Facade Failures: The Second Time

Diagnosing structural distress is usually difficult. If that diagnosis is not correct, the planned intervention can be worse than the original problems and possibly irreversible. Investigating the effectiveness of interventions planned by others offers a unique opportunity to learn both good and bad repair techniques. This paper will illustrate four case studies, unrelated to litigation, where previous efforts to solve facade problems of buildings were not successful. Thus, it was necessary to deal with the initial problem made worse by the previous intervention. Each case study involves a facade which was previously repaired but which developed new, and sometimes worse, problems in subsequent years. In each case, it was evident that previous repairs addressed symptoms rather than the underlying problems.