Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/549108
Pan Am/Parapan Am Aquatics Centre in Toronto. august 2015 | 17 Building Envelope photography courtesy durabond products ltd. But for all the technological advances being made, many professionals still find themselves playing familiar games. "One needs to be in the business of changing mind- sets to sell products," says Gary Osmond, technical man- ager for Durabond, with his tongue only partly in cheek. Osmond goes on to explain that "generally speaking it's buyer beware out there, with arguably too much attention being paid to cost savings and not enough on building envelope and product performance. Put it this way, it's much like someone buying a sweater at a dis- count big box store; at first the sweater looks great, but after just a few washes it begins to look dull, threads start to come loose and the shape starts to sag." Osmond believes what is changing the most in terms of buildings overall "is understanding the way we use and heat them. When the cost of energy was cheap we could turn up the heat, which inevitably would dry out the building. With added insulation, we have successfully reduced heat loss, but there remains a risk that moisture in the form of a gas will continue to migrate through the wall. Selecting the wrong prod- uct based on cost may cause condensation – leading to delamination of the cladding. The cost of removing and replacing the delaminated materials completely wipes out any initial cost savings achieved." Still, Durabond's offices in Edmonton, Mississauga and Scarborough have experienced moderate sales growth of late. New innovations in building envelope technology for 2015 include a new line of acrylic, ure- thane, epoxy and silicone protective coatings. "We're branching out more extensively into these technolo- gies because they're versatile, water resistant and can be vapour permeable," says Osmond. Durabond recently lent its expertise to the Pan Am/ Parapan Am Aquatics Centre in Toronto by supplying Durex Marble Coat and Durex Ectoflex cementitious waterproofing materials for the facility's interior finish. "With projects like the Pan Am/Parapan Am Aquatics Centre, cementitious waterproof membranes are applied direct to the sheeting board, followed by the marble coat finish, and the results are far more cost effective and look beautiful in addition to being durable," says Osmond. From Bill Black's perspective, the building enve- lope sector in 2015 is very much a good news/bad news proposition. "On the one hand, we've seen a tre- mendous amount of tender activity for the first half of this year," the executive VP, commercial, of Skyline Building Envelope explains. "Lots of schools and other institutional and industrial projects are being built that we're involved in, including the new Five Hills Health Region Regional Hospital in Moose Jaw. And while the drop in oil prices caused everyone to worry that some sort of slowdown would result, so far we haven't seen any sign of it." Even better, work opportunities in the foreseeable future seem to be growing for the building envelope sector, thanks to nascent industries such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and revitalized sectors such as ship building, whose facilities infrastructure requires replacement or upgrading. But this very same impending flurry of activity is causing a potential problem in the form of skilled worker shortages. "Finding and retaining qualified people in our sector remains a challenge, and while we