The desire to improve indoor air quality (IAQ), increase energy efficiency, and reduce carbon footprints is bringing architects and engineers in various business sectors to the table in search of cost-effective solutions to the challenge of going green. Raised access floors can provide sustainable, high-performance benefits in both new construction and retrofit applications. These assemblies also bring improvements to personal comfort, acoustics, energy efficiency, daylighting, and esthetics, while ensuring reductions in operating costs and downtime associated with technological and workspace organizational changes.

Since ceramic tile and stone are often installed in wet areas, they require long-term control of intermittent or constant moisture. The majority of waterproofing problems involve only one per cent of the project’s installation area. On projects exposed to moisture, this means successfully installing 99 per cent of the job can still result in a failure that damages the entire tiled area.

During a recent visit to the dentist, this author discovered the floor in the waiting area was particularly lively; there were uncomfortable vibrations whenever occupants passed in a nearby corridor. Architects and engineers understand a structure’s motion of this sort rarely implies danger, but to the uninformed end-user, these perceptible movements are often unexpected and unwelcomed.

A roof hatch, also referred to as an access hatch or roof scuttle, provides convenient access to and from a rooftop area in a commercial building or large multi-family project with mechanical systems up top. They are most common on flat roofs, but can be adapted for pitched assemblies as well.

When building owners were surveyed in a 2005 study commissioned by Ducker Research Company, the most important criteria for choosing roofing materials, they ranked service life and lifecycle cost first and second, while initial cost came in second-last (i.e. ninth place).