Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowbob
The infiltration of water (seawater) into the concrete resulting in the corrosion of the rebar in addition to sketchy concrete recipes is what caused this.
Proper caulking of the balconies and other joints was (and is) absolutely crucial to maintaining the integrity of the structure.
My guess is, during construction, whomever did the caulking was completely unaware of the importance of what they were being paid the minimum to do.
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This. Back in the 1970's and 80's I was involved with a lot of highway construction, and we used a lot of Portland. As I recall, the rebar back in those days was mostly uncoated, raw steel. As time and salt on the highways wore on, many bridge decks failed (not catastrophically, basically the surfaces spalled badly because of rusted rebar. Later on, factory coated rebar appeared reducing the rust problem. If the condo building was build in 1980 with uncoated rebar (seems likely) in a high salt environment and no one keeping up with the waterproofing, then eventually the salt will get to the rebar and rust would be unchecked. Eventually the concrete is damaged. The rebar is vital to the integrity of the structure.