Services and Approach

Depending upon the project, we are retained by a design professional or work directly for the owner, to prepare or review specifications, drawings and details, as they pertain to the building envelope.  Wetherholt and Associates, Inc. is ever aware of local and national building and energy code requirements, as they relate to and impact building envelope detailing and design.  When reviewing or preparing specifications, drawings, and details for building envelope detailing on existing structures, we perform a site visit to review current building conditions.  We find it central to the success of a project that we have a full understanding of the owner’s needs, goals, and standards, specific to each site, prior to performing these site visits.  We find that a pre-design meeting, where each site is discussed in depth, is a good guide for incorporating our field work into the design work and accomplishing the owner’s mandate and needs.  As part of a larger team, this meeting provides a venue for understanding schedule, site restrictions, project conditions, and the owner’s goals and allows the owner to provide notice to the individual sites of what will be taking place.

Once the documents are presented to the owner, we assist with the pre-bid meeting, with issuance of addendum, and with review of substitution requests.  We then assist with all pre-construction meetings, associated with the building envelope, with the owner, architect, contractor, appropriate subcontractors, and manufacturers, to be sure everyone understands the scope of the work and to resolve concerns which may arise.

Once construction is started, Wetherholt and Associates, Inc. inspectors and engineers can be retained to verify the installations and applications conform to the contract and assist in avoiding conflict between the specifications and the actual conditions.  By the time of actual construction, the engineers and the inspectors are familiar with the building envelope systems specified and submitted by the contractor, and the depth of Wetherholt and Associates, Inc. experience allows us to respond quickly and accurately to questions or concerns, when they arise.  Inspectors are knowledgeable of product application or installation methods and procedures, and they make certain the materials submitted are the materials utilized.  Inspectors verify materials are properly stored, handled, and protected from damage and note any damaged materials in need of removal from the site.  Inspectors also make sure the installation methods conform to the manufacturer’s recommendations and the project specifications and details.

Should conflicts arise between the specifications and the installation, the inspector informs the installer of the problem, so they can review and adjust to meet the project requirements, and then calls the appropriate party to inform them of the problem, so they can move toward a resolution.

The inspector observes installations, provides photographic documentation of installation and progress, and chronicles the work performed in daily site notes, with a full report to follow.  If installation of products conflict with the specification or the submittal, and is not easily resolved, it is noted in the report.  These reports discuss what occurred on the project during the day of the report and are relatively detailed.  A few other benchmarks noted within the report are crew size, progress, and resolution of installations not in alignment with the project documents.

If necessary, we can perform moisture intrusion assessments with infrared, EFVM, data loggers, and Tramex impedance.  When the specification requires building envelope air barrier and / or window testing, we will include, as part of our scope of service, coordination and collaboration with one of several testing agencies dedicated to these types of tests.  We find that they are far better qualified to set up and run these tests, as this is their specialization and they perform these tests daily.  Wetherholt and Associates, Inc. will provide oversight during the tests.

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