Much has been written, recently, about the problems of water penetration into condominium buildings.   Water intrusion can frequently occur in buildings that have one or more of the following characteristics:

• Poor design for Northwest climactic conditions—e.g.  buildings with insufficient or no roof overhang
• Lack of attention to construction details—e.g.  incorrect installation of flashing, insufficient caulking, etc.
• Utilizing a poor choice of building materials for the Northwest—e.g.  an artificial stucco skin on a multi-story wood-frame building, the structure of which is subject to shrinkage and settlement
• Inadequate inspections and/or inspections by inexperienced people
• Construction by poorly-qualified and/or poorly-supervised workers

With respect to waterproofing details, we are fortunate to have retained the firm of Studio Meng Strazzara as the project architects (they have been the architects on our past three projects).   This firm is a very creative architectural group, with an excellent sense for aesthetic design, but also one that has a strong understanding of the practicalities of construction.   In addition, we have selected an extremely experienced general contractor—W.G. Clark Construction—a company with an enviable 95-year track record for producing very high quality buildings in the Puget Sound area.   Both firms are well aware of water penetration issues, and how to avoid them.

Well prior to the finalization of design, we retained the services of Building Envelope Technology & Research, a first-class engineering firm that specializes in waterproofing technology.   BET&R’s technical staff has over 175 years of experience in the highly specialized fields of roofing, waterproofing and building envelope design.   They are responsible for analyzing and making recommendations for all exterior building details, and regularly inspecting and monitoring the installation of all critical water-barrier membranes during the construction process.

Both below and above grade waterproofing materials were selected from conservative, well proven products which have superior warranties from major manufacturers.

Of course, even the best waterproofing materials can be rendered useless if not applied properly.   With respect to the actual installation of such materials, the general contractor will convene special pre-construction meetings with all sub-contractors involved with any aspect of the building's exterior skin, so that all tradespeople on the job understand the vital importance of properly attending to all aspects of the building's waterproofing system and safeguarding it from damage during construction.  Inspections of the waterproofing details will be rigorous and continuous.

It may interest you to know that, as a developer of this type of high-quality building, the two principals of our development group have over sixty years of experience producing waterproof buildings in the Northwest, and have been involved in the successful development of ten other very similar brick, luxury condominium buildings.