Can money be saved by having an engineering review of the plans and specifications for potential moisture intrusion prior to or during construction?
Yes. Most of the design professionals are dedicated to a wide variety of issues and are meeting many constraints to complete the design. The construction contractor has a set of focused priorities to complete the job on-time and on-budget and to meet the plans and specifications. An experienced engineer review of the plans and specifications from the view point of having investigated moisture intrusion as a result of failures can be very helpful. The review comments not only on what is required, but also what is not required that can cause problems for the structure. If feasible, it is also desirable to require the reviewing engineer to participate in initial construction inspections and/or testing of prototype installations. A few thousand dollars invested in the moisture intrusion review, inspection and testing can provide cost savings to the contractor and owner in the millions of dollars range.
