A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH FOR MAINTENANCE BUDGETING OF BUILDINGS FAÇADES BASED ON PREDICTIVE AND PREVENTIVE STRATEGIES Inês Flores-Colen 1 ; Jorge de Brito 2 1, 2 DECivil-IST, Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal ABSTRACT Maintenance strategies are essential to control the first stages of degradation and prevent the failure of building elements. The selection of the most cost-effective and appropriate strategies can enable better budget allocation and can also minimize the decline in the performance of buildings during their whole life cycle. This paper characterizes a systematic methodology for selecting optimal maintenance strategies for façades based on different maintenance policies and interaction with the user. Life-cycle cost analysis is used to compare different maintenance scenarios using equivalent uniform annual cost (EUAC) for five façades’ claddings. These scenarios are compared through the simulation of performance-degradation models and characterization of several parameters: service life, performance, minimum level of quality, maintenance operations, frequency, and costs. The results allow the comparison of preventive and predictive maintenance strategies. This methodology, the result of a two-year academic research program, is intended to help clients, users, practitioners and decision-makers in the choice of facades’ interventions (type, frequency and cost estimation) at buildings’ design and post-occupancy stages. Finally, the future drawbacks and benefits of this study are discussed. KEYWORDS: maintenance; predictive; preventive; LCC; expert system; façades; buildings; claddings; performance; service life.