Can You Restore the Building Envelope in a Downtown Heritage Building?

A building envelope also called the enclosure, fabric, or the building shell is the boundary between the outdoors and the interior of the building structure. The building envelope can and should be restored on a downtown heritage building because it will significantly help with the heating and cooling of the building, and use less energy for heating and cooling.

Energy loss via the building envelope is variable and depends on a few factors such as occupant behaviour, building age, construction technique, climate, and geographical location.

The importance of restoring a building envelope on a downtown heritage building should not be underestimated because cooling and heating factors are important considerations in a building. The building envelope on a downtown heritage building affects the productivity and comfort of the occupants and how the building ages.

Common challenges in any location include leaky windows, uninsulated walls, and leaky roofs. Downtown heritage buildings need a proper building envelope to improve energy efficiency.

Restoring building envelope on a downtown heritage building leads to the following:

• Improved levels of insulation in floors, walls, and roofs to lessen heat losses in cold climates, optimized via life-cycle cost assessment (LCC).
• Excellent window seals with little thermal transmittance for the whole assembly (including edge seals and frames).
• Perfectly sealed structures which ensure lower air infiltration levels.

Many cities have neglected to restore building envelope on downtown heritage buildings. But restoring the building envelope will bring greatly improved energy efficiency in general, and helping any cooling and heating devices operate more efficiently. Building envelopes optimize the interior room temperature and will lower energy costs.

And keeping a heritage building at the correct ambient temperature—without giant swings— will also help to preserve the building.

Westerly Restoration provides building envelope integrity inspections and restoration in Surrey, BC and the entire Greater Vancouver area. If you have any questions about this article or would like to talk to us about building envelopes or restoration, please call us at (778) 881-2877 or use the convenient form on our Contact page.