Abstract

Wood is a raw material commonly used as a cladding solution in southern Chile. Timber claddings are a sustainable solution with low embodied energy and a low carbon impact. The effects of environmental degradation agents are clearly connected to the durability of timber claddings, including the characteristic of the materials applied, and to the use and maintenance conditions. Concerning South America, this research work is an innovative proposal focused on the application of a new method for predicting the service life of timber facades. This methodology tries to encompass in the predictions the set of variables involved in the influence of the degradation process of the set of external timber claddings under analysis. In this sense, the international standardised method, the factor method (FM) established by ISO 15686:2011, has been used. A total of 102 timber claddings under in-service conditions are analysed through an extensive fieldwork survey in the areas of Valdivia and Niebla, southern Chile. The set of durability variables, which present influence on the service life prediction of the facades under analysis (external timber claddings), has been adjusted. The factor method proposed can lead to comparable estimated service lives for the timber claddings examined in the study when matched with the values perceived during the fieldwork process (graphical method). An average service life of 37 years is achieved for the timber claddings, which coincides with the literature review and therefore with the empirical knowledge. This study can help in the understanding, in experimental terms, of the interaction between timber claddings and the local environmental context.