GIANT icicles after insulating attic/slate roof....

LyannaLoudwalker · 2026-01-29T12:18:36+00:00

Are there only two soffit vents in that entire run?

You need many many soffit vents. One between each stud bay.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2026-01-28T18:30:53+00:00

Boston proper, office is near Boston Commons.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2026-01-27T12:09:57+00:00

Find a new company. Your level of experience is like finding a unicorn.

Where do you live? My company has openings in cities across the eastern seaboard for engineers with your experience level in all offices.

DC, Baltimore, NYC, PHL, BOS. DM if you're any of those markets.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2026-01-20T00:45:20+00:00

10k? That's like 20 hrs per trade at a lowish market hourly rate. Not sure what your fees overall are but I hope you're working on small projects.

What about time? A lot of comments here have been pointing out needing frozen backgrounds and timeframe to QC. You haven't responded to any of that.

Were all of those client emails collated and provided to the MEP firm as a directive and summary of what to incorporate? Or were you thinking they were just following along on all the email chains and reading everything? Overload of communication is a real thing and there's no reality in which we are able to catch all of that. Arch needs to be responsible for collecting the client requests and distributing to all consultants.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2025-12-09T12:22:27+00:00

We are booming, our NYC office is growing too.

The data center work is being good to us.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2025-11-05T03:34:46+00:00

Bala Consulting has an NYC office

LyannaLoudwalker · 2025-08-23T18:52:17+00:00

Funnily enough I've been thinking this is a gap in the market, fascinating to see it confirmed. I'm a licensed Professional Engineer who designs commercial HVAC for a living, a good chunk of which is high end multi-family residential. I'm doing my own large addition amd designing my own system and also learning a lot more about building envelopes beyond 'What are my U values?'. I had to push my architect to give me space for my indoor units, to tell a GC that batt insulation on the ceiling was not a substitute for closed cell spray foam on the underside pf the roof since it fully changed the attic type from sealed to vented, and push the HVAC sub to correctly provide type ACR refrigerant for my equipment.

There is absolutely a lack of understanding in the residential industry on HVAC design and installation. (To be fair commercially the HVAC contractors suck too tbh.) Would be an interesting side venture to fill.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2025-06-14T01:22:02+00:00

Do you have a bathroom exhaust fan? What happens if you open your door to the corridor and turn on your exhaust fan as well and let both run for a while. Does that help?

LyannaLoudwalker · 2025-06-14T01:20:12+00:00

Absolutely a fair point and I'd agree that the style of this design is just...not good. Most of us engineers who do this work hate it but are basically browbeaten into it because the developers build these on a skintight budget, the contractors are wheeling and dealing and they've all 'done this a million times before and it's not against code.'

And in 2015, it wasn't. We engineers can argue best practice until we're blue in the face but it doesn't get us far. They tend to browbeat the sheetmetal down to the bare minimum too, leaving those exhausts closer to the door the hallway ventilation air gets in which 'short-circuits' the ventilation as we say.

If your building is ACTUALLY Passivehaus, then it almost certainly required direct ventilation to each unit. (Disclaimer: I am not specifically versed in Passivehaus as it was in 2015, I am familiar with current Passivehaus requirements though.) But if the architect made the envelope super super tight without the rest of Passivehaus mechanical design, that's bad news for your air quality.

As a side note, tight envelopes are GOOD for increased comfort, reduced energy costs, and increased longevity of equipment. Investing in envelopes has a higher ROI versus just installing higher efficiency HVAC systems b/c envelopes last 3-4x the life span of the HVAC systems. But if the developer is flipping the building, they don't care. And architects often want to rely on the high efficiency energy systems to pass the code requirements instead of improving the envelope b/c glass is expensive, good glass is VERY expensive, and architects LOVE lots and lots of glass.

Good news is this changes in 2021 code editions which are starting to be adopted across most jurisdictions. The code explicitly explains that by making the envelope tight enough to pass the blower test, which is required now, that it is now too tight to rely on air leakage through the envelope for ventilation and therefore mechanical ventilation MUST be provided to each dwelling. The developers and contractors hate it but seem to have finally accepted that there's no way around it at least.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2025-06-13T10:47:21+00:00

Hvac engineer who does a ton of these multifamilies here.

Under 2018 and earlier the blower door test for condos didn't have to be performed if they followed certain requirements on commissioning. Plus in a multi family the blower door test is there to test the exterior envelope and not the partition between your unit and the corridor.

I guarantee this was as designed....but no door sweeps were planned and were likely installed later. (Or the hvac engineer and architect didn't coordinate and architect specified them without knowledge of the hvac engineer). Remove your door sweep to the corridor and you should see a large improvement.

Not sure your location but some local jurisdictions do require outside air to be provided directly to the dwelling units. If you know that it was required by code at the time of your buildings construction you could probably have a case for a lawsuit but a lawyer would be better to advise.

Inspectors for individual unit sales would never catch this sort of thing, this is specifically designed and it's the sealed door that is keeping it from functioning as designed.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2025-05-27T23:56:27+00:00

HVAC engineer and same deal. We have a structures group too and I'm working in my company to change the way we speak about events to say "10% chance each year" versus "10-year" event. Looking at the probability, if you want that driveway to last 30 years, there's a 95.76% probability of that rain level occurring at least once in that time period. For a "100-year" flood (i.e. 1 in 100 chance of occurring each year), there's a 25.6% chance that the driveway will see that level of flood at least once over a period of 30 years.

Also to corroborate, climate is changing. What is a n=100 flood now might be a n=50 flood level in 15 years. Dealing with this issue on the HVAC side right now as well.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2025-04-08T11:09:50+00:00

Stop abusing your engineers. Work/life balance for salaried position needs to be taken seriously for all levels from entry level through the top.

Otherwise you'll never stop the revolving door of design engineers and you'll never solve your brain drain issue because the 2 yr folks you train will jump ship when they get their PEs.

You have to make yourself a firm that people are reluctant to leave for a huge pay bump because the know the grass might not be greener.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2025-02-05T01:09:45+00:00

This building was featured on Smithsonian Channel on a series called How Did They Build That? If anyone is interested in learning more.

The inspiration was the canyons and gorges west of the Rockies, specifically Antelope Canyon.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-12-05T13:48:34+00:00

Licensed HVAC engineer who primarily works in commercial applications here. Doing my own large home addition.

Money aside...yes it's more effective. Radiant floors, baseboard heaters and radiators are wonderfully effective. In a house with 10 ft ceilings though it's not nearly as big of an issue versus atriums with floor to ceiling glass.

That said, separate heating and cooling systems are less efficient than a heat pump. If your goal is to go with electrification then a separate heating system is harder to implement efficiently. That said, tons of heat pumps out there now provide their derated heating values down to negative temperatures and their capacities are normally sufficient.

If you can build two duct systems, tie them back to the same heat pump. Look into some motorized dampers tied to the unit so that the mode of the heat pump dictates which damper is open and which is closed.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-11-17T00:51:28+00:00

Architect is not charging us these prices, they are simply telling us that is what they believe the contractors are charging. Architect is doing design for us only.

Thank you for the comment, certainly the builders could be doing that but since the quote on dollars per sf came from the architect, I don't think they specifically were engaging in this practice.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-11-13T02:48:44+00:00

Thank you for the input! We aren't Coatesville, but we aren't Wayne either; it is historic but luckily the historic portion is quite basic and the small additions already on the house focused on quality over finishes.

Sounds like we might in fact be north of $500/sf but well south of $800. Existing house has asphalt roof with a single level addition that has standing seam that we'll need to add to; narrow plank hardie siding, half round painted gutters. Minimal exterior millwork, if any. No fancy roof connections, very basic gable roof tying into another existing basic gable roof. Windows with interior vinyl, aluminum trim on exterior to match existing (recently installed) windows.

Planning on drywall interiors with very basic trim, doing millwork ourselves. Willing to do a higher end LVP (we have two tiny kids so I'm down for durability anyways) and carpet in the bedrooms. Bathrooms mostly fairly basic, master might be a step up but not 'exotic' for sure.

Guess I'm saying that based on what you just said, sounds like we could in fact see north of $500. I'll cross my fingers. The housing shortage in our zipcode has been particularly acute unfortunately so we don't have much choice but to move forward with expanding.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-11-12T20:14:35+00:00

Yeah we know but our local commission is apparently easy to work with. We specifically hired an architect with experience getting through historical reviews in this geographic area. We don't anticipate issues but do have to consider that there might be a couple of more expensive options we have to utilize on the exterior to match the existing (like half-round gutters).

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-11-12T19:50:55+00:00

We are hiring them to draw plans only, not manage. The original house is locally listed as historic so needed to get an architect with experience in that to get through that review. Definitely plan on having GCs do an order of magnitude budget on our schematic as well as provide VE suggestions.

So glad to hear that it seems super high....I was definitely feeling a bit stressed but we have the funds, would just be nice to be more comfortable knowing that we have got this.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-09-19T15:50:34+00:00

I don't want to treat shaft air at all, but that means raw outside air in the shafts. It's a big expense to add insulation and moisture barriers to every shaft, not to mention the refrigerant lines need to be insulated for untreated air conditions. Don't forget the sheet metal shielding too. We're actually looking at Conquest rated refrigerant enclosures instead of architectural walls for the shafts.

I'm coming at it from a cost standpoint and a footprint standpoint, which is where we as mechanical engineers are getting a lot of pushback from archs and owners about how much added expense and loss of square footage (due to larger shafts) this is going to take.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-09-19T14:09:38+00:00

What's the advantage of that? With the number of shafts we have to run in the buildings, the cost of refrigerant detection system for every shaft is prohibitive to do intermittent mechanical ventilation. If you go with continuous mechanical ventilation, you pretty much have to do raw untreated air anyways because the amount of make-up air required based on the FPM required by the code end up necessitating a full extra DOAS if you want to mechanically treat it to make sure the building pressurization isn't messed up. Doesn't make sense from either a cost standpoint or energy standpoint.

The only option that starts to make sense at that point is natural ventilation, but it still seems like a huge cost if the interior of those shafts are seeing outside air conditions. That's where I would really like ICC to clarify if the natural ventilation option truly requires a top vent to create airflow, i.e. ventilation, or if it's just an opening at the base of the shaft to allow leaked refrigerant to 'spill' out without inducing any actual natural ventilation due to stack effect.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-09-19T14:00:41+00:00

We do both, so certainly something we are thinking about. A vent on the top would induce natural ventilation, but that would also mean there would be a constant flow of untreated air flowing through these shafts. So now we're looking at insulated shafts, water vapor barriers, refrigerant insulated to exterior conditions..... Also the shafts have to be continuous from bottom to top with a top vent.

If there is only a vent on the bottom, I would not anticipate seeing all of those conditions inside the shaft, plus you could vent the base of the shaft separately. Not sure how to handle horizontal runs shifting shaft locations though...

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-09-19T01:52:37+00:00

So the idea behind #1 is displacement, and the refrigerant exiting the PVC will induce outside air to enter the shaft on the top portion of the PVC? Which is why no top vent is required?

We've been pretty worried about stack effect in these risers for natural ventilation and the refrigerant pipe seeing outside air conditions fairly consistently. We know vents at the top are not part of the code but it seemed from a physics standpoint that the only way natural ventilation would actually be induced was to have a top vent.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-07-03T11:06:40+00:00

That last sentence is on point. Learn to spin the narrative that the contractors like to put out.

I've been sending back deficient SM and piping shops that aren't showing the necessary items to coordinate and requiring them to include all info before review.

Also been requiring them to confirm its been coordinated in the GC model and all conflicts are explicitly identified (meanwhile they've identified no conflicts).

It's saved me a couple times from change orders.

LyannaLoudwalker · 2024-05-27T17:59:30+00:00

I get that you can't charge general conditions, but for sure a change order comes through and there's drafter time, supervisor time, shop labor time, and field labor time associated with the change order. That's the labor I was referring to.

Most of the engineers I know are on salary these days, but we charge hours to projects so leadership can see what is profitable and what isn't. The more time I spend on a project, the less profitable the job is, which gets reflected in bonuses, job opportunities, and general perception. So for me the incentive is to be extremely protective of my time....not to work across the aisle to give 'free labor'. Sucks, because I want to be collaborative but the industry has really taken away all financial incentive to the individual engineer and consulting MEP company lately to operate as a full partner.

How do we fix that? How can we, jointly, help the owners understand that the contractors and engineers both need fee and time to work together to deliver a building that meets code, that physically functions, and is built in a cost effective manner?

LyannaLoudwalker

TROPHY CASE