Durability Assessments

BRANZ staff have, through working with industry and carrying our research programmes, developed a comprehensive understanding of the way many building materials perform in use. This information is passed on to the industry through BRANZ Publications, and in Build magazine. Depending on their functions, building materials and components are required to have a 5, 15 or 50 year durability for compliance with the New Zealand Building Code Approved Document B2 Durability, and BRANZ will work with individual manufacturers, specifiers, builders, painters, and others to provide reliable information on materials performance. This involves carrying out evaluations of product performance, and inspecting and reporting on products and buildings.

Services include:

• Identifying the information required to demonstrate the required durability of a material or component
• Performing appropriate tests
• Checking technical literature

Site Inspection

Materials staff also carry out site inspections to evaluate the condition of building materials and establish their likely future maintenance requirements. Areas of expertise include: corrosion, plastics, coatings, timber composites, and concrete condition including risk of reinforcement corrosion.

Investigations into site failures are also carried out, to establish the cause of the failure and to identify ways of correcting building defects.

Some common problems investigated by BRANZ staff include:

• Coating failures on metals and timber structures
• Corrosion problems, consulting and research
• Tiling problems
• Adhesive failures
• Reinforced Concrete failures

The Materials cement and concrete laboratory offers a full consulting service on the condition of existing concrete buildings and civil engineering structures. This involves providing detailed information on:

• The existing condition of the concrete and reinforcing steel in the structure
• Expected remnant life of the structure
• Options for remedial repairs to extend the life of the structure, including cost estimates and ongoing maintenance costs.

and can include

• Concrete coring
• Measurement of reinforcing steel cover using the 'Protometer 3' electromagnetic covermeter
• Carbonation depth evaluation
• Diffusivity and Permeability assessment of hardened concrete
• Moisture measurement

Corrosion

BRANZ corrosion experts offer consulting and testing services to the building industry. The team has extensive experience with a wide range of corrosion issues and testing standards and has access to state of the art corrosion and electrochemical reseach equipment for salt spray exposure and accelerated weathering.

Specific areas of expertise and experience are:

• Reinforced Concrete failures
• Testing for Code and Standards compliance
• Atmospheric/marine corrosion
• Zinc and aluminium alloy corrosion and selection
• Materials compatibility
• Galvanic effects
• Underground corrosion
• Corrosion resistant protection coatings.

Plastics Polymers and Composites

BRANZ can assess the long-term performance and durability of plastics and composite materials using a variety of techniques, including artificial weathering, which can be used to evaluate the effect of ageing on the mechanical properties.

Contact:

General enquiries: Nick Terawsky