Conservation level of residential buildings: Methodology evolution

An evaluation methodology to estimate the buildings' degradation level identifying the causes of the anomalies and the refurbishment solutions to achieve more quality and durability of buildings' envelope was developed. The assessment of the conservation state of a set of social housing through visual survey allied to evaluations scales was carried out. Since the methodology revealed useful and adequate to any constructive system it was subject of changes to get more objectivity, flexibility and reliability in its application to different type of buildings. Therefore, a review of the evolution of this methodology was done. This paper aims to analyse the evolution of this degradation assessment methodology, to show the improvements introduced, providing insights into this method and outlining the most important directions for future research. It is concluded that currently the method is easier to implement and lead to more consistent and reliable assessment results.