Recent Trends in Technical Due Diligence
Is your ‘too good to be true’ deal really sustainable ?
Lack of Capital post GFC has lead to a significant neglect of R&M and Capex spend.
Having worked on property due diligence valued over $10B since the GFC, Napier & Blakeley have seen only nominal spend on upkeep compared with previous years.
Risk of Non-Compliance (i) 
During this period the increasing trend has been a notable reduction of Repair and Maintenance (R&M) and Capital Expenditure (Capex) budgets. Whilst this strategy may have been necessary in some circumstances e.g. postponement of non-essential Capex, we have found too commonly evidence of non-compliance regarding statutory maintenance such as testing, auditing and reporting of essential safety measures and fire safety systems.
Reduced Life Expectancy and Premature Capex
Recent technical due diligence and condition assessments have also found that the lack of R&M and Capex budgets for economic life driven plant and equipment overhauls and refurbishments has resulted in increased short and medium term Capex.
Why does concrete crack?
Unlocking the mysteries of a critical building resource
Concrete has been the main stay of building construction for generations. Today, traditional reinforced concrete is an integral and important component of building structures. It usually takes the form of footings in ground, slabs on ground, columns and suspended slabs.
Concrete however, is not the perfect substance. As such it can suffer from defects. These defects can have a huge impact on the appearance, capital expenditure, maintenance costs, safety and effective life of the total structure.
What then are the typical forms of concrete defects? Some of the more common defects can be categorised as follows:-
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Structural design inadequacies – distortion, bending cracks, deflection, shear cracks, impact damage temperature change cracks, abrasion, torsion cracks and erosion.
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Environmental causes – weathering/staining, biological growth, bacteriological attack, efflorescence (lime leaching), freeze-thaw damage and fire damage
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Aggregate properties – aggregate swelling/shrinkage/softening, alkali-silica reaction and sulphide staining/spalling.
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Chemical attack – sulphates, chlorides, acids and salt weathering.
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Reinforcement corrosion – cracking, spalling and de-lamination
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Concrete Cancer – cracking of the concrete caused by the corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete structures
