Services
A building envelope, or enclosure, consists of all exterior components that create a physical separation between the interior conditioned space and the unconditioned exterior space. The enclosure’s shell is the barrier intended to maintain a dry, heated, or cooled inside environment while retaining the building’s necessary structural and dynamic support and meeting the desired aesthetics of owners and architects. All exterior enclosure systems have a lifespan and require ongoing maintenance and replacement once the lifecycle is expired.
Pac Consulting offers professional services for new and existing building enclosures of all ages, material compositions, and construction types. Pac Consulting provides the following building enclosure services:
Condition Assessments
This service focuses on the life-cycle of existing building envelope components, where we assess the different building enclosure systems and report on their condition. This assessment is a vital tool for both owners and buyers to understand the future financial impact of the enclosure on their building. Pac Consulting performs these assessments for owners planning to hold their properties, buyers looking to buy a property, or owners needing to meet city ordinances. We also assist owners and property managers with planning for capital projects and maintenance.
Design Consulting
We consult with architects on new and renovation projects by providing recommendations to develop the design related to the building envelope. These recommendations are based on our experience to improve performance and resilience and limit complications during construction. We also produce drawings and specifications for the architect in addition to drawing markup and comments.
Owners and contractors often request peer review services for large, complex, or unique projects to receive input from an independent expert as a form of quality control or collaboration to create innovative solutions.
Forensic Engineering
Forensic engineering is employed when there are issues or failures with components or systems of a building. The structure and enclosure are the two primary components of a building that are inclined to have problems that will require forensics. Determining the root cause of the issue is the first primary objective in a forensic investigation, which must be determined before recommendations to address the problem can be developed and reported on. The methods typically include visual inspection, field testing, exploratory openings, on-site documentation, lab testing, analysis, reporting on the findings from the investigation, and any conclusions and recommendations. Since buildings are constructed with many different material types and configurations, the issues are often unique to a particular building.
Rehabilition & Preservation
Rehabilitation or preservation of existing buildings requires identifying the source of the symptom in order to plan an appropriate repair strategy that is sensitive to the original design intent and functionality. With an evolving industry, we evaluate new materials options intended to replace historical materials by understating their physical properties and required function. This allows us to anticipate their expected performance in the field and blend them into a project while taking special consideration of the historic nature of the building.
Field Quality Control Testing
Performing quality control testing of enclosure elements before and during construction provides significant value by identifying unforeseen design, fabrication, or construction errors before incorporating them into a systemic issue. We perform various tests, from industry-recognized standards to atypical custom tests. Additionally, we assist the client in developing a testing plan or incorporating testing requirements into project specifications.
Building Enclosure
Commissioning
Building Enclosure Commissioning (BECx) provides value to projects that go beyond industry standards or code-required minimums. Derived from the mechanical commissioning process BECx is the framework for defining the owner’s enclosure performance goals and verifying these metrics through a third-party review and testing process. We have the background and project experience to help guide this process starting, at the design phases through construction and following building occupancy.
