Unfortunately, someone installed an impermeable coating on the lower six courses of this solid brick masonry exterior wall. As you can see, the coating inhibits drying through capillary transport and forces the majority of moisture transport to be through vapour diffusion just below the surface; this leads to salt deposits below the brick surface (subfluorescence) and spalling. The uncoated masonry above is not experiencing this phenomenon.

Contact RRCL for all your enclosure design questions; we have expertise in existing or new construction enclosure design and forensics.

RRCL was recently reviewing a conventional two-ply mod-bit roof and observed all these blisters! Happy that Property Management are not reporting leaks, however, this is not what you want to see on your roof. Why do YOU think this is happening? Contact RRCL if you want to know the likely answer…!

…better known and a fun day in south western Ontario! Our testing team completed a 12 fan whole building operational test at this 230 unit (30,000 m2) apartment building. Testing went smoothly and the building performed quite well, given the fact that each apartment has a ventilation penetration.

Are you designing a new building? Are you striving for passive house certification? The implications of shading, whether from surrounding buildings or surrounding natural elements, really matters!

Contact RRCL to conduct whole building energy performance simulation and we can show you how shading integrates with energy use, comfort, etc. And yes … we can certify to the PHIUS+ passive house standard.

This building…one fan (well, less than one fan, actually!) Are you surprised? We were NOT! We’ve tested several large Passive House buildings such as this one and are planning many more. Contact RRCL for all your big building airtightness needs – leaky or tight – we have the capability to execute a successful test.