[Greenbuilding] off-gassing and what if anything to do about it?

Reuben Deumling 9watts at gmail.com
Wed Jul 22 20:25:01 CDT 2015


This is all so very helpful. She is a bit overwhelmed at the moment, having
made the assumption that the house was good to move into, you know,
tomorrow.

Thank you all.

On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 4:10 PM, John Salmen <terrain at shaw.ca> wrote:

> A long time ago there was quite a bit of discussion about baking out
> buildings. Part of the IAQ issue is the compounds formed by the mixing of
> the various chemicals off gassing and how that can be exacerbated by heat
> and also the stability of the materials with added heat and that resulting
> in more compounds becoming less stable
>
>
>
> I would look at pressured ventilation strategies (exhaust ducts near
> larger soft furnishings, carpets, etc with fresh air intakes near areas
> that are occupied. This can be accomplished as a temporary strategy with
> flexible ducts with inline fans stuck out windows. The idea is to increase
> ventilation but also target areas or objects for exhaust (rather than just
> mixing the air up). The other strategy is gaseous filtration and there are
> residential oxidant added active carbon type filters available that can be
> effective with formaldehyde.
>
>
>
> *From:* Greenbuilding [mailto:
> greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] *On Behalf Of *Bill
> Kingsbury
> *Sent:* July-22-15 2:51 PM
> *To:* Green Building
> *Subject:* Re: [Greenbuilding] off-gassing and what if anything to do
> about it?
>
>
>
>
> To speed up the off-gassing, "bake-out" the building.
>
> Some companies specialize in heating older buildings to "higher"
> temperatures (140 - 160 degrees Fahrenheit, for several hours) to resolve
> problems with mold and insects, etc.
>
> A similar process, that includes contaminated air removal (with the
> correct ventilation rate), will speed up removal of the volatile chemicals
> -- however, it might require several days of heat treatment for good
> results.
>
> Best done before moving things into the new building -- unless they'd
> benefit from a "free" heat treatment (that would "cure" any included mold,
> insects, or chemical fumes).
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=building+bake-out+off-gassing
>
>
> Bill
>
>
> --- At 10:54 PM 2015-07-21, Reuben Deumling wrote:
> >
>
> A friend just bought a brand new house. Very efficient and also very full
> of nasty smells.
>
> Here is her question:
>
>
>
>
> *We're dealing with a house with all new everything. Ick. It's green
> meaning super energy efficient - insulation etc. but I don't think that
> extends to the toxic ness of the things they use to make stuff. It smells
> awful when you walk in. So I'm trying to figure out what to do to reduce
> it. Do you know much about these matters or know anyone that does? For
> example, I'm thinking of using this Carpet sealer, but I'm not sure how to
> assess if it actually makes a difference. Flooring and paint are the other
> major things- I think.*Any thoughts? I have no experience whatsoever with
> this sort of thing. An unexpected advantage of sourcing everything from the
> dumpster, I guess.
>
> Thanks!
>
> >
>
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