News & Insights

Salas O’Brien experts will offer real-world insight into testing strategies that improve enclosure performance and support long-term resilience at ASTM International’s Symposium on Building Envelope Air Tightness: Design Strategies, Testing, and Impacts.

Stephen Shanks, CxA, BECxP, NDT Level III, vice president, will draw from high-rise, multifamily, military, and existing building projects to share lessons learned from whole-building air tightness testing at scale. His session explores planning considerations, testing methodologies, and decision-making frameworks that help owners and practitioners determine when and how air tightness verification delivers measurable value.

In a separate session, Jon Haehnel, CEI, BPI-BA-T, BA-P, CABS, vice president, and Quinn Treadgold, building envelope testing manager, will demonstrate a streamlined rapid fog testing approach that simplifies deployment in the field. Backed by more than fifteen years of case studies, their presentation highlights how fog testing serves not only as quality assurance, but also as a powerful diagnostic tool for identifying air leakage pathways in both new and existing structures.

Session details

Monday, March 23 | 8:10 a.m. CST
The Resilient Building Playbook: Whole Building Air Tightness Testing Case Studies, Options, and Lessons Learned
Stephen Shanks

Monday, March 23 | 10:35 a.m. CST
Clarity in the Cloud: Rapid Fog Testing of Air Barrier Assemblies
Jon Haehnel and Quinn Treadgold

 

About ASTM Symposium

The symposium is organized by Advancing Standards Transforming Markets (ASTM) International and shall provide for the exchange of ideas on how to achieve more airtight building envelopes, verification testing of building envelopes or portions thereof, impacts of improved building envelope air tightness on the performance of the building, and building code requirements for airtight buildings and new testing requirements in ASHRAE 90.1 and the IECC. Learn more here.

About Salas O’Brien

Salas O’Brien is an employee-owned engineering and technical services firm focused on advancing the human experience through the built environment. Our team is engineered for impact®, helping clients solve complex engineering challenges with a focus on efficiency, resiliency, and sustainability, while advancing our team members through growth and opportunity. We are a top firm as ranked by Engineering News-Record and Consulting-Specifying Engineer, and we have appeared for over a decade on the Inc. 5000 list of North America’s fastest-growing private companies.

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