The term Groundhog Day has a meaning of an unpleasant and a repetitive event or situation. In the building industry, we unfortunately either like or at least tolerate Groundhog Day. I guess we would not have much to talk or complain about if we learned from our past mistakes—that would just be boring, right?

Everyone knows that air barriers are important, they know what they do and that they need to be installed correctly. We have heard it for 20 years and no longer need a presentation to remind us of that. With that being said, how do we give them a chance of success?

One of the most common risk management strategies used is a robust quality assurance program in the specifications that requires certified contractors, trained and certified installers, evaluated materials and on-site third-party audits. This presentation will discuss the role of the quality assurance audits, and point out what to look for when doing site observation and quality control. It will also provide real life examples that can help you identify installation issues on your project, what caused them, and what corrective action can be taken.

Learning Objectives:

1. Assess how site quality assurance audits, field observation and site quality control fit into an overall quality assurance and risk management strategy.
2. Determine responsibilities of all building enclosure stakeholders to coordinate and execute a plan for quality installation.
3. Identify typical issues found in the installation process and what caused these for a variety of air barrier systems by visual inspection.
4. Through the use of jobsite photos, demonstrate the physical testing that can be done on a variety of air barrier systems.

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Ryan Dalgleish has been involved in the building enclosure and building performance areas of construction in both the commercial and residential sectors for over 20 years. He acts in the position of Chief Operating Officer for the Air Barrier Association of America. Ryan is actively involved in research, training development and delivery, certification management and helping industries increase their professionalism. He obtained credentials in Adult Education, Leadership and Organizational Excellence from the University of Manitoba and has been mentored and trained by some of the best building scientist’s in the world. Ryan is a certified Net Zero building instructor, teaches master builder courses to builders across the country and is a frequent speaker at various technical presentations dealing with the building enclosure to various building official associations, city departments, building enclosure councils and chapters of the American Institute of Architects, Construction Specifications Institute and a number of local home builder associations.