Does Your West Palm Beach Property Need Glass Wall Drainage Analysis?

Glass is a fascinating material. It is generally deemed a solid, but it can also be classified as a liquid under certain circumstances. It’s considered fragile, yet objects and art have survived to delight archeologists and offer proof that cultures were engaging in glassmaking thousands of years ago. Today, glass fibers play a vital role in countless electronics and communication networks. Glass is powerful and revealing, and so is a glass wall drainage analysis of your West Palm Beach, Florida, property.

Defining the Glass Wall Drainage Analysis

Oddly enough, there isn’t much glass involved in glass wall drainage analyses. Instead, these powerful tests serve as forecasts. When performed by a civil engineer, this analysis is a scientific crystal ball that focuses on potential outcomes. It reveals how a property will cope in the face of a 100-year storm lasting three days. To do so, it evaluates the property and the structures on it, which can be either existing or proposed. 

With severe weather becoming more frequent, it’s worth noting that a 100-year storm isn’t a once-in-a-century monster. The label blends meteorology and math to denote a storm with a 1-in-100 chance of occurring in an area within a year’s time.

Appreciating the Value of Glass Wall Drainage Analyses

With the way modern weather forecasts seem to be revving up, severe storms are increasingly common. It’s no longer a matter of if a heavy rainfall event will strike West Palm Beach. It’s a matter of when. Knowing how a property is likely to perform when it happens is essential information.

A glass wall drainage analysis can be used to evaluate how properties perform under existing conditions or with proposed changes. As a result, they can be useful in a variety of situations:

  • You’re purchasing a new residential property.
  • You’re purchasing a new commercial property.
  • You’re building a new structure. You want to explore the impact and verify that the proposed drainage and stormwater management systems will be effective.
  • You have concerns about the property of the existing drainage or stormwater management systems.
  • You’re planning changes. You want to learn how expanding the structure or hardscaping will impact the property’s existing drainage or stormwater management systems.

Exploring What Goes Into Glass Wall Drainage Analyses

Maintaining superior drainage is vital if you want to protect your Florida property. After all, standing water can serve as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, bacteria, and other nastiness. Water that lingers in your landscaping can destroy plants. Inanimate objects are also at risk. Standing water can rot wood, damage foundations, and erode the ground.

Completing a glass wall drainage analysis is complicated. There’s no universal formula. Instead, the civil engineer must tailor the project to each property to estimate accurately how it will respond to a sudden influx of stormwater. Depending on the nature of the property, various factors will be tallied. These may include:

  • How much rain will fall during a 100-year storm that lasts for three days?
  • At what rate will the rainfall during a 100-year storm last for three days?
  • How will the property’s structures impact the stormwater? Are there proper mechanisms to direct runoff away from their foundations?
  • Will hardscaping or other similar materials limit the movement to groundwater?
  • Are there existing drainage and stormwater management systems in place?
  • What environmental features may affect the site’s drainage?
  • Are there issues on surrounding properties that might impact the drainage potential for this property?

When you want an experienced civil engineering firm to conduct a glass wall analysis at your West Palm Beach home or business, turn to DKK Consulting Incorporated. With roughly 20 years of experience conducting these complex analyses, we know how to do the job correctly. In fact, we’re proud to have carved a niche by providing systematic and procedural solutions for our clients. To learn more about our many effective civil engineering services and the benefits they offer, contact DKK Consulting Incorporated today.