pollutants

Dangers of Too Much Air Sealing

Every home has to breathe. Air has to enter and air has to leave. Otherwise, pollutants can stay in the home and affect your health. Moisture can build up and damage the home's structure and/or create mold. We are certain that you want to be healthy and have a solid home structure to have a good resale value. 

We talk so much about air sealing because it is so important to limit the amount of air changes occurring in a home. There are a lot of companies out there who will spray foam your wall cavities, attic spaces, basement spaces - or will even rent you the equipment to do it yourself to save a few bucks. The thing they do not do is actually test your home for air infiltration. Effectively they seal up your home, stop air from entering, but have no idea how much should be entering and much actually is entering. Sounds a little unsafe to me. 

Every home has a standard level of how many air changes it needs per hour called the Building Airflow Standard. This is easily calculated after finding the volume of your home. Next, you need a blower door test to confirm how leaky or tight your home is. You may seal up to 70% of the BAS levels before needing mechanical ventilation to bring more air into the home. 

At Sellair, we want to air seal properly. We want to make sure your home is left with proper ventilation so that you can feel confident knowing that your home is not only more comfortable and energy efficient, but that your home is also attaining the proper amount of ventilation because it was air sealed the correct amount. 

The right thing to do is to get an Energy Audit before air sealing your home. Then after air sealing is completed, run the blower door again to confirm your results. If you air seal too much, bring in mechanical ventilation to the home. This will give you adequate amounts of airflow and filter pollutants in the home. 

While this may be a lot of information, we are here to educate you. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding this process.