After studying Acoustic Engineering at Southampton and working at a wind farm noise consultancy, Toby undertook an MSc in sustainability at Cardiff university. Concurrently Toby was a research assistant on a project evaluating the impacts of air conditioning inspection. For the last 10 years Toby has been a founder-partner at Greengauge Building Energy consultants where he lead the Building Physics team until beginning his PhD studies. As part of this work Toby has become an experienced Passivhaus designer and a leading moisture risk analyst.

PhD Project: Investigating the performance of solid walls with water-repellent surface treatments

It is well established that when insulating solid walls, careful consideration of the moisture behavior is essential to avoid unintended consequences such as mould and other types of decay. The interaction of the surface of such walls with rain is of great importance. In practice, hydrophobic treatments have been deployed to reduce rain ingress and subsequent moisture risk, but some heritage specialists have raised concerns about failures associated with such products. The project aims to advance the state of understanding of surface interactions with respect to moisture.