The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has taken the lead in mandating that all new and retrofitted conditioned buildings meet an air tightness metric verified by testing.

Pie Forensic Consultants is the premier large building air barrier testing firm whom has applicable USACE testing and diagnostic experience. Pie staff members regularly speak at USACE energy conferences on building enclosure systems and air barrier testing and diagnostics. When you retain Pie, you will have a USACE proven and qualified vendor.

Competitive Advantages

• Pie has been retained to provide air barrier consultation and/or testing and diagnostic services on over 130 USACE buildings throughout the United States
• Pie accomplished the 1st ever new construction air tightness benchmark testing and diagnostics for the US Army Corps of Engineers newly developed requirement in June 2008 at Ft. Bliss, Texas.
• In December, 2009 Pie successfully organized, tested, and performed diagnostics to the air barrier system on a 329,191 square foot, 4-story USACE dormitory building utilizing 96,000 CFM of portable fan capacity at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.
• Pie was a primary technical consultant to the US Army Corps of Engineers in their development of the air tightness testing protocol, thus ensuring that the testing program will conform to the requirements of your project.

Air Barrier Performance Testing

• Large building fan pressurization testing to identify areas of air infiltration/exfiltration through the enclosure and to provide normalized air-leakage rates.
• Testing equipment, methodology, and personnel qualifications meet the requirements of the new USACE Air Leakage Test Protocol.
• Testing building air tightness in accordance with ASTM E 1827 (2002) and ASTM E 779 (2003).

Diagnostics

• Infrared thermography scanning to diagnose areas of building envelope air leakage, thermal bridges or missing insulation.
• Infrared thermography and smoke tracer diagnostics in accordance with ASTM C 1060 (2003), ASTM 1186 (2003), and ISO 6781:1983.
• Diagnostic programs conforming to USACE protocols and requirements.

Additional Services

• Design development consultation with the design-build team on air barrier assemblies and systems, detailing, and material specifications.
• Technical plan and specification reviews by registered professional engineers to ensure that air barrier components of each assembly as well as joints, interfaces and penetrations are identified and detailed on construction documents.
• Material submittal reviews and mock-up testing services.
• Preconstruction seminars custom tailored for your project to assist contractors and trades on key issues regarding air barrier material installation methods, interfacing, and identify typical leakage areas we encounter.
• Quality assurance field observations during construction identifying typical compliant and non-compliant construction methods.
• Follow-up testing, diagnostics and consultation in the event that the air barrier system fails to meet the required USACE air tightness metric.
• Building Enclosure Commissioning (BECx) to include commissioning the air, moisture, vapor, and thermal barriers, which can qualify for a LEED ID credit.

Applicable Membership Affiliations