Air Tightness Testing

Air leakage testing or Air tightness testing is another key component of the building regulations. Good preparation and an experienced professional partner make it so much easier to comply. Here’s what the Government says about air testing – and our view on the subject…

What the Government says about air leakage testing
Current legislation requires a sample of all newly built houses to be air tested to ensure compliance with the regulations. If you are air testing your new house, you can’t get an Energy Performance Certificate until it is complete.
During testing, leakage is measured in m³ per m² of external envelope lost to uncontrolled air leakage per hour.
Your air leakage testing results should exceed the figure specified in the design SAP or SBEM. On small sites, you may ask for exemption from air testing, but if you do you’ll automatically trigger a SAP/SBEM value of 15 – and this high figure is likely to cause your overall assessment to fail. What’s more, dwellings achieving an air test of 5 or lower may need to consider knock-on implications within Part F (Ventilation)…

What this means for you … Confidence is everything
We believe passionately that the key to complying with legislation is having confidence that you can achieve the figure in your SAP or SBEM. In our experience, you really must know the impact of your air tightness test result. Why? Because failure can hold up completion and cost you money. That’s why it’s so important to invest in professional support from an air leakage testing specialist. That’s our role, as a trusted partner who helps architects and builders complete projects successfully, make more money and grow their businesses.

Our advice on air tightness testing
To you, this might be just another hurdle on the way to project completion. But to us, air leakage testing, and its importance to our clients, is extraordinarily exciting. What excites us even more is seeing our team help businesses like yours build their success.
We always advocate getting us involved as early as possible in your development process. When you entrust us with an air leakage test you can choose from two different service levels –the one you select depends on how much help you need. We also recommend getting us to do a pre-inspection to identify any sources of uncontrolled air leakage. Then we’ll give you practical advice on putting things right before the test. To us, that’s always seemed the logical way to help you avoid the cost and inconvenience of test failures.

Once we’re on site, our engineers will test the property. Depending on the service you choose, we’ll tape and seal and identify any areas with air leakage. Actually, when it comes to air tightness testing, we can do pretty much anything you need – including retesting to ensure you achieve the required air permeability.
If you’re concerned about air leakage testing, our knowledge, skills and experience really can help your project and your business be more successful. If you’re in building design or construction, we’ll make your world better; that’s a promise.