The paper contains synthetic and analytical test results and model solutions for technical maintenance and wear problems of apartment houses traditionally structured. The crucial methodological aspect of the research is striving to minimize the subjectivity of expert assessment while technical investigation of old buildings. The cause and effect between the occurrence of damage to the elements of the rental houses, treated as an expression of the conditions for their maintenance, and the size of the technical process of wear of these elements was determined on a representative, purpose-appropriate, sample of 102 residential buildings erected in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries in downtown Wrocław (Poland) district. Rational maintenance of existing buildings is nowadays significant issue for their proprieties. Therefore, there is constant need to find a research method that may lead to well thought out building maintenance management. The goal of undergone research was to search influence of apartment houses maintenance on the grade and intensity of their deterioration. As to fulfil the research objective the group of engineers identified symptoms of the technical wear growth, which means performed identification of causes and effects responsible for the defects appearance. The range of the work demanded elaboration of a new qualitative model of detected defects and its transfer into a quantitative model. Therefore, such approach enabled to establish the reason - effect connection ‘defect - technical wear’ related to the crucial structural parts of investigated apartment houses.