Why Push Performance Testing?

Q: Can you give me some examples of why I should push performance testing in our production homes? Are there any legal risks associated with not doing this?

Mike Prinslow, VP of Construction
Brookfield Homes
San Diego, California

Litigation expert Stan Luhr replies:

A: Many builders are improving the building envelope without understanding the results. It's like putting air in your tires without using the pressure gauge. Performance testing gives you definitive information on that pressure, ensuring a builder consistent results with its trade contractors. Many slab-on-grade homes being constructed are pretty tight, and as a result they have high negative pressures that may affect indoor air quality, fireplaces, and combustion appliances. By performing simple tests, you can tell just why it is a bad idea to install powered attic fans, for example, or whether that soleplate sealer is really sealing.

From a risk standpoint, performance testing can reduce liability, since you can statistically show how the home was delivered to the client. Heating or cooling complaints can be more accurately analyzed if data are gathered on the model homes, and adjustments can be easily measured. In attached homes, reducing air transfer between units reduces cooking and cigarette odor complaints as well as improving the fire and acoustic properties of the home. One of my builder clients was paying $1,700 extra to the mechanical contractor to install a specially balanced and patented duct system, only to find out through testing that the product had more than 30% duct leakage. Needless to say, the subsequent reduction in the HVAC contract both saved money and reduced risks. In another litigation case, the builder never tested his homes, so he did not know that he was delivering homes with 0.18 natural air changes per hour (NACH) with no ventilation. Plus, the homes experienced up to 14 Pa negative fan pressures.

From a quality standpoint, builders who performance-test their homes create better alliances with their insulation, drywall, and mechanical contractors. Research has shown significant reductions in construction flaws when a builder spends time training the trade contractors during performance testing, then encouraging competition between the crews to improve their overall scores. When trade contractors are taught to take a whole-house approach and consider the surrounding construction components that are affected by their work, construction improvements are rapidly achieved with no real cost increase to the builder. (For more information on the benefits of performance testing, see "Performance Tests Bring Comfort & Code Compliance," p. 14.)

Stan Luhr is president of Pacific Property Consultants in San Diego, California. His firm provides construction and risk management services to 165 production builders around the country, as well as building failure investigations for builders and insurers.

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