What to Ask Your Prospective Enclosure Consultant
There are many more tools to be used and technology will continue to evolve new ones. Consider the following tools currently available:
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1. Small inexpensive data loggers that can be put inside walls to record temperature and humidity.
2. Borescope and newer technologies for looking inside walls without destructive removals.
3. Drones that can do close-up imaging of higher buildings with little risk to field staff.
You don’t need to understand all of these but ask your candidate consultant to outline the tools and tests they anticipate using.
Because of cost, legal and access considerations, few studies can be exhaustive. Make sure you let your consultant know your main areas of concern. In the absence of other agendas, importance of issues are most often ranked:
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1) Indoor Air Quality (liability): Determine issues that could affect indoor air quality and therefore the health of occupants.
2) Moisture (material damage): Discover conditions that allow moisture where it does not belong and could lead to serious long-term damage to building materials.
3) Airflow and Pressure (poor comfort): Uncover air leaks and pressure problems that make it hard for the HVAC system to provide proper comfort in the space.
4) Improper heat movement (poor economics): Find thermal bridges and holes that ruin the economy of running the HVAC systems.
Become familiar with ASTM 2128, “Standard Guide for Evaluating Water Leakage of Building Walls”, published in 2002. It was written around investigating water problems in walls but the methodologies apply to investigating air barrier gaps just as well. Ask your consultant to reference this standard in his or her proposal.
Shy away from hiring teams that seem confident they already have a solution. Review the eight steps listed at the beginning of this article before you hire. Avoid consultants who seem to want to focus solely on document research; there is no substitute for field work above ceilings, in closets and on scaffolds.
By the same token, be wary of a specialist who doesn’t want to spend time collecting documents. Your consultant needs to be like the famous police detective, Columbo, and always ask one more question. Regardless of what title your candidate uses—skin architect, facade engineer, enclosure commissioning agent, building science specialist—and what tools he or she prefers, look for an awareness of the proper processes and the mind of a sleuth.
PHOTOS: dbHMS
Retrofit Conference
This article is based on a presentation that was given at retrofit’s inaugural conference, which was held in Chicago in October 2017. Download Swift’s presentation and learn about retrofit’s second annual conference to be held in Charlotte, N.C., Oct. 9, 2018.