Copeland Building Envelope Consulting

How to Make Vinyl Siding Look Good

January 20, 2021January 20, 2021Matt

Let’s face it: vinyl siding often looks bad. At its worst, vinyl siding can appear cheap and impermanent. Because of this, it has developed a bad reputation with a lot of people, and they reflexively try to avoid it.

But vinyl siding has many benefits. It is relatively inexpensive to install, easy to maintain and easy to repair. It’s durable and comes in a wide variety of colors.

Vinyl siding is definitely not appropriate for all cladding applications. But for many homeowners, condominium trustees, and facilities managers vinyl siding can fill a need for a high-value, long-lasting easy-to-maintain wall cladding material.

If vinyl siding makes sense for your project in every way except for how it looks, then this post is for you. Over the course of several successful projects I’ve learned how to make vinyl siding look good. Now I’m going to share those tips and tricks with you.

Why Roof Inspections are Important

January 8, 2021January 8, 2021Matt

Roofs are often ignored until a problem shows up inside the building that can’t be ignored. We posted about this on LinkedIn today.

The issue is that roofs are hard to see. You have to actively decide to go up there and look around, or have someone do it, to know what’s going on. If you wait until water shows up in the office or bedroom downstairs—or part of the roof is in the parking lot because it blew off—then it is too late. Damage from a roof leak that has made its way into the building is often extensive, and far more expensive to fix than just the cost of repairing the roofing alone.

Roof inspections, performed regularly, help to solve this problem. Benefits of annual (at least) roof inspections include:

CopelandBEC Welcomes Bill Begley

January 6, 2021January 6, 2021Matt

We’re starting off 2021 with a new addition to the team and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome Bill Begley to Copeland Building Envelope Consulting.

How Water Moves: Airflow and Diffusion

November 28, 2020November 28, 2020Matt

Building science and building enclosure consulting is often all about understanding, and controlling, how water moves through a building. Water is the cause of most of the problems we are trying to solve (or, ideally, prevent in the first place). In order to solve those problems, we need to understand how the water is getting to where it is not supposed to be.

Liquid water intrusion into buildings is the main thing to worry about, and there are a number of ways that liquid water can penetrate a building’s defenses. Those pathways, though, will be the subject of a future post. Today, we’re going to focus on the oft-misunderstood water transport mechanisms of airflow and water vapor diffusion.

Project Spotlight: Gateway Condominiums Masonry Repairs

November 10, 2020November 10, 2020Matt

The North Building at Gateway Condominiums in Beverly, MA has suffered from masonry deterioration at balcony columns since shortly after its original construction. The brick columns have exhibited widespread cracking and spalling, creating a maintenance problem as well as a potential safety concern.

7 Tips for a Better Condominium Building Envelope Project

December 19, 2019February 27, 2020Matt

Condominium building envelope projects can be some of the most rewarding work we do. We love connecting directly with residents, the people that live in the spaces every day, and helping them to make their buildings work better.

Condo projects also have their own unique challenges. We wanted to share tips from our experience to make your next condo building envelope project go more smoothly.

1. Communicate with the community.

The importance of communication during condo building envelope projects simply cannot be overstated. The community is the aspect of condominium work that sets it apart from most other construction projects.