Russell Richman Consulting Ltd. is a boutique Consulting Engineering firm specializing in the fields of Building Science, Facade Engineering and Sustainable Buildings.
We offer complete services relating to the construction and operation of a building – from pre-design to project hand-over to problems encountered during service.
Our firm of industry experts provide exceptional experience and fundamental knowledge to solve your issue.
RRCL has been providing WUFI and THERM training for beginner and advanced users for over 20 years! We customize workshops to fit your firm’s needs! Whether it is 2, or 20 participants, RRCL will deliver a workshop that supports your project work.
Benefits of custom training include:
Here’s what a few past participants had to say:
“Russell’s extensive knowledge of the software as well as window and curtain wall systems was invaluable and he was able to engage in discussions with all levels of experience. The 2 day session gave our team the foundation, knowledge base, and skills required to start meaningfully contributing to our thermal analysis modeling efforts and meet the timelines defined by our project.“
“It was an extremely effective course and we left with a lot of practical and useful information. Russell is an excellent instructor with real passion for building science.“
“Russell is an excellent instructor. He is passionate about building science, practical about the implementation in high performance buildings, and brings a wealth of knowledge to his training.”
“Having Russell Richman conduct a customized THERM course for the members of
our firm had two main advantages over a general workshop – the ability to
customize the content that we wanted to cover, and the ability to have the
course material covered at a pace that best suited the needs of our group.”
Contact RRCL to enquire.
In a partnership with Evergreen Building Science, RRCL is an internationally recognized large building airtightness testing company. The frequency of projects requesting guarded airtightness testing is increasing, due to challenges with construction scheduling and occupancy that make whole building airtightness testing not feasible on many projects.
Guarded airtightness testing is a precise testing approach. As a project leader, you need to ensure you hire a team with vast experience in guarded testing; there are so many pitfalls associated with guarded testing that lead to faulty/incorrect results.
RRCL & EBS have over 1M square feet of guarded airtightness testing completed. An example can be seen in the image where 6 separate guarded floor tests were completed throughout construction in accordance with the Toronto Green Standard (TGS).
Contact RRCL & EBS to discuss your guarded airtightness testing needs. We have assisted many project teams with generating guarded testing scopes of work and procedural documents.
…and stone, and concrete!
Contact RRCL for all your needs when dealing with moisture and porous materials. Hygrothermal analysis is one of our specialities.
Interested in quantifying how your windows are performing? We test existing and new windows to verify air leakage and water penetration. Contact RRCL for your next project.
RRCL was recently at a site in downtown Toronto where the paint is peeling off 100+ year old solid brick masonry. From the street, the peeling paint makes the facade look like it is seriously deteriorating. Upon further inspection, the exterior brick appears to be in satisfactory condition (at least viewing the 2nd floor from the sidewalk). Isolated brick spalling was observed at other locations (e.g. closer to grade, adjacent to high moisture locations such as the downspout), however, it appears the systemic problem is peeling paint rather than brick deterioration.
With further inspection and some supportive lab testing (i.e. frost dilatometry) and hygrothermal simulation (i.e. WUFI), RRCL can assess the risk for of existing brick masonry deteriorating as options to insulate from the interior are considered for this project. Contact RRCL for all your hygrothermal performance questions.
RRCL was the building envelope consultant on this deep-energy retrofit in the east end of Toronto back in 2009/2010. We were in the neighbourhood and stopped by; this is what we saw. Although all the porch roofs still have snow on them (since it’s cold on both sides), only the super-insulated roof on our project still has snow (the one on the far right!)
Contact RRCL for all your building enclosure needs, and yes, we occasionally due single family residential as well!
RRCL and Evergreen Building Science recently completed both As-Operated and Envelope-Only whole building airtightness testing at the Humanities Wing Building at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC). This storied building has an incredible history. RRCL and Evergreen were honoured to work along side UTSC’s sustainability team to complete this test.
….and yes, we stayed there all night long!!!
Ever wonder why your building science consultant is always so adamant about proper end- dams at window flashing termination points? As you can see here, the sill flashing is directing a significant amount of bulk water to the brick masonry directly below the window corners. This will result in localized brick deterioration (you can see some deterioration occurring in this photo already). Widespread deterioration will cost $100,000’s to repair throughout the building.
Properly designed and installed end-dams at the sill flashing termination points would force bulk water to shed off the flashing proper, thus reducing/eliminating the staining and deterioration observed in this photo.
Contact RRCL to review, design and oversee your next restoration project. It is, indeed, all in the details!
Never let weeds and debris building up on your roof. RRCL was recently on a conventional roof with a built-up roofing membrane and saw all these weeds! It was akin to a small forest! When weeds take root in your membrane cover (in this case it was loose crushed stone) they will shoot roots down towards your roof membrane. As the weeds grow, so do the roots! This increases the potential for damage to your roof membrane. If you need some advice on your roofing, RRCL has over 20 years of expertise in roof design and replacement.
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.