Why Commission the Enclosure? Building Enclosure Commissioning Overview, Part 2 In the ideal world, all components of the building enclosure providing waterproofing and air leakage mitigation – air and water resistive barriers, flashings, primary and secondary membranes, sealants, coatings etc., would be thoroughly analyzed for compatibility and detailed with great care to maintain integrity at

Piping for New Construction: Plastic vs. Copper What Do We Know – What Should We Do? Water, it has been revered since the beginning of time. It sustains and nourishes us; we couldn’t live more than three days without it. Fortunately, in the Western World, it is readily available. It is so seamlessly intertwined with

Lessons Learned While Working on LEED Projects   I am lucky to have had the opportunity to work on a wide array of LEED projects in many different LEED rating systems and versions. While most LEED professionals, especially those that work in architectural firms, have seen the design side of the LEED delivery process, I

Healthy Building Material Research Let’s Prove that the Good Guys Don’t Finish Last! Building material manufacturers are trying to clean up their act. Leading companies are disclosing more chemical ingredients than the laggards, and if your healthy building material research relies solely on an MSDS you may be fooled into choosing a less healthy building material.

Building Enclosure Commissioning 101, the Why? – Part 1 Building Enclosure Commissioning 101 is relatively new and many teams don’t yet understand its value. I remember attending a seminar on HVAC commissioning at the Pacific Energy Center in San Francisco 18 years ago. This was a new, upcoming service at the time and commissioning agents

Daylighting Tips If you wish to optimize daylighting for your building design but don’t wish (or have the time) to do a variety of simulations for different purposes such as illumination levels in the space, shading analyses, sizing windows/ skylights etc., there some basic tips to follow that will help you take advantage of this

Building Science Terminology This blog shares recommended terminology from the US DOE. We are considering terminology and frequently used words and phrases in this blog, not definitions of building science terms. Building science terminology is sophisticated and can be confusing, but I’m not sure that the DOE’s recent efforts will help the industry. According to

LEED v4 Changes We’ve been using LEED as a tool to assist owners and design-build teams for many years and helped guide many projects to certification. Now everyone is chatting about LEED v4 changes and many are curious what to expect. We began a pilot LEEDv4 EBOM project for a local hotel, but in the

Natural Ventilation of Buildings and Spaces Many times when clients desire a “green” space or building that connects its occupants to the outdoors, they envision incorporating lots of day lighting and natural ventilation in the architectural design. Certainly, there can be many benefits to be had including lower energy bills, a connection to the outdoors,

Materials Air Quality Testing Since news broke that Lumber Liquidators distributed composite wood flooring in California that did not meet California Air Resource Board (CARB) formaldehyde emission standards, we’ve been getting lots of questions about materials air quality testing. Some folks are interested in joining the class action law suit, some distributors and installation companies