0:01

Okay. So this next presentation looks at water tightness. and as we go through, we will start off by
looking at some of the principles affecting water leakage. we'll look at secondary defense systems and
talk about drainage of ventilation, pressure equalization, and detailing of, well, it says detailing of frame
systems will also talk about design of rainscreen systems. So water leakage. if we've got water on the
outside of the building, because it rains, and the water runs down the outside face, it may get into the
building if it runs over openings, in the facade, and there are forces to drive the water through those
openings. If there isn't any water on the outside of the facade, then we won't, have any water leakage.
Um, and there are locations where we might be able to do that. if we seal up the facade or there aren't
any openings, and then water can't get in. but experience says that's quite difficult, and we can control
the forces that are acting on the water. and if we look at what is affecting the flow of water over the
facade and the potential forces driving water into the facade, water, like anything else, is affected by
gravity. and as water, it will flow downwards. we can ensure that it flows downwards and outwards
rather than downwards and inwards.

1:32

, water will have, if it is moving, we'll have kinetic energy. that's why the water will hit the facade in the
first place. It will be coming down, not vertically, but at an angle due to, the effect of wind. and, when it
gets to the building, the air will divert round the building, and the water will tend to carry straight on,
because of its kinetic energy, and it will hit the facade and run down the face. if water drops onto a
horizontal surface and the kinetic energy means it will splash and, potentially splash up onto, adjacent
vertical surfaces.

2:13

, and once the water hits the surface and runs down the surface, it will tend to cling onto the surface due
to the effect of surface tension. If we have a discontinuity in the facade, as the water runs down here, it
will tend to accumulate on this, undersized surface here, due to the effect of surface tension, until the
mass water builds up sufficiently for gravity, to overcome the surface tension and the water can then
carry on down. and if it carries on down at this point, we're okay. But if it tracks in here before dropping
down, it may, gradually get into the building structure. WATER LEAKAGE if we have narrow gaps in the
facade, as the water comes down here onto the surface-by-surface tension, and if this is a narrow gap, it
may bridge this gap, and be held by surface tension both here and here. And it'll be sucked into an a, a, a
narrow gap that won't, cause continual movement of water, because it gets sucked in here. It doesn't
pass out the other side because of the attraction op operating in the opposite direction.

3:26

e) AIR CURRENTS and then if we got air currents causing air to move through the facade, those air
currents moving through the facade may carry small droplets of water, into the building.

3:39

e) PRESSURE DIFFERENCE And, finally, if we have a pressure difference, and we got water on the surface,
that will tend to force the water in so that if we go back to this situation here, and we got water held in a
narrow gap, if we then get a gust of wind that generates a positive pressure out here, it'll tend to push
that water into the building. We might have water, that's sitting on a, on a gasket, and there might be a
joint in the gasket, a small, very small gap that the water isn't actually flowing through. but if the water is
sitting there and we get a, a sudden increase in pressure, this might then force water through that
narrow gap.

4:23

RAINSCREEN WALLS So that gives us an introduction to, the forces acting on water. If we now start
looking at different types of facades, and we can start off with a rain screen wall. and if we concentrate
on the section of the diagram here, we've got our rain screen panels at the front here. Most of the
instant rain will hit those rain screen panels and will run down the face of the building. we've got joints
between the rain screen panels, both in the vertical joints and the horizontal joints. and depending on
the detailing of those joints, some water may get passed. It may be blown through in air currents. it, it,
may be that we got clear open gap on, and, and the kinetic energy of the water as it comes down, carries
it straight through. and, and behind these rain screen panels, we got an air gap.

5:16

, so that water can run down in this air gap. We can put flashings at the bottom of the wall and possibly
at intervals as we come down. So any water running down inside this cavity is drained to the outside.
And that's the basic principle, and we can look at that in a little bit more detail. So, water penetration
resistance of a rain screen wall. the first thing is, does water get into the rain rainscreen cavity? And,
whether water gets into the rainscreen cavity depends on the geometry of the joints. Do we have a clear
gap between the edges of our rainscreen panels? Do we have some sort of overlapping joint, that
minimizes water coming through? Do we actually close, we actually close the joint up or seal the joint to
make it not more difficult for water to get through.

6:03

, and we'll come back to requirements of the joint in a minute. the other thing we can do to minimize
water entering the joint is to pressure equalize the cavity. And what we mean there is we try and
maintain the air pressure within the rainscreen cavity as close to the external, wind pressure as possible
so that if we have any water that's running down the face of the rainscreen, there isn't a pressure
difference that's driving it into the cavity. I, I, again, will explain that in a little bit more detail how we
would go about pressure equalizing the committee. But I've made a note there that that's not a common
procedure. We don't commonly do that within the UK. people widely talk about pressure requires rain
screens, but we have some rules in our standard, and they're not generally followed.

6:58

, if water gets into the rainscreen cavity, the next question is, will it simply run down the cavity and be
drained away, or will it cross the cavity and wet the air barrier, the back wall of our rain screen? and we
can minimize, the amount of water that reaches the back wall by increasing the width of the cavity, and
ensuring the effective removal of water. when water runs down the cavity, can it run down over several
floors before it's finally discharged? or, or is it discharged at each floor level? And clearly if we remove it
more frequently, there's less water in the cavity, less chance of it getting across onto the back wall. and
then, and then we can put a waterproof layer on the face of the back wall, so that if water does get as
far as the back wall, it doesn't penetrate any further. and in most cases, we will do that in some form or
another. the water we have in the cavity, we need to remove it. and we can remove that by a
combination of drainage, and ventilation.

8:11

DRAINED-AND-VENTILATED So taking those principles on board, we have two types of rain screen,
Philosophically, we can have a drained of ventilated drain screen, or we can have a pressure equalized
rain screen with a drained of ventilated rat rain screen. The minimum requirement is to have a
ventilation opening at the top of the cavity and a drainage opening at the bottom of the cavity so that
any water that gets into the cavity through any of the joints in the rain screen will run down under
gravity and eventually find its way out through the drainage opening.
8:46

And if we get significant quantities of liquid water, then gravity will cause that to happen. But if we get a
few drops of water, of water here and there, we have horizontal ledges in the cavity, some water may
not drain away and we've got water remaining in the cavity. and that is removed by ventilation. and the
idea there is that the water will evaporate into the air in the cavity and if the cavity was sealed, so we
have stagnant air, and there's a limited amount of water that it can, can evaporate before the air
becomes saturated. But if we replace the air in the cavity with fresh air from outside, then, then the
moisture is removed from by the humid air moving outside, and we get dry air coming into the cavity,
allowing more water to evaporate.

9:38

, and to do that, we encourage a flow of air through the cavity, which is why we need to have openings
at the bottom and top of the cavity. they're widely spaced, and we might get a flow of air generated
either by stack effects or, or by, air pressure variations. In terms of wind pressure. We may get a gust of
wind that is, gives a higher pressure down here than up here. So it forces air in there, goes up through
the cavity, and comes out in the top. We may get a gust that's higher up here and forces air in here. and
it comes out at the bottom. And either way, we are getting an exchange of air between the outside and
inside. and, and if we have still conditions, we don't have any air movements due to wind effects, we
might have, a sunny day and the rain screen warms up, it causes the air in the cavity to warm up. It
becomes more buoyant, it rises up, comes out the ventilation opening and sucks in fresh air at the
bottom. So that's the basis of a drain and ventilator drain screen. As I said, the minimum requirement is a
drainage opening at the bottom and a ventilation opening at the top. we may have further openings, up
the height of the wall due to the joints between the rain screen panels. and we may drain the water out
at intervals as we come down the building, by putting flashings at intervals.

11:09

DRAINAGE So I got some notes there about, um, drainage, and I think that's fairly obvious, and I've
talked about the general, general principles there. it says openings of sufficient size. in our standard, we
talk about having openings at least six millimeters wide to allow free flow of water, through the openings
VENTILATION. We've talked about the principles there. Um, and, again, it says sufficient size openings,
clearly openings at a sufficient size to, let, water get through, we'll let air get through.
11:53

PRESSURE-EQUALISED And we then move on to pressure equalized rain screens. And people talk about
this, although, in our experience as seldom, constructed in this way in, in the UK. So with a pressure
equalized rain screen, the idea is that we have a, rain rainscreen cavity. When the wind blows, we
increase the pressure outside air moves into the rainscreen cavity, and we put compartment barriers in
the rainscreen cavity. So all the air going into this joint is trapped in this zone here. And as we force air
in, we build up a pressure inside the cavity that will equal equally outside pressure. so we need to have a
vent opening to the outside, and we need to have cavity barriers, to create a sealed compartment.
PRESSURE EQUALISATION IF CAVITIES And we can look at that here. we, we, if we take a wind pressure
outside, and if we were to generate a pressure of 2000 pa, a fairly high wind load, we balance that with a
pressure inside the rainscreen cavity. whilst we think that, that's a big change in pressure, it's changed
from nothing to 2000 pa. It's actually a relatively small change in pressure because our basic atmospheric
pressure is a hundred thousand pa. So that's a 2% change in pressure. and if we force 2% more air into
the rainscreen cavity, we would generate that pressure.

13:28

LARGE ENOUGH OPENINGS So we need to have an opening between the, cavity and outside to let air get
in as the gust of wind builds up. TIGHT ENOUGH AIR BARRIER and that's not generally a problem
because we've, left o openings in in our rain screen. We have open joint and rain screens. we've said that
we want joints to be at least six millimeters wide to, let any water drain freely outer the cavity. We need
to make sure that any air that enters the cavity doesn't pass through and enter into the building. And
that's not generally an issue because we have requirements that our buildings are airtight until we make
the inner layer of, of the rain screen cavity and airtight layer.

14:14

COMPARTMENTED CAVITIES But then we need to have, our cavity split into compartments. and that
does create extra work for the construction of the wall. VERTICAL CAVITY CLOSERS and we have set
some rules within our standard. we've said that we should have vertical cavity closers, six meter intervals
along the length of the wall, and at one and a half meters, centers within six meters of a corner and
horizontal closers, at each story height, and one and a half meters down from the top of a parapet. and
constructing vertical cavity closers can be relatively straightforward because we can, seal, between the
back wall and the back of the rain screen panel. Um, and it doesn't interfere with other aspects of the
wall. But horizontal cavity closers, create more of a problem, because if we close the cavity with a
horizontal barrier, it, prevents drainage and ventilation. and therefore we need to have a flashing at that
location to drain any water outer the cavity. and if we have a flashing that's draining water outer the
cavity, it will probably be visible on the outer face of the rain screen, and it may interfere with the
aesthetics of the building.

15:34

So, whilst we can do a pressure equalized rain screen, we have some rules within our, standard about
the size of the joints, about the number of joints. we have these rules about cavity barriers, which
creates extra work. And, as I say, most rain screens are built as a drained of ventilated, rainscreen wall.
PANELS JOINTS I talked about the panel joints and how they will affect the amount of water that gets
into the rainscreen cavity. within our standard, we say that if we've got closed joints, we've got
rainscreen panels and we've got, joints between panels where there a design gap between the, between
the panels there in contact or, then, we need to have a cavity behind the rain screen panels here,
minimum air gap distance of 25 millimeters, to whatever is behind here. The normally the face of the
insulation. and it, we can have systems where we actually sealed joints. and, and again, we'd have that
requirement for a 25 millimeter gap

16:46

If we have what are referred to as labyrinth joints. there is now a continuous air path through the joint.
but it's a tortuous path. It's going round corners. that means we can get air movement through that
joint. but we will limit the amount of water that gets through. Some water may get through. But if we're
carrying drops of water through on an air current running through here, the air can go round the corners.
the water, because it is heavier, will tend to carry, carry straight on, be intercepted by this up stand and
can then drain out of the cavity.

17:22

Um,

17:25

We would hope that this gap is wide enough so water doesn't get held in that gap by cap reaction. but if
it were to be he held, we would hope that this upstanding is sufficient and we don't generate enough
pressure on the outside to force the water in, in that way. but because we have got a clear path through
the joint, we could get more water getting through, getting through in this situation, than with a closed
or sealed joint. We've increased the recommended air gap to 38 millimeters,

18:03

And we move on and we talk about a baffled joint, which is geometrically, similar to a labyrinth joint.
There is an air path through the joint, but it is a tortuous path, running round corners. it will tend to,
reduce the amount of water that can be blown through, but it's formed by, incorporating a baffle into
the joint rather than simply, forming the edges of the panel, to, to form the, shape of the joint. And
finally, we can have an open joint. we can have a square edge panel and simply a small gap between the
adjacent panels, that will provide even less resistance to water penetration. and there we say we should
have an air gap of 50 millimeters behind the rain screen panels,

18:57

Oh, sorry, if I go back here, I should make the point that this is stated as being a minimum air gap,
minimum gap of 38 millimeters, that is stated in the standard as being the minimum we achieve on site,
so that we should really be specifying something more like 50 millimeters, to allow for, tolerances on site
to ensure that we can achieve the 38 millimeters. so we need to take that into account. And, and then
we have, another rule that says that if we have, a, horizontal rail or other local obstruction, we can
reduce the, air gap locally, by 50%. So if we were to have a horizontal rail that is, reducing the vertical
drainage path, we could reduce this 38 millimeters to 19-20 millimeters.

20:00

WATERPROOF MEMBRANES Um, now I said that we commonly have a waterproof membrane within a
rain screen. commonly that is a breather membrane. there are membranes on the market that are
marketed as breather membranes, which are designed to prevent the passage of liquid water, would
allow water vapor to pass through. we should note that, most of these materials are affected by UV light,
so that if they're in a cavity and we have open joints, which allow UV to pass through, the membrane
may be degraded over time. and most of them are combustible, although there are some materials
coming onto the market that claim to have limited combustibility. and, we have limits now on the
combustibility of materials. We can, we can use membranes aren't required to be non-combustible, but
they are required to have, um, in many cases, past Euro, class B, and many membranes don't meet that
class, but some do. So when we are selecting a membrane, we need to think about the combustibility of
the material,
21:17

And we can have foil faced insulation. and the foil facing clearly provides a water resisting layer. We
need to tape up the joints, and I can just about believe we can, tape up the joints between boards. Um,
but we have penetrations for the brackets and, and that is a little bit more optimistic. Um, and again, the
effectiveness of that will be dependent on taping up joint properly. and if we have foil facing, the foil
facing is likely to be, vapor impermeable so that it may be trapping moisture vapor, that's trying to
escape. and simply perforating a foil layer doesn't necessarily give the same effect as having a proper
breathable membrane. we might, use a vapor tight membrane like polyethylene or EPDM to prevent
water getting through. but we need to be aware of the fact that those membranes are vapor tight, and if
they're placed in the wrong place, they may be trapping moisture vapor and introducing a condensation
problem. And again, most of those will be, well, polyethylene, and EPDM are combustible materials.

22:36

WATERPROOF MEMBRANE So if we're going to put in a waterproof membrane, where are we going to
put it? the ideal location we might think of as being here on the face of the insulation. It's at the back of
the, air gap. so any water coming through will be intercepted by the membrane. Um, and it protects the
insulation. but there are drawbacks to doing that. on the drawing it might look fairly straightforward. We
got a, plain surface there that we can put our membrane. But when we apply a membrane at that point,
we've got the insulation in place. We will have brackets penetrating through the insulation ready to pick
up the rails for the, rain screen. And therefore we need to cut holes in the membrane, to slide over those
bracket penetrations. And then we have to try and seal them up.

23:27

, so there's it difficulties of in installing it. A membrane at that point, needs to be vapor permeable,
breathable so that any vapor that's coming through the wall can continue and escape. as I said before, a
membrane at this location may be affected by UV light coming through. any gaps in the rain screen
panels, and a membrane at that point, we need to think carefully about the combustibility of the
material. Um, if we put the membrane in an alternative position here, and we have a combustible
membrane here, between a non-combustible insulation and a non-combustible back wall construction,
the combustible membrane is unlikely to spread fire. whereas a membrane at this location, may have a
greater contribution to fire spread, so that if we have a membrane that is permissible but still
combustible, it might be preferable to put it in this location.
24:28

So our alternative position for the membrane is here. it's a easier location for installation because we are
likely to have a flat surface. We can fix the membrane too. admittedly, when we come to fix the brackets
for the rain screen system, we will penetrate the membrane. but we can see around those, as we clamp
the bracket onto the substrate, we will tend to, be causing a natural seal around those penetrations. we
need to make sure if we put the membrane here, that the insulation isn't going to be harmed by any
water in the cavity. And there are, membrane, are insulation materials available, mineral installations
and foam plastics that are, claim to be acceptable in that location. Mineral wall installations that are
treated with water repellants to make them suitable in that location.

25:27

, and in potentially we may be able to put a single membrane here that prevents liquid water coming
out, prevents, vapor coming out, and also creates an air barrier. At this point. I say maybe, because it
depends on what we put within the back wall here. if this is a framed back wall where nothing, no
insulation in the back wall, then putting a vapor type membrane at this point may be acceptable. But as
soon as we start putting insulation in this location, we make this a colder surface, which means that any
moisture vapor coming through here is more likely to condense at this point. And that might mean we
need to move the, vapor control there. Back here.

26:16

PRACTICAL DETAILING looking at a couple of examples. We've got a rain screen here, rain screen up
here. We've got a window opening. and, if we think about it, water hitting the rain screen, running down
the face here. Ideally, we would have some drip detail here. So water running down here, would drip at
that point and carry on running down. Um, we think that we can get away without that these days. So
we, we just got a clearly bent over, panel here with a horizontal surface. if this is truly horizontal, the
water may remain at this point and drip here, but it may track down, if it is shown as being horizontal.
And there's a lot of these openings, in some cases, the, um,

27:03

Soffit surface here may rise up slightly and actually incidentally cause a drip feature at this point, but in
other cases, it may slope down, which will encourage water to track along the underside until it gets to
this joint here. In this case, we've got a sealant joint between the head of the window and, this soffit
panel. and that's probably not a terribly robust, sealant joint. and, we would want some means of
drainage of water, that gets past that joint. And it's not quite clear how that will be done here. we say we
might get some rain or water in this rain screen cavity. So we should have some means of draining this,
this area. There should be some weep holes in the underside of here somewhere to allow water to
escape. we have got a membrane running down here behind the insulation, tied to the, head of the
window. Um, but I'll say it's not quite clear how we would drain water that gets into that zone.

28:08

PRACTICAL DETAILING 2 Um, if we look at this one, it is a, improved design. We don't have a drip detail
as such here, but our soffit panel runs up here. And then there's an up stand here. so any water that
reaches this surface as it can run back along here, but it has to drip before it actually gets as far as the
window. and this panel here is a little bit below the head of that window. So, this junction here between
the, membrane coming down here and the top of the window is protected somewhat from, any water
coming through. We have a weep hole here so that any water that comes down in this stone here can
drain out there. we have a gap here, so any water that's running down the face of the back wall, can run
down here and escape from the cavity.

29:00

, the one thing that we need to be a little bit cautious of here, as it says here that we've got an EP DM
membrane here, that's providing a seal between the e edge of the concrete floor and the head of the
window. and that will, potentially be providing the air barrier. it will, prevent water coming through, but
it is on the cold side of this insulation. And if there is any moisture vapor coming through here trying to
escape, it's likely to be trapped by that membrane. and we might improve that detail by taking this
EPDM membrane around the back of this insulation, and sealing it to sealing it to the inside of the
window here. That will maintain air barrier across here. it will create a vapor control layer on the cold, on
the warm side of the insulation. And we might then have a breathable membrane coming down here, so
that any water that's coming down gets behind the insulation, comes down here and drains out of the
system.

30:06

WEATHERTIGHTNESS OF WINDOWS If we move on to windows, we have three options here. We've got
a front sealed system, we've got a drained ventilated system, we've got a pressure equalized system. we
always used to design our windows as front sealed. we used to have a window frame and sealed the
glass into it with potty. we've moved on to glazing beads, and we could have a front sealed system with
gasket seals. and when we had single glazing and we had, front seal systems with potty, if there was any
water leakage, slightly tongue in cheek, we probably didn't notice too much because with single glazing,
we had a lot of condensation on the inside of the glass. we would get water running down from
condensation. We would get puddles on the windowsill. we'd be careful what we left on the windowsill
as a result.

31:00

, and, a small amount of leakage probably didn't cause us a great deal of additional problem. now we
have glazing units. It reduces the amount of condensation. If we get condensation on the window. We
don't expect to get it sufficient condensation, to form puddles on the window sill. and if we get water
coming through, due to water leakage, we, notice it and we complain. in addition to that, because we've
got a glazing unit with seals here, not only are we concerned about water getting into the inside of the
building, we are concerned about water getting into this zone here. Because if water gets into this zone
and it's trapped for long periods of time, it will cause the seals around our glazing unit to break down.
We'll get moisture vapor getting into the glazing unit cavity, and then that will condense and missed up,
and, cause further degradation of the glazing unit.

31:59

Drained and ventilated an experience tells us that whilst we can have gasket seals that work, getting
them to be reliable over long periods of time is difficult. and to guard against having water trapped in
this zone or penetrating to the inside of the building, the solution obvious solution is to drill a drainage
hole here. So any water that gets in here, drains to the outside isn't trapped for long periods of time, and
it doesn't penetrate to the inside of the building. And we can have a drainage opening and we can put a
cover cap over the face of it so water doesn't get blown straight in. and it still allows the water to drain
out. and, and that may be sufficient, simply to have drainage holes to provide drainage. we might go a
stage further, and have, ventilation holes at the top of the window, so that air can move in here, can
move around the glazing re rebate and come out to the top or, or move in the opposite direction. and
that allows any, moisture that was in the, glazing rebate to evaporate and be removed from the window
frame.

33:08
Pressure equalized Now, if we put a opening in here to let any water drain out, if we get a gust of wind
out here, that generates a pressure, and we've suggested here a pressure of 300 pa air will move into
this, glazing rebate. and if this is a seal cavity, that air that's moving in will create a pressure in here
potentially causing pressure equalization or the pressure in here to equal the outside pressure. So that
means that any water running down here, running down over any gaskets, if there are any, weaknesses
in this gasket seal, it doesn't quite meet in places. we've removed the pressure difference that might be
forcing water through those gaps and in into the glazing rebate.

33:55

Clearly, if we've got air moving in here, generating a pressure in here, there's now a potential pressure
difference between this glazing rebate and the inside of the building. And if we want to make our seals
airtight to create an airtight environment, we need to make sure that these are effective air seals. we've
got a gasket and that we would expect to be a seal. We've got a clip in bead. We may need to think
about having a bead of sealant along here before we clip the bead in, to improve the seal. commonly
that's done along the bottom of the window because if we get any water leakage through there, it'll be
noticeable. it tends not to be done on the, up the side and across the top, because we're unlikely to get
water leakage in those locations. and air leakage isn't visible and, and, seen, up the sides, we may extend
it up the side for a short distance. So we have those three options for our window frame. And, this
pressure equalization design relies on this being a sealed cavity. Any air getting in here, being unable to
escape. and with most windows, we have a perimeter frame around the window that is continuous and
provides a continuous seal to prevent the escape of any air getting into the glazing rebate,

35:24

Drainage Recommendations points there. drainage recommendation, six millimeter diameter, sorry, six
millimeter clearance between the glass and the frame so that any water that gets in can drain away
freely, rather held by surface tension effects, eight or 10 millimeter diameter holes, for drainage to allow
the water to escape. or we can have, five millimeter wide slots, for drainage. Um, and, the flow of water
through any drainage openings depends on the width of the opening and the amount of perimeter
rather than just the area. So having a lot of small holes doesn't necessarily, equate to having a single slot.
PRESSURE EQUALISATION so pressure equalization, we need to make sure that the inner seal is, is
continuous all, all the way around. And the outer seal, keeps as much water as possible out. and we've
got a compartment, as I say, most windows systems that will be a natural feature, of the way it is
constructed.
36:35

, we need openings to the exterior for each compartment, to allow the air to get in.
WEATHERTIGHTNESS OF WINDOWS now previously we saw a drainage opening in the face of the
window frame where it is clearly visible and we can see the openings are there. we could have a system
where we have a window and we sit, sit this window on a windowsill, possibly a seal coming down here.
And we leave a small gap between the underside of the frame here and the seal to allow water to come
vertically down and out the front. and if we do that, we need to make sure that we leave this gap here
for drainage. We don't seal it up, or at least we allow sufficient openings in the seal, to allow any water
to escape. we may have a system where we have a window and it sits into a curtain wall frame and the
water drains outer the window frame, into the curtain wall frame before being drained out of the,
overall system. FACE-SEALED CURTAIN WALLS Moving on to curtain walls, we can have a face sealed
curtain wall where we're totally reliant on the gasket seals here, being a hundred percent reliable.

37:52

Um, we don't generally use, face sealed systems for capped curtain wall glazing these days. we generally
have drainage and ventilation or pressure equalization of, this glazing rebate. and we'll talk about how
that is achieved in a minute. some or many toggle glaze systems do rely on having the, effectively a face
sealed system with toggle glaze systems, we've got the glazing units held in, with toggles into the
channels within the, um, edge seal of the glazing unit. We then have, a weather type seal between the
edges of the glass of adjacent paints of glass. We are reliant on sealants there. and that can be, an
exceptional way of construction, with, with sealants. If, we apply the sealant, we can carry it hose testing
to make sure that the seals are working. if there are any defects, we can, replace the sealants locally. So
many toggle glaze systems have minimal drainage or a totally face sealed. and if we have things like,
bolted glazing, off, often that is going to rely on, sealants between the glazing units and, and being a face
sealed system rather than a drained system.

39:24

FIELD/ZONE DRAINAGE So if we have drained systems, we have different ways in which these are
described. We may have systems that are described as field or zoned drainage. and what that means is
the rebate around each glazing unit is drained separately. So we've got that shown schematically. We've
got our curtain wall grid, glazing rebate around. This glazing unit is being drained by openings in the
transom here and here. Similarly, this one drained by these openings, this glazing the rebate round, this
glazing unit drained here and here, and so forth. Um, if we're gonna have a field or zone drained system,
then we've got to make sure there is a seal here, to separate the glazing rebate here from the glazing
rebate below. Otherwise, water in here can simply run down the Mullin rather than being drained out
the face as we've got there. Um, now we can have drainage openings in the transom as shown there.
alternatively, we can, make this ceiling piece that is sealing, between the transom and the mullion at this
location. We can make that in to double up as a drainage spout to pass through the pressure plate, and
discharge water, into the, cavity between the pressure plate and the cover cap.

40:58

Now, if we have openings here, to allow drainage of this, um, glazing rebate, and this glazing rebate is
separated from the one above, the one below, the one either side, as it will be by, these nosing details
and these seals in the corner. then we can have a pressure equalized system. Water can drain outer
these openings, but when we get a gust of wind, air will move in and pressurize that glazing rebate or
minimize the amount of water, that gets past any gaskets.

41:33

, if we have, a system where this, this seal here doubles up as a drainage spout to, drain water into the
cavity between, the, pressure plate and, and the cover cap, then, then, we might get some effect of
pressure equalization, but we won't get full pressure equalization because the glazing rebate here is only
getting air moving up. This, mullion from the top or the bottom where there is an opening, it to that
cavity between the cover cap, and, and the pressure plate. Whereas the, the, these openings are very
close to this zone, we will get a better pressure equalization. DRAINAGE AND VENTILATION So drainage
ventilation, I talked about openings in the transom. if we've got, an opening in, we'd have an opening in
the top half of the pressure plate here to drain this, glazing rebate. Water can then flow out here, run
down here, and then we need another opening here, to let the water drain vertically downwards. So that
gives us a drainage path. so any water that's in here can drain out through that way we can let air get in
there for ventilation. and then we would need air to be able to get into the into the top of the glazing
rebate. And we would again, do that with holes coming through here, and into the bottom half of the
pressure plate.

43:14

DRAINAGE AND VENTILATION So we've got our drainage slots in the top of the pressure plate here to
allow drainage. We've got ventilation holes in the bottom half of the pressure plate there to allow
ventilation air can move in here, can move around here and come out the, the top here. And we want
these holes staggered from these holes so we don't get water, coming outer that drainage opening,
running down the pressure plate and going in through the, ventilation holes below.

43:50

TRANSOM DRAINAGE EXAMPLE and the details that we require will depend on the system. we've got
some details for a particular system here. we've got a drainage opening in the top of the pressure plate
there. We've got a ventilation opening in the bottom of the pressure plate there. We've got this, near
running along here on the, pressure plate that, allows our cover cap to clip on. we've removed that
locally. So where we are trying to drain water vertically downwards, we've got our hole in the underside
of the cover cap there that will go in this location. PRESSURE EQUALISATION for pressure equalization,
we need to separate this glazing rebate from this glazing rebate, and we get a natural separation down
here from the nosing of the framing member and our thermal break. PRESSURE EQUALISATION we've
got that effect on both the, mullion and the transom. but at this point here, we need an air seal, to
separate this cavity, from this cavity. we said that we needed to do that anyway if we want to have zone
drainage and make sure that this, cavity is drained separately from this cavity. and it naturally, leads to
having a pressure equalized, glazing rebate.

45:18

TOTAL/MULLION DRAINAGE The alternative to, zone drainage is to have total or mullion drainage, and
the drainage path here. we've got, a glazing rebate around here. Any water that settles on this transom is
required to drain to the end of the transom. and then down the mullion, it can drain down the mullion,
within, the glazing rebate. and at intervals we can have a drainage spout, that will take the water and
shove it into the cavity between the pressure plate, and the, cover cap. And we would generally put a
drainage spout above a joint in the Mullion. And clearly any water running down in this, glazing rebate
when you get to a joint in, in the Mullion, that's a potential weakness for water to get into the system. so
we want to remove the water above those potential weaknesses, in, in the, in the Mullion channel. So
down the mullion within the glazing rebate out the mullion rebate, above the mullion joints. and then it
can continue down, the, in the cavity between the pressure plate and the, cover cap. and if we drain,
drain it in this way, we are unlikely to get, pressure equalization. we can, only get air moving in, into the
cavities from, discreet points, fair distance away from the, the, the rebates.

46:56
DRAINAGE THROUGH MULLIONS Um, if we're draining through mullions, we are relying on any water in
this transom being able to run along the length of the transom. notionally, this is a horizontal, framing
member, but it may be, sagging slightly due to the vertical loads. Um, we may have a continuous path
running along here, but we may have breaks in this path because we have, cut the, thermal break to
insert, glass supports. if we've got small glazing units, we have a, a, a fairly lightweight, clip in, ledge to
support the glazing unit, but heavier glazing units, we need to screw something into the nosing that
creates a break in the, um, the, the thermal break. and we may then need to seal between the thermal
break and the glass support. so water will continue to, to run along till it gets to the mullion. and, when
we get to our glass support, we need to make sure that the system does allow water to get past. There is
a clear drainage path. It increases the length of the drainage path. it makes it a little bit more optimistic.
It makes it unlikely to achieve full pressure equalization.

48:18

PERFORMANCE Now, different curtain wall systems require different installation methods and
procedures to achieve the stated performance. What I've talked about is the general principles of, zone
drainage, mullion drainage, pressure equalization, drain of ventilated systems. Um, I should perhaps go
back to, th this, sorry, going back here (TOTAL/MULLION – DRAINAGE). commonly with this
arrangement, we would have an upside down, drainage spout at the top of the mullion here. So there is
a ventilation opening into the, glazing rebate at, at the top and, and drainage down at intervals as we go
down, to allow some movement of air within the glazing rebate.

49:07

BACK TO PERFORMANCE So different curtain wall systems require different installation methods and
procedures, how we install those drainage spouts, the sealants we need to, to use to install them and so
on. we may need to put some sealant, around the pressure plate screws, to give a good seal. We may
have rubber grommets that go, over the prep, precious blank screws. we may have butyl tapes between
the edges of the glass units to provide an additional seal before we apply the pressure plate. internal
clipping bead may need to be sealed. I talked about that in relation to windows, the Mullion transom
joint. We have different ceiling pieces that need to go in there, or wet applied seals that need to be
applied before we assemble, the system. MULLON TO TRANSOM JOINT we can look at one or two of
those details here. need possibly, we need to put some sealant on, on this hole before we put the fixing
screw through, putting sealant round here before we push the transom up against it. Or we may have a
rubber ceiling piece that goes on this face. before the system is assembled.
50:21

MULLON TO TRANSOM JOINT 2 we may have a rubber ceiling piece put on the end of this, pressure,
pressure plate for the transom. or, or we may need to put a be of sealant running down here. and, and
all those details will come from the supplier's manuals. so we need to have that information available on
site so we can check that, things are being installed correctly. ROOF GLAZING If we go to roof glazing,
um, drainage out of a transom, is, is not possible. The transom is tilted back, so water isn't gonna come
out the front of the transom. We need to rely on draining water along the length of the transom, and
then into the mullion or rafter, and then down the slope of the, rafter. we may have requirements for,
bedding, gaskets in, in, in sealant for putting sealant, round fixing screws.

51:20

If we have those requirements for sealant, we need to make sure that we have sufficient sealant to do
the job of providing a seal, but we don't have so much sealant that it squeezes out and blocks our
drainage channels. and clearly we need to make sure that we have, screws in all the appropriate fixing
holes. for a, slope glazing system, it is going to be preferable to have a detail here where the end of the
transom overlaps the rafter. So any water in this channel will drop down here and, and drop into this
drainage channel and go down rather than having something that butts up against the side of the rafter.
and there's a then a joint or which could open up to form a gap that allows the water to come down this
drainage channel and then seep through down the side of the rafter.

52:16

ROOF GLAZING 2 with roof glazing systems, we can have a capped system. We've got some potential
seals here. if it is sloping down in this direction, as the water comes down the slope and hits this, cover
cap on the transverse member, this will impede the drainage running down the slope. We might
minimize the obstruction by chamfering this cover cap, and it doesn't totally, avoid the issue. we can
have, pressure plates stopped a little bit short of the pressure plate in the, rafter with a stop end here to
provide a small drainage channel to allow water to drain down that edge there. we've got our gaskets
under this pressure plate, and we can have a gap on the downstream side, so that we expect that this
uphill gasket to stop any water getting under the pressure plate. And if any water does get under the
pressure plate coming down the slope, it has a means of draining out. and then we've got, butyl tapes
here, that are going onto the edges of the glass. So any water that gets past these gaskets will tend to
continue down the slope, rather than dropping in between the glazing units and getting into the glazing
rebate.

53:38

, now we can avoid this obstruction form by this, pressure plate and, and cover cap, by having a toggle
glazed arrangement. and we could have the toggle glazed arraignment just for the transoms and have
the pressure plate on the rafters if, if we wanted to. but if we got our toggles here that's clamping the
glass in into the system, we put a sealant in here between this glass pane and this glass pane. We now
allow the water to run down that surface, without interruption. and we don't have anything that's
penetrating that seal. although we've got a butyl tape here, when we put a fixing screw for the pressure
plate through, we are going to potentially disrupt that, butyl tape, where, where, whereas here, we have
nothing that's coming through that ceiling. UNITISED CURTAIN WALL Final few slides look at a unitized
curtain wall system. We've got a unitized curtain wall system here. We've got a joint here between the
top of one unit and the bottom of the next unit up. and then we've got a joint here between, the glazing.
This channel is illustrating where the glazing would go. We've got an in a gasket and out to gasket there.
So we've got to seal all that joint there, and we've got to seal all that joint there.

55:07

UNITISED CURTAIN WALL – HORIZONTAL GASKETS And looking at in section here, we've got the joint
where the glazing is sealed into the frame of the unitized curtain wall. we've got a gasket seal. We hope
that gives us a good seal. but we have got a drainage opening drilled down through here, so any water in
this glazing rebate can drain through into the cavity between the two halves of the unitized frame. Then
we've got a drainage opening here that allows the water to drain away, to the outside. and we've got a
ventilation opening drilled up in here, into the head of the, glazing rebate. So that deals with the ceiling
of the glazing into the, curtain wall frame as far as the joint between the two halves of the curtain wall
frame, we've got a gasket here. We've got a gasket here, and we've got a gasket here. And in this zone
here, we've got a small, ceiling piece, which is this piece here, that is just local to the, joint between one
frame and another. So any water that gets to this level, can be intercepted at this level and drained to
the outside rather than continuing to down, within the curtain wall system.

56:28

, this seal here, the, these seals in the horizontal joint would generally be continuous over a run of units.
at this point here, we would also have a vertical, gasket, a similar type in the vertical joint. the vertical
gasket would be just a story height section. So this is, continuous over, a, a run of curtain walling. and
then we've got vertical gasket coming down here, and running down there. and probably some sealant
between the cut end of the gasket and, and the horizontal gasket.

57:06

, at this point here, we've got a vertical gasket coming down here, and it's coming down in front of the up
stand of this gasket. So if this gasket is intercepting any water coming through this way, it runs down the
face of the gasket, it lands in front of that up stand, and then it can be held here and drained down,
through those drainage openings. So we hope that provides a, a main seal against water ingress. We've
got a secondary seal at that point with drainage provision in this cavity. we've got a third line of seals
here with gaskets at the back. Again, this is the horizontal gasket. We'd also have vertical gaskets, in the
vertical joints at that point.

57:52

, and then if we were to get any water in this zone here, if it does penetrate for any reason, we've got a
drainage opening there that allows it to get out this unit into the gap, (SONRAKI SLIDE) between the two
halves of the vertical, mullion. So that would be coming into this zone here. Any water that gets in here
runs down under gravity. We have a deflector plate here that pushes it to the side. There's a deflector
plate below that catches it and brings it close into this, the wall of this, section of the, of the mullion.
these deflector plates, they're sloped from side to side. They're sloped from back to front. so the water is
channeled towards the front. and then there's a drainage opening, at the front into the cavity in here.
and then it goes to the outside. and because we've got a means of air, of water getting out through from
here to the outside, this will provide our, our final air seal to prevent air getting, from the outside
through to the inside of the building.

59:01

SUMMARY So in summary, water leakage, one of the main causes of facade failure. it's a noticeable
cause of failure, and if we get water leaking in, we can see it. Um, if we get air leakage, it may cause a
draft or it may, may be dispersed over a large area and not so noticeable. if the, insulation isn't quite up
to scratch, we perhaps not sure whether that's because the heating system isn't good enough or, or, or
there's excess heat, heat leakage. but certainly water leakage will be noticeable. we can have secondary
defense systems that provide a more robust solution, and we widely use those. we need to be aware
that if we've got secondary defense systems, we may have holes in the outside of the facade that are
there to let water out. and therefore we need to be ma careful that we don't, seal them up in any way,
either by blocking drainage channels or, or deliberately seeing an opening and think it needs to be
sealed. and when we come to erect any curtain wall system, we need to take account of this specific
details of the way that system goes together, from the instruction manuals. and that's the, end of this
presentation on, water tightness of, our wall systems.