Lisø PhD Dissertation Manuscript - NTNU

database reveals that defects induced by shrinkage and thermal movement occur more
frequently in LECA and concrete masonry than brickwork. On the other hand, defects
associated with non-watertight masonry, reduced durability and reinforcement corrosion
are more common in brickwork than in LECA masonry. A majority of causes of defects
categorised in Table 1 are related to moisture. Moisture related defects account for as much
as 80% of the investigated masonry cases.
Fig. 3. Variations in main defect categories for four 5-year periods. (See Table 1 for explanation.) Number of
masonry defect cases (columns) is given on the left y-axis. Number of assignment reports each year (see line)
is given on the right y-axis.
2.3. Evaluation of results
The analysis is based on building defect assignments carried out by SINTEF Building and
Infrastructure and do not represent a complete overview of process induced building
defects in Norway. A majority of the cases of defects are located in municipalities near
SINTEF Building and Infrastructure’s offices in Oslo and Trondheim. This is due to
SINTEF Building and Infrastructure having easier access to building defect assignments in
its vicinity. The inflow of building defect assignment reports to the project archive is based
on commercial consultancy assignments from different actors in the construction industry,
and thus do not represent a systematic or in any way planned selection of building defect
cases. It is therefore important to emphasise that only a small part of the total number of
process induced building defects in Norway emerges in the SINTEF Building and
Infrastructure building defects archive [3]. One of the major advantages with the archive is
clearly the large number of assignments over a long time period. Also, the archive contains
thorough descriptions of cause, extent and preventive actions on complex building defect
cases, investigated and described by highly competent researchers.
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