How long will my condo/renovation be maintenance-free?

[editor@bccondos.ca]

How long will my brand new condo/building envelope renovation be maintenance free?

Good question. From everything we've read on the subject, probably never. Even new buildings require a well-considered maintenance plan. Read more about this recommendation when you click on Search at this forum and type in 'durability.' This will yield a discussion of the relevant guidelines the Canadian Standards Association published on what are called service life predictions in 1995.

You could also get a friend in construction to sit with you when you visit http://www.buildcore.com/bps_all.htm. We typed in 'building envelope' at the Search link and got 8 hits, which list composition, and applications and relevant standards for various building envelopes. Check out http://www.buildcore.com/dura3491.htm as a sample. Of course, you'd have know and understand each component of your condo to look this up, which would be next to impossible if you've never received a copy of your building's technical audit.

We'd like to know what the construction industry thinks of this site, whether it's complete, how it's used, etc. Here's the e-mail we just sent to Buildcore:

From: editor [SMTP:editor@bccondos.ca]
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 12:37 PM
To: 'info@buildcore.com'
Cc: 'editor@bccondos.ca'
Subject: Service Life Predictions of Building Envelopes

Hello Buildcore,

We’re a consumer advocacy leaky condo website at [url]www.bccondos.ca [/url]and we were just visiting your site. We looked up ‘building envelope’ at the Search link and got 8 hits with contact lists and so on. Very good. How complete is your site, who contributes to it and how is generally used?

Editor@bccondos.ca

[Guest]

From: editor [SMTP:editor@bccondos.ca]
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 10:14 AM
To: 'dkayll@morrisonhershfield.com'
Cc: 'editor@bccondos.ca'
Subject: Building envelope repairs

Dear Mr. Kayll, President of the B.C. Building Envelope Council

As you can see from the attached e-mails, we’ve been around the block a few times trying to get answers to at least some of these questions regarding building envelope upgrades. We’d sure appreciate it if you could help us out. You may write to us at editor@bccondos.ca or directly to our Condo Life Cycles forum, where we try to provide some discussion on durability standards and expectations. Thank you for your kind attention.

Editor@bccondos.ca

Enclosures: Aug. 6/03 e-mail from John Robertson, Aug. 11/03 e-mail to Don Hazelden, Aug. 6/03 e-mail to Phil Sunderland.

[Guest]

From: David Kayll [mailto:Dkayll@morrisonhershfield.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 3:32 PM
To: editor@bccondos.ca
Subject: About building envelope repairs

Dear editor@bccondos.ca:

Thanks for asking BCBEC such questions. These are some of the issues facing the building community at the moment - both owners and developers, designers, contractors and insurers.

BCBEC is a volunteer organization with the purpose of providing a forum for discussion of the issues facing all members of the building envelope and building science community. The board is currently comprised of consultants, manufacturers, regulators, homeowner representatives and contractors. BCBEC does not have nor promote any particular point of view on any of these issues. It is the purpose of the organization to get the conversations going such that we may all become better informed of the issues of the day.

BCBEC provides a location where anyone may raise issues and questions or provide perspectives and points of view such that they may be debated and discussed freely amongst the membership. We encourage you and your members to visit our website to get more info on the council at www.bcbec.com (it is currently being updated).

We invite you and www.bccondos.ca to present on the issues you raise. You can contact me, as 2003/04 BCBEC President, and we can arrange for a lunchtime forum to raise these questions to the membership.

Kind regards,

David Kayll

[Guest]

From: editor [mailto:editor@bccondos.ca]
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2003 12:41 PM
To: 'David Kayll'
Cc: editor@bccondos.ca
Subject: About building envelope repairs

Wonderful! Thanks so much. We'll add this excellent information to our
site immediately.

Cups up!

Ed.