Do you know? 50% to 100% of the exterior cladding of large buildings comprises of Windows and curtain walls and are determining elements in the performance of the vertical building envelope. They are a critical and important architectural feature of a building.
Sometimes a project faces performance anomalies that often result in complete replacement or expensive restoration/maintenance activities are as follows:
Any form of water infiltration to the interior side of a building
- Excessive air leakage resulting in discomfort to building occupants
- Structural load failure
- Thermal discomfort
- Condensation
That is when Façade Testing Comes in Picture. Any kind of irregularity in façade can hinder safety of people in building. Thus the façade component must be in real time tested to ensure safety, stability and durability.
What are other benefits of Façade Testing? Some of its benefits are that it:
- Helps in rectifying all faults before final production
- Saves cost and time
- Ensures a quality façade and many more.
But what are the test which one can conduct to ensure façade performance? Testing representative segments of curtain wall, or windows, for example, comprises of three basic tests, plus three others.
The Basic Tests:
- Air infiltration test
- Water penetration test
- Structural load test
The Additional Tests:
- The Dynamic water penetration test
- The seismic test
- The thermal cyclic test
Façade testing should become a normal procedure and part of all the façade design — bid — build process. Façade testing in vitro and then periodic field testing considerably reduces the risk of failures in façades.
Read the article for detailed information on various façade performance testing types.
