Masonry Magazine April 2009 Page. 38
REHAB AND RESTORATION >>> CASE STUDY
A Few Bucks of Prevention
BY GREGG HODGSON
In 2007, just weeks after it was completed, a four-story, 75,000-square-foot, state-owned building costing $10 million began leaking at several of its interior window heads.
Before it was over, those leaking windows turned into a nine-month, $1,750,000 remediation nightmare. It included a total re-cladding and numerous other repairs, and the replacement of its copper fabric flashing with a product that didn't even exist when the building was being designed.
Since settlement negotiations are still in progress, the complete details of why this brand-new building could need so much remediation are hard to obtain. However, some background information from the building's architect, Edwin Elberson, AIA, a principal of Somdal Associates in Shreveport, La, was available. (After designing the building in 2000, Elberson handed off the project to a colleague, but returned to oversee the remediation.)
"When wetness was discovered at the window heads," Elberson says, "it became apparent that the windows hadn't been flashed." He thought it was no big deal, and that some brickwork could be removed from around the windows, flashing installed, everything replaced, and it'd be done.
But the state's inspectors for this project suspected that the leaking windows could be just the tip of a larger iceberg. So, they insisted on having all the brickwork removed, and they eventually prevailed.
"Frankly, I'm glad they did," Elberson says. Then he lists some of the workmanship flaws that were uncovered when the building was stripped of its brick veneer.
A TotalFlash Restoration Story...
35-Year-Old Building Needs Ful Recladding - FAST.
Too Young Die!
But this time, TOTALFLASH goes in first!
The owners were stunned when brick started falling off their 26-story resident building, located on the New Jersey shore. What a costly way to discover inadequate moisture-control in your wall cavities!
Moisture occurs quite naturally in masonry wall cavities. Wind-driven rain or snow can infiltrate the tiniest fissures, or condensation may form where cool interior walls meet warm, humid outdoor air. If that moisture isn't expelled, quickly and consistently, it can cause premature wall-failure or hazardous mold-growth.
To give this building a new lease on life, the architect specified TOTALFLASH for the wall cavities. Here's why: Only TOTALFLASH" contains multiple moisture control components, providing supreme consistency & reliability. Yet thanks to its ingenious, "all-in-one" design, it dramatically cuts installation Time & Labor.
You'll never find an "Or equal" for TOTALFLASH's long-term dependability--even when it's 35 years late. (Nor for its short-term speed of installation, when Time-Labor costs are an issue.)
(Ask us to send you this complete Case Study, as it appeared in Masonry Magazine