The most common defects on housing surfaces in northern Cyprus

Abstract

Paper presented at the XXXIII IAHS World Congress on Housing, 27-30 September 2005,"Transforming Housing Environments through Design", University of Pretoria.

The building sector in developing countries grows rapidly in parallel to the needs of people. From time to time, this high rate of production causes various problems on buildings depending upon conditions of a country. Economical, technological, cultural and environmental factors are the main ones affecting the buildings. Northern Cyprus is also a developing country. After 1974, an urgent housing necessity has occurred there. The building sector had to be reoriented in a relatively short period of time. Today, the housing construction works are going on in parallel to the developments taking place in the economic arena. However, it is possible to observe various defects on houses. The defects are very much related to weaknesses in the design, construction or using processes and affect people’s health and comfort. Moreover, they reduce the life of a building, lose the aesthetic value and increase the maintenance expenses. The most widespread building defects observed in Northern Cyprus are: cracks, efflorescence, peeling on painting, rising dampness, corrosion of the reinforcement, etc. These failures are mostly observed on the housing surfaces. The study aims to discuss the said common defects together with their variable reasons. It also intends to present available solutions for preventing or reducing these failures in the design, construction or using stages. On this basis, it will be possible to create aesthetic, healthy, comfortable and long-lasting houses. Furthermore, this situation is seen to have a favorable effect on the country’s economy as a whole.