R-Seal: Case Study

About this project:

Sound Transit is in the process of expanding the regional mass transit system. The plan is to create an integrated, high-capacity transportation system to serve the three-county Sound Transit District in Washington State. This expansion required a Link Light Rail maintenance and administration building at a high visibility location at the junction of I-5 and I-90.

Challenge:

The goal of this project was to design and build a sustainable metal building that met LEED Silver requirements. Sustainability is an important principle for Sound Transit, and their plan for this project was to design the transit systems and facilities to last, whilst conserving resources and using materials wisely in the process. Additionally, Seattle Energy Code (SEC) required this project to be completed with an affordable budget. Despite this, whole building air barrier testing was still a necessity.

Solution:

The solution was to install R-Seal™ continuous wall insulation, which resulted in a sustainable, energy-efficient metal building. After being successfully applied to the Jefferson County Transit project, R-Seal™ was specified on Sound Transit MOW by TCF Architecture. R-Seal™ were used on the maintenance portion of the building due of its advantages of custom lengths, simple adhesion via pre-applied “tape tabs”, and project-specific engineering. The beneficial experience of using R-Seal™ on the maintenance portion resulted in them being applied on the administration portion of the building as well. This provided many sustainability benefits, including high in-place R-Value, zero VOC, and low Global Warming potential.

Additionally, R-Seal™ was able to meet the Seattle Energy Code requirements (some of the most stringent in the country) by Value Engineering. R-Seal™ used a single layer of 2.5” R-19, instead of the prescriptive compliance path of a layer of R-13 Ci plus a layer of R-13 batt insulation. This resulted in a quicker installation at a lower cost.

Project Details:

Building Supplier: Metallic Building Company

Architect: TCF Architecture

General Contractor: Forma Construction

Building Erector: Bahnmiller Construction

Location: Seattle, WA