HYUNDAI U.S. HEADQUARTERS

HYUNDAI’S U.S. HQ MEETS EXHAUST SHAFT CODES USING AEROSEAL

The new Hyundai U.S. corporate headquarters was scheduled to open for business in just a few weeks. The finishing touches were being made to the interior of the 6-story, 500,000 sq. ft. building in Fountain Valley, California. No one was happy to learn that building engineers could not get official sign-off for the project because of duct leakage in the structure’s four smoke evacuation shafts and an outside air shaft.

Options for reducing the leakage and getting the shafts to meet code were examined. One option included using spray foam to seal visible leaks in the drywall interiors. But this would take months to accomplish, cost as much as $1,000,000, and there would be no guarantee spray foam would sufficiently reduce leakage. Then another option was found — Aeroseal duct sealing technology. Glumac had used the Aeroseal technology for a similar project in Las Vegas with successful results.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

BUILDING

Hyundai U.S. Headquarters

LOCATION

Fountain Valley, California

AEROSEAL CONTRACTORS

Healthy Homes 4U (a.k.a. Aeroseal West Coast)

CONTRACT ENGINEER

Glumac

GOAL

Meet required duct sealing codes for commercial new construction project

BEFORE AEROSEAL

14,861 CFM of leakage

AFTER AEROSEAL

808 CFM of leakage

RESULTS

95% leakage reduction to meet building code for 5% or less leakage and finish the project on schedule

Options for reducing the leakage and getting the shafts to meet code were examined. One option included using spray foam to seal visible leaks in the drywall interiors. But this would take months to accomplish, cost as much as $1,000,000, and there would be no guarantee spray foam would sufficiently reduce leakage. Then another option was found — Aeroseal duct sealing technology. Glumac had used the Aeroseal technology for a similar project in Las Vegas with successful results.

It took the Aeroseal contractor only a couple of weeks to complete all five shafts. Leakage rates were reduced from 20% to 1.1% – well below current code requirements. The cost was just a fraction of the next lowest cost alternative. Best of all, the work was completed in time and Hyundai’s new U.S. corporate headquarters opened on schedule.

I focus exclusively on healthcare facilities and I think that any one of my clients would have an application for this technology. If this (sealing project) was done manually, it would have potentially taken weeks rather than a couple of days to complete.

-Brian Berg, Engineer of Record, Glumac