ABSTRACT
A project was implemented to monitor five buildings being constructed or rehabilitated using a rainscreen wall assemblies in Vancouver, BC. The project involved the collection of hygrothermal data within the exterior walls of five buildings and corresponding environmental data from the site. The purpose of the monitoring project is to provide data which can be used to assess the performance of rainscreen wall assemblies under field conditions. This paper considers only Building 3, a six storey residential building which was retrofit with a stucco rainscreen wall system in 2001. High relative humidity and moisture readings within all eight measured stud wall cavities were measured during the winter months. Hygrothermal simulation software was used to determine if the conditions in the field can be simulated, particularly at moisture sensitive materials. The results from the WUFI modeling are compared to the field data and the performance of the wall assembly is discussed.
