Principal Building Scientist Colin Prouse

A Curriculum Vitae

Colin R Prouse, Building Materials Scientist, Shareholder and Director of the BEAL entities.
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Colin Prouse is a building materials scientist and building consultant with more than 50 years of experience spanning chemistry, materials science and research, laboratory testing, quality assurance, coatings, long-term building maintenance planning, building investigations, building weathertightness and the assessment of building products and systems.

He is a shareholder and director of the BEAL entities and has been closely involved in the development of BEAL’s testing, appraisal and technical assessment activities since establishing Building Element Assessment Laboratory Limited in 2004.

His particular area of expertise is the relationship between selected building materials, building systems, and their long-term performance in New Zealand’s harsh conditions.

A career built around materials and performance
Colin’s professional career began in chemistry and laboratory practice and subsequently developed through industrial materials, coatings, building performance and building consultancy.
This progression has provided a unique set of experiences across several stages of the life of many building products:

Chemical materials → research → coatings → application → building maintenance → building surveys → weathertight investigations → product assessments / testing → Appraisal certification

This broad perspective is central to his work at BEAL.

Qualifications and technical training
Colin completed a New Zealand Certificate in Science, majoring in Chemistry, at Auckland Technical Institute in 1969.
He subsequently completed a Certificate in Industrial and Commercial Photography and the first year of a two-year postgraduate Diploma in Business and Industrial Administration at the Auckland School of Engineering.
His specialist technical training has included programmes undertaken with major international chemical and materials companies, including BASF and ICI, together with specialist training in building surveying and weathertightness assessments via the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors.

His technical experience has continued to develop through practical investigation, laboratory work, product assessment and involvement in building projects throughout his career.

Early laboratory and materials experience
Colin’s early career established a strong foundation in analytical chemistry, materials and quality assurance.
His work included developing quality-assurance processes for gypsum-based plaster used in the manufacture of plasterboard.
He subsequently developed rapid analytical methods for non-ferrous metal assays, including the use of Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy, to verify compliance with international specifications for exported metal products.
As a laboratory manager, he developed quality-assurance methods for incoming paper, carton-board, waxes and adhesives used in packaging manufacture and participated in full-scale trials of new materials for export packaging applications.
He later worked as a research chemist in Melbourne, developing offset-printing inks and co-developing new resins for ink systems.
These roles provided early experience in:

• analytical chemistry;
• materials characterisation;
• product development;
• laboratory methodology;
• manufacturing quality assurance;
• specification compliance; and
• full-scale product trials.

Industrial materials and coatings
From 1979, Colin worked as a technical representative for BASF, receiving specialist training in pigments, additives and surfactants used in paints and coatings.
This included technical training in Germany and visits to manufacturing facilities and laboratories.
In 1986 he became manager of a New Zealand coatings application company, where he gained extensive practical experience in the application of industrial, engineered and decorative coating systems.
This included application by:

• brush and roller;
• texture and hopper equipment;
• air atomisation;
• HVLP;
• airless spray; and
• other specialist application methods.

He subsequently received further specialist training relating to exterior refurbishment and industrial floor-coating systems.
This combination of materials knowledge and practical application experience became an important part of his later building-product assessment work.

Building maintenance and investigation
In 1994, Colin established a consultancy partnership focused on planned maintenance and condition assessment of large property portfolios.
A significant early project involved the Wellington Civic Centre buildings and approximately 2,400 rental units owned by Wellington City Council.
The work involved condition assessment, long-term maintenance planning and the development of maintenance software designed to assist property managers with long-term maintenance budgeting and expenditure.
Further work included condition assessment and preventative-maintenance planning for the Wellington School of Medicine buildings operated by the University of Otago, followed by similar work associated with the School of Medicine building in Auckland.
Other commercial and industrial property maintenance and project-management assignments followed.
This period of his career developed an important practical understanding of:

• building deterioration;
• maintenance requirements;
• material ageing;
• repair strategies;
• lifecycle considerations; and
• the relationship between material selection and long-term building performance.

Weathertightness and cladding
In 1999, Colin was invited by the Joyce Group to investigate leaking houses during the emergence of what subsequently became widely known as “the New Zealand leaky-building syndrome”.
This developed into a specialist consultancy practice dealing with building weathertightness and cladding performance.
The experience involved investigating the interaction between:

• cladding systems;
• substrates;
• coatings;
• flashings;
• windows and doors;
• junctions;
• moisture;
• construction details; and
• building maintenance.

This practical investigation experience subsequently became an important foundation for his work in the assessment of cladding and other building products.

Establishing BEAL
In 2004, encouraged by BRANZ after the then Government intended to introduce a revised and more risk-managed Building Act (2004), Colin established Building Element Assessment Laboratory Limited (BEAL) to provide an alternative technical assessment service for building products and systems.
The initial focus included products with significant implications for building performance, including:

• exterior claddings;
• sheet membranes
• windows;
• liquid applied membrane systems;
• self-adhesive tapes,
• a wide range of other building-envelope components.

The establishment of BEAL coincided with increasing industry demand for technical assessment of building products following changes to New Zealand’s building regulatory environment.
Since that time, BEAL’s work has expanded to include a broad range of building products and systems from manufacturers and importers in New Zealand and overseas.

Building product assessment
Colin has been directly involved in the development of BEAL’s approach to:

• product testing;
• technical assessment;
• building product appraisal;
• structural assessment;
• weathertightness assessment;
• buildability;
• development of test methodologies;
• review of existing technical evidence; and
• Building Code compliance assessment.

A particular area of interest has been innovative products for which conventional testing pathways or established standards may not fully address the proposed application.
His experience includes considering how laboratory evidence, material properties, construction details, installation requirements and practical building conditions interact in determining the performance of a completed building system.

Materials science and building science
Colin’s background in chemistry and materials provides a different perspective from that of a conventional building consultant.
His experience encompasses both the material itself and the building system into which it is incorporated.
This includes consideration of:

• material composition;
• manufacturing processes;
• coatings and surface treatments;
• adhesives and sealants;
• moisture;
• ageing and deterioration;
• substrate compatibility;
• fixing systems;
• construction methods;
• environmental exposure; and
• maintenance.

This materials-based perspective is particularly relevant when assessing products whose performance depends upon interactions between several materials or components.

Continuing technical development
Colin has continued to develop his technical knowledge throughout his career.
His professional experience has included specialist training and exposure to:

• analytical chemistry;
• laboratory instrumentation;
• coatings technology;
• industrial application methods;
• materials research;
• building surveying;
• weathertightness;
• building maintenance;
• product testing;
• building investigations; and
• building product assessment.

In 2005 he attended the Leaky Buildings Symposium in Auckland, where international specialists including Dr Joseph Lstiburek and Professor John Straube presented on building-envelope design and performance.
Such industry engagement has contributed to BEAL’s ongoing development of approaches to building-product testing and assessment.

Professional associations
Colin’s professional associations have included:

• Oil, Colour and Chemicals Association Inc.;
• Australasian Corrosion Association Inc.; and
• New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors Inc.
• ASTM – Committee E06 (Performance of buildings)
• ASHRAE

These memberships reflect different stages of his professional development across materials, corrosion analysis, building surveying, building performance and Indoor Air Quality.

What Colin brings to BEAL
Colin’s experience is unusual in that it spans several disciplines that are often considered separately.

Chemistry and materials
Understanding what materials are made from and how they behave.

Manufacturing and quality assurance
Understanding how products are manufactured and how consistency can be controlled.

Laboratory testing
Understanding how test methods are developed, applied and interpreted.

Practical construction
Understanding how products are actually installed and incorporated into buildings.

Building investigation
Understanding how materials and systems behave when buildings deteriorate or fail.

Building performance
Understanding the interaction between materials, construction, moisture, weather and maintenance.

Product assessment
Understanding how technical evidence can be assembled and related to the intended performance of a building product or system.

A practical approach to technical evidence
Colin’s approach to building-product assessment has developed from this combination of scientific and practical experience.
He considers that a meaningful technical assessment requires more than demonstrating that a material has a particular laboratory property.
The assessment needs to consider the actual product, the construction system, the method of installation, the environment and the performance requirement (including from time to time, the development of custom test procedures) for which the evidence is being relied upon.
This principle underpins BEAL’s broader approach:

The purpose of technical assessment is not to make the strongest possible claim about a product. It is to make the strongest conclusion that the available evidence can support.

Experience that connects the laboratory with the building site
Colin’s career has taken him from laboratory chemistry and industrial materials through manufacturing, coatings and building maintenance to building investigations, weathertightness and product assessment.
That progression has shaped BEAL’s practical perspective.

The laboratory provides controlled evidence.

The building provides real-world conditions.

Technical assessment provides the connection between the two.

It is this combination of scientific experience, materials knowledge and real-world practical on-site building experience, that Colin brings to his role as BEAL’s Principal Building Scientist.