Analysis of the performance of existing wall finishers to enhance the durability of different walling materials against rain surface erosion

Abstract

Present building construction sector use different walling materials with different surface roughness values. With the increase of surface roughness, durability of the material reduces, while increasing the biological growth; such as moss and fungus, on walls. Therefore it was recommended wall smoothing as a sustainable solution to increase the durability of building walls. Wall care putty and lime can be identified as the most common wall finishers apply in the present construction sector. This study was conducted in order to analyze the durability performance of existing wall finishers to enhance the durability of walling materials. For the study, five materials were selected including four different walling materials; brick, cement block, cement stabilized earth block and mud concrete block, and a common wall plastering material; rough cement plaster. Ten different wall finishing mixtures; prepared by mixing lime, three different wall care putty products and cement according to the mix design, were selected as wall finishers. Prepared ten wall finishing mixtures were applied on selected walling materials and subjected to the spray erosion test which simulated ten year rain in to one hour time period. At the end of the test pit depths and scaled off material mass were measured and scaled off factor was calculated. According to the results scaled off factor is lowest in lime and in wall care putty it reduces with the increase of cement percentage. Lime is the most durable wall finisher according to the results. And wall putty layer also protect the walling material against rain surface erosion. Therefore it is concluded as existing wall finishers enhance the durability of different walling materials against rain surface erosion.