Flat Roof Defect: Preliminary Condition Survey for Water Ponding Monitoring

Roof is among defect-prone building part as it exposed to natural factor especially rainfall and sunlight. Thus, the inspection on roof part must be done more frequent compare to other parts of building. However, roof is the most difficult part to inspect because of limited access and safety concern. This paper presents the result of preliminary condition survey for water ponding monitoring on flat roof surface and discussion on the solving method. The survey has been carried out on flat roof of an academic building in Penang, Malaysia on a rainy day. Based on the condition survey, we found that water ponding occurs on some parts of the flat roof. Water ponding on flat roof will cause moisture problem that trigger severe problem on building. Since water ponding problem ineffectively do monitor by traditional method, we proposed to design an intelligent system to monitor water ponding problem on flat roof. By using an intelligent system, water ponding existence can be detected at a real-time. Furthermore, the system is time saving, manpower saving and the data can be manage systematically without the presence of surveyor on site.