What is a Building Envelope and How Does It Affect Drying My Lower East Side Home?

7/28/2020 (Permalink)

Our experienced SERVPRO of Lower East Side Manhattan team can help with a thorough inspection and the appropriate actions to overcome potential hurdle

Water loss incidents in your Lower East Side home can be destructive without practical strategies for thorough drying.

Many factors can affect how easily your Lower East Side home could get dried after a water loss incident. There is a balance of several elements that work together to efficiently create the appropriate conditions for evaporative drying. When any of these factors fall short, it can compromise the time and cost of restoration.

The more that our technicians understand various affected materials and other factors of water damage in Lower East Side homes, the more efficient and thorough drying and extraction practices can be. Our knowledge of the affected areas in your residence helps us to comprise a quality drying plan that protects the majority of impacted materials and contents. Each structure presents unique obstacles for restores like our SERVPRO team, so we must work quickly to determine the type of drying scenario that exists, the most efficient tools to use, and any potential hurdles that could make drying more challenging.

What is a Building Envelope?

The building envelope is a network of structural elements designed to separate the inside of your house from outside threats like water penetration or higher humidity conditions. Some have begun to refer to these structural boundaries as the energy efficiency of the home. These factors often influence how effectively homeowners can cool or heat their properties when necessary. The building envelope can have a direct impact on how efficiently our technicians can drive the property as well. To determine the obstacles that might exist, we must better understand the various components of this envelope, including:

    •    Roof
    •    Exterior Walls
    •    Windows
    •    Ceilings
    •    Finished Flooring
    •    Foundations

How Can This Impact Drying?

The slightest change and the envelope of your house can impact how drying works. The continued understanding of developing conditions can allow our team to consistently provide the appropriate arrangement of drying tools and technologies to meet the growing demand. Multiple factors play a role in how these conditions might change as drying, extraction, and other mitigation tasks continue. These include:

    •    Breaches
    •    Openings
    •    Unknown Compromised Materials

The saturation of materials in areas like wall and ceiling systems can impact how efficient drying tools can be and modify the building's envelope. Instead of reducing the impact of outside elements, other factors designed to encase the damaged area can hinder evaporative drying and restoration progress.

What Are Ideal Drying Conditions?

Depending on when your home was built, the building envelope might vary substantially. Before 1990, the efficiency of energy and HVAC systems was a lower concern than it is now. Older homes tend to have more natural ventilation and airflow into the property, which can directly impact the efficiency and effectiveness of drying approaches. High moisture content and humidity concerns outside of the home can also affect how readily the structure can dry by modifying interior moisture levels during restoration. Each home and property are unique in this regard, yet often most structures can fall within three primary classifications:

    •    Tight Envelope – These are the ideal drying conditions for our SERVPRO restorers, as we can manage drying conditions without several extra steps to control the influence of outside factors.
    •    Moderate Envelope – With moderate conditions, external factors can impact the property somewhat. We must adjust drying and recovery tactics to overcome these influences.
    •    Loose Envelope – Older homes can allow for outside elements and conditions to have a direct and considerable impact on drying efforts in the property.

Are There Ongoing Concerns with Loose Building Envelopes?

Loose building envelopes present a substantial obstacle for our restoration team to overcome, but it can also impact your daily life as the property owner. Improper ventilation or significant airflow and penetration into the house can negate modern heating and cooling appliances' efficiencies. Additionally, humid conditions outside can quickly become higher moisture content inside the structure. With prolonged exposure, the conditions could get met for the development and spread of microbial threats. It is worth considering your options, especially considering that we have an in-house team of certified contractors capable of helping with remodeling and renovations as necessary.

Several obstacles can exist with any home drying venture, and often, your home itself is one of them. The construction of a property can impact the efficiency of drying. Our experienced SERVPRO of Lower East Side Manhattan team can help with a thorough inspection and the appropriate actions to overcome potential hurdles. Give us a call anytime that you need us at (917) 423-6364.