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Moisture Management Executive Summary
An integrated offering of moisture management for new and retrofit applications
in the built environment represents a significant market opportunity for
contractors willing to invest in the knowledge base, skill development, and
education process. There is no simple definition of moisture management in the
literature, but a working definition for the purposes of this analysis is an
offering by a contractor that has the following features:
- A contractor with responsibility for specific measures to protect the
building envelope and interiors against water damage from normal building
operations and events within the design criteria for the structure
- Integration of systems for control of water penetration, methods for
prevention of uncontrolled airflow, flashings, HVAC and controls systems, and
temporary drying and conditioning equipment to achieve control of moisture in
a new building or renovation project, or of retrofitting and maintaining
improvements to these systems.
Commissioning has become an increasingly powerful force in construction.
Concerns about commissioning the building envelope emphasize that the problem of
moisture management requires a new concept that integrates the solutions and
consolidates responsibility. Much of what comes to be part of moisture
management is attention to detail and workmanship on site. Additionally, step by
step commissioning of subsystems of the building assembly has yet to be fully
developed.
Support for this opportunity will likely come from building owners with long
term interests in the building and from the financial and insurance industries,
who are bearing the costs associated with moisture intrusion events and related
complaints. Resistance to the offering of moisture management can be expected
throughout the professional, trade, and materials supply chain by an industry
long dominated by “lowest first cost” decision criteria.
SITUATION
- The dollar volume of construction in the United States will continue to
grow in both commercial and residential sectors through 2008, according to
industry projections
- Rising costs of materials and labor will continue to increase the cost per
square foot to finish new and renovated space
- An increasing proportion of new construction and major renovation will
take place on a design/build basis, bypassing the traditional development of
plans and specifications and competitive bidding by general contractors and
subcontractors
- Building failures are a significant part of the cost of buildings today
and subsystem failures related to moisture represent a significant part of the
failures
- Despite insurance industry efforts to contain costs related to such
claims, repair costs for moisture intrusion events, reflected in insurance
statistics, have increased dramatically (often an order of magnitude or more)
over the past decade because of concern about indirect damage from mold that
requires assessment and remediation prior to repair
- The finance and insurance industries have an increasing concern about
direct and indirect damage to buildings from moisture intrusion, but currently
only look at the history of an existing building as an indication of potential
moisture problems and lack methods for evaluating new construction or
retrofits
- The finance and insurance industries have begun to recognize the value of
prevention as a result of the increases in costs associated with remediation
and repair, and, in the finance arena, the deterioration of asset value in
damaged properties
- The responsibility for implementing moisture management measures has been
traditionally viewed as a fundamental part of design; but in a substantial
proportion of projects, it is presently so fragmented that it is not a
coherent part of the design, construction, and start-up process
- Building owners are generally aware of the problems related to moisture
damage but typically only respond to specific events or complaints and do not
pursue general preventive programs
- Expectations of quality in construction continue to rise along with prices
seen by the owners, as evidenced by increasing owner interest in the USGBC
LEED program and the US EPA Energy Star label
- Fragmentation of the construction process relative to moisture management
is a widespread problem that extends through a range of aspects of the
building and may be supported by the Construction Specification Institute
(CSI) documentation structure for construction specifications used in the
design, specification, and bidding process
- The concept of “moisture management” has only recently entered the
technical literature and is not in the mainstream dialog of construction or
real estate industry players
OPPORTUNITY
- Construction and renovation will likely encompass 11.5 billion square feet
of commercial/institutional and 31.3 billion square feet of residential built
environment between 2004 and 2008, all of it subject to concerns from the
finance and insurance industries about moisture management
- In the absence of clear data on building failure, it seems reasonable to
estimate that 2% to 4% of the renovated and new spaces constructed during this
period (800 million to 1.2 billion square feet) will have significant moisture
intrusion events or related complaints within the first seven years of their
operation
- Prevention of these problems is worth billions of dollars to the insurance
and financial industries and to the construction teams who bear the costs of
repair that result from insufficient moisture management
- Providing owners and construction teams with a single source for a
moisture management solution, and responsibility for a positive result,
creates the potential for an attractive value proposition
- Moisture management is more about attention to the details of design and
construction than about creation of new technologies, hence it is about
skilled labor supported by a solid knowledge base and appropriate standards
- The current fragmentation of the design, construction, and start-up
process relative to this issue leaves open the question of the most
appropriate agent for consolidation of moisture management into a single
source offering, with architects, engineers, commissioning agents, and
specialized contractors all being potential candidates
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
- The emerging technical literature on moisture management has gained
momentum since its introduction in the early 1990s, which had an origin in
failures of major new buildings such as the Martin County Courthouse buildings
in Florida
- The present literature on moisture has begun to recognize climate factors
and construction patterns that vary by region throughout the US and Canada
- Descriptions of moisture problems and solutions in the technical
literature now address issues surrounding new construction materials and the
skill level of construction crews
- A “Moisture Management Program” offering is conceived as a set of services
that can be sold bundled or separately that includes the following:
- Participation in design development for integration of systems for the
control of water penetration, flashings, HVAC and controls systems, and
methods for prevention of uncontrolled air movement in the structure to
achieve management of moisture in a new building or renovation project
- Review of site conditions, landscaping, drainage, and local geographic
and climate factors that influence the success or failure of moisture
management program elements
- Review of construction sequencing procedures for potential moisture
intrusion or accumulation during construction that would result in
compromising the integrity of the structure, interior, HVAC, or other
systems, and develop a plan to prevent such problems
- On-going and systematic review of shop drawings and change orders to
control impacts on moisture management design implementation
- Installation of systems for the control of water penetration and methods
for prevention of uncontrolled airflow for foundations, walls, and roofs
- Installation of flashing systems for all junction and penetration points
- Installation of an HVAC system, including controls, appropriate for
humidity control and pressurization (as well as other comfort and indoor
environmental quality factors)
- Provide temporary heating and drying systems to accelerate construction
and avoid damage to the permanent HVAC equipment by operation prior to
start-up for occupancy
- Assessment of moisture conditions and controls in an existing building
and define retrofit measures as needed to reduce or eliminate existing
moisture problems and prevent future occurrences
- Define and document procedures for operation of systems and maintenance
of building assemblies, and train owner/operator agents to meet their
responsibilities for perpetuation of moisture control system results
- Maintenance of membrane, flashing, and HVAC systems to preserve proper
water resistance, drainage, humidity control, and pressurization
- Warranty of building performance on water resistance, drainage, humidity
control, and pressurization
- The commissioning process has grown in scope (touching every phase of
design, construction, and start-up) and frequency of use in major construction
projects and cuts across fragmented aspects of design and construction in a
manner consistent with what will be required to achieve moisture management
- The construction management process and attention to detail can determine
the success or failure of the moisture management program by introducing flaws
or allowing materials to be wetted inappropriately, regardless of how well
designed the building may be
- There is an emerging business segment related to drying and conditioning
space with temporary equipment during construction and renovation projects
that could play an important role in the concept of an integrated moisture
management program
- New materials and technologies, particularly in sealants, caulking, and
membranes, continue to enter the marketplace, but typically require additional
application skills with which the overall labor market is not keeping pace
- The basic building components that have the greatest influence on
prevention of moisture intrusion, accumulation, and condensation in a building
are membranes, flashings, and HVAC system
- While the general principles of moisture management are well documented in
the technical literature, translation of those principles into practice
typically leaves key aspects of implementation and detailing of moisture
management features of a building to the workmanship of skilled labor
POSITIVE FACTORS
- The potential market for a moisture management offering is emerging
because the financial cost of failure of moisture management in buildings has
been dramatically increased by concerns related to mold
- Architects, engineers, contractors, and their insurers have the greatest
motivation to solve moisture management issues since they are currently
bearing the brunt of the financial cost of failure
- The growing design/build market includes the potential for business
arrangements that are outside the traditional design, specification, and
competitive bidding arrangements and may make room for a sole source option
for moisture management
- Building commissioning, a growing trend in the construction industry, may
become an effective pathway for introducing an integrated moisture management
contracting offering
- The introduction of a moisture management offering does not depend on
creation of new technology
- There are currently only a few consultants promoting comprehensive
moisture management, leaving the market fairly open to innovative contracting
firms
- Moisture management as a consolidated single source solution offering
presents an opportunity to participate in a project from earliest design
stages through start-up and in on-going maintenance and operations
- The advantage will go to contractors with the ability to recruit and
deploy skilled labor, trained in managing construction detail, supported by a
solid knowledge base and standards
- Moisture management may be a valuable differentiator for design/build
projects
NEGATIVE FACTORS
- There is no strong evidence in the trade literature that building owners
and developers or their supply chain are immediately receptive to a moisture
management offering
- The idea of moisture management is only about 10 years old and energy
management, a comparable change in building owner behavior, has achieved only
partial market penetration in more than 30 years, limited largely by the
ubiquity of the “lowest first cost” decision criteria
- Making an offering of comprehensive moisture management will carry a
potential liability for the contractor making the offering and no existing
risk management profile can currently quantify or qualify that risk
- Creating a moisture management offering with any explicit or implicit
warranty of performance will require the owner to enter into a sole source
agreement with a contractor for elements of design, construction, and
operation of the building, which may not be acceptable in a traditional design
and competitive bid procurement process
- Potential competition is likely to emerge from commissioning agents, who
will argue that their professional distance from the construction work will
allow them greater objectivity
- There may be an incremental increase in spending to implement moisture
management, but more likely it will primarily represent a redistribution of
total construction dollars to different contractors and trades
UNRESOLVED ISSUES FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
Further research will be necessary to provide the details of the offering,
associated costs, quantified benefits, and views of industry experts in both the
seller and buyer markets. However, the first estimates of the scope of real
estate assets at risk and that the offering will only nominally increase the
total cost of a construction project, suggest that a compelling and well
supported value proposition is possible for a moisture management offering.
Additional research, including conversations with industry leaders, will be
used to explore and clarify several points that were raised in this analysis.
- Resolve what constitutes a Moisture Management Program from the
perspective of various participants in the value chain of design,
construction, and ownership of a building
- Establish the degree to which exclusions for insurance coverage of damages
from mold have changed the insurance industry view of the need for moisture
management
- Determine the potential role and likely degree of acceptance for a
moisture management offering among the design-build community
- Develop an initial sense of the potential for commissioning to serve as a
wedge for an introduction of a moisture management offering
- Establish the extent to which building owners are acting on substantial
preventive measures, responding primarily to complaints or incidents, and what
triggers their action
- Segment the overall construction market more clearly to identify the best
opportunities for volume and niche opportunities for market entry and
favorable profit margins
The National Center for Energy Management and Building Technology (NCEMBT) is
studying the potential for the development of an integrated offering of a
moisture management program for contractors. This work is funded by US
Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC36-03G013072. To learn more
about NCEMBT, visit their website at
www.ncembt.org.
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