THE WEBSTER TORONTO

BUILDING ENVELOPE RETROFIT

OVERVIEW

FORSMITH Building Science Consultants (FORSMITH) was retained to investigate water intrusion on a mixed-use property in Yorkville Village. The property consists of residential units with intensive green roof systems (roof-top terraces and raised planter bed systems) above a recently renovated high-end retail and commercial space.

PROBLEM

Based on the provided information, it was noted that interior leaks were manifesting into the recently renovated high-end retail and commercial space, causing damage to interior finishes and disturbances to occupants. These leaks had been recurring since the time of renovations and had caused expensive mitigation measures to repair compromised drywall from prolonged exposure to moisture and temporary drip pans to circumvent this issue.

CHALLENGE

The primary challenges that FORSMITH had to face involved the access to the condominium green roof space being challenging, resulting in extreme difficulty in determining the cause/localized source of the interior leaks was difficult to the the intensive green roof systems about the waterproofing membrane on the roof.

SOLUTION

FORSMITH's team conducted a series of forensic investigations to determine the source of interior leak. This included the usage of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to identify the location of water penetration with a high level of precision. From there, leak investigation testing was conducted in the form of tracer dye water testing to confirm the localized failures causing the migration of water through the building envelope and into the interior. Once the source of the leak was identified, excavation and invasive cut tests investigations were conducted in isolated areas to confirm the as-built conditions and identify the failures leading to leaking. FORSMITH team developed a remedial plan and was responsible for the quality assurance throughout the remediation process.

COMPLETED PROJECT