AeroBarrier interior gap sealing technology
rockies63
| Posted in Energy Efficiency and Durability on
I saw this product used on the Canadian home building show “Holmes and Holmes”. The product is sprayed into the interior of the home as a fine mist and when it comes into contact with an air gap in the building envelope it reacts, expands and seals the gap. The process takes about two hours and you can watch on a computer in real time how much tighter the building gets as it works.
Has anyone used this process before?
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I recently watched a house being sealed outside of NYC. It's pretty cool technology. Of course everyone's first question for me after seeing the process, "Does the sealant cover everything in the house?" No it doesn't. The subfloor was a little tacky afterward. Vulnerable horizontal surfaces are masked, but the material doesn't really stick to vertical surfaces. The house went from 4 1/2 to 1 1/2 ACH50 in about two hours. I think it could become commonplace.
Who did the work? Was it in the westchester area? I’m interested..
You can type "AeroBarrier" into the search box after clicking the magnifying glass in the upper right.
That was my concern, that the sealant would stick to everything. I would think though that the best time to apply this product would be before the insulation and drywall were installed, although in the house Mike Holmes built the process was done after the drywall was installed.
I can't help thinking that each leak would stop collecting sealant the moment it's sealed even though the coating is whisper thin. The blower test would be fantastic but how would it fair after a few years of building material shrinkage, house settling and wind. I'd want to see the results of a blower door test after a few years.
Douglas Higden
That's an interesting point. Does it build up as a lump, or a thin veneer?
It starts accreting at the edges of the leak and along the leak path, where the material will be thicker. The center of the leak will be where it's thinnest and more susceptible to re-opening later, but it's still going to be substantially plugged even if pinhole leaks develop over time. This is a before & after shot of their duct sealant product:
https://aeroseal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Before-and-After-Aeroseal-500x179.png
I doubt this is ever going to be a product suitable for retrofit air sealing an already finished & occupied house.
The company that did the work was SuperSeal insulation Airmont, NY. Actually Dana it's conceivable you could seal an occupied house, but the surface protection and protection of belongings make it tough. Super seal is hoping to start selling the service to new homeowners of existing homes before they move in. It's typically installed after the drywall is hung ad finished and before trim is installed. However they recently sealed up a newly-completed house (unfurnished but with floor coverings) that couldn't pass a blower door test.
It's credible that they could (and apparently needed to) do it on a finished but UNoccupied house. I would expect some surfaces might need aggressive clean up after the fact.
A good air sealing team with foam kits, IR camera & blower door might have been cheaper beating it into code compliance but probably not any quicker, and they might not have gotten it all the way down to 1.5ACH/50.
Actually, Mandalay Homes from Phoenix, AZ have achieved .3-.6ACH50 in their homes, but they started at 1-1.5ACH50. They've been building ZEHs for a while, doing a great job and getting many awards for their accomplishments.
Hitting under 3ACH/50 in new construction is pretty easy if people are paying attention. Sounds like Manadalay Homes has the system down pat.
A retrofit air sealing on houses that initially failed at a pretty sloppy 4.5 ACH/50, as in Patrick McCombe's example case can be tougher. I would expect there might be some medium sized to get at holes when starting out at leakage that high.
If one builds houses that are 1ACH50 by framing tight, taping and sealing the sheathing and rigid foam, installing properly a good WRB and insulation systems, and being mindful of a quality job, which any professional builder should do, paying an extra $1-1.50/sf does not justify their cost. Layering the sealing of a building creates back up systems upon backup systems in case there is a failure on installation and material, and not relying on one single application. I think this is great for folks that are not too apt to do a good job in the building envelope and claim to have a silver bullet or an easy fixer-upper.
Those aeroseal people are like sharks, they show up on different sites and message forums and brag about their products and argue with anyone who doesn't tow their line or asks tough questions. If they know about GBA they will be here soon to tell us its so much better then sliced bread.
I don't know how toxic or non toxic it really is but they will brag about how inert it is and how wonderful the durability is and promote numbers that don't add up.
So in short i believe nothing they say because they will say anything to make a sale.
I receive a quote for an Aerobarrier install at about $1.50/square foot. The proposal had this note:
"Apply Aerobarrier at residence to achieve an air exchange level of 3 ACH. Application to stars after spray foam at roof deck and before drywall installation.
LEVELS BELOW 3 ACH ARE ACHIEVABLE BUT REQUIRE MAKE UP AIR THROUGH VENTILATION AND ADDITIONAL COST."
I just wrapped my house in Blueskin; I taped my plywood roof deck with Siga Wigluv; I'll seal all big penetrations myself, and I plan to use closed cell spray foam to get hard to reach areas (rafter tail blocking, rim joist).
I asked what it would cost to get to 1.5 ACH or lower, and never heard back.
Just thought I'd chime in here with my AeroBarrier experience on our new home. I was excited to learn of the product last spring but disappointed it wasn't yet available in SW WI. I checked their website again at the end of summer and was happy to see a provider about 1.5 hr away. At drywall stage we started off at 2.77 ACH at 50 Pa and got down to .35 ACH when they were done. They also wanted to come back when construction was completed and the HVAC system and exhaust fans were in place and not blocked as they were during the sealing process. That was done last week and came in at ACH50 of .71. The cost came in at just under $0.62/sq ft. I'm very pleased and would highly recommend the process and our contractor, Sealing Solution LLC.
$0.62/sf for the AeroBarrier is an awesome price, but I suspect the price was driven down due to size of house - is your house over 4k sf?
The challenge with the AB system, other than the overmarketing, is the fixed costs. Contractor has some fixed costs in getting the rig to each jobsite, and AeroBarrier apparently charges the contractor a combination of a fixed cost per unit + cost/sf to use the software that controls the system and calculates the amount of stuff to spray. So for a 800 sf unit the per sf costs get astronomical...
Our house is a 1,624 sq ft ranch with a full walkout basement, so about 3,250 total.
Wow - just over $2k, and it included 2 trips with a blower door at each trip?
You got a great deal.
I agree!
Is there a concern for what materials it may not adhere to?