Member Spotlight: Wayne Butler
What inspired you to pursue the Whole Building Airtightness Certification
Program with ABAA?
A: Charleston, SC has an oddly unique microclimate. Although there are numerous examples of historic cities within climate Zone 3A*, the historic buildings and type of new construction found in our region provides for buildings that are highly susceptible to uncontrolled outside air. Naturally, this uncontrolled outside air carries with it a substantial humidity load that is detrimental to materials within interior condition spaces. Seeking to better understand and quantify uncontrolled outside air infiltration in our region has tremendous value in diagnosing a host of issues, which is why Whole Building Airtightness testing is critical.
Share your insights from the certification program. What are your key takeaways?
A: The week of training in Seattle, WA was invaluable. Both Denali and Gillian were instrumental in covering a fairly dense topic with examples and hands-on experiences from the field. The week long class covered the full breath of knowledge base needed to understand the software, equipment set-up, onsite logistics, and problem solving during testing
Name: Wayne Butler
Title: Project Manager/Building Enclosure Consultant
Company: Applied Building Sciences
City: Charleston, SC
ABAA member for 8 years
How do you plan to apply the knowledge and skills gained in your professional work?
A. Whole Building Airtightness Testing is an extremely valuable tool that facilitates benchmark conversations with the design professionals and construction team. This tool also provides the client with a (hopefully!) repeatable process to reconcile performance issues prior to turning the building over. As a building enclosure consultant, the ability to test an entire building at once, helps to focus attention where needed and provides the General Contractor a pathway to rectify non-conforming conditions with the appropriate trades.
Which parts of the certification program did you find most impactful?
A. The physical proximity of the testing lab space with that of the classroom space…if the class was not understanding a specific concept or piece of equipment / software, we simply walked ~15’ and were immediately hands-on.
What advice do you have for others considering ABAA certification?
A. The WBAT certification program pushes you to understand the complexities of actually getting a building to perform as a complete system. That knowledge will in turn inform acceptable performance expectations for detailing, product sequencing, durability, material transitions, and the infinite quest to manage air/water/vapor.