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Interview with Steve Jackson, CAC, CA/DPH, Vice President
Planning for winter weather is an important element in a strong project plan. In this interview, Steve shares his tips on how to keep water out of your building and prevent post-construction defects. Q: Why is it important for Project / Construction Managers to include moisture management strategies in the Project Plan? It takes a team of experts (architects, engineers, contractors and other professionals) to design, build and renovate buildings. One often over looked area of expertise is the water intrusion/moisture management expert. There are countless ways water can impact a project: broken pipe, groundwater intrusion and storms, just to name a few. Having a plan in place to manage water intrusion concerns is important. The plan, when combined with periodic proactive inspections can help identify areas of concern before they become major problems. Q: What are some examples of damage that may occur due to unplanned water intrusion during a project? Unfortunately, most projects are built with a reactionary approach to moisture management. Every winter we get countless calls from clients with “problems” related to rain water intrusion. Often times early season rain events are unexpected and protections are not adequate to prevent water intrusion. Construction sites can get wet fast and the extent of water damage can often be overlooked until the impact to schedule and cost is extensive. It is important not to just think about rain. We recently had a project where ground water intrusion damaged finishes in a building after the building was occupied. As the building was under construction for more than a year, these areas of intrusion could have been identified long before occupancy. Now the response will require impact to the building users, requiring design, implementation and monitoring of the repairs. If these issues had been observed during construction a different response could have been considered and the impacts (time, money and inconvenience) could have been better managed. With a proactive approach to mold and moisture we can avoid problems rather than respond to problems we call it “problem avoidance before problem solving.” Q: Have you had any incidents where clients have gone over budget or had their project time prolonged due to water intrusion issues? Unfortunately, yes, far too often we get the call where a project is delayed and the budget is impacted because a situation that could have been identified sooner or was thought to be minor turned out not to be the case. Waiting days or weeks to report a water condition can lead to mold and much longer impact to the construction schedule. Conducting periodic, proactive moisture inspections can identify potential issues much sooner. These issues can be resolved faster, cheaper and create opportunities to learn; preventing similar problems as the project progresses. Having the project team notify the water intrusion expert as soon as an issue is noted helps expedite an appropriate response. Better yet, detecting the issues during periodic routine inspections allows the issues to be managed as part of the ongoing work and within the current schedule. Q: Describe the most significant or challenging water intrusion project you have worked on? On one project, I got a call to respond to an emergency flood at a large multi-family building under construction. The first phase of units was days away from being turned over to the owner, ahead of schedule. A vandal had plugged a bathtub drain on the fourth floor one Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend and turned on the faucet. By Monday morning, security noticed water rushing out the first floor door. By the time my client (the builder) called over 10- days had passed since the leak was reported. They thought they had a plan in place to address the flood. By the time we arrived for our initial inspection, mold was present in about 20 units. The mold impacted gypsum board walls/ ceilings, cabinets, and finished floors. Water had also impacted insulation and gotten into several HVAC units within units. Had we been called on day 1, the response could have included aggressive drying and removal of water-damaged materials. Instead, with the delayed response this became a mold remediation project. During our time onsite we discovered a previously undiscovered concern. Mold was observed along the base of many walls outside the flooded areas. Further inspections identified mold under cabinets in the kitchens and bathrooms of many units. The source turned out to be related to Gyp-crete flooring. The Gyp-crete was not adequately dried prior to installation of cabinets and the drying was not monitored to observe impact to adjacent gypsum board. This discovery had a HUGE impact to the construction schedule and the owner was forced to delay “move-in” dates for tenants. The damage to the building, the time impact to the schedule, the cost of the repairs and liquidated damages were all tremendous. If the problematic Gyp-crete floor had been allowed adequate time to dry none of these unexpected conditions would occurred. Periodic inspection of moisture conditions would have likely noted the elevated moisture conditions in the gypsum walls prior to installation of cabinets. Perhaps there would have been impact to the schedule, but the impact could have been identified sooner allowing for schedule recovery in other areas. So instead of a few days of lost time from drying, the project was delayed over six weeks. Having the water intrusion expert on your team from day one, to develop and implement the Mold and Moisture Plan, oversee periodic inspections and provide training to key team members helps ensure that your projects get completed on-time, on-budget while handing over a healthy building. |