Reasons for repair need in Finnish concrete facades in practice

Concrete structures exposed to outdoor climate are deteriorated by several different degradation mechanisms, whose existence and progress depend on many structural, exposure and material factors. Under Finnish outdoor climate the frost damage of concrete together with corrosion of reinforcing steel is the major degradation mechanism that causes the need to repair of concrete facades. During ongoing project Repair strategies of concrete facades and balconies, it has been gathered the condition investigation data from 946 buildings to a database. 89% of protective pore ratios in Finnish concrete balconies are less than 0.20 and 78% are less than 0.15. Despite this 56-70% of buildings, depending on buildings location has any visible frost damage. This means, it is possible to have good results with thorough patch repair and protective coatings with balcony glazing in most of the cases. Protective measures slows corrosion rate 30-80% and frost damage stops completely.