Module 6 · Retrofit and Moisture Risk

6.1 PAS 2035 and the Moisture Risk Assessment

9 min read

Britain spent decades installing insulation as a product and is now installing it as a system, and the difference is the assessment that precedes it. PAS 2035 requires that a dwelling be assessed as a whole before measures are chosen, with moisture risk considered explicitly — because the failures of the previous era were overwhelmingly moisture failures, and they were produced by measures that were individually correct and collectively wrong.

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

Describe the PAS 2035 process and where moisture risk sits within it.
Explain the whole-dwelling principle and why single measures fail.
Identify the risk factors that determine a dwelling's risk path.
State what a moisture risk assessment must actually establish.

Key terms

Whole-dwelling assessment: Assessing the building as a system before choosing measures, so interactions between fabric, ventilation, heating and occupancy are considered rather than discovered.
Retrofit Assessor / Coordinator / Designer: Defined roles under PAS 2035. The Coordinator carries responsibility for the whole project including risk management.
Risk path: The level of assessment a dwelling requires, determined by its characteristics, exposure and the measures proposed. Higher risk demands more analysis.
Medium-term improvement plan: The staged plan showing how a dwelling reaches its target performance, so a measure installed now does not preclude or endanger one installed later.

Part of the paid course

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