Avoiding Costly Building Envelope Failure
When it comes to protecting your commercial, condo or apartment property from the elements, and the wear and tear caused by continuous exposure to harsh Alberta weather conditions, your first line of defense is the quality and integrity of your building’s envelope.
The building envelope includes walls, roofs, foundations, windows and doors, which together protect the interior of your structure from the outside elements. Building envelope components work together to perform critical functions, including structural support, moisture management, temperature regulation, air flow and air quality. All of these combine to ensure the safety, energy efficiency, comfort and sustainability of your building.
How Building Envelopes Function
The building envelope affects many aspects of a structure’s ability to provide a safe, healthy and comfortable environment for tenants:
- Moisture Control – The most important element of the building envelope is its ability to regulate the transfer of moisture. Moisture presents a distinct danger to the overall integrity of a building. It impacts the building over your head (roof), under your feet (floor and foundation), and on your sides (walls and windows). Each component must be addressed to prevent unwanted moisture from causing expensive damage.
- Air Control – Controlling air flow is key to controlling energy consumption, ensuring indoor air quality, avoiding condensation and maintaining comfort. Control of air movement includes flow through the enclosure or through components of the building envelope itself, as well as into and out of interior spaces.
- Thermal Control – Thermal transfer is a determinate of how comfortable a building feels. Is it too hot? Is it too cold? Heat rises, and if there isn’t enough resistance in the building to prevent heat from rising right through the roof, comfort will be compromised, not to mention your utility bills.
The Benefits of a Tight Building Envelope
A tight building envelope allows for a high level of control over indoor air quality, temperature, humidity levels and energy consumption. This requires attention to insulation, caulking, sealants and energy-efficient windows to ensure a tight shell for the building.
A tight envelope means fewer drafts and a more comfortable building for tenants, and helps reduce heating and cooling costs. Tight envelopes also have a lower chance of producing mold or mildew from moisture infiltration, which can help prolong the life of building components.
Why Building Envelopes Fail
Building envelope systems can fail for many reasons – design flaws, the effects of climate, material deficiencies, poor workmanship, not hiring a qualified building envelope company, natural disasters, and not conducting regular examinations. Extremes of cold and heat are especially hard on envelope components.
The effects of a compromised building envelope can have serious implications for the health and safety of your tenants, as well as your bottom line:
- Building envelope failure allows moisture to infiltrate the envelope. If moisture becomes trapped, it can lead to mold. Besides being a serious health hazard, mold can degrade the integrity of the envelope system, sometimes to the point of structural failure.
- Envelope failure increases heating and cooling gains and losses, which increases energy use and utility bills.
- Building envelope failures can also degrade the aesthetics of a structure with glass and cladding delamination, warping, discoloration and other material finish failures.
Prevent Envelope Failure with Regular Examinations and Maintenance
For the long-term durability of the building envelope system, building owners and managers should have their investment regularly examined and immediately repair any problems. Building owners should have several specific components of the envelope examined annually:
- Roof surfaces
- Flashings and copings
- Exterior cladding
- Drains, gutters and downspouts
- Perimeters of windows, doors, vents and other wall openings
- Building control and expansion joints
- Driving and walking surfaces
Book Your Commercial Examination Now
Protect your commercial building or condominium with AllVert’s expert envelope examination and repair services. Our rope access and thermal imaging methods allow us to make a much closer and comprehensive assessment of your building so you can know what’s really going on. And AllVert Structural Solutions can assess and repair any damage at a fair price with minimal disruption to tenants. Contact us today!.