or more stories. Inspection every 5 years. [18]
Hong Kong Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme and Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme Buildings of 30 years old. Inspection every 10 years. [30]
Singapore Building Control Act 1989 Buildings taller than 13 m and that are 20 years old. Inspection every 7 years. [31]

References

  1. Guo, J.; Wang, Q.; Li, Y.; Liu, P. Façade defects classification from imbalanced dataset using meta learning-based convolutional neural network. Comput.-Aided Civ. Infrastruct. Eng. 2020, 35, 1403–1418.
  2. Chew, M.Y. Façade inspection for falling objects from tall buildings in Singapore. Int. J. Build. Pathol. Adapt. 2021; ahead-of-print.
  3. Liu, Y.; Yeoh, J.K.; Chua, D.K. Deep learning–based enhancement of motion blurred UAV concrete crack images. J. Comput. Civ. Eng. 2020, 34, 04020028.
  4. Park, H.S.; Lee, H.; Adeli, H.; Lee, I. A new approach for health monitoring of structures: Terrestrial laser scanning. Comput.-Aided Civ. Infrastruct. Eng. 2007, 22, 19–30.
  5. Guo, J.; Wang, Q. Human-Related Uncertainty Analysis for Automation-Enabled Façade Visual Inspection: A Delphi Study. J. Manag. Eng. 2022, 38, 04021088.
  6. Ekanayake, B.; Wong, J.K.-W.; Fini, A.A.F.; Smith, P. Computer vision-based interior construction progress monitoring: A literature review and future research directions. Autom. Constr. 2021, 127, 103705.
  7. Kim, M.-K.; Sohn, H.; Chang, C.-C. Localization and quantification of concrete spalling defects using terrestrial laser scanning. J. Comput. Civ. Eng. 2015, 29, 04014086.
  8. Mader, D.; Blaskow, R.; Westfeld, P.; Weller, C. Potential of UAV-Based laser scanner and multispectral camera data in building inspection. Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci. 2016, 41, 1135.
  9. Mukupa, W.; Roberts, G.W.; Hancock, C.M.; Al-Manasir, K. A review of the use of terrestrial laser scanning application for change detection and deformation monitoring of structures. Surv. Rev. 2017, 49, 99–116.
  10. Zhong, X.; Peng, X.; Yan, S.; Shen, M.; Zhai, Y. Assessment of the feasibility of detecting concrete cracks in images acquired by unmanned aerial vehicles. Autom. Constr. 2018, 89, 49–57.
  11. Tomita, K.; Chew, M.Y.L. A Review of Infrared Th for Delamination Detection on Infrastructures and Buildings. Sensors 2022, 22, 423.
  12. Chew, M. The study of adhesion failure of wall tiles. Build. Environ. 1992, 27, 493–499.
  13. Shi, Z.; Ergan, S. Towards point cloud and model-based urban façade inspection: Challenges in the urban façade inspection process. In Proceedings of the Construction Research Congress 2020: Safety, Workforce, and Education, Tempe, AZ, USA, 8–10 March 2020; pp. 385–394.
  14. Zhou, Z.; Gong, J.; Guo, M. Image-based 3D reconstruction for posthurricane residential building damage assessment. J. Comput. Civ. Eng. 2016, 30, 04015015.
  15. Chew, Y.L.M. Building Facades: A Guide to Common Defects in Tropical Climates; World Scientific: Singapore, 1998.
  16. Chicago Department of Buildings. Maintenance of High Rise Exterior Walls and Enclosures; Chicago Department of Buildings: Chicago, IL, USA, 2016.
  17. Code of Ordinances. Chapter 1127—General Inspection Programs. Available online: https://library.municode.com/oh/cincinnati/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TITXICIBUCO_CH1127GEINPR (accessed on 31 May 2022).
  18. Régie du Bâtiment du Québec. Safety Code—Building Act. Available online: https://www.rbq.gouv.qc.ca/en/areas-of-intervention/building/technical-information/building-chapter-from-the-safety-code/facades-maintenance-and-inspection.html (accessed on 31 May 2022).
  19. Hou, Y.; Volk, R.; Chen, M.; Soibelman, L. Fusing tie points’ RGB and thermal information for mapping large areas based on aerial images: A study of fusion performance under different flight configurations and experimental conditions. Autom. Constr. 2021, 124, 103554.
  20. Roca, D.; Lagüela, S.; Díaz-Vilariño, L.; Armesto, J.; Arias, P. Low-cost aerial unit for outdoor inspection of building façades. Autom. Constr. 2013, 36, 128–135.
  21. Chen, K.; Reichard, G.; Akanmu, A.; Xu, X. Geo-registering UAV-captured close-range images to GIS-based spatial model for building façade inspections. Autom. Constr. 2021, 122, 103503.
  22. Yin, M.; Tang, L.; Zhou, T.; Wen, Y.; Xu, R.; Deng, W. Automatic layer classification method-based elevation recognition in architectural drawings for reconstruction of 3D BIM models. Autom. Constr. 2020, 113, 103082.
  23. Chew, Y.L.M. Maintainability of Facilities—Green FM for Building Professionals, 2nd ed.; World Scientific: Singapore, 2016.
  24. Guo, J.; Wang, Q.; Li, Y. Evaluation-oriented façade defects detection using rule-based deep learning method. Autom. Constr. 2021, 131, 103910.
  25. E2270-14; Standard Practice for Periodic Inspection of Building Facades for Unsafe Conditions. ASTM International: West Conshohocken, PA, USA, 2019.
  26. E2841-19; Standard Guide for Conducting Inspections of Building Fcades for Unsafe Condition. ASTM International: West Conshohocken, PA, USA, 2019.
  27. Ohio Building & Housing Ordinances. Exterior Wall and Appurtenances Inspections. Available online: https://www.clevelandohio.gov/CityofCleveland/Home/Government/CityAgencies/BuildingHousing/Ordinances (accessed on 31 May 2022).
  28. New York City Department of Buildings. Local Law 11 of 1998; New York City Department of Buildings: New York, NY, USA, 1998.
  29. San Francisco Department of Buildings. Building Code—Building Fa9ade In-Spection and Maintenance and Estab-Lishing Fee; San Francisco Department of Buildings: San Francisco, CA, USA, 2016.
  30. Buildings Department. Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme and Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme—Buildings (Amendment) Bill 2010; Buildings Department: Hong Kong, 2017.
  31. Singapore Statutes Online. Building Control Act 1989; Singapore Statutes Online, 1989.
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