What’s the only way to measure and compare whole-building air tightness? Test the whole building, of course! While that sounds obvious, some standards have awarded credit for doing a non-quantitative, non-qualitative “test” of a tiny section of a huge building. That’s starting to change. In GBCA’s Green Star Design and As-Built, projects can now get an extra point simply by doing a whole-building test. This is in addition to other points already available for air tightness testing:
If you have a project where a whole-building test is possible, even to a lower but still-compliant pressure, you should strongly encourage the team to pursue this point. Everyone will learn much more from it. A whole-building test is much closer to how buildings perform in real-life, the results are worthy of quantitative comparison, and you get more experience doing things the way they really should be done. If you need any advice, ask us. ATTMA’s purpose is to strengthen members’ standing.
In case you missed it, you can also get a point for finding some major leaks, rectifying them, and documenting the fix. It’s all about making buildings actually work better!
Are you counting? For Green Star Design and As-Built, that’s a total of FIVE different possible points for air tightness testing. We thank the GBCA for listening to years of feedback and putting their market power to good use.
