Old Building Retrofit
Older townhouses + apartments
series of older homes & apartment buildings
Old Building Retrofit
Why This Job Was Important
The tight site. Airtight Home Technologies has recognized the need to be able to access these difficult sites and as a result, we have modified our equipment to fit in a 12’ cube truck. This gives us access to areas in a city that our larger, trailer-based equipment simply cannot access and function. Note in the pictures that our equipment is all set up on the sidewalk in front of the building being sealed. Access to the upstairs unit for us during the seal is by removing the fan and entering though the fan hole in the door.
Results
Kudos to the renovator for deciding on a full-gut reno. A part reno simply would not have allowed us to achieve as good a seal as we did. Given the age of these buildings, and the fact that they were not constructed with airtightness in mind, the original airtightness was likely well above what would be acceptable today. With the full-reno approach, the renovator was able to get it to 5.28 ACH to start. (Many new houses do not start this well.) After 3+ hours of sealing, we were at 1.71 and reduced the effective hole size in the building by nearly 80 in2. That’s the size of many bathroom windows.
This demonstrates that these older buildings can be saved and do not need to be demolished and rebuilt. The location and tight operating conditions are such that this approach would be costly and difficult. A full renovation is feasible, it makes the building much more energy-efficient, and it preserves the “culture” of the neighbourhood.
