Past Meetings

The tragic fire in London, UK, raises issues with respect to claddings and continuous insulation in high performance buildings as well as retrofits. The first part of this session addresses the physics of the fire in London and why such an occurrence is unlikely in the United States and Canada.

Billions of dollars worth of hard coat stucco litigation have been filed within the last 12 months. What is driving the stucco failures? The patterns are eerily reminiscent of the failures of EIFS claddings in the 1990’s. The second part of this session addresses the changes in materials and construction practice leading to the failures.

JOSEPH LSTIBUREK, B.A.Sc., M.Eng., Ph.D., P.Eng., is a principal of Building Science Corporation. He is a forensic engineer who investigates building failures and is internationally recognized as an authority on moisture-related building problems and indoor air quality. He is an ASHRAE Fellow, a member of ASTM and past chairman of ASTM E241 - Increasing the Durability of Building Assemblies from Moisture Induced Damage. Dr. Lstiburek received an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto, a masters degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto and a Doctorate in Building Science at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lstiburek has been a licensed Professional Engineer since 1982.

2 LU/HSW

In the roofing industry there is a difference between wind speeds and wind pressure on the roofing system. This presentation takes a look at these differences and suggests ways in which specifications can be written, and roof systems designed, to meet the local code requirements.

Stanley P. Graveline is Senior Vice President, Technical Services, Sika Corporation – Roofing, Canton, MA. He has worked in the roofing industry for more than 30 years in various technical, sales and management capacities in Canada, Switzerland and the USA. He has participated in technical committees and standards writing bodies in North America and Europe. He has written numerous articles and papers and is a speaker at various national and international symposiums and other industry events on roofing and sustainability topics. He is a Member of Professional Engineers Ontario, the Roofing Consultants Institute and ASTM International from whom he received the William C. Cullen Award in 2011. He is currently active on Committees within SPRI, the Chemical Fabric and Film Association and the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction CIB W83/ RILEM. He has a Bachelor of Applied Science (Chemical Engineering) degree from the University of Ottawa and a Masters of Business Administration from the International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Continuous exterior insulation, when used correctly, can resolve multiple building performance challenges. In this presentation, we will look at two topics: condensation and effective R-values. Condensation can lead to mold or rot on building enclosure surfaces, as well as within the enclosure’s inner layers. You will learn how to assess and minimize condensation risk in various assemblies, including how to reduce risk using continuous exterior insulation. We will also discuss the reasons that advertised insulation R-values are rarely achieved in buildings, how the effective R-value can be determined, and strategies (including continuous exterior insulation) that can maximize the effective R-value of a wall assembly.

Jonathan Smegal’s work for RDH includes laboratory research, hygrothermal modeling, field monitoring of wall performance, and forensic analysis of building failures. Jonathan has managed more than a dozen full scale field tests of wall and roof performance including test huts, test trailers, test houses, and production homes in various locations throughout North America.

In a world where energy-efficiency and sustainable solutions are increasingly prioritized in building projects, it is important for architects, contractors and all building professionals to make informed decisions when selecting components of the building envelope. In an effort to assist building owners and design professionals in the selection of fenestration products, the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) has designed a rating system in which all products are evaluated under equal terms, enabling a fair comparison of products from different manufacturers. While this is a useful system, the procedure followed and the metrics used in NFRC product ratings are not necessarily common knowledge. Neither are the factors that can influence a product’s rating. This presentation will explain the basic metrics of thermal performance, identify the factors that affect the performance of fenestration products and shed some light on the NFRC rating process. Various parameters that are often not considered will be pointed out, and their effect on a product’s thermal performance will be shown through a series of examples. The ultimate goal of this presentation is to leave building professionals with a better understanding of NFRC product ratings and to provide useful information for selecting the “right” fenestration product.

Monica Maragos is an NFRC Certified Simulator with a strong background in architecture and building performance modeling. Originally trained as an architect in Greece, Monica found her true passion in the field of energy-efficient building design and with that came her introduction to building performance modeling. She went on to pursue this field in Sweden, where she received her Masters degree in Energy-Efficient Building Design and began to work in the energy and daylight research department of an international window manufacturer. Her personal interests brought her to Portland in 2015, when she joined the Facade Group as a Building Enclosure Consultant with a specialty in energy and hygrothermal performance of building enclosures.

Grant Park High School in Portland, Oregon is a multi building campus featuring buildings and additions built over a period of time from 1923-1966. Composed largely of concrete frame structure with brick infill, the cladding has exhibited an accelerated degree of masonry spalling at a number of the buildings on various different elevations. This presentation examines the common causes of masonry spalling, details the specific investigation and testing which was conducted on the existing masonry to understand the cause of the failure, and remedial work and maintenance to arrest the current spalling and avoid future issues in the brick cladding.

Peter Meijer AIA, NCARB is the founder and principal of Peter Meijer Architect. Mr. Meijer leads the firm with over 30 years of professional experience. Peter’s career has focused largely on building envelope science and historic preservation, specifically historic renovations and condition assessments of existing and historic buildings. He has become a well-regarded expert on the diverse issues affecting existing and historic buildings both regionally and nationally.

Subgrade waterproofing presents unique challenges in that corrections can be difficult post installation. This panel discussion will examine common problems and what steps can be taken to avoid them. The panel will examine remediation techniques and strategies for mitigating problems in existing buildings and remodels.

The panel will include perspectives from Designers, Installers, and Manufacturer Representatives, as we review questions and project examples.

Ken is a Building Enclosure Consultant and Principal with over 18 years of experience. He has a diverse background—encompassing both architecture and structural engineering. His project experience is equally diverse—ranging from commercial towers to residential towers, public buildings to institutional buildings. Ken is The Facade Group’s in-house roofing, waterproofing and air barrier expert and head of the Hygrothermal Analysis team. He is responsible for project coordination, analysis, detailing, production and construction services and existing buildings performance reporting. Ken’s portfolio includes historic preservation projects, exterior restoration, cladding systems, curtain walls, roofing, air barriers, below-grade and horizontal waterproofing systems, and expert witness testimony.

Drained- and Rain-Screen cladding design has become commonplace over the last number of years, at least in many of our Northern-US practice areas. As a result, the industry has shifted much of its research and design effort to the further advancement of both the structural attachment methods for cladding and the improvement of the thermal properties of the attachment. The market today is filled with a variety of clip systems, thermally efficient girts, and other solutions for achieving both structural and thermal load resistance requirements. This presentation will review some of the more commonly observed cladding attachment systems in the marketplace, review some of the nuances of each, help us to understand the associated structural and thermal expectations, and finally present a method of assessing the combined structural and thermal capabilities from a design-tool perspective.

Ariel’s experience spans geographically across North America and includes buildings of all types: new to old, residential to high-rise. He has broad experience with a wide range of building enclosure systems, and his clients span the range including architects, owners, developers, contractors, property managers, lawyers, and insurers. Ariel is a Portland native and has practiced in Oregon for over a decade. Prior to his return home, Ariel spent several years practicing in Boston and Los Angeles. Ariel is also a Managing Principal of RDH, and oversees all aspects of operation in its Oregon and Northern California offices.

1 LU/HSW

Air tightness testing is becoming more prominent in building codes across the country with an ever increasing focus on energy conservation and indoor air quality control. This presentation focuses on how to select and perform building airtightness tests. During design, properly specifying an air tightness test requires the design team to be able to identify the air, thermal and vapor control layers throughout the building to determine the building enclosure and understand the various air tightness tests available. In construction, the design and construction teams require an understanding of what needs to be included in the tests to avoid pitfalls, how to set up buildings for qualitative and quantitative testing, and how to interpret the results if the team is testing to a standard, pre/post retrofit comparisons, or comparing the results to other buildings.

Terry is a building scientist and educator. He is on the editorial boards of Environmental Building News and Heating Piping and Air Conditioning Magazine. He currently chairs the U.S.A.C.E committee developing new air leakage protocols. Past work includes consulting on a research project to restore three homes in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, teaching healthy housing courses for the National Center for Healthy Housing and working on a research project to study unplanned airflows in commercial buildings in New York State. He is a member of ASHRAE 62.2 Ventilation and Air Quality Committee and served as consultant to the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Dampness and Health in Buildings. He holds a Bachelors degree in Physics and a Masters degree in Environmental Studies.