Roof + Building Enclosure Assessments

Building Condition Assessments. There are various reasons for requesting a Building Condition Assessment (BCA), also known as a Property Condition Assessment (PSA) or a Facility Condition Assessment (FCA).

What is a Building Condition Assessment?

A Building Condition Assessment (BCA), also known as a Property Condition Assessment (PSA) or a Facility Condition Assessment (FCA), is a systematic inspection, review and report on the conditional state of a commercial or institutional building. BCAs examine a building’s overall structural, mechanical, electric and exterior enclosure systems, including its roofing system, exterior façade, horizontal decks and below-grade waterproofing and vapor barrier systems.

Buyers and financial institutions should receive building condition assessments to ensure they’re making informed decisions regarding their commercial real estate procurement. During the due diligence period of real estate deals, it is important to know what you are buying, what your capital expenses are, along with accurate maintenance costs.

Property and facility managers responsible for large property portfolios and maintenance budgets routinely request building condition assessments as well. Understanding a building’s current state allows clients to be proactive in their capital improvement plans and costs, as well as Owner’s factoring this into their purchase negotiations. Knowing the estimated remaining life span of a building system allows managers and owners to know ahead of time when systems will need to be repaired and/or replaced. Being aware of these factors means expenses can be anticipated and made on their terms, as opposed to not knowing and having unforeseen repairs, which in most cases cost more when eventually done. Water intrusion, for instance, can cause extensive damage and poor environmental conditions in short periods.

BUILDING ENCLOSURE (ENVELOPE) ASSESSMENTS

Roof + Horizontal Deck Assessments are one of the most common types of building enclosure assessments. These assessments are essential for understanding how to properly care for one of the most valuable assets of your structure. The second least visible face of your building is constantly attacked by damaging UV sunlight, maintenance traffic, air and water pollution and wind-blown debris buildup. Most clients rarely see this as a face of their buildings until someone reports a leak. Just like an automobile, roof systems need maintenance and checkups. Roof assessments, along with routine maintenance, can extend the life of your valuable assets.

Our thorough on-site examinations allow us to identify immediate roof deficiencies. They can head off future issues before they become costly and assist you with a preventative plan to extend the life of your inventory of roofing. Roof assessments can be inclusive of visual inspections. Infrared thermal scans at roof level or with aerial UAS (drones) help determine areas of trapped moisture and our Forensic (Roof) Services destructive testing (cores + cuts) may be used to confirm the presence of trapped moisture and damage to the underlying roofing components and building structure.

Prioritizing Deficiencies

We’ll prioritize all deficiencies identified to let you know how critical they are and when they should be addressed.

Analyzing Envelope Systems and Lifespan

ECS/DTR will put a comprehensive plan in place (both short + long term) to ensure our client’s façade and roofing issues are addressed in the most prudent & economical manner.

Beyond roof assessments, ECS/DTR routinely performs site investigations and forensic studies. These go beyond the assessment and involve a more detailed investigation. This may include destructive testing to identify the point of failure, the path of travel for moisture or bulk water getting into your building, including documenting any other components damaged by the water intrusion.

If you have had a persistent roof leak, See our “Building Forensics” services for solving your building roofing issues.

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BUILDING FACADE ASSESSMENTS

Building Façade Assessments are one of the most underperformed types of building enclosure assessments. The most visible face of your building is usually neglected! Multistory buildings often have a complete failure of sealant joints, flashing and glazing systems which are rarely seen up close by building owners and managers. We often see repairs on the first floor, but not on the upper floors. The exterior façade materials all have life spans that are routinely expired too early because of lack of maintenance. Facade assessments give owners and managers the information they need to extend the life of their building skin, including minimizing costs of repairs when scheduled and bidding competitively.

Similar to roof systems, the facade of your buildings is constantly under attack from damaging UV sunlight, various types of air and water pollution, window washing equipment, wind damage and other environmental conditions. Facade assessments These types of reviews are essential to properly care for another valuable part of your building. Too often, our façade assessments discover construction work that was never completed, nor discovered during the initial construction of the building. These mistakes can cost owners both lost revenue and repair costs.

Façade Assessments are conducted following various ASTM standards for façade reviews including ASTM 2018 for the baseline work and ASTM E2841 as deemed necessary. This second standard is intended to provide building professionals with a methodology for conducting periodic condition assessments of building facades to determine if conditions exist in the subject facades that represent hazards to persons or property. In addition, ECS/DTR has various methods to get up and personal with your building façade. In some cases, ECS/DTR utilizes Unmanned Aerial (Drone) Vehicles with ultra-high-definition cameras and thermal imaging to identify areas of your building that are too costly to stage for your assessment. Areas that need a more intensive investigation may need to be staged.

Just like our drones, the exterior enclosure/ facade of your building needs periodic checkups, evaluations and maintenance.