# Influence of Climate Conditions on Deficiencies of Building Roofs
## 2 Methodology  
This paper focuses on the civil responsibility insurance records of building surveyors and technical architects across Spain [21]. Each of the records meets the requirement of being related to a user complaint filed between the years 2008 and 2010 [22]. The sequence used to identify roof deficiencies was as follows: with the appearance of a deficiency in a building, users file complaints in court for their repair. Once the judicial process is initiated, expert reports are produced, verifying the existence of said deficiencies [23]. After several years, with a ruling having been arrived at, the authors of this research finalize the number and type of construction deficiencies found, and incorporate the results in the study. The 763 deficiencies analyzed correspond to the entirety of complaints raised during this period in Spain. This research considered the two construction variants that exist for this building unit: 'flat roofs' (FR) and 'pitched roofs' (PR) [23]. The constructive deficiencies indicated in Table 1 were typified for these two variants. Building typologies were classified into: 'apartment blocks' (BT1), 'detached houses' (BT2),'semi-detached houses' (BT3) and 'other typologies' (BT4). Furthermore, the research is intended to analyze the influence that certain climate-geographical conditions can have on construction deficiencies, as well as the greater or lesser concentration of cases according to other additional thermal-hygrometric conditions, as described in Table 2. The handling and processing of said conditions was carried out according to the building's location. Thermal-hygrometric conditions (heating degree days, cooling degree days and wind speed) are characterized as shown below:  
Heating degree days (HDD) are defined as the sum (taking into account all days of the year) of the differences between a base temperature of 20 \({}^{\circ}\)C, taken as a reference, and the average temperature of the day when said temperature is lower than the base temperature [24]. As for the calculation of average wind speed (WS), the normal figures of the annual compass rose of each geographical zone were considered, for the period from 1971 to 2000 [25]. Precipitation data was obtained from the Spanish Meteorological Agency [25]. Once construction deficiencies were obtained and quantified, they were characterized according to the climate-geographical conditions of the location of the buildings. Initially, the percentages of these roof deficiencies were calculated according to conditions A, B and C. Subsequently, these conditions were combined in pairs in order to ascertain which had a greater percentage. The ten results by'segments of climate location', as per the three conditions, were defined and sorted in decreasing order to obtain 'ranges of concentration of anomalies', according to the percentage \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l l} \hline \hline
**COD** & **Type of Construction Deficiency** & **Description** & & \\ \hline TCD1 & Localized infiltration & \multicolumn{3}{l}{Penetration of water through weak points of a construction element,} \\  & & & in an isolated fashion (situated in specific points). & \\ \hline TCD2 & Moisture by infiltration & \multicolumn{3}{l}{Entrance and/or presence of water through weak points of a construction} \\  & & & element, in a generalized fashion (situated in more extensive surfaces). & \\ \hline TCD3 & Fissures in brick parapets & \multicolumn{3}{l}{Fissure in a protection wall of flat roofs as a result of thermal actions} \\  & & & & \\ TCD4 & Condensation moisture & \multicolumn{3}{l}{Physical phenomenon through which environmental moisture liquefies in contact with a cold wall} \\  & & & & \\ TCD5 & \multicolumn{3}{l}{Fissures in gable-walls and slab faces} & \multicolumn{3}{l}{Fissure in envelopes or corners of the slabs closing pitched roofs as a result of thermal actions} \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Types of construction deficiencies determined in this research.