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Buildings are more vulnerable to faults in design and construction, when exposed to the extreme Greenlandic climate, however, most new materials and designs have not been tested for Arctic conditions. Thus even minor errors can result in failures like mould growth, discomfort, and unnecessary heat loss. Rekognizing the source of the error can be difficult, yet valuable. But how can it be identified whether the error lies in the design or quality of workmanship? This paper describes a case study from Nuuk, Greenland, where a new mineral wool insulation system was implemented. Residents were complaining about draft and cold areas. An investigation revealed that inaccurate use of the system caused several problems. Simulations of the exterior wall performance were conducted and compared to measurements. This paper discusses whether these measurements and simulations support the identified issues, and therefore if this kind of general surveillance of exterior walls can be used to determine the total performance of an exterior wall. The paper concludes that the collected data can support the issues of the complaints, and that the fundamental reasons for the problems are the design, the precision of the casted concrete and the lack of a wind barrier protecting the insulation.

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Life-cycle assessments are often performed on ideal cases where errors or accidents are not taken into account. This might give a wrong indication of the potential impacts as errors and accidents do occur as part of building construction. Thus, for a specific case in Greenland on construction of an exterior wall, we evaluated the potential environmental impacts of construction errors. Both impacts related to correcting the errors and impacts if the errors were left uncorrected. We compared our results to a baseline scenario without construction errors. Results show that construction errors can have a substantial contribution to the total life-cycle impact of an exterior wall. Our results are for a specific case and cannot be generalized at this stage. Further studies are needed to evaluate if findings can be generalized. Here, errors should generally be avoided through better quality assurance during planning and execution or by using more robust designs. This study sheds light on the importance of taking into account potential construction errors and the importance of avoiding these to keep environmental impacts low.