Recovering from Severe Winter Weather – Now What?

Winter storms can put even the most well-designed facilities to the test. Freezing temperatures, high winds, and heavy snow can strain building systems, disrupt operations, and create safety risks for occupants and staff. For owners and facility managers, the best defense is a proactive plan. Preparing your buildings now before the first storm hits helps protect critical infrastructure, maintain uptime, and ensure business continuity all season long. If your building sustained damage, we can empathize. At Henderson, our vision is to build a better world and knowing how buildings work is our business.

Engineering and construction are all about protecting the health, welfare, and safety of the public. Many times, this is seen in the form of preventative design practices. But once a disaster strikes, what can we do to help? Henderson has specific services to meet these needs:

• Facility assessments
• Emergency power
• Turn-key solutions for retrofit of damaged equipment, backed by quality engineering support
• Retro commissioning and re-commissioning services to make sure your building is performing properly
• Ongoing building monitoring

Our first step, though, would be to conduct a facility assessment and develop a customized plan to meet your needs. From there, we can work with you to optimize your building for the long-term.

As we continue to experience winter weather and consider the potential for it in the future, here are a few of the top issues we have seen in buildings that may warrant addressing in order to be prepared for future problems, should another cold snap come along:

• Leaky building envelopes and additional cold air infiltration
• Poor operation of outside air intake
• Poor quality windows and doors
• Lack of properly designed entrance vestibules
• Unbalance air distribution systems
• Aging steam and hot water (boiler) systems in need of maintenance and/or repair
• Improper control of heating systems