tips Archives

Spring Forward with Building Envelope Maintenance

April 29, 2025August 30, 2025Autumn Dean

Spring is a time of renewal: baby birds, tulips, and… building envelope condition assessments? After months of snow loads, wind-driven rain, ice dams, and freeze-thaw cycles, our buildings in northern climates need some TLC. The spring months offer a window of opportunity to inspect and address roof, wall, window, and foundation issues before they escalate. Early detection and repair can extend the lifespan of building components, enhance energy efficiency, and maintain occupant comfort and safety.

How Water Moves: Airflow and Diffusion

November 28, 2020August 30, 2025Matt

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.

7 Tips for a Better Condominium Building Envelope Project

December 19, 2019May 2, 2024Matt

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.