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This webinar was co-sponsored by ASCE's Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and ASCE Continuing Education

Instructor:  Alexander Newman, P.E., F.ASCE

Course Length: 1.5 Hours

Purpose and Background

Failures of the building envelope – the exterior walls and roofs – represent a disproportionally high percentage of all construction claims. According to one source, the roofs alone generate more than half of all the construction complaints. Many roofs and exterior walls fail prematurely, some even during construction. The contemporary building envelope could be a technically complex construction system, and its design could benefit from engineering expertise. But the design engineers tend to rarely get involved beyond designing the supporting structure.

The envelope failures hold many valuable lessons for both architects and engineers. The failures can teach us which design assumptions are realistic and which are not, which systems tend to perform better in real life and which perform worse. Without this hard-learned experience the design team could be at the mercy of the latest industry fad or open to the persuasion of a good salesman. Unfortunately, the data on building-envelope failures is difficult to find.

This webinar provides an opportunity to explore these valuable lessons. The discussion covers the main causes of the envelope failures and illustrates the process of failure investigation. The instructor guides participants through the common failure scenarios and illustrates the discussion with pictures and a number of short case studies.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Determine the main causes of building-envelope failures
• Become familiar with the basic methods of forensic investigation of building envelope distress

Webinar Benefits

• Explore the typical causes of building-envelope failures
• Discover the potential weaknesses of various roofing systems and how they tend to fail
• Find out why certain types of exterior wall systems are more vulnerable than others to water intrusion
• Examine the five common mechanisms of moisture penetration through the exterior wall joints
• Learn how improperly specified and applied coatings can lead to disintegration of masonry walls

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Intended Audience

Structural and civil engineers, architects, and building officials seeking to learn from failures of building envelope will benefit from this webinar.

Webinar Outline

• Introduction
• What is the ‘envelope’?
• How we can learn from failures
• The process of failure investigation
• Typical causes of building-envelope failures
• Learning from roofing failures
• Low-slope
• Steep-slope
• Metal roofing
• Learning from exterior wall failures

How to Earn your CEUs/PDHs and Receive Your Certificate of Completion

To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 1 year of purchasing the course.

How do I convert CEUs to PDHs?

1.0 CEU = 10 PDHs [Example: 0.1 CEU = 1 PDH]