In recent years building failures and the resulting lawsuits and awards for damages have frequently been in the news. The biggest headlines may have been reserved for structural failures and complete collapses, but we should not forget the less newsworthy failures such as leaky roofs, damp walls, dropped foundations and rotted timber. Their cost in simple cash terms is considerable, but perhaps even more important is the personal discomfort they cause, and the waste of resources and effort involved in repeating a job which should have been done right the first time. Nearly all such failures are caused by faulty design or execution rather than by faulty materials. The mistakes which produce them result not from lack of knowledge but from a failure to apply it properly. This book gives practical guidance on the prevention of failure by describing the nature and cause of the most common defects in buildings, and then shows how they should be avoided in design and construction.