Understanding Housing Defects

This third edition of Understanding Housing Defects provides a concise,coherent and comprehensive introduction to the causes, investigation and diagnosis of defects in domestic buildings.Each chapter covers a specific building element and includes a brief introduction setting out construction principles and the evolution of current practice. The chapters then go on to look at the identification, cause and diagnosis of common (and sometimes not so common) defects. The text has been revised and extended with new sections on boundary walls, chimneys and basements. The Services chapter has been replaced with three new, more substantial chapters on heatingand plumbing, electrical installations and drainage. This book is a must have for all those students and practitioners who require a broad understanding of housing defects. Building surveyors, architects, estate agents and anyone involved in property, construction and housing will benefit hugely from this highly informative full colour text.

1. Building Movement– Foundations 2. Building Movement – Walls 3. The Investigation of Structural Defects 4. Brickwork and Stonework 5. Ground Floors 6. Upper Floors 7. Pitched Roofs 8. Flat Roofs 9. External Rendering 10. Plastering and Plasterboard 11. Internal Walls 12. Timber Pests 13. Condensation 14. Damp 15. System Building 16. Water and Heating 17. Drainage 18. Electrical Installations

Duncan Marshall was formerly a senior lecturer at the University of the West of England, UK Derek Worthing was formerly a principal lecturer at the University of the West of England, UK Roger Heath is a lecturer at the University of the West of England, UK