Last Updated on October 25, 2021 by Showrooms Online
Air Sealing an Older Home
Air sealing an older home is the first and most cost-effective thing you can do to improve energy efficiency. Air leakage in or out of your home can be over 30% of your heating bill. Understanding how to fix air leakage is a bit more complicated than it appears. So, do some homework before you start. It may pay you to hire an expert service to evaluate the work needed and to do the job.
Renovating Existing Homes for Energy Efficiency
The building codes in Canada are updated regularly. Most recently, the major changes mandate improved energy efficiency to meet the onrushing challenges of climate change. Not to mention, the rapidly rising costs of heating a home over the many months of a Canadian winter. The building codes cover all new construction.
However, there are a total of about 14 million existing residences in Canada, including townhouses, condos, and apartments. Approximately 8 million of these are single-family detached homes. The large majority of existing residences do not meet the energy efficiency levels of a new build.
New homes currently built to code have air sealing ratings of 2.5 to 3 ACH50. Building codes set minimum energy standards. To meet net-zero 2050 goals, virtually all the existing housing in Canada needs to be significantly renovated to improve energy efficiency.
Air leaks in an existing house are difficult to find and even more difficult to fix. To make a house air-tight requires more than visually identifying gaps and cracks that can be caulked.
Air leakage occurs through all sorts of cracks and joints and small penetrations in the building envelope. This air leakage varies with wind pressures and the heated air stack effect of a house. Actual leakage varies for each house depending on the design, the current temperature and wind, and the surrounding shielding of trees and buildings.
Deep Renovations
The best opportunity to significantly improve the energy efficiency of an existing house is when you are doing a major renovation. A deep energy renovation will usually involve air sealing, added insulation, and new windows, plus new mechanical equipment.
The air sealing is best done when the existing drywall is being replaced. Also in most cases, when upgrading the insulation, it is best to remove the existing insulation. This facilitates sealing even if some insulation can later be reused. Attic insulation is best removed and discarded. The sealing can be completed and tested before installing new insulation.
Air Sealing
AEROBARRIER technology makes air sealing a science.
AEROBARRIER is an innovative automated envelope sealing technology that aims to make energy-efficient and performance homebuilding attainable for all builders. Certified as GreenGuard Gold and Built Green, our sealing technology safely and effectively seals the entire building, eliminating the problems and shortcomings of traditional construction techniques and replacing manual labour with an automated, computer-driven, precision-controlled operation.
A Real Life Example in Dartmouth, NS
This home in Dartmouth, NS was built in 1963 and Olivia & Justin purchased it from the original owner. It is a 4 bedroom bungalow with a finished basement for a total of approx. 2400 square feet of living space.
The home was well-maintained but needed updating. Olivia & Justin also wanted to make sure their new home was as energy-efficient as possible. They heard about AeroBarrier from their friend, a renovation contractor who used it on his home and on subsequent projects since. They knew that whenever they bought a home, they’d want whole-house air sealing in addition to upgraded insulation and windows. From speaking with a contractor knowledgeable with the process they knew the best approach would be to have AeroBarrier installed before upgrading the interiors.
Olivia and Justin were taking a DIY approach to the entire renovation. In an existing home, there is a lot of covering up and preparation work before turning on the AEROBARRIER sprayer. To save some time and money an owner can undertake the pre-seal preparation work.Â
The AIRTIGHT Spaces crew provided the training for the required pre-seal preparation work. In addition to the training, AIRTIGHT Spaces provided all the floor, counter, and fixed appliance coverings and tape needed to complete the prep work. When Olivia and Justin were satisfied with all their preparation work, the AIRTIGHT Spaces crew inspected the pre-seal preparations as a backup to ensure everything was ready. The sealing was scheduled to be completed in 1 day.
This is a great way for the owners to get involved and save money when air sealing an existing home. I have done this DIY myself on two occasions by tearing up the old carpet and underlay when installing a new wood floor and ripping off an old wood railing when renovating my deck. Lots of low-skilled work adds up to a lot of extra expense when done by someone else.
The Results are Measurable
A blower door test is done to measure the air leakage rate before we start.
A blower door test is done after the seal has reached the goal and proves the results.
In this project, the starting condition was 3.43 ACH50 and the end condition was 1.39 ACH50.
A reduction of this magnitude goes a long way toward reducing heat losses. Heating bills are now lower every month.
Testimonial: a happy customer
“My husband and I recently had AeroBarrier applied to our new-to-us house by Airtight Spaces. As new homeowners, it was great to be able to do some of the labour ourselves to save some money. But don’t be fooled; it was a ton of work! If you are considering the partial-DIY option like we did, be prepared to put the time in. The work itself is simple, tedious and time-consuming but very doable for two able-bodied adults. The team at Airtight Spaces was a joy to work with as well. Their communication is top-notch, which made scheduling easy. We would highly recommend this service!”
Here is a recent blog Showrooms Online did for a project in Victoria, BC
