Monitoring of Materials Quality in Residential Building

During the use of a building, not only routine maintenance is necessary, but also diagnostics of the condition of the built-in materials, especially in older buildings. In Central Europe, most houses are built of concrete or masonry elements. These can be subject to deterioration due to various corrosion processes due to environmental influences. The paper deals with the diagnosis of the quality of concrete materials of a selected house. Deterioration parameters such as moisture content, sulphate and chloride content were monitored to determine the degree of corrosion attack, alkaline reaction of masonry and extent of carbonation. Modern analytical methods such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal analysis (DSC/TG) and infrared spectrometry were used to determine the deterioration parameters. A varying degree of damage to the material was found depending on the cardinal direction of the building on which the material was located as well as depending on the depth of sampling. The degree of carbonation of the aerated concrete materials, determined from the thermal analysis results, ranged from 12.5 to 44.8%.