Corrosion (rust)

Corrosion is the process that causes rust in metal elements. It is one of the problems found in almost every building we inspect, because a residential building has many elements that can rust.

These are the main elements: metal doors and their frames, components in the elevators, steel piping (fire-fighting and drinking water), components in the pump room including the pumps themselves, components in the generator room such as the exhaust pipe, fans, components on the roofs and in the area outside the building such as railings and gates, components in the exterior cladding system such as rusting hooks, which cause round black spots in the stone cladding, and worst of all: the steel reinforcement inside the concrete, which can rust if it is exposed to moisture and oxygen.

Corrosion becomes much worse in buildings close to the sea. There, special attention must be paid to the materials so that they can withstand the conditions of a marine environment. More about this on the page construction defects near the coast.

For example: Israeli Standard (SI) 2378 for stone cladding requires the steel elements, such as hooks and anchors, to be made of stainless steel, so that they cannot rust.

Israeli Standard (SI) 1205 for water piping requires a separation at every connection between two different metals along the piping, to prevent electrolysis and, as a result, rust. Sometimes rust is seen at the connections of the piping to the collectors of the solar system, because this separation is missing. And since we have mentioned the collectors: sometimes rust attacks the collectors themselves as well.

But as we wrote above, the most dangerous rust is rust in the steel reinforcement, because the volume of rust is greater than the volume of the steel. When the steel inside the concrete rusts, it swells and makes the concrete crack, and over time it also causes breaks in the concrete, to the point of endangering the element and requiring concrete restoration. See also structural frame and masonry.

In our inspection every meter of the common areas is scanned. We document every spot of rust in the building and specify what work is needed to repair it.