Buildings 2012, 2(4), 534-541; doi:10.3390/buildings2040534
Case Report

Natatorium Building Enclosure Deterioration Due to Moisture Migration

Lawrence Grahamemail, Mark Scottemail and Aleka Pappas* email
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., 3609 S. Wadsworth Blvd., Ste. 400, Lakewood, CO 80235, USA
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 7 September 2012; in revised form: 28 November 2012 / Accepted: 4 December 2012 / Published: 12 December 2012
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Failures)
PDF Full-text Download PDF Full-Text [1079 KB, uploaded 12 December 2012 08:25 CET]
Abstract: The natatorium enclosure at the Avon Recreation Center in Avon, Colorado experienced significant deterioration of the CMU façade due to moisture carried by humid air from the interior of the space into the wall assembly. This situation was caused by a combination of an insufficient interior air and vapor barrier along with an HVAC system that failed to provide negative pressurization to the space. This case study describes the investigation carried out to determine the causes of wall and roof deterioration at the building, and details the repair efforts undertaken. Lessons learned are presented to help designers, building owners, and maintenance personnel prevent similar problems from occurring in their buildings.
Keywords: CMU deterioration; façade deterioration; natatorium design; humidity control; HVAC pressurization; natatorium pressurization; recreation center

Article Statistics

Click here to load and display the download statistics.

Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Graham, L.; Scott, M.; Pappas, A. Natatorium Building Enclosure Deterioration Due to Moisture Migration. Buildings 2012, 2, 534-541.

AMA Style

Graham L, Scott M, Pappas A. Natatorium Building Enclosure Deterioration Due to Moisture Migration. Buildings. 2012; 2(4):534-541.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Graham, Lawrence; Scott, Mark; Pappas, Aleka. 2012. "Natatorium Building Enclosure Deterioration Due to Moisture Migration." Buildings 2, no. 4: 534-541.

Buildings EISSN 2075-5309 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert