Preparing Your Facility for Winter

Winter, snowstorms, blizzards, warm hot chocolate, shoveling, sledding, snow days. They all feel like a world away. But believe it or not, Fall is the best time to prepare for the Winter. Don’t let your facility, or your people be caught off guard or unprepared for the first snowstorm or freezing weather. Making preparations in advance, and evaluating your facility's vulnerability will ensure that Winter is a breeze. (Pun intended).

Take some time to identify how winter usually hits your area, or the location of your building. Is your area typically hit hard in the winter? What types of things cause the most damage, stress, or concern through the winter months? Have you ever noticed or identified specific areas of winter-concern? These could include pronounced icicle formation, excess roof snow accumulation, doors not closing with temperature changes, areas of shade that ice for longer. Does your manufacturing process generate heat within the building? How have your existing systems functioned for you in the past few years?

Roof collapse is one of the most catastrophic losses during winter. In the recent past, this has had more impact on pre-engineered steel buildings, but it can also have an impact on stepped roofs where snow drifts can accumulate. In pre-engineered steel buildings, owners should monitor the displacement of the roof should a heavy snow storm affect the area, and have an action plan in place for snow removal. For buildings with flat or stepped roofs, ensure that roof drains are not blocked and are functioning properly. Finally, for older buildings, be on alert for combined snow and rain loads, as earlier buildings’ codes did not fully acknowledge this condition as a possible roof loading.

Possibly a less anticipated form of damage during winter occurs during extended periods of sub-freezing temperatures. This most often will affect manufacturing or process facilities that have operations shut down during the holidays, but this can also affect any area of a building with piping in close proximity to exterior walls. Of utmost importance during these cold snaps is to ensure that someone familiar with building operations is aware of the coming temperature swings.

Preparations should be in place for addressing damage to equipment or piping, especially fire protection systems. Finally, always maintain a consistent and reliable source of heat within the building during operation shut downs.

It is also important to observe the effects of sub-freezing temperatures on the building to build the base of knowledge for future remediation. If you notice significant or concentrated icicle formations, this is usually a sign of a poorly insulated roof, or possibly ineffective roof drains. This is a condition that warrants review so that more significant damage within the building envelope can be prevented. If you notice doors not closing properly or interior walls that crack during a cold snap only to close once temperatures rebound, this is likely a lack of perimeter frost protection. This is a condition that should be corrected so that voids in the soil below do not cause more significant damage to the building.

Good planning and a keen eye means you can be well prepared for even the worst of winter.

#ProblemSolved: Our Facilities Team is here to help. Send an email to Patrick McCoy, PE, LEED AP, CSDP at patrick.mccoy@ssmgroup.com or give a call to 610-898-3008

Surveying in the Fall

For many, the Fall season brings great joy. The crunch of leaves, the extra breeze, and yes, the smell of pumpkin flavoring and warm apple cider.

For surveyors, whose days are spent almost fully outdoors, the start to Fall is a welcome change in climate. Most of our surveying team considers Fall the best time to survey. The weather is more temperate than Summer or Winter, and it is not quite as wet as Springtime. But there’s one other key to the season that makes surveying in the Fall better, stronger, and more efficient: falling leaves.

As the leaves fall off the trees, you should make a point to get your data collected! Performing surveying and data collection at this time of the year is actually less difficult. Because measured spaces need to be visible, as leaves fall- more data is able to be captured in a simpler, and often faster, fashion. Aerial imagery from a vertical position becomes clearer. And the same can be said for horizontal measurements. Without large shrubs and leaves on the trees, our surveyors are able to survey faster and more accurately. This is especially true in wooded areas because more measurements can be taken from less setups. That means more data, less time.

A common term for this idea is leaf-off imagery. This is as opposed to leaf-on imagery. As expected, leaf-on refers to foliage on trees or thriving shrubs. Leaf-off means no foliage or a decreased amount of shrubs.

Leaf-off imagery is particularly essential when mapping with contours and ground elevations form aerial imagery. When capturing leaf-on imagery, large portions of an area cannot be mapped accurately due to tree coverage. On the other hand, with leaf-off imagery, the photogrammetry processing is able to determine elevations more accurately through the gaps in tree branches that are not visible when the leaves are on.

As we embrace the season, we also embrace the opportunities that Autumn presents for serving our clients in an even better, an even more efficient, and an even more precise manner.

#ProblemSolved: Our Surveying Team is here to help. Send an email to Sam Zook, PLS at sam.zook@ssmgroup.com or give a call to 484-388-5989