Building Enclosure Forensic Investigation Services

SBP offers building enclosure forensic investigation and litigation support services to support your building/project needs. Construction deficiencies and performance issues/failures associated with water penetration, air leakage, condensation and mold growth, energy usage, and space conditioning can be difficult to diagnose and determine the root cause. Further, determining the responsible party is a sensitive matter that must be carefully and systemically executed.  It is critical that an experienced building enclosure specialist lead this effort, as it is common that information is not properly interpreted, and issues are misdiagnosed by party(s) that are less experienced with building enclosure design and construction. This typically leads to delays, repeated unsuccessful repairs, or a misleading fault assessment.

We provide professional enclosure expertise to diagnose construction deficiencies or performance issues/failures and provide solutions to address the issues through remediation plan development. As a subject matter expert, SBP can provide litigation support through the resolution of the building enclosure investigation and remediation. SBP can also self-perform an array of test methods to support our investigation, ranging from water penetration testing to blower door testing to infrared thermography and more. See below for a list of common test methods that may be employed.

Also see SBP Building Enclosure Group, Whole Building Airtightness Testing service offering for additional information for standards listed below and Building Enclosure Consulting and Building Enclosure Commissioning (BECx) for more comprehensive consulting services.

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Value Proposition

• Identifying the Root Cause: An enclosure forensic investigation can help determine the exact location and cause of the issue, which is essential for making the necessary repairs and preventing further damage to your building and its contents.
• Maintaining the integrity of the Enclosure: Deficiencies that compromise the structural integrity of the building enclosure are especially dangerous. An expert enclosure forensic investigation is key to identifying and fixing the problem and to ensure that the enclosure is safe and stable.
• Minimizing Downtime: Performance issues disrupt the tenants, so it’s important to fix the issue correctly and as soon as possible. An enclosure forensic investigation performed by an expert can identify the problem and take steps to fix it quickly and correctly, minimizing downtime and repeated remediation efforts.
• Remediation Cost: Prevent further damage and costly repairs by addressing the issue correctly. With a third-party expert, assigning fault to the responsible party is more effective in receiving composition to cover costs associated with the building enclosure performance issue.

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Test Methods:

• AMAA 501.1, Water Penetration of Windows, Curtain Walls and Doors Using Dynamic Pressure
• AMAA 501.2, Quality Assurance and Diagnostic Water Leakage Field Check of Installed Storefronts, Curtain Walls and Sloped Glazing Systems.
• AAMA 511, Voluntary Guideline for Forensic Water Penetration Testing of Fenestration
• ASTM C1153, Standard Practice for Location of Wet Insulation in Roofing Systems Using Infrared Imaging
• ASTM C1521, Standard Practice for Evaluating Adhesion of Installed Weatherproofing Sealant Joints
• ASTM D8231, Standard Practice for the use of a Low Voltage Electronic Scanning System for Detecting and Locating Breaches in Roofing and Waterproofing Membrane
• ASTM E783, Standard Test Method for Field Measurement of Air Leakage Through Exterior Windows and Doors
• ASTM E1105, Standard Test Method for Field Determination of Water Penetration of Installed Exterior Windows, Skylights, Doors, and Curtain Walls, by Uniform or Cyclic Static Air Pressure Difference
• ASTM E2128, Standard Guide for Evaluating Water Leakage of Building Walls
• ABAA, T0002 Standard Test Method for Pull-Off Strength of Adhered Air and Water Resistive Barriers Using an Adhesion Tester
• Reference Whole Building Airtightness Testing