Graceville, Jackson County
Blower Door Testing in Graceville, Florida
Air leakage testing for new Graceville houses, with a plain answer on where the measured boundary runs.
Testing a new Graceville house
Big Bend Services, Inc. tests newly built houses in Graceville, ZIP code 32440, for air leakage under section R402.4.1.2 of the Florida energy code. The limit in Climate Zone 2, which takes in all of Jackson County, is 7 air changes per hour at 50 pascals.
Book by phone at (850) 819-6031, weekdays from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, or through the form below. Give the address, the permit number, the day the house will be ready and who to call on site.
The boundary
What a Graceville test measures: the attic and the garage
The test measures the thermal envelope, meaning the walls, ceiling and floor that separate the heated and cooled rooms from the outside. How an attic or a garage is built decides which side of that line it falls on.
Vented attic
Outside the test. The ceiling below it is the boundary, so every opening through that ceiling counts: the attic access, light fixtures, fan housings and duct boots.
Attached garage, unheated and uncooled
Outside the test. The wall it shares with the house, and the door through that wall, are part of the measured boundary.
Knee walls and sloped ceilings
Where a room has a short wall or a sloped ceiling with vented attic space behind it, that wall and the attic floor beyond it are part of the boundary.
Porches and carports
Outside the test when they are not heated or cooled. The wall and doors between them and the house are the line on that side.
When the attic is part of the house
With insulation applied to the underside of the roof deck, the attic sits inside the thermal envelope. For the test it is opened to the rest of the house, with its hatch or door left open, and measured along with the rooms below.
That shifts where air can escape. Openings in the ceiling between the rooms and the attic no longer lead outside. The ones that do are where the roof deck meets the tops of the outside walls, the gable ends, and any vent, flue or pipe that passes through the roof itself.
The garage side
Where an attached garage meets the house
The door and its frame
Weatherstripping on the jambs and head, and a door bottom or threshold that meets the slab.
Boxes on the shared wall
Switches and outlets cut into the house side of that wall, and any box on the garage side that opens into the same stud bay.
Pipes, wires and ducts
A water heater line, a duct or a cable run that passes through the shared wall or the garage ceiling into the house.
The top of the shared wall
Where the garage ceiling meets the house wall, the framing above can be open to the attic over the garage.
Owner-builders
Building your own house in Graceville
An owner acting as their own builder books the test the same way a contractor does. The difference is that the person calling is also the one lining up the trades whose work passes through the shell, so the timing sits with you.
A workable order is to let every trade that crosses the shell finish first, including late ones like the dryer vent and the range hood duct, then close the outside walls and the ceiling below the attic, then book. The ready date you give us is the day that last step is done.
Custom features
A vaulted ceiling, a fireplace, a sealed attic or a second floor changes where the boundary runs and adds joints to it.
You may be the site contact
On an owner-built house, the person we call about access may well be you.
Finishes can follow
Paint, flooring and cabinets have no bearing on the reading, so the test does not wait for them.
If it reads high
A house over the limit
If the number comes back above 7, the leaks are corrected and the house is tested again under the same conditions as the first time: outside windows and doors shut without tape, fireplace and stove doors closed, dampers closed, inside doors open, registers open and the heating and cooling off.
The retest date
Call once the corrections are done and a new date is set.
Other services
Gutters, a garage door and shelving for the same house
Gutters, garage doors and wire shelving
The same company installs all three. The town page lists those services, and one call can cover the test and the other work.
Same county
Blower door tests in other towns close by
What to expect
How a booking runs
- 1
Send the build details
Address, permit number and when the house will be ready.
- 2
Test booked
We give you a date for the test.
- 3
Test run
The house is tested once it is ready.
- 4
After a failed test
Corrections are made and the house is tested again.
Does a bonus room over the garage count in the test?
Does a detached garage or workshop get tested?
Is the limit different for a custom house?
Can several houses be booked at once?
Where does the fan go?
Get a quote
Request a Blower Door Test in Graceville
Send the Graceville address, the permit number, the ready date and who to call on site.
