Cynthia L. Staats, LEED AP, is in the Building
Technology department in the Waltham, Mass., office of national engineering
firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger.
Water sustains all life on earth. But it is also nature’s universal solvent. Water causes more building enclosure failures than any other agent. Whether a failure results from excessive metal corrosion, or the spalling or displacement of masonry or concrete elements, water is often the prime catalyst.