Structure “Masonry Façade Condition Assessment Tool”

Background on this topic from Inspec

Turning a façade survey into something you can plan with

A masonry façade condition assessment tool is a structured way to record what an engineer or architect observes on a wall and convert it into a rating that can be compared — one elevation against another, one building against the rest of a portfolio, and this year's survey against the one before it. Without that structure, a façade survey is a set of photographs and adjectives, and two reviewers can describe the same wall two different ways.

The value to an owner is not the number itself. It is that the number is produced the same way every time, by whoever holds the clipboard, so the ranking it supports can be defended in a capital budget meeting.

What the rating is built from

The inputs are the distress conditions a masonry wall actually shows:

• Cracking in units and in mortar joints, including stepped cracking that follows the bond pattern
• Displaced, bowed or loose masonry, and open or offset joints
• Spalled, delaminated or eroded units, and mortar loss at the joint face
• Deteriorated or missing sealant at movement joints and at window and door perimeters
• Corrosion and section loss at lintels, shelf angles and exposed steel
• Distress at parapets, copings and other wall terminations
• Staining, efflorescence and biological growth that suggest where water is moving through the assembly

Each observation is tied to a location on an elevation, then described by extent — how much of that elevation is affected — and severity — how far the condition has progressed. Scoring the two separately matters, because a small area of displaced masonry over an entrance is a different problem from widespread, shallow mortar erosion on a blank wall, even though both might otherwise be called "deteriorated brick."

What a visual rating cannot settle on its own

A survey reads the face of the wall. It does not read the anchorage, the cavity, the through-wall flashing or the condition of the backup. A rating can flag a wall as suspect; confirming why it is behaving that way usually calls for exploratory openings, probes at anchors and relieving angles, moisture detection services, or air and water infiltration testing at representative openings. Where leakage is the owner's presenting complaint rather than visible decay, the investigation is a different exercise from a condition survey — see facade leak investigation.

Where a jurisdiction requires periodic façade inspection, keeping the rating method consistent is what makes one cycle comparable to the next.

From rating to a repair program

Once conditions are ranked, they sort into work that cannot wait — anything with a life-safety dimension, such as loose units, unstable parapets or corroded steel supporting masonry — work that belongs in the next budget cycle, and conditions that are documented and watched. That ordering is the basis of a multi-year façade plan, and it is also what Facility Condition Assessments and a Building Envelope Management System are organized around.

Repair design follows the assessment rather than the other way around: scope and details are drawn from the conditions found, bid to contractors, and verified during the work through Construction Observation and Administration. Parapets and above-roofline walls frequently drive the first phase; that work is discussed in Repair of Above-Roofline Parapet Walls on Vintage Structures.

To discuss a masonry wall on one of your buildings, see Facade Consulting Services or contact Inspec.

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