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Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 575 – 582

Creative Construction Conference 2016, CCC 2016, 25-28 June 2016

Impact-based diagnostic approach for maintenance monitoring of

historic buildings
István Vidovszkya*
a
István Vidovszky, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, 1111 Budapest Műegyetem rkp. 3. Hunagary

Abstract

The traditional approach of structural health monitoring and building pathology is structure-based. The usual monitoring approach
of property caretakers and facility management professionals is location-based. Both approaches have advantages and
disadvantages in case of monitoring and maintaining heritage buildings. The spread of the application of BIM environment in the
field of heritage monitoring and maintenance management predictable provides advantageous technical background for more
complex diagnostic approaches. In this paper the impact-based diagnostic approach is introduced, which implies a more suitable
way to prevent superposing decay problems in case of monitoring heritage buildings. The impact-based way of analysing damage
hazards and recording deterioration of historic buildings in case of computer aided 3D recording of the survey data is an attempt
to provide a method for maintenance professionals, that means control and feedback on the maintaining process and enables to
connect the occurring damages and decay failures of different structures logically.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2016.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2016
Keywords: health diagnostics, building pathology, heritage monitoring, maintenance management, historic buildings

1. Introduction

Although the importance of maintenance was already realised in most ancient societies, the notion of maintenance
monitoring system is relative new. The idea of steady monitoring and maintenance of valuable building stock and
avoiding restorations was popularised by John Ruskin in the 19th century. [1] A special field of maintenance is the

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +3614633557; fax: +3614633554.

E-mail address: ividovszky@ekt.bme.hu

1877-7058 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2016
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.660
576 István Vidovszky / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 575 – 582

maintenance of heritage buildings, in which cases the importance of preserving original facture as historic data source
is emphasized. The realization, that “it is essential to the conservation of monuments that they be maintained on a
permanent basis” was declared in the 1964 Venice Charter. [2] In the last few decades maintenance monitoring
systems emerged in Europe, as the caretakers of the heritage sites started to involve specialists in the maintenance
procedure of their buildings. The first maintenance monitoring organization was the Dutch Monumentenwacht, which
was founded in 1973 as an independent, non-governmental organization. As the first of its kind, it was an example for
most of the later organizations in this field. [3] Later on several organizations were established in different countries
as Belgium [4], Germany [5,6,7], England [8], Denmark [9], and Hungary [10]. Some of them are NGO-s which are
supported by grants and donations, others are financed by the states directly.
The benefits of steady maintenance can be easily acknowledged. Apart from the fact, that the well maintained
buildings present a higher quality of physical environment, in case of well conducted maintenance the original fabric
of historic buildings can be preserved in a higher degree.
By monument monitoring organizations maintenance services are provided for the owners of the monuments and
historic buildings. After joining to an organization the owner’s property is visited regularly by a group of restoration
specialist technicians for a particular fee. At the time of the inspections heritage sites are checked for damaging factors,
like uncontrolled vegetation or uncleaned gutters. Small failures, like missing tiles or small deteriorations are repaired
immediately. In case of need for major intervention or complex technology previously accredited specialist contractors
are recommended to the owners. Each visit of the monitoring group ends up with a written report on the actual state
of the building, which involves a list of potential hazards and provides proposition for the necessary repairs.
The first, initiative inspection on a particular site is conducted somewhat differently than the ones which are
repeated time after time. At the first occasion all problematic areas of the building (hidden corners, connection of two
different materials, etc.) have to be revealed, and the potential risks have to be analysed.
Monitoring systems need different kind of diagnostic procedure for the occasions of the first, initiative inspections
then for the ongoing monitoring. In most countries there are guidelines or handbooks for the inspections of heritage
buildings [11,12,13] and there are traditions and expertise of the monitoring staff, which knowledge can be provided
for the new technicians in form of trainings. However, this knowledge has to be analysed and upgraded regularly as
well.
In this study an attempt is made to demonstrate a new kind of approach that is especially applicable for heritage
buildings and which can be supported by the newest information technology tools in the field of property maintenance
management.

2. Diagnostics systems

Diagnostics has a key role in building pathology, because different kind of diagnostic methods have to be applied
in all the cases when a state of a particular building have to be detected, irrespective from the fact whether it is a
restoration project or a maintenance program.
Considering the requirements of protected heritage buildings, the need for preservation of the original fabric raises
different demands on diagnostics. [14] On the one hand non-destructive methods are highly preferred [15], on the
other hand the prevention, consequently the detection of the deterioration in an early phase, has a high priority.
Diagnostic methods, which are used for the evaluation of the state of a building or a building structure, can be
varied by the subject and the goals of the investigation. Series of inspections can be considered as diagnostic system.
On the basis of the approach there are site-based and structure-based diagnostic systems, depending on the managing
principal of the survey process. Additionally, a third kind of approach can be applied that was named impact-based
diagnostics in precedent studies. [16,20]
 István Vidovszky / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 575 – 582 577

2.1. Site-based approach

Site based diagnostic approach is typically applied in case of the regular inspections made by caretakers, or during
the planning phase of a refurbishment or renovation project.
Site-based diagnostic approach prevails in case of the simplest diagnostic systems. In this case the inspecting
personnel list the actual state and the extant failures of the building location after location, which means functionally
or logically separated units of the building, like rooms or façade-sessions. This kind of approach does not need special
preparation work and it can be handled easily by non-trained staff as well. The disadvantage of the method is, that the
recording process does not help to detect the roots of the failures and the coherence of the different records. Site-based
diagnostic approach is suitable for simple maintenance or control activities which are usually performed by owners or
caretakers.

2.2. Structure-based approach

Structure based diagnostic approach is usually applied in case of professional building pathology survey or failure
detection. In this case the buildings are inspected on the bases of structural logic. In case of a holistic survey if all
failures of a building are explored the records enable to detect the coherency of the deteriorations of different
construction parts, and the causes of the failures as well. The advantage of this approach is a pure and easy-to-follow
logic in case of most applied systems. A possible disadvantage is, that while following structural logic with the survey
the focus is on the building itself in its physical reality, and the impacts, namely the roots of the failures can be detected
subordinately only, and failures, which remain hidden by error or by accident, may jeopardize the structures.

2.3. Impact-based approach

The third kind of approach is the impact-based one. If impact-based logic is followed in case of a diagnostics, the
focus is on the failure-causing impacts which should be neutralised, eliminated, or at least minimalised.
Impact based systems could be advantageously applied if the focus is not only the state of the building, but the
preservation or rather the prevention of deterioration as well. In this case the long-term maintenance policy is just as
important as the present state of the building and the planned short-term renovation actions.
The impacts among others can be mechanical, environmental or biological ones which affect the state of the
building in a bad manner. Some impacts (e.g. bad repair) are occasional or case-dependent ones, others (e.g.
weathering) are common and have to be considered in all the cases. Among the revealed impacts primary and
secondary ones can be distinguished. Primary impacts affect the building without any antecedent. Secondary impacts
are consequences of some preceding ones. This distinction is also important regarding to maintenance strategy because
only primary impacts have to be handled on the long run. If primary ones are treated, the related secondary impacts
are normally eliminated automatically.
Impact-based approach enables an easier deal with the combined failures, that definitely have to be considered as
an advantage. Deducing failures from the impacts and handling them as a group, let us to face problems in their
complexity. Nevertheless, a disadvantage of the impact-based systems is the highest need of qualified and experienced
personnel.
In case of impact based diagnostic approach the performers have to work with a predefined list of probable or
previously detected impacts of the site on the basis of which the diagnostic survey can be performed. A sample is
shown in Table 1.
Lists or record templates can be compiled by the monitoring team, or can be developed by the organization that
regularly performs monitoring, but as well could be a result of an analytic study [16]. These templates are useful as
checklist, but do not relieve the surveying personnel form their responsibility to detect all existing impacts on each
site.
578 István Vidovszky / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 575 – 582

Table 1. Impacts and damages

Impact (examples) Primary damage Secondary damage

wind (+ secondary impact)
weathering and ageing
construction failure (+secondary impact)
moisture resulted by functional
operation
movements of the structures (thermal
movement, subsidence, etc.)
moisture load from vapour
mechanical damage
vegetation
other
damage caused by the wind
effects of UV radiation, washout by
rain, wind abrasion, etc.
construction failure
moisture stains on walls because of pipe
burst or failure of wet room
waterproofing
impacts of the subsidence, cracking, etc.
moisture defects caused by vapour
erosion, abrasion, wear and tear,
staining, glass break, etc.
impact of plant growth and the
vegetation around the building
damage of the structure caused by e.g. rain
because it is not protected after e.g. a
windstorm
damage in consequence of lacking protective
layer
damage of structures which are not protected
in consequence of construction failure
secondary effects of the moisture (e.g.
efflorescence, mould, frost damage)
damage of structures which are not protected
in consequence of cracking, subsidence, etc.
secondary effects of the humidity, like
mould or frost damage
decay of inner structures in consequence of
the surface damage
consequences of extra humidity caused by
plants

3. Impact based diagnostics in practise

Impact based approach was developed as a new way of thinking in case of maintenance monitoring systems, in
which cases to focus on the future impacts of a building and making prevention strategies are enhanced goals.
As it was already mentioned most professional building pathology surveys are made on a structural basis because
professional knowledge areas are traditionally structure and material related. Similarly, most cost standards (e.g. DIN
276) and budgeting methods of project management systems are formulated on structural bases, consequently in case
of preparing restoration works structure-based state recording is required.
As an experience it can be stated, that even if the priority was a structure-based recording in case of a building state
survey, an additional impact-based recording could be applied as a proper control for the report which was made on
structural basis.
A further field in which impact based approach could be advantageous is the monitoring of large-scale buildings
that field of application leads us to a new way of thinking, because in these cases there is a profound reason to establish
a proper computer based recording system as well.

4. The opportunity in BIM systems regarding to heritage monitoring

4.1. General approach

Initially, some years ago in connection with the analyses of the heritage monitoring systems [16] the idea of a
computer based data storing system has popped up that would store building state records in case of regularly
monitored heritage buildings as visually as in text form. A system like this would combine the advantages of structure-
 István Vidovszky / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 575 – 582 579

based and impact-based systems, as in case of digital model structure-based and impact-based records would be
merged to a holistic digital system, and irrespective from the way of recording the data could be taken from the system
in a form that is most adequate for the purpose of the further use. Even if some building information modelling (BIM)
systems had been existed already, the idea that time was independent of the BIM.
The spread and the development of building information modelling systems gave the idea to think about a system
on BIM bases.
BIM structures can be used for maintenance purposes and there are some examples of such applications already
[17,18], but formulating the state record units, namely the deterioration spots as BIM elements worth to be considered
as well.
In case of a BIM based system the records could be inserted into the BIM model visually which makes the
coherence of the failures of different structural parts clearly visible on the virtual model (fig.1-2). Especially in case
of large-scale industrial or public building groups with units which built close to each other this system could be
advantageous.
Currently BIM systems are not prepared particularly for this kind of records, but minor alteration would be
sufficient to manage them.
The record storing system can be envisaged as small BIM [19] namely as an independent model only for
maintenance purposes, that means a BIM database for status reports and restoration history of a building, but it is also
could be applied as a part of a so called big BIM system as well. In this latter case the BIM would be built for a larger
scaled restoration or refurbishment project, and later on the monitoring data could be uploaded to the existing model
as additional layers, or model parts.

Fig. 1. Structure-based state report as a 3D model

580 István Vidovszky / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 575 – 582

4.2. Deteriorated spots as BIM elements

During and after the surveys the records of the deteriorated structural elements, or weathered spots could be added
to BIM as independent model elements, with all the related information attached, as those are normally noted on the
status report sheets. Later on the digitally stored information could be downloaded for the future repairs, and
restorations at any time. After repair or restoration actions the status labels could be updated with all the performed
activities. In the BIM historic and up-to-date data could be stored on different layers, that is vastly valuable for the
future operation of the building, especially in case of protected heritage ones.

4.3. The evaluation of the information from the 3D models

In this paper a very simple attempt is described, how state survey information could be stored in a 3D building
model.
In the first picture (fig.1.) the records of a structure-based survey can be seen. Deterioration spots are indicated
with red 3D objects according to the detected geometrical extents of the damages. In this case deteriorations (Nr.1-9)
are revealed, but the causes of the problems were not analysed. It seems likely that Nr.1 2 and 3 deterioration spots
are not independent of each other. All three are deteriorations of the roof tiling, namely the same structure.
Following this logic, deterioration spots Nr.7 and 8 also seem to indicate similar problems, as far as both appeared
on the plinth of the façade.
On the same sample model impact-based survey was applied as well (fig.2.). In this case deterioration spots are
distinguished with codes like Fi, Wi, Ri, Vi, Ui and Mi indicating frost, wind, rain, moisture load of the vegetation,
UV radiation (ageing) and movement of the structure respectively, as primary impacts, and a serial number is added
to each. If a secondary impact has to be considered, the code indicates the secondary impact as well e.g. WRi code
means a combination of wind and rain. Wind removed a tile for instance and moisture (rain) caused a direct
deterioration of the structure in our example.
To demonstrate the controlling effect of the impact-based approach let us make a brief evaluation.
On the one hand, in case of WM1, WM2 and WM3 spots, the deteriorations do not seem to be independent of each
other, neither if we apply structure-based diagnostics, nor if we perform impact-based one. The ageing of the roof tile
can be revealed by both methods.
On the other hand, in case of Nr.1, 5, 6, 7 deterioration spots, a coherence of the problems can be revealed. In these
cases, the common impact is rain that could act in consequence of the deterioration of the eaves above the spots, which
is evidently can be assumed from the impact codes WR1 (the impact of wind and rain damaged the eaves), R1 (the
washing out effect of the rain ruined the plaster), and RF1 (rain and frost deteriorated the plinth).
Furthermore, after conducting the impact based survey, correction has to be made on the assumptions of the
structure-based record. According to the former structure-based investigation, deterioration spots Nr.7 and 8 looked
alike, however considering the impacts (RF1 and VF1) this conclusion seems to be an error. Although in both cases
frost damaged plinth is to be seen, which makes it evident that the secondary impact was the same, the cause of the
problems was different. In case of spot Nr.7 the primary impact was the rainwater, as it was described before, however
in case of spot Nr.8 the root of the problem was the cultivation of the plants close to the façade, in consequence of
which every now and then water was poured on the plinth because of carelessness.
 István Vidovszky / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 575 – 582 581

Fig. 2. Impact-based state report as a 3D model

Of course in case of smaller buildings, adequate work experience of the surveying personnel is often sufficient to
find coherence between deterioration spots. In case of larger buildings however, the situation can be more complex,
especially if the deteriorations of the adjoining structures cannot be examined from the same observing position. On
balance, it looks reasonable to apply impact-based survey as safety control after a structural-based one was conducted.
In case of heritage maintenance, the elimination of the possible negative future events is an essential part of the
procedure. For this purpose, the impact based approach enables us to state some testimonies on the basis of the survey,
like paying more attention on the irrigation of the plants, or ensuring immediate rearrangement of the dislodged roof
tiles in case of need.
Impact based survey as a supplementary action in case of a state investigation was applied with success several
times, however the related digital 3D recording is in an experimental phase. The method presented here was tested on
a minor building only, further validation on more relevant heritage sites is recommended.
582 István Vidovszky / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 575 – 582

5. Summary

Impact-based diagnostics is a new approach of diagnostics, which was developed for monitoring survey of historic
buildings, especially of protected heritage ones. The traditionally applied structure-based diagnostics systems and the
impact-based way of the state recording could be advantageously combined. Applying supplementary impact based
survey at diagnostics means several benefits:
− additional controlling factor and consequently a higher level of reliability,
− feedback on the building maintenance practice,
− information on the possible problems at the use of the building.
In case of digitally supported 3D model-based data recording all advantages of the digital data storing can be
assumed on the long run, namely:
− the necessary conservation actions can be prepared faster by using digital data,
− data of maintenance history can be retrieved easier,
− the logical connection of the deterioration spots can be analysed on visual base.
The 3D model based recording could be integrated into BIM system, preferably into big BIM system, hence BIM
system could be advantageously used in the field of monument maintenance systems for data storing.
Although the method presented here was tested only in case of smaller buildings, it looks very likely, that the
advantages can be detected in case of larger heritage sites as well, which can be considered as subject of future
research.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks for Zsuzsanna Józsa for helping in the antecedent study of this one and for encouraging to continue
this work.

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