Building envelopes contribute to your building’s function, appearance, and efficiency. Risk assessment helps maximize building envelope performance, especially in the early stages of building envelope upgrades. Here’s how risk management improves building function and avoids unexpected issues.
Importance of Risk Management in Building Envelope Upgrades
The primary purpose of the building envelope is to shelter and protect the building from the elements. When embarking on a building envelope upgrade, risk management ensures the proposed design and construction process improve and support the building. Also, risk management addresses potential safety issues to avoid disruptions during construction. Without risk management, you can compromise performance, and the integrity of the worksite.
Overview of Common Risks in Building Envelope Upgrades
Some common risks of building envelope upgrades include the following:
Glass post-breakage behaviour
Post-breakage in glass presents a risk to the public. If you have a glass envelope, it is critical to consider hazards related to annealed and heat-strengthened types of glass, which can break into dangerous shards. Tempered glass presents fewer risks as it breaks into smaller, smoother pieces to reduce the risk of injury. You can reduce risk even further using laminated glass which tends to stay in place when jeopardized. However, it presents a risk of sagging, therefore you can mitigate risk by using a strong enough interlayer material.
Cladding installation and performance
To reduce costs, you might consider using prefabricated cladding panels. The design prevents air, vapour, and thermal issues by building layer controls directly into the panels. As a result, they reduce the steps in the installation process. However, benefits can be lost because some panels make it difficult to access seal joints and transitions which means improper installation interferes with envelope performance. In this case, savings in the installation stage are offset by future costs related to inadequate performance and ongoing seal repairs. You can mitigate risk by ensuring the panels chosen offer cost savings both during and post-installation.
Quality and assurance and control
At the execution stage, QA/QC procedures and plans are critical to ensure safety and to adhere to construction best practices and standards. Some examples include:
- Ensuring you have required production submittals, proper project documentation, and drawings to review against approved originals.
- Performing field testing to confirm proper installation and execution.
- Protecting original design intents to ensure execution does not compromise design performance, such as improper installation of energy-efficient windows.
- Safety measures to reduce the risk of onsite accidents.
Testing in the lab and the field mitigates risk by identifying and correcting issues so they can’t cause costly problems.
The Benefits of Safety-First Cultures to Mitigate Risks
A safety-first culture focuses on complete team accountability throughout the entire upgrade process. For example, WellDone Inc. is COR certified with a full-time Safety Coordinator to help mitigate risks including:
- Creating safety policies outlining expectations such as reporting hazards and adhering to basic day-to-day safety rules.
- Ensuring all employees receive proper safety training to meet OSHA training requirements.
- Pre-work/use inspections to reduce the risk of severe loss.
- Safety inspections covering the premises, buildings, tools, equipment, and machinery.
- Identifying worker shortfalls to ensure they receive further training.
As you can see, risk management maximizes building envelope performance by ensuring materials, installation processes, and safety are optimized from planning to final inspection.
At WellDone Inc., our customers see the cost savings of our COR™ driven efficiencies. If you would like more information about our building improvement services for commercial and multi-unit residential buildings throughout the GTA., speak to our team.