Preserving Historical Buildings: The Role of Building Envelope Restoration

Not everyone understands the role of a building envelope or its particular importance. In today’s blog article we would like to discuss this role, and why restoring the building envelope is critical when restoring historical buildings.

The Role of the Envelope

The building envelope is what separates a building’s inside from the outside elements. Every part of the building that separates the two parts including the roof, the wall and exterior cladding, doors, and windows make up the envelope.

The envelope keep the cold air out in the winter and the hot air out in the summer. It prevents water and snow and ice from entering from the outside. In other words, the envelope protects the building. However, it also regulates the interior air quality by allowing air movement and fresh air to come inside. So, the envelope plays a major role in a building’s insulation and energy efficiency.

Integrity

In addition to all of the above, the building envelope is visible to the outside. That means when restoring the envelope in a historical building, the utmost care must be taken to respect how the building is supposed to look. In some cases, original materials can be replaced with new, in other cases, newer energy efficient materials should be used, but they have to preserve the integrity of how the building is supposed to look.

This is the balancing act that the company performing the restoration is preoccupied with. How is the finished and restored building supposed to look, and are there any local or jurisdictional requirements that have to be met with the finished product. At the same time, the building envelope needs to work efficiently and any leaks need to be addressed. Air needs to move in and out of the building as needed for the high quality air desired inside.

For all of these reasons it is very important to use a building restoration company with long experience and expertise, companies like ours, Westerly Restoration.

We are experts on building envelope restoration and would be happy to discuss your project with you. We do both residential and commercial projects. Please feel free to contact us at (778) 881-2877. 

Westerly Restoration provides building envelope and restoration services in Vancouver, BC, and throughout the lower mainland.

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.