building envelope – Page 2 – Copeland Building Envelope Consulting

Brookline Condo Masonry Restoration at 15-17 James Street

February 7, 2023Matt

Last year CopelandBEC wrapped up a multi-year masonry facade restoration project at 15-17 James Street in Brookline, MA. Statewide RM, the contractor on the project, recently posted a great write-up on their website and it’s so good we wanted to share it!

It was a challenging project for many reasons. From Statewide’s article:

The portico at 15-17 James Street, Brookline, had become a safety concern. Replacing it with a similar portico would have been expensive and difficult to accomplish, but it was too worn down to be repaired. Work was completed in tight quarters, primarily during the cold winter months.
-Statewide RM

Check out the full Statewide RM feature here.

Hands-On with Roof Coatings

January 31, 2023February 7, 2023Matt

The CopelandBEC team traveled to Chelmsford today for a hands-on roof coating workshop with our friends at Atlantic Restoration and Neogard. Atlantic graciously hosted at their facility and provided some great mock-up boards to try out the Neogard materials on.

Roof coatings are not the answer on every project but do offer some significant benefits where applicable:

Let’s use color on drawings.

January 24, 2023January 24, 2023Matt

It’s 2023 and the time is right to start using color on engineering drawings.

For as long as I’ve been in the industry engineering drawings have been produced in two colors: black and white. Apparently back in the day they were blue. We haven’t come very far.

Why are we here?

January 19, 2023January 19, 2023Matt

The post below is taken directly from our internal team wiki. The intent of sharing it here is to give a bit more context to what it’s like working with us and lay out our motivations for doing the work that we do. We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments section below.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
– apparently not Albert Einstein

We are here to solve problems.

We want more buildings that last centuries instead of decades. We want durability and resiliency so that we can conserve limited resources. We want to help people create sustainable shelter for generations to come.

But building problems keep occurring. Roofs leak or blow off. Windows leak or get covered in condensation. Basements (you guessed it) leak or become dank and unusable.

We know how to build so that performance problems are avoided. The fundamental knowledge about how to build better is readily available.

Yet, we keep making the same mistakes and problems keep occurring.

Why? What can we do differently to create better outcomes?

First Edition of Building Envelope Self-Help Published

January 18, 2023January 18, 2023Matt

Today we published the inaugural edition of Building Envelope Self-Help, a page on our website intended to help provide some basic building envelope first principles and free resources.

There are a few key principles that can guide you to the answer to almost any building envelope question. Think of these principles as a roadmap—an algorithm—that will always guide you to the right destination.

Check it out at copelandbec.com/self-help