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Service life prediction modelling of adhesive ceramic

tiling systems
a a b a
Rita Bordalo , Jorge de Brito , Pedro Lima Gaspar & Ana Silva
a
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture , Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical
University of Lisbon , Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal
b
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture , Technical University of Lisbon , R.
Sá Nogueira, Pólo Universitário, Alto da Ajuda, 1349-055, Lisbon, Portugal E-mail:
Published online: 22 Dec 2010.

To cite this article: Rita Bordalo , Jorge de Brito , Pedro Lima Gaspar & Ana Silva (2011) Service life prediction modelling of
adhesive ceramic tiling systems, Building Research & Information, 39:1, 66-78, DOI: 10.1080/09613218.2010.532197

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 BUILDING RESEARCH & INFORMATION (2011) 39(1), 66 – 78

RESEARCH PAPER

Service life prediction modelling of adhesive

ceramic tiling systems
Rita Bordalo1, Jorge de Brito1, Pedro Lima Gaspar2 and Ana Silva1

1
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Instituto Superior Te¤cnico,Technical University of
Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais,1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
E-mails: rita__ bordalo@hotmail.com, jb@civil.ist.utl.pt and anasilva931@msn.com
Downloaded by [Dalhousie University] at 18:27 09 October 2014

2
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture,Technical University of Lisbon, R. Sa¤ Nogueira, Po¤lo
Universita¤rio, Alto da Ajuda,1349-055 Lisbon, Portugal
E-mail: plgaspar@sapo.pt

Although ceramic tiling on building facades has a history of long durability and service life, a number of service life
anomalies in modern buildings have occurred. To identify the factors and address this problem, a method is
developed for the service life prediction of adhesive ceramic tiling systems based on a successful model for render and
natural stone cladding. The focus is on the applicability of an empirical method of field data collection to this type of
cladding that recognizes the complexity of ceramic tiling systems. A hierarchy of defects is defined to establish levels
of degradation and identify the susceptibility to errors in design, execution and selection of materials. Results were
validated using in-situ visual inspections of 117 tiling systems in Lisbon, Portugal. The aim is to provide a
preliminary tool to estimate the durability of ceramic tiling systems and identify influencing factors. Ceramic tiling
systems are particularly sensitive to the inadequacy of the materials as well as execution and design errors. Although
42% of the variance of the severity of degradation indicator can be explained by environmental agents, a larger 58%
is attributed to design and installation errors.

Keywords: adhesive ceramic tiling systems, building pathology, defects, degradation, durability, facades, service life
prediction

Bien que les revêtements en carreaux de céramique sur les façades de bâtiments présentent des antécédents de durabilité et
de durée de vie étendues, un certain nombre d’anomalies relatives à la durée de vie sont survenues dans des bâtiments
modernes. Afin de s’attaquer à ce problème et d’en identifier les facteurs, il a été mis au point une méthode
permettant de prévoir la durée de vie des systèmes d’adhérence des revêtements en carreaux de céramique, qui est
basée sur un modèle probant pour les revêtements en crépis et en pierre naturelle. L’accent est mis sur l’applicabilité à
ce type de revêtement d’une méthode empirique de collecte des données de terrain, capable de reconnaı̂tre la
complexité des systèmes de revêtement en carreaux de céramique. Il est défini une hiérarchie des défauts afin d’établir
des niveaux de dégradation et d’identifier la sensibilité aux erreurs en matière de conception, d’exécution et de choix
des matériaux. Les résultats ont été validés en recourant à des contrôles visuels in situ de 117 systèmes de carrelage à
Lisbonne, au Portugal. L’objectif est de fournir un outil préliminaire permettant d’estimer la durabilité des systèmes
de revêtement en carreaux de céramique et d’identifier les facteurs d’influence. Les systèmes de revêtement en
carreaux de céramique sont particulièrement sensibles à l’inadaptation des matériaux aussi bien qu’aux erreurs
d’exécution et de conception. Bien que 42 % des variations de l’indicateur du degré de gravité des dégradations
puissent s’expliquer par des agents environnementaux, 58 %, soit une proportion plus importante, sont attribuées à
des erreurs de conception et d’installation.

Mots clés: systèmes d’adhérence des revêtements en carreaux de céramique, pathologie des bâtiments, défauts,
dégradation, durabilité, façades, prédiction de la durée de vie

Building Research & Information ISSN 0961-3218 print ⁄ISSN 1466-4321 online # 2011 Taylor & Francis
http: ⁄ ⁄www.informaworld.com ⁄journals
DOI: 10.1080/09613218.2010.532197

Introduction
Portugal has a long tradition in the production and
marketing of tiles for use as both decorative panels
and revetment for building cladding. Ceramic tiles
vary greatly in terms of dimension, colour, texture,
and other characteristics and are considered in Medi-
terranean countries to be one of the most natural
materials for use with cladding (Silvestre and de
Brito, 2009; Bovea et al., 2010). There has nonetheless
been a significant decrease in the use of ceramic tiles
during the last few decades. Even though this sort of
cladding has demonstrated its durability, there are
indeed numerous examples of ceramic cladding
remaining intact in buildings of well over 100 years
in age. However, changes in construction methods
that use this cladding have slowly taken place, specifi-
cally in the use of different bedding material and on the
substrate itself. Some authors (Mansur et al., 2006;
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Wetzel et al., 2010) explain the decline in the use of
ceramic tiling by pointing to the high incidence of
anomalies during its service life, which is ended prema-
turely. In some countries, local authorities went so far
as to forbid the use of adhesive ceramic tiling systems
(CTS) in facades above the fourth floor due to the
high incidence of anomalies (Wan, 2004).
The reasons behind the growing incidence of anomalies
in this type of cladding deserve some discussion. Some
authors state that CTS are extremely susceptible to
errors in design, execution and material selection
(Shohet and Laufer, 1996). But such types of errors
have likely been brought about by demands for better
standards in the construction market, shorter construc-
tion delivery times and poor education of professionals
involved at the design and execution stages. All of these
situations could lead to exacerbating difficult construc-
tion conditions, thereby increasing the occurrence of
anomalies in CTS.
It is therefore relevant to study how the degradation
CTS evolves over time. The main purpose of this
study was to develop a preliminary method for
service life prediction of CTS using a model that had
successfully been applied to currently specified
renders and natural stone cladding. The limitations
resulting from this adaptation are also identified.
Results were validated through a survey of the degra-
dation state of 117 cases of ceramic tile cladding
using in-situ visual inspections.
Framework of the study
In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in
the durability and service life of materials and com-
ponents of buildings. For example, several studies
have recently been conducted to evaluate the environ-
mental impact of the construction materials used in
pavements and wall cladding, including ceramic tiles
Adhesive ceramic tiling systems
(Bovea et al., 2010). According to Hovde (2004), this
interest arises from environmental and economic
aspects with an ever-growing influence on decision-
making within the construction sector.
A fundamental design requirement is to ascertain the
service life of construction materials and products in
order to evaluate the best solution in both technical
terms and environmental impacts. For the latter, the
production and transportation of construction
materials yields different types of waste. Some
elements have a relatively short service life, thus imply-
ing their elimination and the consequent production of
replacement materials (Radhi, 2010).
Service life is generally estimated using knowledge of
the material and its deterioration state and pattern,
based on the indicators of certain measurable properties
(Gaspar, 2002). According to various authors (Hovde,
2004; Rudbeck, 2002; Moser, 2004; Lacasse and
Sjöström, 2004) there are three basic methods of
service life prediction: deterministic, probabilistic and
engineering methods. The first are based on the study
of the degradation factors that affect the elements
under analysis, on the understanding of the mechanisms
involved, and on their quantification translated into
degradation functions. These formulas express the
factors’ action over time until a minimum acceptable
performance level of the element under analysis is
reached (Gaspar, 2002). Probabilistic methods,
usually based on matrix or probabilistic calculus,
define the likelihood of a change of the state of an
element occurring with the objective of overcoming
the uncertainties related to the evolution in degradation
and the unpredictability of the in-service conditions.
Finally, engineering methods are straightforward and
often based on ‘dose – response’ functions that model
the performance of building materials for a given
set of degradation agents (notably environmental
actions). Within these methods the factor method is
by far the most widely accepted as it provides a
general framework in which the deterministic and prob-
abilistic approaches can both be integrated (Cecconi,
2002). Engineering methods are therefore preferred
for most practical purposes because they can provide
a basis for modelling degradation phenomena even
when large amounts of data may not be available,
which makes them a useful tool for decision-making
at the design stage or for the methodical planning
of maintenance actions (Daniotti, 2003).
A method for service life prediction of current cemen-
titious rendering was developed based on the definition
of a numerical index to express the overall degradation
of the cementitious coatings analysed. These data can
be expressed graphically for each sample under analy-
sis by a cloud of points whose abscissas are the ‘age’
variable and the ordinates the ‘severity’ variable
(Gaspar, 2009). Using these points, it is possible to
67
 Bordalo et al.
determine an average degradation curve of the material
using a regression line (Shohet et al., 2002). The
authors of the methodology (Gaspar, 2009; Gaspar
and de Brito, 2008) obtained a determination factor
(i.e. square of the instant correlation coefficient of the
Pearson product (R2)) that represents the percentage
of variance in the ‘severity’ given by the model – as
approximately 0.9. A study carried out by Silva
(2009) using that methodology for natural stone clad-
ding led to a correlation factor (R2) around 0.7. These
results were obtained through visual inspections and
due to the complexity inherent to the material-degra-
dation processes, it is considered that the values
obtained show a reasonable adjustment of the models
to reality.
The application of this service life prediction model to
CTS has proved to be more difficult. In fact, CTS clad-
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ding is a more complex building system than a typical
rendered or natural stone cladding. A CTS usually
comprises the ceramic material, the substrate, an
adhesive needed to guarantee the bond between the
tile and the substrate, and filling material for the
joints (Chew, 1999). Should one of these materials
components be of inferior quality, or in-service con-
ditions of the cladding not taken into account at the
design stage or, indeed, if serious execution errors
become apparent, the safety and functionality of the
entire system is jeopardized.
Fieldwork
Description of the samples
Adhesive ceramic claddings account for a small percen-
tage of facade coatings in Portugal (5.5% of buildings
built between 1946 and 2001) (Flores-Colen et al.,
2008) and their use is often associated with fashion
trends. To provide a thorough assessment, the set of
analysed ceramic claddings spans several construction
periods, from the early 20th century to the present day.
Figure 1 Examples of deterioration of ceramic tiling system (CTS) elements that directly in£uenced their performance: e¥orescence,
pop-outs and vegetation growth in cladding joints (left to right)
68
Historical peaks exist for the use of this cladding on
facades both in the sample (there was a great shortage
of ceramic cladding in the period 1920 –1949) and in
the existing building stock that occur for socio-econ-
omic reasons. However, the main age-related factor
for this study is not the building’s construction date
but the age of the ceramic cladding itself. ‘Age’ in
this context means the period since the cladding’s last
repair until the time of inspection. The consequence
is that the range in cladding age is shorter than that
of the buildings investigated and resides between one
and 63 years.
Occurrence of anomalies
Some authors (Campante and Paschoal, 2002; Sabba-
tini and Barros, 1990) found the main defects in
ceramic cladding to be efflorescence, detachment and
cracking. Silvestre and de Brito (2009) put anomalies
in CTS into four groups:
. adhesion failure and detachment of ceramic tiling
. cracking of CTS elements
. deterioration of CTS elements that directly influ-
enced their performance; this group is subdivided
in two types – the anomaly only affects the
ceramic tiles or it only affects the cladding joints
(e.g. crushing or scaling of the borders, efflores-
cence, pop-outs, vegetation growth in the cladding
joints) (Figure 1)
. defects of a strictly aesthetic nature which affect
the elements of the cladding system but do not jeo-
pardize its performance such as flatness deficiency
or roughness of the cladding surface, change of
colour, and cracking or scaling of the tiles’ glazing
Other authors also mention the importance of the
deterioration of joints in the overall degradation of

the system (Timellini and Palmonari, 1989; Padilha
et al., 2007). Silvestre and de Brito (2007) report a
high incidence of anomalies of the joint material,
given that it is the component/element most suscep-
tible to aggressive agents, because of the double
action of overexposure to these agents (water infiltrat-
ing behind the tiles in various locations) and lower
durability of the joint materials (compared with the
tiles).
Bearing this in mind, CTS defects (anomalies) were
thus classified:
. Visual anomalies: those that do not contribute to a
loss of performance of the cladding but do result in
aesthetic degradation.
Cracking: subdivided into three types: glazing
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cracking, markedly orientated cracking and crack-
ing with no predominant direction. This distinction
allows an unequivocal definition of the various
degrees of degradation, taking into account the
characteristics of each type of cracking (Figure 2):
. Glazing cracking is a surface problem and looks
like a spider’s web; it is normally caused by the
surface ageing of tiles, the difference between
the thermal expansion coefficients of the
glazing and of the inner body of the tile,
thermal shock, or the transmission of shrink-
age-related stresses of cementitious bedding
materials of the ceramic tiles.
. Markedly orientated cracking is usually local,
deep and wide.
. Cracking with no predominant direction is
usually more superficial and affects large por-
tions of the cladding surface.
. Anomalies in joints: even though these only affect
the filling material of the joints, they can jeopardize
Figure 2 Examples of di¡erent types of cracking: glazing, markedly orientated and with no predominant direction (left to right)
Adhesive ceramic tiling systems
the performance of the entire CTS. Joints are essen-
tial to absorb deformation and thus ensure the
watertightness integrity of the cladding.
. Detachment: the most consequential anomaly due
to the dire potential consequences of ceramic
elements falling from building facades, and the
cost of repairs (Lo, 2002). This anomaly is associ-
ated with three situations: loss of adherence, swel-
ling and detachment of ceramic elements.
Of the 117 CTS inspected, only 5.1% did not exhibit
any anomalies. Of the remaining cases, anomalies at
joints were the most common with 99 occurrences
(84.6% of the sample), followed by visual anomalies
with 89 cases (76.0%) and cracking with 80 cases
(68.4%); detachment occurred in only 47 of the 117
CTS inspected (40.2%).
Weighting factors for anomaly levels
The next step is to define a hierarchy of defects so as to
establish standard degradation levels. This ranking
takes into account the extent of cladding affected by
defects, their contribution to the cladding’s overall
degradation and the probability of change from one
degradation level to the next. This change is analysed
in cases that involve related anomalies (e.g. swelling
leading to detachment, joints deterioration resulting
in material loss).
Various authors have proposed classification systems
for defects (degradation scales) with the purpose of
expressing the visual and functional degradation of
the elements (Marteinsson and Jónsson, 1999; Flour-
entzou et al., 2002; Brandt and Rasmussen, 2002;
Shohet and Paciuk, 2004; Balaras et al., 2005; Chew,
2005; Kirkham and Boussabaine, 2005). These scales
are defined by discrete variables or levels and aim at
describing every situation from total absence of
visible degradation (the most favourable condition
level) to extreme degradation or loss of function (the
69
 Bordalo et al.

least favourable condition level). Degradation scales
are usually linear with criteria defined by the authors;
some define the scales based on maintenance oper-
ations (Balaras et al., 2005; Kirkham and Boussabaine,
2005), whereas others associate each degradation level
with the extent of degradation detected (Marteinsson
and Jónsson, 1999; Shohet and Paciuk, 2004). The
scale proposed for CTS is defined in Table 1. It con-
siders five condition levels from 0 (no visible degra-
dation) to 4 (generalized degradation); level 3 was
considered to indicate the end of service life.
Van Winden and Dekker (1998) proposed a six-level
degradation scale where the levels proposed are

Table 1 Proposed degradation levels for ceramic tiling systems (CTS)

Condition level Weighting Anomaly Percentage area

factor of CTS a¡ected

Level 0 (Sw,rp ≤ 1%) 0 No visible degradation ^

}
Level 1: Good (1% , 0.02 Visual or surface Surface dirt ^
Sw,rp ≤ 6%) degradation Small surface craters
anomalies Wear or scratches
Crushing or scaling of the borders ≤10
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Change of shine and/or colour

Damp stains
Cracking Cracked glazinga ^
Markedly orientated cracking (,0.2 mm)b
without leakagea
Joint deterioration Staining or change in colour ^

}
Level 2: Slight 0.2 Visual or surface Small super¢cial craters
deterioration (6% , degradation Wear or scratches
Sw,rp ≤ 20%) anomalies Crushing or scaling of the borders .10 and ≤50
Change of shine and/or colour
Damp stains

}
Biological growth
Gra⁄ti ≤30
E¥orescence

}
Cracking Cracking with no predominant directiona
Markedly orientated cracking (.0.2 mm)c ≤30
without leakagea
Joint deterioration Without loss of ¢lling materiala ≤30
With loss of ¢lling materiala ≤10
Detachment Loss of adherence
Swelling } ≤20

}
Level 3: Moderate 2.0 Visual or surface Small super¢cial craters
degradation (20% , degradation Wear or scratches
Sw,rp ≤ 50%) anomalies Crushing or scaling of the borders .50
Change of shine and/or colour
Damp stains

}
Biological growth
Gra⁄ti .30
E¥orescence

}
Cracking Cracking with no predominant directiona
Markedly orientated cracking (.1 mm)d
.30 and ≤50
without leakagea
Joint deterioration Without loss of ¢lling materiala .30 and ≤50
With loss of ¢lling materiala .10 and ≤30
Detachment Loss of adherence
Swelling } .20
Localized detachment ≤10

}
a
Level 4: Generalized 4.0 Cracking Cracking with no predominant direction
degradation (Sw,rp ≥ Markedly orientated cracking (.5 mm)e .50
50%) Joint deterioration Without loss of ¢lling material .50
With loss of ¢lling material .30
Detachment Generalized detachment .10

Notes: aWith leakage ^ the degradation level is increased by one.

b
Cracking, detectable at a distance greater than 5 m only if binoculars are used.
c
Tenuous cracking line, easily detectable at a distance greater than 5 m using binoculars.
d
Well-de¢ned cracking visible from a distance of more than 5 m without using binoculars.
e
Cracking characterized by a thick line in which a clear separation of the borders can be seen from a distance of more than 5 m with the aid of binoculars.

70
 Adhesive ceramic tiling systems

weighted non-linearly; a numerical weight is given to
each level, which results in an exponential relationship
between the different levels. Gaspar (2009) states that
this type of relationship may portray physical phenom-
ena occurring during the deterioration process: slower
and less severe at the beginning and the rate of
degradation increasing when combined deterioration
phenomena start to occur and involve more than one
anomaly, resulting in a situation some authors refer to
as ‘pathology’ (the result of the combination of more
than one source of one or more problems being detected).
Tuutti (1982) establishes a degradation evolution
model for reinforced concrete structures centred on
rebar corrosion. Widely accepted and frequently
used, this model establishes two degradation phases:
initiation and propagation. Looking at CTS in light
of Tuutti’s model, it can be said that initially the degra-
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Silva, 2009), adapted to the specific case of CTS.
This numerical index, referred to as the degradation
severity for ceramic tiling (Sw,c), provides an estimate
of the cladding’s overall degradation derived from
data acquired from the field inspection. This index is
the ratio between the weighted degraded area and a
reference area, equivalent to the overall area of the
facade degraded to the maximum possible level of
every degradation mechanism:
   
S A v × kn × ka,n + S Af × kn × ka,n +
S Aj × kn × ka,n + S Ad × kn × ka,n
Sw,c =   (1)
A × S kmax

where:
dation phenomena occurred slowly and the anomalies
that were evident did not in themselves bring about the
end of the cladding’s service life. The propagation
phase is when there is a loss of performance of the clad-
ding due to the superimposition of more than one
degradation mechanism. This can lead to a process
that does not merely aggregate the effects of each
mechanism, but actually amounts to an entropic
system, in which each action affects the others
(Gaspar, 2009). An exponential scale was therefore
used (Figure 3) to weight the degradation levels pro-
posed for CTS.
Having defined these levels the fieldwork showed that
approximately 47% of the anomalies detected
belonged to level 1, 24% to level 2, 21% to level 3,
and 8% to level 4, this implied that the frequency in
anomalies decreased as the degradation level increased.
Sw,c ¼ severity of degradation (%)
Av ¼ area of cladding affected by visual anomalies
as determined by visual inspection (m2)
Af ¼ area of cladding affected by cracking (m2)
Aj ¼ area of cladding affected by anomalies in joints
(m2)
Ad ¼ area of cladding affected by detachment (m2)
kn ¼ multiplying factor for anomaly n, as a function
of its degradation level (from 0 to 4)
ka,n ¼ weighting coefficient corresponding to the
relative importance of each anomaly

A ¼ overall cladding area (m2)

Method for service life prediction of ceramic
tiling systems Table 2 Determination of the sum of the maximum weighting
Numerical model factors for each anomaly
The proposed service life prediction model is based on
the models developed using the indicator degradation Anomaly Condition level
severity (Gaspar and de Brito, 2008; Gaspar, 2009;
Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Weighting factor

0 0.02 0.2 2 4

Visual × × × a

Cracking × × × × a

Joints deterioration × × × × a

Detachment × × × a

Note: aMaximum condition level for each anomaly; the sum of the
maximum weighting factors for each anomaly is equal to: 14 (2 + 4 + 4 +
Figure 3 Comparison between di¡erent weighting options of 4), corresponding respectively to visual anomalies, cracking, joint
the degradation levels of the ceramic tiling system (CTS) deterioration and detachment.

71
 Bordalo et al.


(kmax) ¼ sum of weighting coefficients corre-
sponding to the higher degradation condition levels of
the cladding surface over area A – equal to 14 (Table 2)
Relative weighting of anomalies
Anomalies occurring in ceramic cladding over its
service life are not all of equal importance. For
example, detachment of tiles from the cladding
system is considered a very severe situation and
cannot be considered equivalent to, say, changes in
colour. Therefore, it is fundamental to assign relative
weights to the different types of anomalies; the con-
ditioning factor for assigning weights according to
the severity was based on the expected repair costs
associated with each anomaly (Table 3).
A detailed analysis led to assigning ‘score points’ to the
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is considered, i.e. the scattering of results decreases
with weighting. The R2-value gives an indication of
the degree of correlation between the degradation
severity and the cladding’s age; even though the value
is relatively low, it is higher when relative weighting
of the anomalies is considered.
In fact, this weighting lessens the importance of
anomalies that would otherwise be overrated. Visual
anomalies are a good example since they are widespread
at every stage of the cladding’s service life, but visual
anomalies in themselves do not establish the end of life
of the component; weighting them leads to a significant
reduction in the overall value for degradation severity,
the more so the younger the cladding, where in most
cases visual anomalies predominate over the other types.

degradation severity, which resulted in a more exact

pondering of the overall degradation of the cladding.
Table 4 provides a statistical analysis of the results of
degradation severity with and without weighting the
relative importance of anomalies. It shows that a
0.095 standard deviation is obtained without weight-
ing defects and that this reduces to 0.075 if weighting
Degradation curves
The evolution of degradation reflects the loss in per-
formance of an element during its service life; essen-
tially, at the end of the service life the functional
requirements of the component are no longer met.
This loss in performance over time has been

Table 3 Parameters that in£uence the estimation of weighting factors

Anomaly Performance criteria demand Possibility Repair cost (E/m2) Ratio between Weighting
of causing repair and factor (ka,n)
other building anew
Safety Watertightness
anomalies cost (%)a

Visual oo xo xo Cleaning (E13.09/m2 or 18 0.18

US$15.84/m2)
Cracking xx xx xx Repairing cracking in 100 1.0
CTS may involve
operations from
surface sealing up to
replacement of the
a¡ected tiles
In joints Degradation xo xo xx Joint repair (E23.4/m2 or 32 0.32
of the ¢lling US$28.31/m2)
material
Loss of the The replacement of joint 100 1.0
¢lling material in CTS
material involves some risks
and can lead, as a last
resort, to the
replacement of the
a¡ected tiles
Detachment xx xx xx Replacing ceramic tiling 120 1.2
always costs at least
as much as executing
new cladding and can
even be more
because of the
removal of the
degraded cladding

Notes: aThe cost of executing a facade ceramic tiling cladding system varies signi¢cantly according to the cost of the tiles. Taking the price of 40 × 40 cm
sandstone tiles as E19/m2 (US$22.99/m2), the execution cost is around E72.57/m2 (US$87.81/m2). It is assumed that E1 ¼ US$1.21.
oo ¼ No correlation; xo ¼ probable correlation; and xx ¼ high correlation.

72
 Adhesive ceramic tiling systems

Table 4 Statistical analysis of the degradation severity results obtained with and without relative weighting of the anomalies

Statistical parameter Degradation severity without relative Degradation severity with

weighting of the anomaly relative weighting of the anomaly

Average (%) 6.90 4.46

Standard error (%) 0.85 0.69
Median (%) 1.33 0.99
Mode (%) 0.00 0.00
Standard deviation (%) 9.24 7.51
Sample variance (%) 0.85 0.56
Minimum (%) 0.00 0.00
Maximum (%) 33.03 33.86
R 0.5524 0.6534
R2 0.3052 0.4269
Adjusted R2 0.2930 0.4169
Standard error 0.0777 0.0574
F 25.0360 42.4610
Fcritical 9.69626E^10 1.65444E^14
Regression curve y ¼ 3.37E^05x2 + 0.00088x + 0.00164 y ¼ 8.4E^05x2 ^ 0.0027x + 0.0244
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equation

represented graphically by degradation curves with
which specific degradation mechanisms are usually
associated (Shohet et al., 1999; Flourentzou et al.,
1999). In theory, by establishing the degradation
curves of a given construction element, it is possible
to predict the end of its service life, provided a
maximum acceptable degradation level has been
defined.
It is thus considered pertinent to draw the degradation
curve using the average values of the severity of degra-
dation for each age group (Figure 5). In using a
regression line, a significant improvement is in fact
obtained in terms of correlation between the cloud of

In this study, the average degradation curve for the

117 case studies was obtained through linear
regression by adjusting a second-order polynomial
line to the cloud of points obtained from fieldwork.
This degradation path corresponds to the occurrence
of physical and chemical phenomena whose action
is, at first, only slowly realized but whose degradation
potential grows with time, i.e. the greater the degra-
dation state, the higher the probability it will increase
and likewise that it will do so at a greater rate (Shohet
et al., 1999). This degradation pattern is considered Figure 4 Evolution of the degradation using the degradation
by some to illustrate best material deterioration severity indicator for 117 inspected ceramic tiling systems (CTS)
when no premature anomalies are evident and when
subject to on-going maintenance work (Gaspar,
2009).

However, the results obtained for the sample and por-

trayed in the degradation curve are not relevant from a
statistical point of view (Figure 4). Considerable scat-
tering was observed (R2 ¼ 0.415) and there were
cases in which the same age showed significant vari-
ation in values for severity degradation (Table 5).
The information provided in Table 5 is useful in
demonstrating that only 41.5% of the variance in
severity of degradation can be explained by the
model and that the remaining 58.5% can be explained
by external factors. Nonetheless, the standard devi- Figure 5 Evolution of the degradation in terms of the average
ation of the sample is very low (0.071). degradation severity value for each cladding age

73
 Bordalo et al.

Table 5 Scope of the degradation severity results been obtained. In fact, different cases in the same
street (i.e. exposed to the same environmental con-
Age of the cladding inspected Degradation severity ditions) showed such dissimilar results as those
(years) scope shown in Table 6 and Figures 6 and 7. The conclusion
was that these differences were linked to factors such
25 ]0.2%; 18.7%[ as (inadequate) design conditions and improper
28 ]0.1%; 18.2%[ execution of the installation and as well the lack of
36 ]0.3%; 11.7%[ suitable materials.
41 ]0.5%; 11.0%[
43 ]0.2%; 22.9%[
Very often in this type of modelling where the loss in
performance over time is represented graphically it is
possible to define upper and lower limits (bands) of
points and the degradation curve (R2 ¼ 0.742). A stan- performance that illustrate the variation in results
dard deviation of 0.074 is obtained, which is similar to that correspond to best and worst performance. The
the value obtained when considering all case studies. method proposed by Meyer et al. (1995) distinguishes
three deterioration curves: an upper limit curve (Lmax)
A point-to-point analysis proves that the degradation for elements under favourable conditions (good-
severity index conveniently describes the reality quality elements, protected against environmental con-
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observed. It is thus important to understand the ditions, with periodic maintenance, among others); an
reason why such a significant scatter of results has average curve (L0) for normal conditions; and a lower

Table 6 Example of two ceramic claddings of the same age and subjected to the same environmental conditions but with totally di¡erent
degradation severity values

Case study Defect characterization Degradation

severity

Case study A 10% CTS area with e¥orescence 18.2% (Level 2)

40% CTS area with cracking with no
predominant direction
40% CTS area with markedly orientated
cracking (.0.2 mm) without leakage
20% CTS area with staining or change in
colour of joints
10% CTS area with joint deterioration
(without loss of ¢lling material)
10% CTS area with joint deterioration (with
loss of ¢lling material)
1% CTS area with swelling

Case study B 50% CTS area with staining or change in 0.2% (Level 0)
colour of joints
1% CTS area with localized detachment

74

Figure 6 Example of anomalies in case study A: e¥orescence, cracking with no predominant direction, staining or change in colour of
joints and swelling (left to right)
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Figure 7 Example of anomalies in case study B: staining or change in colour of joints and localized detachment (left to right)
limit curve (Lmin) for unfavourable conditions (Flour-
entzou et al., 1999). These curves have been drawn
for the specific case of CTS (Figure 8) in order to ident-
ify distinct degradation paths. For the sake of clarity
the cases considered in the upper limit curve (Lmax)
are those whose value for degradation severity is
higher than the corresponding value of the average
curve (in this instance 58 cases were above the
average curve and 59 below, a balanced distribution
within the 117 sample cases). The lower limit curve
(Lmin) corresponds to a limited interval of age values
between 20 and 50 years and its statistical relevance
is very small (R2 ¼ 0.313). As for the upper limit
Figure 8 Degradation curves for di¡erent degradation patterns
Adhesive ceramic tiling systems
curve, the age interval covers the entire sample and
its correlation coefficient is sufficiently relevant (R2 ¼
0.811).
Even though some of the CTS inspected clearly had
different rates of degradation rates, it was not possible
to understand the reasons for this based only on the
exposure conditions. It is considered that these results
can only be justified by parameters that were not ana-
lysed during the fieldwork due to lack of available
data, such as the design and execution conditions and
the characteristics of the materials used.
Discussion
The objective of the fieldwork was to inspect visually
CTS on building facades to gather pertinent data on
their state of degradation for in-service conditions
and, based on this information, to model the service
life of the CTS. Hence, the work focused on the evalu-
ation of the cladding at the time of the inspection and
thus it was not possible to take into consideration
design and execution conditions or the intrinsic charac-
teristics of the tiles themselves. In fact, once the clad-
ding is applied, in most cases it is difficult to
determinate whether any of the anomalies detected
were due to errors occurring at earlier stages of the
process during the design and execution stages.
75
 Bordalo et al.
The results demonstrate that only a small part of the
degradation of CTS can be related to environmental
degradation agents even though these are widely
acknowledged as one of the main causes of degra-
dation of CTS (Yiu et al., 2007). Even identical build-
ings, nominally exposed to the same environmental
conditions, differ considerably in terms of performance
and of the defects detected. As a consequence, the
degradation path of CTS has proven difficult to
model only on the basis of an assessment of visual
data obtained from a field study.
As a consequence, the results of this study tend to
suggest that design and application errors may be
attributable to the widespread occurrence of defects
in CTS; a number of authors have also noted this
phenomena (Gómez, 2004; Guan et al., 1997).
Notwithstanding the difficulty of identifying a
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design error at the origin of a given anomaly in
CTS1, it is unanimously accepted that the sum of
various installation errors may lead to a premature
pathological situation (Guan et al., 1997). Detach-
ment, for example, can be linked to multiple causes,
such as the absence of expansion joints, insufficient
filling of the substrate on which the tile is placed or
inadequate specification of the adhesive mortar
(Medeiros, 2000). The durability of ceramic cladding
is strongly dependent on the correct execution of tile
joints. Shohet et al. (2003) find that the service life of
this type of cladding can be three to four times lower
than expected when the joints are inadequately
designed.
In most cases, ceramic materials are selected solely on
the basis of aesthetic criteria. However, there are some
characteristics associated with the materials them-
selves that influence their long-term performance.
The main ones are the degree of glazing, expansion
due to moisture uptake and overall water absorption
capacity, and thermal expansion. It is essential for
designers and specifiers to know the water absorption
capacity of ceramic materials in order to specify appro-
priate bedding materials since the degree of porosity of
the tile has an influence on the long-term adhesion of
the tile to the substrate (Ribeiro, 2006). There is
some standardization regarding this, such as EN
14411 (BSI, 2006), where the ceramic tiles are classi-
fied according to their absorption of water and its man-
ufacturing process.
During fieldwork that was based solely on visual
inspection (i.e. without resorting to in-situ tests and
without data on design and execution), it was not poss-
ible to identify or evaluate these characteristics and
properties. Furthermore, design and execution charac-
teristics are very often missing from the information
provided to the licensing authorities and even from
the technical data on materials supplied by the
manufacturers.
76
Conclusions
Some authors argue that simple user-friendly tools
should be developed within the construction sector to
allow decisions to be made on maintenance actions
affecting the built heritage (Bower, 1999; Tolman
and Tolman, 2003). The method proposed in this
paper has attempted to answer this apparent need
and also aims at evaluating the durability and service
life of non-structural construction elements. The feasi-
bility of applying the method has been demonstrated
with other types of construction elements such as coat-
ings, but the results have been less statistically relevant
in the case of adhesive ceramic tiling systems (CTS).
This suggests that there is a need for additional and
similar studies in the future.
The results indicate that it is not possible to model
accurately the degradation of CTS based only on a
relationship between the severity of degradation and
cladding age. There are, in fact, significant discrepan-
cies among the values derived for the severity of degra-
dation of CTS subjected to the same degree of
environmental exposure and of the same age. This
may be due to the extreme susceptibility of the per-
formance of CTS to design and execution conditions
and the selection of materials, which may lead to the
occurrence of premature anomalies, thus altering the
natural degradation of this cladding component.
Unaided visual observation on its own has proved to be
insufficient to diagnose accurately all the causes of
anomalies for CTS beyond revealing the overall
picture of the pathology of CTS. The use of auxiliary
diagnostic methods such as non-destructive in-situ
testing could allow a better understanding of the
anomalies detected by inspection.
This study is thus a preliminary attempt to model the
service life prediction of CTS. In future studies the
modelling of the degradation and service life of CTS
will have to take into account the design characteristics
and quality of execution of the work as well as the
appropriateness of selected materials.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support
received from ICIST Research Institute, IST, Technical
University of Lisbon and the Foundation for Science
and Technology (FCT). The authors also thank the
Building Research & Information referees for useful
comments.
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