Many city mandated facade inspections require the inspection team to evaluate whether the building facade is vulnerable to water leakage. Due to the large number of facades that require inspection, the professional charged with this essential task must be trained to determine quickly if a facade is vulnerable to water infiltration. if there is evidence that the watertight integrity of the building facade is compromised, further investigation should be performed to determine the source(s) of water leakage.

This paper addresses methods that inspectors can utilize to quickly evaluate whether there may be a problem, and discusses techniques that can be applied to determine the source(s) and magnitude of water penetration