IIBEC’s new manual of practice

In March, the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants updated its manual of practice. This new manual provides guidance on IIBEC’s intended role delineation and responsibilities for building envelope consultants, including roof consultants and rooftop quality assurers.

Manual of practice

The IIBEC Manual of Practice: Roofing, Waterproofing, Exterior Wall Consulting and Quality Assurance Observation, 3rd Edition is intended to update and supersede the organization’s previous manual of practice, which was published in 2010. IIBEC indicates the manual is intended to be a general guide for its members and its use is strictly voluntary.

The manual is arranged in four primary sections and appendices, which are shown in the figure. The document currently only is available in an electronic format. IIBEC does not permit printing pages and copying and pasting text from the document.

Section 1—Introduction provides general information about IIBEC, its programs and services, code of ethics and professional responsibilities, fundamental canons, rules of practice and best practices. Information also is provided about IIBEC’s registration programs, including its Registered Roof Consultant and Registered Roof Observer programs.

For example, IIBEC’s Rules of Practice indicates: “ … Members and registrants shall not accept compensation—financial or otherwise—from more than one party for services on the same project, or for services pertaining to the same project, unless the circumstances are fully disclosed.”

Section 2—Recommended Practices for Building Enclosure Consulting provides practices specific to roof consulting, waterproofing consulting and exterior wall consulting, as well as general practices applicable to all these roles. Practices for roof consulting are provided in Section 2.2-IIBEC-Complementary Practices Specific to Roof Consulting. The practices described apply to new and retrofit work though some practices may vary depending on a project’s scope.

Section 3—Recommended Practices for Quality Assurance Observation provides practices for quality assurance observation for roof, waterproofing and exterior wall construction, as well as general guidelines applicable to all these operations. Practices specific to roof observation are provided in Section 3.2-IIBEC-Complementary Practices Specific to Roof Observation.

Observers are expected to have training, experience in and familiarity with project requirements and products being installed. IIBEC recommends observers have a minimum of 400 hours of experience in quality assurance in roof construction or 400 hours of experience in technical services with the manufacturer or supplier and a minimum of 2,000 hours of experience in building enclosure construction.

An observer’s role is to observe, not to take on the roles and responsibilities of the design professional, contractor and/or manufacturer. Depending on the services contracted, observers’ roles may include ensuring compliance with contract documents; noting project milestones; and documenting and recording the contractor’s performance, including the installation of materials, as it relates to the intent of the contract documents and manufacturers’ installation instructions.

The IIBEC manual indicates observers’ reports should be provided to project team members at intervals as agreed upon by the involved parties. It should be noted, ASTM D7186, “Standard Practice for Quality Assurance Observation of Roof Construction and Repair,” requires written daily reports be provided to contractors upon completion of reports but not later than the start of the next workday.

Section 4—Specialized Areas of Practice provides guidelines for specialized services provided by some consultants, including expert witness services, insurance claims consulting, design peer review and electronic leak detection. This section also includes useful guidance about drone use.

Two appendices also are provided. Appendix A-Part 1: Procedures for Construction Contract Administration provides a useful overview of construction contract administration procedures. Appendix A-Part 2: Standard Forms and Construction Contract Administration Documents provides forms developed by IIBEC for use in construction contract administration. Twenty individual fillable forms are provided, including payment and performance bond forms, and partial and final lien affidavits.

Closing thoughts

If you are involved in roofing projects where a roof consultant serves on the project team whether that be as the designer, peer reviewer or construction observer, I encourage you to become familiar with IIBEC’s new manual of practice. It can be purchased at www.iibec.org.

If you encounter IIBEC’s standard forms and construction contract administration documents, I encourage you to review them closely. You also may want to have your legal counsel review them for consistency with other project forms.

I compliment IIBEC on developing and publishing the new manual of practice. IIBEC obviously has spent a great deal of time and effort on this undertaking, and the document should prove useful to the roofing industry.

Mark S. Graham is NRCA's vice president of technical services.
@MarkGrahamNRCA

IIBEC manual of practice topics

Section 1—Introduction

• 1.1-IIBEC-The Organization
• 1.2-IIBEC-Programs and Activities

Section 2—Recommended Practices for Building Enclosure Consulting

• 2.1-IIBEC-General Practices Common to All Building Enclosure Consultants
• 2.2-IIBEC-Complementary Practices Specific to Roof Consulting
• 2.3-IIBEC-Complementary Practices Specific to Waterproofing Consulting
• 2.4-IIBEC-Complementary Practices Specific to Exterior Wall Consulting

Section 3—Recommended Practices for Quality Assurance Observation

• 3.1-IIBEC-General Practices Common to All Quality Assurance Observers
• 2-IIBEC-Complementary Practices Specific to Roof Observation
• 3.3-IIBEC-Complementary Practices Specific to Waterproofing Observation
• 3.4-IIBEC-Complementary Practices Specific to Exterior Wall Observation

Section 4—Specialized Areas of Practice

• 4.1-Expert Witness Services
• 4.2-Insurance Claim Consulting
• 4.3-Design Peer Review
• 4.4-Building Envelope Commissioning
• 4.5-Drone Use
• 4.6-Value Engineering
• 4.7-Sustainability of the Building Enclosure
• 4.8-Service to the Industry
• 4.9-Overview of Air Leakage Testing
• 4.10-Electronic Leak Detection

Appendices

• Appendix A-Part 1: Procedures for Construction Contract Administration
• Appendix A-Part 2: Standard Forms and Construction Contract Administration Documents
• Appendix B-Part 1: Glossary of Building Enclosure Terms
• Appendix B-Part 2: Terminology, Standards and Glossaries Pertinent to Building Enclosure Consulting and Observation

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