Sustainable shelter through better buildings.
Roof leaks, window leaks, cracked masonry, peeling paint, roof blow off – all of these building envelope failures often result in significant inconvenience and financial impact. We focus on quickly diagnosing the root cause of the problem and recommending practical, durable solutions.Read more Building Envelope Investigations
Old buildings have stories to tell. They are also often able to provide useful service for decades to come, at a lower cost than replacing them with new structures. We specialize in restoration of deteriorated building envelopes to extend the useful life of existing buildings.Read more Building Envelope Restoration and Repair
We know that architects are busy and have a whole lot to worry about. We can take the load off when it comes to building envelope design. We focus on the challenging details: those transitions and coordination nightmares that are often the source of problems down the road.Read more Building Envelope Design Consulting
James Landing Condominiums in Scituate, MA is a waterfront property with 50 units spread across 5 architect-designed buildings. The setting is pristine, overlooking the North River as it winds towards the Atlantic, but exposes the buildings to punishing weather. Over the years nature had taken its toll and over the course of 2020-2021 the association embarked on a large-scale project to repair the aging building envelope systems.
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Episode 5 of the podcast is a discussion of air barriers, vapor barriers, and the building science fundamentals of how water moves via bulk air flow (advection) and vapor diffusion.
Read moreOur balcony column restoration project is coming along nicely at Gateway Condominiums in Beverly, MA. Lawton Welding is on site today installing new structural steel columns on the south side of the north building.
One could boil down our job as enclosure consultants to this: help people to keep water from accumulating where it shouldn’t.
Water causes all kinds of trouble with many building materials. Wood rots, steel corrodes, masonry spalls and cracks, microbes and fungi grow. Gypsum that once formed solid panels turns to mud.
We call these parts of the building—the ones damaged by water—the “moisture-sensitive” components. The main goal of the building envelope is to protect these moisture-sensitive components from exposure to water. Sounds simple, right?
Unfortunately nature conspires to foil our water control efforts in a variety of ways. In this post we’ll explore some less-than-obvious ways that water ends up where it can cause problems.
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Why do some roofs end up in the parking lot? Learn the answer to that question and much more in this this information-packed episode where I discuss the ins and outs of wind uplift design for low-slope roofing with Jennifer Keegan (LinkedIn), James R. Kirby (LinkedIn) and Benjamin Meyer (LinkedIn) of the GAF Building & Roofing Science team (LinkedIn).
We walked through the process and talked about what each member of the project team is responsible for. There is a ton of great content here for anyone designing or installing low-slope roofing. Even if you are experienced in this area you might learn something new.
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.
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.
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Unmanned aerial photography, aka “drone” photography, is becoming more prevalent in many building-related applications including design, investigations and construction. We’ve made extensive use of drones for building envelope inspections on several projects. That’s why when we had an opportunity to make a podcast about drone photography we jumped at it.
In today’s episode our guest is Mindi Sokoloski (LinkedIn) of Multispectral Aerial Solutions. We talk about using drones to improve efficiency and reduce risk as well as technologies like photogrammetry. We hope you enjoy the episode.