If you own or are otherwise responsible for the care of a school, church, library, or any other type of building, you need to be aware of the vital importance of your building’s envelope.
Simply put, a building envelope is a physical barrier placed between the conditioned and unconditioned portions of a building or structure for the purpose of keeping the elements at bay. Excessive light, heat, rain, snow, lightning and other forces of nature can all degrade the functional integrity of a building over a long enough timespan.
It’s worth knowing, for instance, that 80% of all litigation cases related to construction have to do with water infiltration in buildings . This issue is directly related to faulty or underperforming building envelopes.
The Components of a Building Envelope
There’s a lot more that goes into a building envelope than you might at first think. Although the term is just two simple words, your building envelope actually comprises:
Exterior walls and storefronts
Doors and windows
Walls
Skylights and roofs
Balconies
Foundations and basements
Any one of these parts of your building envelope can become compromised over time, leading to costly and even dangerous problems.
Our Tested & Trusted Process
Z6 has specialized in the construction of high-quality building envelopes since 2003. Our expertise with glazing systems, windows, roofing systems, cladding systems, and waterproofing assemblies ensures that your building envelope will keep your building protected and operating optimally.
Here’s a breakdown of our professional process for constructing or repairing building envelopes:
Develop the Intent: The goal in constructing any building is for it to be an asset rather than a liability. One of the most important parts of making this happen is to develop clear project requirements right from the outset of a construction project. This can only be performed by qualified architectural experts, like the ones on our team.
Inspect the Product: Next, we implement a thorough quality control (QC) program, carried out by experts who understand not only the individual components of your building envelope, but the ways in which they all interact, which is extremely important. If anything is found to be deficient, we make a detailed log of it and then rectify the problem.
Test the Product: The final stage involves testing the envelope with our ISO-accredited stormwater and windstorm engineering team.
Our Services
We offer a wide range of innovative solutions that ensure the optimal functioning of your building envelope:
Pre-construction services: these include Owner’s Project Requirements and Basis of Design assistance and documentation, building information modeling, preparation of construction documents, and more
Construction phase services: we offer construction and project management, mock ups in numerous formats, recovery and quality control details, quality control inspections, building envelope commissioning, performance testing of cladding systems, and more
Forensic and aviation services: we can assist you with dispute resolution, expert testimony, building envelope analysis, and even unmanned aircraft analysis
Energy performance and optimization services: take advantage of our whole building energy modeling, building envelope thermal and moisture analysis, life cycle cost analysis, and other services to maximize the energy efficiency of your building
Testing services: we offer best-in-class flood and waterproof testing, wand/nozzle testing, air leakage testing, roof uplift testing, adhesion of sealant joints, thermal imaging, air barrier testing, emergency event response and many other critically important types of testing to ensure the integrity of your building
Other services: we also offer preventative maintenance programs, facility asset management and database services, litigation consulting, and more
Contact Us Today
If you’re interested in any of our services, or want to learn more about why you should hire a building envelope consultant, contact us today.
Bill is the managing and founding partner of W.H. Coltzer International (WHCI), Zero/Six Consulting, LLC (an architecture and exterior building envelope consulting firm), Z6 Commissioning, LLC (a performance testing firm), and Coltzer Company, LLC (construction company). As the son of a general contractor, Bill grew up participating in the family construction business and after graduating from Texas A&M in 1984, became a licensed Architect in 1993. Since the creation of Zero/Six Consulting, LLC in 2003, Bill has participated in the remediation, design, and testing of numerous facilities across the Nation ranging in values of a few million dollars to over a few hundred million. The combination of construction knowledge, architectural training, and real-world experience gives Bill a unique perspective in the dispute resolution process.
Jeff is the Director of Engineering of Zero/Six Consulting, LLC (an architecture and exterior building envelope consulting firm). After graduating from The University of Texas with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Jeff has used his expertise in the field with roofing, waterproofing, and fenestration inspections, as well as in the office with computer-aided drafting, modeling, and engineering analysis. He has been deeply involved in the testing aspects of building envelope commissioning serving as the Quality Control Manager to ensure the Z6 ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited laboratory and team are strictly following international test standards to accurately, objectively, and impartially report on the integrity of building materials and products to certify that the installed systems interface as intended. Jeff has been Appointed Qualified Inspector by The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI).
