SIGNIFICANCY OF MOVEMENT JOINTS OF MASONRY WALLS FOR BUILDINGS BEING IN OPERATION

In recent years, the construction industry is experiencing a number of changes in the regulatory enactments to improve the quality and safety of construction work. As Latvia is one of the few countries, where you can experience all four seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter), you can observe significant temperature fluctuations. This has an effect on both the construction and the various finishing materials. If calculations are made in the first case, taking into account the effect of the weather, then in the second case the weather impact is rarely observed. However, the weather effect on the finishing materials is enormous, so it is necessary to take measurements over longer periods of movement joints in walls and facades to observe and analyse the changes depending on the weather. It can be successfully implemented by installing crack-measuring plates and measuring weekly or more frequently at temperature fluctuations. The aim of the study is to perform deformation monitoring on the walls, to observe the state of the cracks and to make measurements, to determine the causes of the cracks, to make proposals to stabilize the situations. This will give an idea of the processes that are taking place under the influence of the weather and will lead to the assessment of new projects including structural design projects, renovation projects and European funded projects. In many projects this is not properly assessed, but the presence of deformation in the form of cracks can be observed in real life at homes with multiple sections or long wall spans. In time, this can lead to further damage to the facade. In order to save money and make the facades long lasting, these issues should be given more attention, so the authors focus on researching these issues.