What makes buildings decay and fail?

Blocked rainwater pipes, peeling paint and plants growing in gutters are the inevitable causes of building failure, writes A.R.
Santhakumar

AGEING FACTOR: Buildings decay due to several factors, including poor maintenance.
The most common causes of building failure can be traced to one of three causes — poor design/construction, inappropriate repair
or neglect. An example of inappropriate repair might be the use of hard cement mortar to repoint old soft brickwork. Such well
intentioned but inappropriate work can exacerbate the rate of decay in brickwork and cause a great deal of damage.

In most cases neglect is the root of the problem. The inevitable consequences of neglect are blocked rainwater pipes, peeling paint
and plants growing in gutters. All these problems will cause excess moisture to get into the brick walls. This, in turn, will eventually
cause the masonry to become unstable and vulnerable elements such as timberwork to be attacked by rot or termites.

Environment

The weather also plays an important role in the decay of the structures. Prolonged exposure to acid rain due to polluted atmosphere
can dissolve bricks and corrode metal ties and fastenings.

Driving rain can penetrate deep into solid walls where the pointing is missing or decayed. Condensation in a poorly ventilated
building can lead to mould growth and encourage rot in timberwork.

High levels of moisture and excessive fluctuations in heating can also promote the movement of soluble salts in masonry structures.

Salt movement is characterised by patches of white crystals on the surface of walls and can cause considerable damage to plaster
and paintwork.

Frost can also contribute to decay as the surfaces of old bricks and tiles can shatter if water freezes and expands.

The natural world can have a devastating effect on old buildings too. Tree roots can disrupt foundations and some climbing plants
can be strong enough to force rainwater pipes away from the wall if allowed to grow behind them. Masonry bees may make their
home in soft mortar joints whilst wood-boring insects are attracted to warm, unventilated conditions.

More extreme occurrences such as fires or floods can, of course, have devastating effects although these are thankfully rare. It is
worth remembering that a constant drip which goes undetected for years may in the end prove to be a more serious and expensive
problem.

The exterior of the building can be affected by ultra-violet light inducing chemical changes in materials, pollution, dirt, environment
containing salts or other chemicals or gases, thermal movement, stressing, freeze-thaw, water penetration, deliberate or accidental
damage and plants.

The interior of the building can be affected by moisture, damage from moveable equipment and people, vandalism, vibration from
plant and equipment, and normal wear and tear. The buildings are extended as the income of occupants improves. This usually
happens for low-rise residential housing. Problems such as cracks, subsidence, water seepage and leakage frequently occur at the
joints.

Although the extension works are not difficult, very often contractors overlook or fail to ensure that the joints between the old and
the new buildings are perfectly done. One of the main causes is that the old part is already fully dried up and it absorbs the
moisture or water content of the new one and creates gaps for air to penetrate.
The longer the problems are neglected the greater the deterioration. This invites moulds and fungus to grow, and encourages
creepers or trees to grow out of the cracks. The way the structure behaves with time depends on the severity of environment and
repairs undertaken.

Service life

The service life of a structure can be defined as the period for which it retains its properties of service and provides security against
collapse, in addition to exhibiting an acceptable aesthetic appearance. This service life is closely related to periodic maintenance of
the building

Maintenance is the combination of all the technical and administrative actions, including supervisory, intended to keep the different
parts of a building (structural element, cladding, plant, machinery or other component) in, or restored to, a state in which it can
satisfactorily perform the functions required of it.

It is intended to take care of all the above mentioned problems.

Buildings require maintenance because there are a number of factors continually working to degrade or wear out their components.
Eventually, if not maintained, these materials or components will fail because they cannot provide the performance required of
them.

The failure time for individual items varies because of the different factors acting on each, the quality of the item and their location.

Tips

1. Protect the value and quality of the asset.

2. Prevent the loss of function (or use) due to failure in any part of the building.

3. Optimise the serviceable life of building components by anticipating and correcting the deterioration.

4. Systematically meet the demands placed on the building by users in a planned, predictable manner.

5. Ensure that statutory building safety provisions are met.

6. Anticipate and plan for future expenditure on the building.

7. Reduce operating costs.

8. Inspect and monitor.

The whole life performance of a structure should be effectively monitored by periodic inspection and testing. This should include
visual observation of defects, checking the designs and drawings based on current use and condition of the building and if
necessary non-destructive testing.

Calcutta’s town hall

Long given up for a forgettable eyesore, Calcutta's Town Hall is all dressed up to become the cynosure of all eyes again. It dazzled the world
this Bengali New Year's Day when the city's heritage-conscious elite returned Town Hall to its civic fathers after a thorough, even if arguable,
facelift.
Liberal doses of cement and white Snowcem may cross out the old-world charm of limestone and mortar in terms of a chemical mismatch,
but for now there is joy in the revivification.
The Town Hall: Built in 1813 for Rs.7 lakh. Restored this year at a cost of Rs.1.2 crore by the Homage Trust.
Future: uncertain

Turned over to Calcutta's moth-eaten bureaucracy after Independence, the Town Hall housed a petty-causes
court, lawyers' offices and a veritable village of squatters in its backyard. Its teak-wood floor and staircase had
become wobbly after white ants had eaten through them. Cracks snaked in all directions on its walls, and statues
of the city's notables had either been left to crumble or carted away to government godowns.
But in 1990, on the occasion of the city's tercentenary, some heritage-conscious Calcuttans got together to do
something about it. With a corpus of Rs.1.20 crore raised from auctioning painter Bikash Bhattacharjee's portraits
of 12 great Bengalis, the Homage Trust, a body of city corporates and planners, took up the challenge of
restoring the Town Hall to its old magnificence.
Built in 1813 at a cost of Rs.7 lakh to stage public receptions and the occasional ball, the Town Hall was one of the many beautiful buildings
that the East India Company bestowed on the city.
In gas-lit Calcutta, the Town Hall had hosted the gatherings of the city's European elite. Its Doric pillars and majestic stairways were witness
to countless historic gatherings, among them the city elite's toast to its first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

However, this time round, the restoration has not been done with any specific use in mind. The restorers had only a vague idea of its
purpose: conference hall or museum or public library? Each of these purposes called for mutually exclusive methods of restoration.
"If a library is to be set up on the first floor, then the pressure of books on the floor should have been budgeted for and displaced over the
cross section of beams accordingly," says Manish Chakraborty, an architect who now conducts walks for tourists through the heritage
buildings in the city's BBD Bagh.
The Old Mint: Built in the 1820s, the building is lying unused in a state of decay. A restoration plan exists but the
state Government has taken no action. Future: uncertain

Then it was revealed that the civic authorities planned to build a high-rise on the northern lawns of the Town Hall.
They got around the restriction in its own heritage law by mutating the property into two plots.
But forgot that the Town Hall belonged to Grade I category, which meant no tampering was possible on the
original property. The Government was forced to abandon its plans after a media outcry, but construction work
had already begun and it left behind ugly steel rods, pointing skywards, stuck on the Town Hall's former
carriageway.

According to Harsh Neotia, the spirit behind the Homage Trust and head of Bengal Ambuja Cement, "The restoration part was easy,
compared to the anxiety involved in getting so many government departments to vacate the site and placating the squatters." He is, however,
reluctant to commit himself to future projects of this type.
Though Calcutta has a heritage law in place and oodles of public sympathy for the cause, the Government is yet to sharpen its policy on it.
"The plurality of authority is exacerbated by a paucity of funds and trained personnel to carry out the daunting repairs and facelifts," says
Civic Commissioner Ashim Burman.
The Old Currency Building: The 200-year-old building was being demolished when it was
declared a heritage structure. A high court order stayed the demolition. Future: uncertain

"Since the governments - Central and state - own most of the buildings declared protected
under the heritage law, it must take the blame for their present decay," says Gour Mohan
Kapoor, INTACH's regional secretary. In its heyday, INTACH was one of the earliest promoters
of awareness on Calcutta's majestic buildings.
It took over the restoration of Princep Ghat, where ships docked right from Calcutta's earliest
times to the early 20th century, and returned it after a Rs.15 lakh facelift to the state Public
Works Department (PWD) in 1993. But the administration seems content in allowing it to go to
seed again.
A stop-and-go restoration exercise has been on in Calcutta for some years now.
The Archaeological Survey of India is giving Metcalf Hall a facelift. The hall was built in 1838 as a replica of Athens' Temple of the Winds.
The state Government is also spending Rs.30 lakh on the Victoria Memorial.
Stung by criticism over its indifference, the Government has now set up a Heritage Committee under historian Barun Dey to list all buildings
of historical or aesthetic importance in the state. The committee will come out with a comprehensive list of heritage buildings scattered all
over the state by September.

But who will restore and then maintain these buildings for posterity? Where will the funds come from? No one seems to know. "The
prohibitive costs involved make us shy away from even proposing these repairs," says Purnendu Ray, a CPWD engineer, who has seven
heritage buildings under his charge. It's not just a matter of weak foundations and roofs threatening to come down on government clerks. Bits
and pieces of old-world regalia are equally threatened.

"We are poised to lose forever cast-iron gates, mansard roofs, decorative arches, antique lifts, door knobs and countless bits and pieces of
Calcutta's history," says Ray. All across town this summer, heritage buildings are getting their terraces reconditioned. Tar felt, used as a
temporary measure against rains, is being removed and replaced.
Cement-mortar compounds are being injected into cracks at high pressure and epoxy brushed on them for water proofing. "In the long term
this may prove doubly dangerous," says Chakraborty. "These processes militate against the fundamental principles of restoration. Instead of
minimal intervention the Government is resorting to half-baked steps hoping patch-up work will prove durable."

In the last century, Calcutta was described as the city of palaces. At this rate, the coming millennium will see it as a city of ruins.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/calcuttas-historic-structures-decay-half-baked-restoration-efforts-doubly-

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