This new edition of Understanding Housing Defects has been extensively revised and includes new and revised graphics, many more photographs, and an extended text. The book is a natural companion to The Construction of Houses (first published in 1990 and now in its 3rd revision). Understanding Housing Defects provides a concise, coherent and comprehensive introduction to the causes, investigation and diagnosis of housing defects. It is aimed at all those students and practitioners who require a broad understanding of housing defects as part of a wider sphere of academic or professional activity. The book has three specific objectives, to explain why, and how, defects occur. To enable the reader to recognise and identify building defects and to provide, where appropriate, guidance on their correct diagnosis. The authors have worked in both public and private sectors and have, between them over 75 years’ experience in dealing with housing and general building defects. Currently, they are all lecturers at the University of the West England, where they teach on a variety of undergraduate and post-graduate courses. They are also actively involved in carrying out research and consultancy for a number of property owning organisations throughout the UK.

Aimed specifically at those students and practitioners who require a broad understanding of building construction as part of a wider sphere of professional activity. The book provides a comprehensive introduction to the principles and practice of modern construction and services. In addition most chapters contain information on earlier construction techniques to reflect the age profile fo the UK housing stock. This fourth edition has a revised text and hundreds of revised graphics, new illustrations and photos, an additional chapter on concrete housing, and an eight page colour section showing a series of photographs of a modern housing development. This book is the recommended construction text at a number of colleges and universities. It concentrates on principles and practice rather than details and regulations. In doing so it should enable the reader to demonstrate a comprehensive and genuine understanding of modern house construction and its evolution over the last 100 years.

The sixth edition of The Construction of Houses builds on the success of the previous five editions. The book provides a comprehensive introduction to the principles and processes of the construction of houses and their services. As such it is aimed at providing a broad understanding of domestic building construction for students as part of their academic studies and as a useful information source for practitioners. The existing chapters have all been updated and most of them expanded to take account of changes to dwelling house construction since the last edition and there are new chapters on ‘Modern Methods of Construction’ and ‘Regulatory controls and building standards’. Additionally, many new and/or updated photographs and diagrams have been added. As with the previous editions, the authors have concentrated on presenting current mainstream approaches to the construction of houses. The detailed, yet accessible, text that is supported by hundreds of coloured photographs and diagrams provides clear explanations of the many complex processes that go into the building of a house. A deeper insight into modern construction is also given by the book’s consideration of historical building techniques from the 18th century onwards in order to illustrate how and why we build houses in the way we do now.

This bestselling book has been fully revised and updated to include valuable new case studies and examples which help to demonstrate the common problems found in older buildings. It features many additional photographs illustrating the decay mechanims and individual issues associated with damp, timber decay, masonry defects, roofing problems and many other aspects. The book begins by summarizing the basics of surveying practice, including the inspection, assessment, defect diagnosis and monitoring of defects. It then examines the building elements, discussing their construction, typical faults and their diagnoses. This section provides specific advice on assessing industrial monuments and features concise inspection checklists for ease of reference. In the final section, the author looks to the future, considering the specific challenges faced by property professionals when employed to survey historic buildings. The book is accompanied by comprehensive appendices, including sample survey forms, and a list of useful contacts is followed by an extensive bibliography. This book will be of particular interest to conservation officers, surveyors, architects, archaeologists and planners.

Maintaining a building is expensive: it costs many times more to run a building than to build it, yet maintenance is often accorded a low priority. Building Maintenance covers the technical aspects of maintenance for undergraduate students on built environment courses, particularly building surveying and facilities management. It addresses the major questions regarding maintenance activities and shows that maintenance should be considered seriously at the design stage. Extensive case studies illustrate what can go wrong, how to put matters right and how to get it right first time.

The fifth edition of this successful textbook is aimed specifically at those students and practitioners who require a broad understanding of building construction as part of a wider sphere of professional activity. The book provides a comprehensive introduction to the principles and practice of modern construction and services. New to this edition are: Hundreds of revised graphics to complement the fully updated text New illustrations and photos printed in full colour for the first time New chapters on sustainability, ventilation and windows. This highly sought after text concentrates on principles and practice rather than details and regulations and retains it’s easy to follow format and highly accessible style. In doing so it enables the reader to demonstrate a comprehensive and genuine understanding of modern house construction and its evolution over the last 100 years. The Construction of Houses is not only an essential read for students, surveyors, developers and planning professionals, but also the interested lay person considering their first building project.

All across Ireland, thousands of people are living in apartments and houses with serious fire safety and structural defects. Some of these have made the news, many more have not. Defects: Living with the Legacy of the Celtic Tiger tells the horrifying story of these people and how they came to be trapped in dangerous homes. In this follow-up to Home, his hugely popular and acclaimed manifesto for public housing reform, Eoin Ó Broin reveals how decisions made by successive governments from the 1960s to the 1990s led to an alarmingly light touch building control regime. This regime, when combined with the hubris and greed of Celtic Tiger-era property development, allowed defective and unsafe properties to be built and sold in huge numbers to unsuspecting victims. Who was responsible? Why were they allowed to get away with it? And who will foot the bill to fix these potentially fatal defects? All these questions and more are answered in this hard-hitting and shocking investigative work.