Maintenance planning of pitched roofs in current buildings

The implementation of a roof maintenance plan is a key element to control in-service system performance by monitoring the deterioration factors, types of anomalies, and their causes. A continuous and structured follow-up of the performance of the maintenance-source elements (MSEs) of a roof, associated with an appropriate planning, enables taking all necessary actions for proactive maintenance (cleaning, minor and major interventions), guaranteeing the control of costs during buildings' lifecycles and the users' satisfaction. This study intends to establish a maintenance plan for pitched roofs in current buildings, considering the deterioration agents, defects, and causes that influence the durability of the MSEs of pitched roofs. Moreover, the expected service life of these components was identified to schedule the main maintenance actions on the constructive elements under analysis, including the prioritization and the periodicity of the interventions required. The maintenance plan proposed was validated based on the knowledge of the in-service performance of 34 pitched roofs (with an area of 26,100 m2) analyzed during an extensive fieldwork. This study reveals that the inspections in the first years of the building's lifecycle are essential to the detection of symptoms of prepathology. Furthermore, this study proposes the most rational strategy to deal with the anomalies detected, e.g., cleaning is the most efficient action to deal with aesthetic anomalies, while the partial or total replacement of the element is the most advantageous and economical solution to deal with adhesion anomalies. The results of this study allow optimizing the maintenance works performed in pitched roofs during their lifecycle, thus reducing the use of resources and unnecessary costs.