It was a great day to see positive results decreasing the air infiltration to the Alley House by using AeroBarrier. Nick Budd ran the show setting up the air test as faculty and students observed.

To understand how this works, you need to imagine a balloon, where the air inside the balloon is at a higher pressure than outside, but if there are leaks in the balloon, the air inside will find the leaks and escape. AeroBarrier’s atomized sealant uses the same principal – it follows the pressurized air escaping the building and seals the leaks. This results in a durable, high performing, airtight enclosure system.

The machinery was stopped at one point in this process, to understand where a rather large amount of air was escaping – it was through the demising wall, in the area between the two stud walls at the top plate where the TJIs are connected. We would not have been able to find this gap any other way than through using the AeroBarrier product. It was a fascinating process of seeing the house fog up through the pressurization, then a sealant was shot out through the nozzles on the standing pedestals and found the gaps in the envelope and sealed them shut! This process allows every builder that aspires to take their buildings a step above the minimum to add increased levels of performance to their builds.

Results:

ACH 3.6 at 50 Pa down to .56 ACH at 50 Pa (blower door test)

848.6 cfm leakage at 50 Pa down to 135.1 cfm leakage at 50 Pa (needed 141.6 cfm for PHIUS)