A systematic approach for maintenance budgeting of buildings façades based on predictive and preventive strategies

Maintenance strategies are essential to control the first stages of degradation and prevent the failure of building elements. The selection of the most cost-effective and appropriate strategies can enable better budget allocation and can also minimize the decline in the performance of buildings during their whole life cycle. This paper characterizes a systematic methodology for selecting optimal maintenance strategies for façades based on different maintenance policies and interaction with the user. Life-cycle cost analysis is used to compare different maintenance scenarios using equivalent uniform annual cost (EUAC) for five façades’ claddings. These scenarios are compared through the simulation of performance–degradation models and characterization of several parameters: service life, performance, minimum level of quality, maintenance operations, frequency and costs. The results allow the comparison of preventive and predictive maintenance strategies. This methodology, the result of a two-year academic research program, is intended to help clients, users, practitioners and decision-makers in the choice of facades’ interventions (type, frequency and cost estimation) at buildings’ design and post-occupancy stages. Finally, the future drawbacks and benefits of this study are discussed.