Status assessment of buildings using existing data and identifying gaps in data from performance indicators

In past decades, several performance indicators have been developed allowing to objectively assess current status or predict failures of material, components and other factors like moisture safety. However, each performance indicator requires its unique sets of data, which are often difficult to obtain. It is therefore of interest whether a combination of several indicators is applicable in older buildings which often lack readily available documentation. The aim of this study is to identify data gaps preventing the use of indicators and to ascertain whether missing data can be filled by combining visual inspections and non-destructive testing. The first part of the paper summarizes known building envelope related indicators and arrange them into three groups: general, hygrothermal and service life performance indicators. The second part is a case study where the applicability of selected performance indicators is tested against an in-house database consisting information about 610 buildings in Gothenburg. It was found that the use of performance indicators is limited as the gaps in the available data are present for all types of performance indicators. The material composition of buildings envelope was identified as the most substantial gap. This limited the use of hygrothermal performance indicators in 58.5% of the buildings.