Category: Preventive Measures and Maintenance of Buildings

It is better to have an ELCB trip switch in the electrical system of the buildings. This is helpful to show the earth leakage. All electrical switches should be kept clean, particularly ones at the kitchen which are liable to be clogged up by grits accumulated. In order to avoid menace of ants and white…

All the external cracks found on walls should be deepened to 5 mm and filled with paintable sealant. In order to keep the external walls crack-free, waterproof cement or external paint may be used. Walls containing air-conditioning or other electrical connections may be painted with silicon paint to prevent wetting of walls during rains.

This is very common place where the leakage occurs which are to be checked and rectified as discussed below.

Following preventive measures and repairs may be undertaken to prevent leakage.

All parts of sloping roof are to be checked for leakage. It is difficult to repair after construction, particularly tiled roofs. It is generally recommended to apply waterproofing coating at the construction stage itself. Tiled roofs leak during heavy rain due to lack of this precaution. Other sloping roofs like folded plates, shells, etc., are…

Although adequate care has been taken by providing weatherproofing of roofs, leakage may occur with time due to lack of proper maintenance. Leakage of roof due to rain water may spoil the materials stored in the room, may damage the electrical circuits, may wet the walls, etc. Leakages may occur in different types and different…

Gunite is one of the popular methods undertaken to repair cracks and other damages in concrete members. Guniting is the process of injecting mortar with low water-cement ratio at a high pressure through a nozzle. This method has been improvised in that only concrete with small-sized coarse aggregate instead of mortar is used. This method…

At times cracks do develop in concrete members due to several reasons such as design of construction deficiency, problems with concrete, disturbance at early stage, etc. If such cracks are localized in nature they can be repaired either by epoxy grouting or by stitching. The choice of either of them depends on the discretion of…

Preventive measures for cracks in concrete are discussed in Section 8.11. Apart from them, joints in concrete structures are provided to continue a specific work or prevent cracks due to change in temperature. The following two types of joints are usually provided in concrete structures: 1. Construction Joints This type of joints are provided at…

Cracks in concrete may be plastic shrinkage cracks, settlement cracks, cracks due to bleeding, cracks due to delayed concrete casting and cracks due to construction effects.