STAINING INDEX FOR COLOUR-BASED ALUMINIUM FACADES

Abstract

Maintainability of aluminium facades is very important especially in terms of aesthetical value and long-term life span. Aluminium facades particularly the light colour facades need a lot of money for maintaining purposes. A well-organized plan and useful benchmark should also be taken into consideration. Due to the importance of maintenance of aluminium facades, a Staining Index (S.I) was eveloped in order to guide the building owner on when the aluminium facades need to be cleaned. A Staining Index (S.I) can guide the building owner to plan the cleaning schedule properly and effectively as well as reduced the wastage spent on maintenance cost due to over-cleaning. The objectives of this research are to derive the staining index (S.I) which defines the level of cleanliness of aluminium fafades, identify the preference ofcolour between light and dark colours of aluminium facades and develop a test procedure for building facades using Modified On-site Diagnostic and Assessment Tool (MODAT). Two (2) buildings, IMM Building and Jurong Entertainment Centre (JEC) Building, were chosen as locations to carry out the field measurements. A combination of MODAT and Portable Spectrophotometer was used in order to obtain the required data and directly achieve the objectives of this research. A total of 60 questionnaires were then distributed randomly to measure the subjective perceptions of the building users. From the field measurement and subjective perception, the data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and SpectraMagix NX software. A staining index (S.I) for IMM Building (WPs) and JEC Building (BPs) were derived; S.IWP=-24.094 + 0.169X1-0.252X2 + 0.824X3 and S.IBP = 3.647 - 0.0429X1 + 0.I0IX2 + 0.380X3 respectively. Findings from the research clearly indicated the preference of colour was dark colour, 62% of the respondents preferred the blue panels as the building facades that need less maintenance. Finally, the test procedure using MODAT was found to be effective with the support of objective measurement using Portable Spectrophotometer.