What Makes a ‘Healthy’ Building?
Keeping your employees safe is always a high priority for your company. But what steps do you need to take to make sure your building is safe? What separates a facility that’s ahead of the curve from one that’s lagging behind?
Why Does Building Ventilation Matter So Much?
Clean, fresh air comes into your building; diluted air from inside exits. HVAC is pretty simple, right? In theory, yes. In reality? Not so much. Just because a building is new doesn’t mean its HVAC system is functioning exactly as it should be. We think of our HVAC as something that keeps us cool when it’s hot outside, but it needs to be able to do so much more than that.
Fresh air requirements for commercial buildings have been set by governing bodies like ASHRAE to make sure that facilities around the country are doing what they can to protect their employees. Abiding by Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) standards is crucial for several reasons, including:
- Ventilation in buildings shouldn’t just be bringing in fresh air from outside; it needs to function as a diluent for occupant-generated and product-generated pollutants.
- Ventilation systems influence temperature, humidity, and building air pressure.
- Poor IAQ increases symptoms in employees including headaches, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, and more, and that’s in the best of times; with a pandemic still very much a part of our lives, the risks increase significantly.
This affects more than just healthcare facilities—just about every building around the country should assess their indoor air quality, and it’s essential we all do what we can to make sure we’re creating the healthiest environment possible.
How Our Team Can Help
We’re no strangers to the importance of continued, diligent maintenance. If it’s been a while since you last commissioned your building, we recommend implementing a retro-commissioning procedure that can establish a path toward a properly ventilated building. Our process typically includes:
- An in-depth planning phase, including an initial walkthrough, team formation, and a kickoff meeting
- A thorough investigation to review all relevant documentation, functional testing, and pain points
- Timely rollout of pertinent changes and extensive testing to verify results
- Final assessments
Without undergoing every single minor step, you can never be fully confident in the quality of your HVAC system. That’s why we take the time to move diligently through the process, checking to make sure you’re adhering to all airborne precautions along the way. If the most important thing is the safety of your employees, you need to choose a contractor that feels the same way. You need to choose Brandt.
Ready to Get Started?
For quality solutions that make sense for your facility, no one is better to work with than Brandt. For more information, reach out to our team today.