New Construction in La Canada Flintridge, Planned for Smoke Days
New construction in La Canada Flintridge planned for daily life and smoke days: an airtight frame, filtered ventilation and a bedroom set up as a clean room.
Day to day, a rebuilt La Canada Flintridge home has to handle two kinds of air. On clear days it should draw in fresh air without drafts or dust. When wildfire smoke drifts in, the windows stay shut and every room still has to be comfortable to breathe in. Some La Canada Flintridge parcels fall within mapped fire hazard areas, where ember-resistant vents, glazing and roofing may be required as well.
Clear days: steady fresh air
A house sealed well enough to keep smoke out also needs a planned supply of outside air. We frame and seal the envelope so air enters only where the design intends: through an energy recovery ventilator that runs quietly in the background, trading stale indoor air for filtered outdoor air while holding on to most of the heating or cooling. A blower door test after framing shows how tight the shell turned out, and the leaks it reveals are closed before insulation and drywall cover the walls. Kitchen and bath fans vent outdoors through dampers that shut when the fans stop.
Smoke days: closed up and filtered
When the outdoor air turns smoky, one control changes how the house runs. A motorized damper closes the ventilator intake, and the central air handler moves into continuous recirculation, drawing room air through a deep pleated filter again and again. That only works if the ducts were designed for the extra resistance of a dense filter, so the fan and the filter cabinet are sized at design. An air quality monitor in the hallway shows when to switch over and when to switch back. One bedroom can be fitted with a tight door and an outlet for a portable purifier as a clean room.
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New Construction in La Canada Flintridge: questions
Survey lines and soils findings come first, plus the height and coverage limits for the parcel and how the hazard maps treat it. Tell us too about any breathing or allergy concerns you want the design to address, since that sets the filter grade and how the ventilation controls are laid out.
Design, engineering, the energy and ventilation design and the permit are priced first, as one stage. The build is priced afterward from the approved set, in order from foundation to finishes. Air sealing, the ventilator, the filter cabinet and the blower door test appear as separate lines, so you can see what the clean air work adds.
We do, on one calendar our office keeps. The surveyor goes first, the soils engineer drills once the boundary is fixed, and structural design draws on both of their results. The mechanical designer starts after the floor plan settles, because duct routes and filter access depend on it. Plan check comments come to us and go to whoever can answer them.
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