This third edition of Understanding Housing Defects provides a coherent and comprehensive introduction to the causes, investigation and diagnosis of defects in housing. Each of the eighteen chapters covers a specific building element and includes a brief introduction setting out construction principles and the evolution of current practice. Each chapter then goes on to look at the identification, cause and diagnosis of common (and sometimes not so common) defects. The text has been revised and extended with new sections on boundary walls, chimneys and basements. The Services chapter has been replaced with three new, more substantial chapters on heating and plumbing, electrical installations and drainage.