White Coats and Hard Hats - Building

Comprehensive Integrated Capabilities: Uniquely BHS

Essential to an efficient and successful incident response is a multi-professional response team which integrates medical and construction expertise with building science knowledge: "white coats and hard hats." The combined health and technical expertise of our team inspires confidence and credibility, thereby gaining the trust, respect and support of all concerned while mitigating the risk and cost of incident escalation. This approach overcomes the shortcomings of qualified building professionals who are limited to the resolution of building problems only.

What does a Hard Hat signify?

Participation by experienced construction and building science experts can make a dramatic difference in the resolution timeline as well as in the reduction of risks and costs associated with an adverse building condition. BHS' years of experience has proven this to be true in situations such as: a building failure; a water damage assessment; a mold-related evaluation and remediation; a renovation challenge in occupied buildings with asbestos containing materials; or a major Legionella surveillance, investigation and control incident.

Absent the presence of a skilled and savvy building science investigator, incident resolution may be incomplete and collaboration with a physician impossible. Construction experience is essential to understanding how a building was originally constructed in order to understand both how it functions once built and why it failed. This expertise is critical to any building-related response in order to make the proper initial diagnosis of the building's symptoms and ultimately to identify the root cause and its correction.

Why is Building Science so Important?

Building science is a fundamental discipline in many building investigations relating to how the building enclosure and incorporated materials, assemblies and systems perform and interact with the building dynamics of occupancy, use and climate. Sound provable building science permits a determination on whether the building failure or condition has negatively contributed to the indoor environment with the potential to adversely affect the occupants.

How do Hard Hats and White Coats interact?

Building and health science efforts are generally initiated by the dynamics of occupancy which means "people" in the building reacting to their surroundings. People, their individual heath profile and comfort demands, create the need for a health component. Frequently, occupant fears escalate during and persist after a building failure has occurred through denial of a problem, risk communication miscues and misguided investigations. Only through the integration of building and health sciences can such fears be mitigated and the underlying building condition be remedied.

Building Science + Heath Science = Building Health Sciences

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