Relationships between Outside and Interior Appearance Inspection and Actual Bio-Deterioration of Structural Members in Existing Wood Houses

Abstract

The inspection of the used house which is necessary to be evaluated is carried out without removal of the interior or exterior finishing materials. However, where the interior or exterior appearance was degraded, there was not always a bio-deterioration of the wooden structural member in the existing wood houses. Therefore, the interior or exterior appearance of the 103 used wood houses were inspected and the bio-deterioration of all wooden structural members were investigated after removal of the finishing materials. Then, the relationships between the appearance degradation and the actual bio-deterioration of the wooden structural members in the used wood houses were studied. The results were summarized as follows:

1. The bio-deterioration of the wooden structural members were found much on 1st story rather than 2nd story, in the elder building age, in case of short eaves and in case of low foundation. The issues known experience empirically were verified numerically.
2. The tendency of the appearance degradation occurrence were the same as the tendency of the biodeterioration partially, but didn’t match it entirely.
3. About 90 % of the portions whose interior or exterior appearance were degraded didn’t have the bio-deterioration of the wooden structural member.
4. The ratio of the portion with the bio-deterioration of the wooden structural member without appearance degradation were only 1.6 %.

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