[Greenbuilding] A question regarding sealing in VOCs [Ventilation]

[Benjamin Pratt]

Not that it's a green product, but there are a lot of water-based
polyurethanes out there with low voc's and very good performance. They
also tend to dry very quickly, so you can use the stairs again!

On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 9:49 AM,  <wksite at mac.com> wrote:
> I used Rubio Monocoat natural oil so far so good.  They now have a heavy traffic finish.
> On Feb 28, 2012, at 3:42 PM, Don Lush wrote:
>
>> This is a somewhat related question (although it is a bit of a stretch!) - I am building a set of stairs with cherry treads and am looking for a finish -
>>
>> It does not have to be too durable as there are only two of us in the house.
>>
>> I do not want a high gloss (slippery) finish, I want the wood look but do not want a broken whatever after slipping and falling down the stairs.
>>
>> I was thinking of some sort of oil finish that would leave the wood grain exposed - sacrificing some wood wear for maximizing safety and letting any VOCs dissipate with open windows in the spring and summer.
>>
>> Any thoughts that the group may have appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks Don
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org [mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of RT
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 2:39 PM
>> To: Green Building
>> Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] A question regarding sealing in VOCs [Ventilation]
>>
>> On Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:30:17 -0500, marian dombroski <mdombros at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Jason, Do you know a good source for info on ventilation?  seems like
>>> the game is changing a bit with new materials and methods entering practice.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 12:17 AM, Jason Holstine
>>> <jason at amicusgreen.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> The potential to accelerate the offgassing but not adequately
>>>> ventilate and get the stuff pushed out of the building. So now you’ve
>>>> made the fishbowl a little more...fishbowl. Too many people don’t
>>>> know how to measure ventilation or how to manage it, etc., so it
>>>> becomes a big wildcard.  It also typically needs the building to be
>>>> unoccupied (unless you want to hang out and sleep in 85’something degrees).
>>
>>
>> In this case, "ventilation" is about "over-ventilation" which is pretty much limited to being accomplished by mechanical means and "mechanical means" is pretty much limited to "fans".
>>
>> If I were wanting to exhaust polluted air from a house that was being "Baked out", I think that I'd look at acquiring a salvaged squirrel cage blower from a furnace to use as the exhaust fan. They are usually discarded with the motor still attached.  Obviously, they are capable of expediently handling the entire volume of air inside of a house with ease.
>>
>> I don't think there's any law that says that a bake-out process needs to be done whole-house-all-at-once if the house is already occupied. (ie Typcially a bake-out is done pre-occupancy).
>>
>> I don't see why it couldn't be done room-by room or zone-by-zone, with the house occupants avoiding the "hot" zone (which should probably be heated closer to 95 degF (35 degC) than 85 degF ). If doing it room-by-room, I think that I'd use a quartz element radiant-type space heater as the heating device rather than the house furnace.
>>
>> Ideally one would wait until the season where outdoor temps are closer to the indoor bake-out temp so as to minimise heating energy consumed
>> (wasted) and when people tend to spend more time outdoors.
>>
>> Please note: Much of this is speculation on my part as implied by the "I think" wording. I've never needed to do a bake-out. Best to avoid the use of off-gassing materials at the outset.
>>
>> To answer Marian's Q., I would suspect that the Home Ventilating Institute website might have homeowners' info on the subject of home ventilation
>>
>>       http://hvi.org/publications/index.cfm
>>
>> but if not, I'm certain that the CMHC website does (perhaps just a bit harder to find on that massive site).
>>
>>
>> --
>> === * ===
>> Rob Tom
>> Kanata, Ontario, Canada
>>
>> < A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a  > (manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply")
>>
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>
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-- 


b e n j a m i n p r a t t

professor art+design
the university of wisconsin stout