Suggestions for adjustment of ByggaF to improve the current use and suit the process of renovation

Abstract

ByggaF, a methodology for including moisture safety in the building process, was developed in 2007 and is today used in the Swedish construction industry. The purpose of ByggaF is to highlight moisture issues at an early stage in the building process by introducing documents, activities and actions. Today ByggaF is structured in a way suitable for new building. Adjustments of ByggaF are needed to improve the current use and to suit the process of renovation. This report provides suggestions to improve the ByggaF-documents, which are based on current acts and regulations, research reports from the field and interviews with moisture experts and representatives of property developers. The results from the interviews conclude that the average knowledge in moisture safety is low in the construction industry, and there are problems to introduce ByggaF to other participants. For adapting ByggaF to the renovation process, a visual moisture inventory is suggested to be included as a compulsory procedure in the program stage. This provides information about the existing building for all involved. Visual moisture inventory checklists are created and recommended to use. Another main finding is the issue with using the ByggaF document Moisture safety planning with risk evaluation in the design process. Moisture safety officers for planning need clearer competence requirement. Designers need better guidance in moisture safety design to fully use the document, especially to perform the risk evaluation. Earlier risk assessments from research, expert system and software products are suggestions to simplify the designer’s work. A change of the numeric risk evaluation is also a suggested solution. This document has also been updated to reduce conflicts with other industry regulations and to have better consistency and to better suit the process of renovation. All suggestions requires both to be tested and further developed. Finally, the suggestions are implemented in the main document Industry standard ByggaF.