Building envelope testing
The envelope is everything that keeps outside air and water out of a building. When it fails, or has to be proven before sign-off, what the project needs is the exact location. These five methods find it, on exposed barriers during construction and on finished assemblies after, and each one ends in a report the project can act on.
Which one your job needs
Air & Vapor Barrier Testing
The barrier verified while it is still exposed and can be corrected, before the cladding closes over it.
Bubble Gun Testing
Leak sites in an installed barrier made visible one by one, to the exact point of the breach.
Smoke Pencil Testing
Moving air pulls a controlled smoke stream through any discontinuity: the path of a leak, seen directly.
Adhesion Pull-Off Testing
Whether the membrane is actually bonded to the substrate, measured and documented rather than assumed.
Infrared Envelope Testing
Whole walls and assemblies read with a thermal camera for air leakage paths and missing insulation.
Envelope testing questions
What is building envelope testing?
Testing the parts of a building that separate inside from outside (walls, roof assemblies, and the air and vapor barriers within them) to find where air or water gets through. The methods range from direct leak-site tests on an exposed barrier to thermal surveys of finished assemblies.
Is this the same as air vapor barrier testing?
Air and vapor barrier testing is one part of it: the part performed on the barrier itself, usually while it is still exposed during construction. Building envelope testing is the whole discipline, including adhesion verification and infrared surveys of completed assemblies.
When is envelope testing required?
Most commonly when a project specification calls for it before sign-off (many envelope specifications require adhesion verification plus a leak-detection method), and when a finished building has an air or water problem nobody can locate from the inside.
Tell us about the assembly
What is built, what is exposed, and what the specification asks for. We will tell you which test answers it and what it costs.