Engineering Sciences Building

West Virginia University, Engineering Sciences Building

The Engineering Sciences Building is an 11-story academic structure that houses classrooms, offices, and research space.  The brick veneer façade experienced distress and was displaced at numerous locations around the building.

WDP was retained to perform an investigation of the problems reported in the facility and provide repair/replacement recommendations. The primary focus of the evaluation was to determine the cause of the problems and the immediate repairs needed to stabilize the façade, while also determining potential options to replace the entire façade. The work generally consisted of:

  • A survey of the exterior façade at floor levels to document displacement of exterior brick and corresponding interior clay-facing tile.
  • General review of the conditions of the exterior masonry, mortar joints, counter flashing, and sealants.
  • A survey of the existing masonry bonded headers to determine the extent to which failure occurred. This involved a combination of nondestructive testing and exploratory openings to document the condition of bonded masonry headers.
  • Exploratory openings at the steel spandrel beams to review the condition of the steel plates supporting the exterior glazed brick wythe and the spandrel beams as well as assessment of the masonry flashing and collection of material samples for asbestos and lead content analysis.
  • Exploratory openings to verify the condition of the inner structural clay tile wythe.

Development of a full condition assessment report along with repair recommendations and detailed cost estimates for each priority of repair.

  • Condition Assessment
  • Document Review
  • Masonry Investigation, Analysis & Review
  • Water Infiltration Investigation/ Waterproofing Repair
  • Development of Construction Documents
  • Value Management
  • Hygrothermal Analysis