Waterproofing Consulting Services:

A Waterproofing Consultant, often described as a Building Envelope Consultant or a Building Enclosure Consultant, may provide services that occur in the preconstruction and construction phases of a project, depending on the Client’s needs or desires. The Diehl Group provides Waterproofing Consulting on an advisory basis.

The Diehl Group has been actively providing Waterproofing Consulting services for over 20 years. During the early 1990’s the Diehl Group had primarily been retained to serve as an Architectural Expert Witness in Construction Defect Litigation suits. During that time, the associated investigation and determination of waterproofing related building failures provided valuable insight into Architect or Contractor related errors that lead to the formation of construction defects.

Our services are sought by Architects, Developers, and General Contractors, with the types of projects including but not being limited to Multi-Family or Mixed-Use Residential Apartment / Condominium projects and Commercial projects of all kinds. Although the service is primarily sought for projects in the Los Angeles, San Diego, and Palm Springs areas, we are retained for projects across the Southwest.

The ideal use of a Waterproofing Consultant would span both preconstruction and construction phases of a project, however our Clients sometimes have reason to limit the use of the services to one or the other.

Preconstruction Services:

Our “Preconstruction Services”, sometimes referred to as Peer Review in the industry, provides two important products of the consulting work. They are as follows:

Building Envelope Waterproofing Recommendation

  • Once final decisions about the exterior elements of a building (or buildings) are made by Owner and Architect, which typically occurs during the Design Development phase of the Architect’s work, the Diehl Group would then kick-off the consulting service by meeting with the Architect for a project orientation meeting to become familiar with the waterproofing systems that will need to occur.

  • A report to communicate “Basis of Design” recommendations for the various waterproofing systems to occur in the Building Envelope would then be created. In the report, each of the project’s waterproofing systems would be addressed (typically roofing, wall finish weather barriers, door and window related flashing measures, podium deck and planters, private balconies or decks, seismic joints, fountains, or pools, or below grade waterproofing as may be necessary for a given structure). The product of the report provides the Architect with the necessary information to create waterproofing related detailing in the construction drawings, and it provides proprietary basis of design descriptions that may then be communicated in the construction documents.

  • Once the recommendations are provided, a meeting between Owner, Architect, and the Diehl Group would occur to review that which has been recommended to determine if any revisions are necessary. Once revised, a final document is issued.

Review of Architectural Waterproofing Related Detailing:

  • When the waterproofing related detailing is deemed to be substantially complete in the Architectural set, we then review the detailing to return any comment or recommendations we may have.

  • After the recommendations are provided, a meeting between Owner, Architect, and the Diehl Group would occur so the Diehl Group may address any questions about what has been recommended.

  • Once Architect has revised the detailing to address the recommendations we would then review the detailing a second time, to review and new detailing that may have been added and to confirm the edited details communicate that which had been recommended.

Construction Services:

During construction we provide the following “Field Services”:

Submittal & RFI Review and Comment:

  • Waterproofing related Submittals or RFI’s are forwarded to us for requested review and comment. A report is returned to communicate any recommendations we may have about the contents of a Submittal or RFI, and then the Architect may consider the information before completing their review and determination of acceptance or other actions.

Consultant Observation Visits:

  • Milestones for site visits are carefully planned to optimize the use of the established budget. In general, the intent of the site visits is to participate in waterproofing related mock-up exercises, to observe initial installation practices for each waterproofing system in the building envelope, to then provide random and periodic review of ongoing work thereafter.

Field Reporting:

  • After each site visit, a field report is created and issued to pre-established project contacts. The primary intent of the field reporting is to present observations that have warranted a recommendation for a change of practice. Builder may distribute the reports to the applicable Subcontractors. Photographs and graphics are provided as necessary to supplement the narrative explanations of why a change in practice is advised, and a recommendation for correction or change in practice moving forward is provided.

  • Any recommendation provided in a field report is summarized in a “Waterproofing Items Tracking Matrix” document. The sole intent of the document is to summarize and itemize the recommendations that were provided in field reports. Doing so calls attention to the items and provides some written record of what actions were taken by the Builder. We periodically edit the document to include information about subsequent observations or reporting of actions by others until such time as an “open” becomes “closed”.