BUILDING ENCLOSURE LABS INC.
A client-focused laboratory and consulting company bringing building and sustainability science and education to the industry
PROJECTS
Courtesy of OMA
The test conducted:
• Dry density: ASTM C20
• Water absorption coefficient: ASTM C1794
• 24-hour and 28-day free water content: DIN 12087
• Vapour permeability (wet cup, dry cup): ASTM E96
• Reference water content: ASTM C1498
• Critical freeze thaw saturation*: Fagerlund, G. (1977)
• Porosity (via vacuum saturation): ASTM C20
• Thermal Conductivity: Estimated based on material type and measured density and values provided in ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals 2013
Jersey City, NJ
On a snowing February day, five boxes of bricks arrived at BELi’s offices right before the snowstorm brought the city to a standstill. The bricks were extracted from the Pathside Building in Jersey City, NJ, which is to become (2025) “Centre Pompidou x Jersey City,” the first and only North American partner for the Parisian Pompidou. The bricks from the historic 1912 old trolly compound building were moved to the basement for testing. Thornton Thomasetti, a structural engineering company based in New York, contacted BELi to provide material property testing and retrofit insulation masonry risk assessment, including determining freeze thaw decay vulnerability and hygrothermal properties for use in simulations by others.
