LIVE WEBINAR: 10/5/21 @ 1 pm EST “Issues with Breaching the Building Envelope” | Presented by George Sanford, P.E., Senior Consulting Structural Engineer
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this Webinar, we will discuss water entry through a variety of building envelope breaches. Water entry and subsequent wood decay, fungal growth and structural damages as a result from water intrusion can lead to serious property damage and major expenses for all types of property owners. We will discuss the definition of a building envelope, and look at various case studies involving breaches to the major components of the envelope. These major components include foundations, exterior walls, and roofs. The foundation case studies include issues with slabs-on-grade, crawlspaces, and basements. The exterior wall case studies involve improperly installed building wrap, leaking windows, and problems with stucco. The roof case studies look at issues with various roof coverings, vents, and penetrations. Participants will take away a thorough understanding of what defines the building envelope, how breaches to the envelope can occur, and how to identify root causes.
This course is intended to educate and refresh attendees on definitions and key terms often used in construction defect and water intrusion type property claims. We will also be covering important materials that are used in construction of homes and building facilities and how they are helpful to resolving property claims.
BIOGRAPHY: Senior Consulting Structural Engineer George Sanford is a Licensed Professional Engineer in multiple states. He has over 30 years of applied structural engineering experience specializing in building design, building components, and foundation design. George holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
George has an extensive background in residential, commercial, and industrial structures and foundations. Throughout his career, George has designed and analyzed structures, supervised engineers, and prepared construction documents (drawings and specifications).
George has an in-depth knowledge of many building codes, standards, rules, and regulations including the agencies that govern and provide guidance to building designers such as the International Code Council (ICC), and the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Concrete Institute (ACI), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute (CRSI), International Code Council (ICC), and the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI).
Construction defects can appear in many forms. The building does not necessarily have to fall down. There are many types of construction defects, including roof leaks, water intrusion into walls, as well as Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) defects.
One extreme example of this was an office complex I was called to for an investigation of the source of mold observed on the walls. The occupants complained that they could not find a temperature setting on the thermostat where they could make the office comfortable. When I inspected the office, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A band of black mold was growing on the walls of the office. The band was approximately 12 inches wide and was situated 18 to 24 inches off of the floor. The space was uncomfortably humid, even though the thermostat was indicating it was satisfied at 72 °F.
The office space was a free-standing two-level structure built inside of a large warehouse space that was heated but not air conditioned. As such, there was no heat gain from exposure to the sun. The top level contained four offices with large windows at the front of each office to afford a view of the warehouse. The ground level contained two work rooms, a small break room, and a mechanical room housing an air handler for a split system heat pump. Each office was normally occupied by one person. One of the work rooms housed two large printers which generated significant amounts of heat when in use.
The building was rectangular in shape. Each of the four offices were extremely shallow in depth, there was only room for a desk, the chair of the occupant of the desk and space for a person to stand in front of the desk. The offices had a floor mounted supply register and a floor mounted return register almost directly across the room. The temperature of the air being supplied to the space was measured in the mid to low 40’s °F by non-contact thermometer. The temperatures were so low I doubted my non-contact thermometer’s accuracy and returned to my vehicle to get an analog thermometer. The analog thermometer confirmed the readings of the non-contact thermometer.
Floor mounted supply register
Supply air temperatures this low are not desirable. To dehumidify air and achieve a comfortable relative humidity in a conditioned space, we must cool the air down to the saturation temperature, approximately 55 °F. At this point the moisture in the air will condense on the cooling coil, run into the drain pan, and hopefully exit the building through the condensate drain. Sometimes this does not happen, but that is a blog for another time.
With the moisture removed from the air, it can then be supplied to the conditioned space at a comfortable relative humidity and a temperature cool enough to reduce the temperature of space to the desired level. Colder air is not necessarily better though. First of all, if the temperatures fall too low, the coil can “freeze up” or start to form ice on the coils. Freezing up can be a sign of low airflow over the coil, such as when the supply fan fails, although it can also be a sign of insufficient refrigerant charge.
The other side of supply air temperatures in the 40’s is the issue of stratification. Stratification occurs when a fluid, and air is indeed a fluid, separates into layers by temperature. This is very noticeable to scuba divers when they encounter a thermocline, a very noticeable temperature change over a short distance in a body of water. Air can do the same, and indeed this was happening in the office space. The air at the floor level was measured to be cold, just like the 40 degree supply air, however the air in the occupied space was indicating temperatures in the low 70’s °F, just like the setting on the thermostat. You could physically feel the difference on the skin of your bare hand between the floor and the actual area where the occupants breathed, commonly called the occupied zone. The cooler denser air was staying at floor level and not mixing into the actual occupied zone. This was exacerbated by the supplies being directly across from the returns in each office. The cold, dense air would travel across the floor and be picked up by the return with little mixing with the air in the occupied zone.
The band of mold was growing on the walls of office at the layer that separated the cold, dry air from the warmer, humid air in the occupied zone. It made me wonder if a small thunderstorm might develop at this point!
Compressed flexible ductwork
A trip to the mechanical room revealed the reason for the low supply air temperatures. The ductwork was composed almost entirely of flexible ductwork. Flexible ductwork, when installed improperly, can create extremely high resistance to the flow of air, known as friction loss. The ductwork was threaded through the walls up to the second floor, allowing the ductwork to be flattened to the width of the wall cavity, in this case a standard 4-inch stud. In addition to being flattened by the walls, the ductwork had numerous kinks due to poor routing. The friction loss in the system was enormous.
Remember that air is compressible, air will hit an obstruction and can completely stall or stop, something known as a stagnation. The extremely high friction in the ductwork caused the supply fan in the air handler to be unable to move the required amount of air. This caused extremely low supply air temperatures. A quick check of the system tonnage in regard to the area of the office space revealed that the split system was well over twice as big as needed, especially considering there was no solar load because the office was completely indoors. Bigger is not always better when sizing an air conditioning system.
So, what were the construction defects? For starters the system was not properly sized for the space. The International Mechanical Code requires heating and cooling load calculations to be performed according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) methodology or per other approved computational procedures. With the unit being twice the size it should reasonably be, it is questionable that load calculations were even performed.
The flexible duct was installed in a manner that compressed the duct, reducing its effective area. Reviewing the installation instructions for several manufacturers of flexible duct shows that the duct should not be installed in a compressed state. One manufacturer even states that the compressed state will noticeably increase friction loss. The thermostat was also placed in the second-floor supervisor’s office. The largest heat generator was the printer on the first floor. Significant heat buildup was noted in the room with the printer, but the thermostat wouldn’t sense this as it was in a different room upstairs. Thermostat placement is an important decision when installing an air conditioning system.
Another defect in the design was the fact that the supplies were positioned directly across from the returns allowed short circuiting. The cold air was blown across the floor and right back into the return for the system. This helped cause the cold air to stay at floor level instead of mixing with the air in the area where most of your body is actually at.
The construction defects in this building HVAC system were a mix of design and installation defects. The system had not been sized properly. The designer did not perform proper load calculations. The thermostat was not located in the area of the most heat load. The installation defects resulted from poor workmanship on the part of the HVAC contractor as well as a lack of oversight by the jobsite supervisor.
Chad Jones, PE, CFEI, CMSE has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University. Chad has over 20 years of engineering experience including mechanical, process, and manufacturing engineering. This work has included equipment design, machine safeguarding, cost estimating and safety compliance. Chad also has over 10 years of commercial, industrial, and residential HVAC and plumbing design experience. Chad is a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator and IFSAC certified Firefighter II in Greenwood County, South Carolina.
Scenario: A young couple is excited about buying their first home. They pick it out from a catalog of house plans from the developer of a new neighborhood in town. It will be a brand new construction starter type bungalow home on a slab-on-grade foundation. For a cost adder, which is considerable to them, they decide to upgrade the finished flooring from carpeting to hardwood laminate. Unfortunately, after only a few weeks of residency, the hardwood planks begin to buckle and separate from the slab throughout the house. They do not know what is causing it, or what to do to remedy it, (more…)
Flashing is a hot-button topic amongst residential designers, builders, and claims adjusters alike. In fact, currently one of the most prominent construction defect claims that we see involves moisture intrusion around improperly flashed window openings in wood-framed structures. Other trouble spots include the roof penetrations at chimneys and vent pipes. (more…)
At Warren, we frequently investigate losses involving industrial machinery. Many of the losses involve workplace injuries, fires, or explosions; however, we also analyze industrial machinery and processes for other types of problems. For example, we analyze failures of machinery or industrial processes to perform as expected or disputes that arise from the commercial supply and construction of such systems. This can encompass a range of issues from failure to achieve required levels of product quality or production quantity, to matters concerning unclear specifications or contracts, (more…)
Heavy machinery fires are often caused by hydraulic hose failures. Pressurized hydraulic fluid escaping from a failed hose assembly can be atomized into a fine spray that can be ignited by heated engine surfaces such as the engine exhaust or turbocharger.
Hydraulic hoses near the engine compartment of an excavator that burned.
Hydraulic hoses often fail due to age and wear, requiring regular inspection and replacement of hydraulic hoses to prevent failures. Hoses may also fail if they are misrouted. Misrouting can lead to the hose being pinched or causing it to chafe against a sharp metal surface.(more…)
HVAC systems are almost everywhere in the United States now. As a life-long resident of the humid south that grew up in a home without central air conditioning; I definitely appreciate the ability of a well-designed and maintained HVAC system to remove the oppressive summer humidity.
The very humidity that makes your clothes damp with sweat and hastened the invention of cooled leather seats in automobiles also has another route to create havoc…condensate.
In order for an HVAC or “air-conditioning system” to reduce the humidity in the air of your home or office it must first cool the air down to a point where the air can no longer keep the moisture in suspension as water vapor. The moisture must condense… creating condensate. This is what is happening when your cool beverage of choice “sweats” on the exterior of the container in the humid summer. Now that you have liquid water, as opposed to water vapor, this condensate must be directed out of your conditioned space to prevent water damage due to backed up or leaking condensate. (more…)
The Kraft paper process was invented in 1879 and produces a stronger finished product that other paper manufacturing methods. One of the waste streams is known as black liquor and is a mixture of solids and water. It contains lignin, hemicelluloses and chemicals used in the pulping process. The original process had no use for this harmful waste stream and it was dumped into nearby waterways, to their detriment!!! Mr. G.H. Tomlinson invented the recovery boiler in the early 1930’s. This development made the Kraft process the manufacturing method of choice, as explained below. (more…)
From corrosion to site drainage, coastal regions present a host of unique and challenging issues for homebuilders and residential property owners alike. In this article, issues specific to coastal residential foundation installation and in-service function will be addressed. “Coastal residential” will refer to single-family homes within AE or VE tidal flood zones for the purposes herein. These locations typically exist in areas with close proximity to saltmarsh or beachfront, or on barrier sea islands. Per FEMA, in AE zones, the elevation of the first finished floor must be above the flood elevation for the building site. In VE zones, the elevation of the lowest horizontal structural member must be above the flood elevation for the site. Most building jurisdictions also require a minimum of (1) foot of freeboard, or additional space, between the flood elevation and these building features. As a result of these requirements, coastal residential structures must be supported by either crawl-space or elevated “drive-under” style foundations. It should be noted that wall-type foundations are prohibited in VE zones, and structures within these zones are required to be supported by monolithic elements such as columns, piers, or piles. Slab-on-grade type foundations are not permitted in flood zones where the foundation will exist within the flood plain. (more…)
A lot of people own motorcycle(s). Not a lot of people have experience riding motorcycles. More people have motorcycles stored in their garages, covered with all kinds of things, than ride motorcycles. In a similar neglect, there are those people who take their motorcycle out occasionally but never really put the miles or hours on the bike. This means that most of the people that have registered motorcycles do not get a lot of “seat time”. This issue leads to collisions involving motorcycles that should not have happened for more than one reason. When it comes to collision reconstruction and investigations, “ride to live” takes on a whole different meaning. (more…)
