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Issue 4, Volume 2

April 23, 2004

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Plain Text Version

The Value of Third Party Providers
by Maci McDaniel, National Marketing Director

All builders hire outside companies to provide a variety of services including inspection services to verify the local and state codes are adhered to and quality construction practices are being followed. It is important to note that home buyers and building officials rely on these companies to provide un-biased inspections to monitor and ensure that all homes meet the necessary regulations and standards as directed by code, as well as additional standards promised to home buyers by their builders.

Builders gain significant credibility in their building programs by choosing to work with third-party inspection companies. Both home buyers and building officials can be assured that the homes inspected by third party firms meet the standards outlined in the inspection program. The builder is also better protected from liability should a problem arise and their construction practices be brought into question by one of these parties. In today’s legal environment builders can not afford to risk having inspection practices be lax. The workmanship in their homes must meet the minimum guidelines and be above reproach. No trade contractor is perfect so verification that components of the home are going to perform as promised is essential. “Fix and proceed” inspection practices incur substantial risk and liability for builders as well as working with firms who have limited motivation to fail their own work, if they or their company installed the materials or equipment used to construct the home. No builder, no matter how large their company, can afford to expose themselves to this amount of risk and liability.

The credibility gained from using third party companies far outweighs the risk. The builders’ sales people can say with confidence and conviction that their homes are built to meet your home buyers’ expectations and meet all of the requirements set forth in the code or any other program standards (i.e. ENERGY STAR) in which you build. Third party inspection companies may not always tell you what you want to hear, but they tell you what you need to know!

Inspector’s Corner

Understanding Building Pressures
by Bernardo Lopez, Regional Manager

Why are “building pressures” important? In order to answer this question we must first analyze what three things are related to this question. The following are the main influencers that affect pressure:

• HVAC system
• Ventilation
• Comfort

The first influencer is pressure differences caused by the HVAC system. We know that air seeks the path of least resistance and moves from high pressure to low pressure. If you have leaks in the return side of the HVAC system, this causes your home to become positively pressurized by allowing warm, humid, and unconditioned air through the return side. Supply side leaks in the HVAC system cause a negative effect on the home and may lead to potential dangers in the home. We can determine the pressure condition of the home with our diagnostic equipment.

The second and most important influencer is ventilation of combustible appliances located inside the home (example: fireplace, gas dryer, water heater). Most combustible appliances are gas fueled and use flue pipes to extract the gases that are produced in chambers to the exterior of the home.

Now, we move into the importance of understanding building pressures. As we discussed earlier, if you have a negative condition in your home that possibly means that your HVAC system is leaking on the supply side and is looking for “make up air” to compensate for lost air. The rule is if “one cfm goes out, one cfm has to come in.” So, any hole open to the outside becomes a pathway for “make up air.” The vent pipes on the combustible appliances are the paths of least resistance and is where back-drafting, or flame roll out occurs. The carbon monoxide gases are not venting to the outside of the home as designed, in fact, the gas is being drawn in through the return system and re-circulated through the HVAC system. If your home is over pressurized then any hole within to the conditioned space becomes a pathway for you to lose your expensive, conditioned air. One way to deal with an over-pressurized house would be to check the cfm flow for balance and the correct tonnage. Again, remember 1 cfm in = 1 cfm out.

The third influencer deals with comfort of the people in the home. You may be experiencing this problem in your home if you have a central return system and no pathways for air to move between bedroom doors and the main body of the home. Door undercuts do not work to relieve the pressure from inside the rooms. For example, during cooling periods your bedrooms may feel colder when the doors are closed and the main body becomes uncomfortable because air is not allowed to return to the main body. The closed door causes your room to become over pressurized by the higher pressure inside the room. Now, the pressure outside the bedroom becomes negative because you just reduced the cfm flow for which your HVAC system is rated. If you suffer these situations, consider investing in “jumper or equalizing ducts” for your bedrooms that lead to the main body of your home. Jumper ducts are an easy way to allow air from the bedroom to re-circulate to the main body of the home and allow air back to the return side of your HVAC systems when the doors are closed. This will eliminate complaints of one room temperature variation to another when the HVAC system provides the correct amount of cfm.

This brief summary explains the importance of understanding building pressures. Many comfort complaints will be eliminated if building pressures are understood and checked to be at a comfortable level, which is why GWSSI includes pressure tests as part of our inspection and testing program. If you require any more assistance please contact Guaranteed Watt Saver at 1-888-488-0206.

Efficiency Updates

Affordable Comfort Conference 2004

GWSSI’s Operations Personnel will be attending the Affordable Comfort Conference. Kelly Parker, President, David Walker, National Operations Director and Rogge Miller, Oklahoma Operations Manager will all be presenters during the conference. This is an annual training event for building and testing professionals on technical aspects of how to remodel, repair, build, and diagnose homes. It will be held at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 26 - May 1.

 
Ask the Expert

Do you have a question about building science, energy efficiency or mold? Well, now you can Ask the Expert. E-mail your question to expert@gwssi.com to get an answer. GWSSI will choose one question to answer in next month’s newsletter.

*The expert will be unable to personally reply to all questions due to the high volume he may receive.