Conservation of timber structures in Istanbul: Problems and proposals

Periodical monitoring and maintenance is a necessity for timber buildings to prevent severe damage and problems. Unfortunately, there is a lack of maintenance of timber buildings and this would become to a critical point if the building stays vacant or neglected for a period of time. Even the situation of the structure is not severe, during the preparation of conservation projects assessment of the timber structure becomes a necessity for accurate interventions. This paper would try to present the main problems of the timber buildings that have been investigated in the Bosporus area in the previous years in these terms. In the context, architectural loss, material loss and structural deformations of the investigated buildings would be described in detail. The paper also aims to display the difficulties that has to be braced during the assessment and the results of the mechanical tests including flexural and compressive strength carried out on the timber samples taken from different buildings with various health conditions in order to make a conclusion for an assessment method.