Case Studies

Challenges of the Project

The Mt. Zion Hospital Pharmacy’s two new ventilating hoods require sufficient exhaust or else a fail-safe system will register a malfunction and equipment will automatically shut off. This is where chemo chemicals are prepared so it is critical that all air borne particles be exhausted from inside the hoods via connecting ductwork that leads outside the building. Even after meticulous construction that included manual sealing of all 300 feet of twisting ductwork, the exhaust system was simply not providing enough pull to meet code or to keep the system running properly.

Solutions Provided

Engineer of Record: TCB Builders
Aeroseal Provider: Coast Environmental
Before Aeroseal: 580 CFM of leakage
After Aeroseal: 23 CFM of leakage
Results: 96% leak reduction and proper functioning of the ventilation hoods, and Pharmacy certification.

More About This Project

BUILDING ENGINEERS AT MT. ZION HOSPITAL FIND AEROSEAL

Renovation To UC San Francisco Hospital Pharmacy Comes To A Two-Month Standstill While Engineers Work To Solve Exhaust Leakage Issue. 40 minutes Of Aeroseal Gets The Job Done

Over a two-month period, the best and brightest tried solving the mysterious exhaust malfunction. The ventilation unit was examined for faulty readings. The ductwork, covered in fire insulation, was unwrapped and manually resealed and rewrapped. With the building’s scheduled opening fast approaching, hospital engineers were at a loss for an explanation or a solution. Then someone suggested trying a new duct sealing technology they heard about called Aeroseal.

With no time left for a test run, hospital administrators, with fingers crossed, gave Coast Environmental, a duct and IAQ specialist, the green light to clean and seal the duct system using Aeroseal. The aeroseal sealing process itself took just forty minutes to complete – 20 minutes for each of the two sections of ductwork being sealed. Since this was a 24/7 hospital, the entire process was conducted without interruption to the hospital’s regular operations.

The engineers could actually watch as holes and cracks were getting sealed. A computer-generated chart showed a plunging line on a graph representing the real-time decrease in leakage. After two months of puzzling over the problem and then 40 minutes of Aeroseal, the engineers had their solution…and the new pharmacy opened on schedule.