BEYOND Building Speaker Series, Part 1: End engineering uncertainties

In part one of our BEYOND Building Speaker series, Kirk Grundahl explains how marrying chemistry with structural performance eliminates guesswork with load paths and creates better performing walls.

Breaking away from the traditional can seem risky, but Kirk Grundahl – President of Qualtim Inc. and DrJ Engineering, LLC – encourages builders to innovate. He suggests that by combining chemistry with structural performance, you remove the guesswork and build confidence.

By putting walls through testing conditions that mimic the real world, builders can understand the full load path of their walls. “Cracking makes common sense,” says Grundahl. By seeing where walls crack, you can better understand their performance, “Overall, you’ve got a system that, when you test it, you know what’s going on.”

BASF’s testing ensures you know the full load path from the peak of the roof to the foundation. Once you’ve got that, the engineering becomes common sense. Combining structure with chemistry to transfer loads affords a lot of power and value. You can be sure your walls will perform consistently because they’re based in testing that is reliable.