Building envelope consulting — BC strata
Strata Engineering diagnoses envelope failures, designs the remediation, and writes the tender. One engineer from first site visit to construction oversight, with an EGBC seal on every deliverable.
What goes wrong
Most envelope failures share one thread: moisture moving through an assembly that was never built to stop it, or one that was but has since broken down. Scroll the specimen. We find the path, not just the stain.
The most common and most misdiagnosed envelope failure. Water rarely enters where the stain appears. Failed sealant joints, open laps, and cracked cladding create entry points two floors above the leak inside. We trace the path, not the symptom.
Warm moist interior air escaping through gaps in the air barrier hits cold sheathing and condenses. The result is mold, rot, and structural degradation hidden inside the wall cavity.
Uninsulated structural elements conduct heat through the wall assembly, creating cold spots visible on thermal imaging, condensation streaks, and excessive heating loads on individual suites.
Fibre cement delamination, concrete spalling, EIFS cracking, sealant oxidation. Cosmetic in early stages, structural in later stages. Timing a recladding project is the difference between a $200k maintenance job and a $2M remediation.
Where horizontal meets vertical is where water concentrates. Flashing failures, membrane terminations and threshold details are the highest-frequency failure point in BC strata envelope systems.
What we deliver
Envelope work without a design engineer usually means a contractor diagnosing their own scope. We separate the diagnosis from the remedy so your council makes decisions with complete information, not a sales pitch.
Every engagement ends with an EGBC-sealed document your council can take to competitive tender. We do not do repairs, which means our recommendations are never influenced by what we'd like to build.
How it works
We walk every elevation, probe suspect zones, and map the moisture profile of the building. Thermal imaging adds precision where the failure mode is unclear. Fixed fee, typically one day on site.
Written findings with photographs, moisture readings and failure mode diagnosis. The brief outlines remediation options, their relative cost bands and sequencing logic, so your council can prioritise without guessing.
Engineered design drawings, specifications and scope documents. We write the tender so all bidders quote the same scope. Your council receives comparable bids instead of apples-to-oranges estimates from contractors.
Site reviews at critical stages to confirm the contractor is executing to the design. EGBC sealed field review letters. Final sign-off gives your strata council documented assurance the remediation was completed as engineered.
The envelope engineer's role
A contractor who diagnoses their own scope has a financial interest in the cure. An engineer's job is to find the actual source before anyone picks up a tool, then hand your council a remedy with no stake in the outcome.
Common questions
Building envelope is one of the more misunderstood engineering disciplines. These are the questions we field most often before a council commits to an assessment.
Signs precede leaks by months or years: paint bubbling, hairline cracks at window corners, efflorescence (white salt deposits) on exterior masonry, musty odour in suites adjacent to exterior walls, or staining at baseboard level. Any of these warrant an assessment before water infiltration causes structural damage. We offer a preliminary assessment service for buildings showing early symptoms.
An assessment is visual and non-invasive: we walk the exterior, map suspect zones and give you a written opinion on the likely failure modes and their severity. A full investigation may involve probe testing, moisture meters, selective destructive testing (removing a cladding panel or opening a wall cavity) to confirm the diagnosis. We typically recommend an assessment first, then escalate to investigation only where the findings warrant it.
No. Strata Engineering designs remediation and oversees construction, but we do not self-perform repairs. This is deliberate. An engineer who also bids on the repair has a conflict of interest in the diagnosis. Our independence means your council can use our design documents to get competitive bids from qualified contractors, with confidence that the scope reflects what the building actually needs.
Rarely for the full building, but individual units adjacent to active work areas may need temporary protection measures. Most recladding projects on occupied residential buildings are phased so that residents are inconvenienced for short windows rather than displaced. The tender documents we produce include staging and occupancy requirements so contractors bid with full awareness of the constraints.
The depreciation report quantifies the remaining service life of your envelope components and models their replacement costs. The envelope consulting engagement investigates active failures and designs remediation. The two are complementary: if our envelope assessment identifies damage not captured in your depreciation report, it typically triggers a depreciation report update to revise the reserve fund projections. We can coordinate both services.
A typical sequence: assessment (2-4 weeks), report (2 weeks), remediation design (4-8 weeks depending on scope), tender period (3-6 weeks), construction (varies widely by scope, from 4 weeks for localized repairs to 12-18 months for full recladding). We can accelerate or phase any stage depending on the urgency of active water damage and the council's budget timing.
What property managers say
"The team at Strata Engineering have worked tirelessly on a number of projects I've assigned to them to deliver the best possible results. Their knowledge and professionalism have encouraged me to refer them to my peers and use them regularly."
"I have always trusted Strata Engineering to handle the engineering needs of my portfolio; everything from general questions to major projects. I highly recommend them to anyone who wants confident solutions to their needs."
"Strata Engineering has always gone above and beyond when I have engaged their services. They are both accommodating to client schedules and leave no question unanswered, leaving me and my strata with peace of mind."
Related services
Envelope work frequently connects to investigation, structural and depreciation services. We coordinate across disciplines internally so your council doesn't have to manage multiple firms.
Not sure if you need envelope consulting or a targeted investigation? Start here. We scope the right service before you commit to either.
Envelope remediation triggers reserve fund updates. We coordinate the engineering assessment with a revised depreciation model when scope changes materially.
For buildings under ten years old, envelope defects documented before warranty expiry are the builder's liability, not the strata's. Don't let the window close.
Next step
Describe what you're seeing: which elevations, how long it's been happening, any photos from the strata file. We'll tell you whether you need an assessment, an investigation, or something else, and give you a fixed-fee quote before you commit.