AeroBarrier home sealing cost
Gwisejr
| Posted in Green Products and Materials on
Has anyone in the SouthEast, GA, NC/SC, AL, etc.. used AeroBarrier? I’m building a new home in the Atlanta area and an very interested in using the product but the quote that I got back for a ~4600 sq. ft. home, 2300 sq. ft. living/ 2300 sq. ft. unfinished basement came in at over $5k just to get you to 3.5 ACH50, then another $800 to take you below that 3.5 ACH50.
This seems quite a bit much.. I’d appreciate any input from other regions besides the SouthEast since I think that it has been in use up north for longer.
Thanks..
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From https://zeroenergyproject.org/2018/07/16/is-aerobarrier-the-future-of-air-sealing/
"Cost
Aerobarrier is licensed to local operators, who set their own prices. Two factors affect the total cost: level of air tightness and building size. High volume builders may get better prices. Depending on these factors, it might cost $0.80 to $3.00 per square foot. Be sure to check with a local installer for pricing in your area."
That's crazy expensive.
It’s a brand new product that does something cool (for building science people anyway), so there is some novelty associated with it. I think they have a patent too. They’re going to charge as much as they can for a while. Once the novelty wears off a bit and people learn about it, costs may go down as they try to get more sales volume with a larger market. That will likely take years though.
I think of aerobarrier as something of a niche product to be used either to fix problems, or to attain crazy high levels of air sealing. In normal construction, I think it makes more sense to just pay attention to air sealing with the usual methods and not use aerobarrier unless the customer wants to go far beyond the normal levels of air sealing.
Bill
Agreed. I question the longevity of their approach vs. just doing the details right in the first place. As a substitute for regular air sealing, no way.
I must admit I'm very curious about it. I was thinking the other day that if I'm unable to get my own build below 1.0 ACH50 it would be neat to be able to call them in as a last ditch effort to get PH airtight.
I wonder how their pricing works? If I start with a sieve at 6 ACH50 and want 3, do I pay the same amount if I want to go from 1.0 down to 0.5? I guess it's up to the individual company to quote it.
I think their licensed installers set their own pricing, probably with some kind of floor set by the corporate people. The few people I’ve seen talk about pricing have been in very different areas and have seen different prices. The price difference could be based on all kinds of things I suppose, it’s hard to compare since ever building is different.
The stuff makes me think “sprayed caulk”, and I still wonder if it can get into places it shouldn’t and then gum things up and cause problems. I wonder about things like electrical boxes and conduit. I just haven’t seen enough people with real experience to know. It’s a really neat, and really new concept/product, so there isn’t much real-world experience out there yet to really get a good feel for the pros and cons of this particular product.
Bill
It's my understanding that it gets absolutely anywhere air leaks through. The videos I've watched mention completely sealing your windows with plastic as any small leaks through the seals will accumulate the sealant.
I agree about doing air sealing in all the regular ways but your not going to get all the leaks and this would be the last step. I just thought that the pricing was way out of line.. I was hoping that it would be based on the amount of additional air leak tightening that you want.
I think they will charge what the market will bear. If people are willing to pay $5k, those of us that won’t will just have to wait until the patents run out.
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HI George -
In the middle of a Fairfax VA two-day building science training (me, Steve Baczek and Doug Horgan of BOWA) for TW Perry this past week, Doug arranged for a local AeroBarrier guy to do a demo of the system via Skype--very cool!
The system is NOT really your primary air barrier; it is meant to improve the performance of the primary. And they have every incentive to make sure that big holes have been addressed--too expensive to let their aerosol leak to the outdoors through holes the material can't span.
I really like that you can dial in the airtightness you are seeking, with a pretty benign latex material, driven by a blower door. And from what I have seen, the material is pretty tough and maintains its adhesion and elasticity. Steve Baczek is looking at using this in one or more projects where the airtightness of the buildings can be monitored over time and AeroBarrier has already done accelerated aging test and has about 60 homes already set up for monitoring over time.
Has got my attention...Peter
Definitely looks like a neat idea for "further tightening" of an already reasonably sealed structure. Thanks for the info, Peter.
Compared to what? If you don't use it (or any other method) to get below 3.5; won't you spend more on conditioning (heat/cool/etc) over the time you live/own the house? 10yrs, $500/yr breakeven without inflation. Save more with lower equipment sizing or leverage points: leaky house needs big 100K BTU gas boiler VS solar powered mini-splits in tighter house outputting 50K. So much easier to seal when unoccupied!! Ask what you can do to lower cost.
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We get around 1ach50 almost every time with proper detailing, workmanship and pride of doing a good job.
Maybe this is a good product to help you achieve crazy low tightnes, but we are in a business to build great homes at reasonable cost, and not in a tightness competition, nor I believe this is a product to fix lack of workmanship. The concept of diminishing returns applies here.
Sorry for posting three times out of my cell, I kept posting in the wrong place.
Amen!
Agreed
To me the biggest value of Aerobarrier is ensuring that code requirements are met in areas where 3ACH50 or less is required, but builders have not updated their knowledge and processes sufficiently to achieve that on their own. There's a jurisdiction near me that had a 3ACH50 requirement in place recently, but all the builders kept on doing things "the way we always have," and no amount of tape, mastic, or gun foam would successfully seal these houses tight enough. Aerobarrier would have been the only solution when that blower door test, typically performed RIGHT before final inspection, showed failing numbers. That 3ACH50 requirement was recently retroactively revised up to 7ACH50, probably motivated by torches and pitchforks.
For anything under 4ACH50, especially with conventional construction methods in the Southeast, THE BUILDER HAS TO GET IT, AND THE BUILDER HAS TO CARE. You have a couple high-performance builders in Atlanta who could handle this without Aerobarrier. LG Squared, and Imery Group are the first to come to mind, but they are not the only ones. I am not affiliated with either, just see solid building science coming through their Instagram accounts.
I think builders do not realize what baseline air leakage is and its probably lower than you think. An extremely minimal effort slab on grade 1300 SF single story tract house tested at just a hair over 2ACH50. Air sealing consisted of sealing bottom and top of OSB to framing, corner framing joints and ceiling light boxes. I used maybe $30 in 1 part foam and around an hour of time, thats it. No tape, no zip, no aero, no gaskets. If you question the longevity of 1 part you could have substituted a different product but same location to yield the same result.
So thats $30 in material and 1 hour of labor.