Santa Rosa Beach, Walton County
Blower Door Testing in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
Air leakage tests for new custom homes and owner-built houses in Santa Rosa Beach.
Blower door tests for new homes in Santa Rosa Beach
Big Bend Services, Inc. runs the blower door test that the Florida energy code requires on newly built houses, including new homes in Santa Rosa Beach, ZIP code 32459. Santa Rosa Beach has a lot of new construction and second homes, and custom builders, owner-builders and owners who live somewhere else can all book the test with us.
Call (850) 819-6031, Monday to Friday, 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, or send the form. Requests are handled from our office in Wewahitchka.
Owner-builders
Booking the test on a house you are building yourself
An owner-builder books directly with our office. No contractor has to place the booking, and the details are the ones a builder would send.
The address
The street address of the new house.
The permit number
The building permit for the house.
The ready date
The day the last pipe, wire, vent and duct through the outer walls, ceiling and floor will be in place. On your own build, that means confirming with the plumber, the electrician and the heating and cooling installer that their last opening is made.
The site contact
The name and number of the person who opens the house on test day. If you live out of town during the build, that can be your builder or someone local with a key.
Getting in
Any gate code, lockbox or directions needed to reach the house and open it.
Custom plans
Custom features that move the measured boundary
The test measures the shell around the heated and cooled rooms. On a custom plan, the attic, the garage and the outdoor living areas decide where that shell runs, so mention them when you book.
An attic sealed at the roof deck
The attic is opened to the house for the test and measured with it, roof deck and gable walls included.
A vented attic
The attic sits outside the test, and the ceiling below it is the boundary.
An attached garage
A garage that is not heated or cooled is outside the test. The wall and the door between it and the living area are part of the measured boundary.
A room over the garage
When that room is heated and cooled and the garage below is not, the floor between them is part of the boundary too.
Sunrooms and enclosed porches
One heated and cooled with the house is inside the shell. An open or screened porch is outside it.
Pools and outdoor kitchens
They sit outside the test. Only a gas line, water line or wire that leaves the house to reach them makes an opening in the shell.
Setting the test date on a long custom build
A custom build can run long, and its ready date can move more than once. Book the test well ahead of the date you need the house finished, so the calendar has room for corrections and a second test if the first reading is over 7. Paint, flooring, trim, cabinets and countertops do not change the reading, which lets the test come before the finish work instead of after it.
When the ready date slips, call the office and a new test date is set. Put the booked date on the schedule your trades work from, so tile, trim and paint crews know the day the fan will be in the house.
Test day
How the house is left for the test
The code sets these conditions for the time the test runs. Wide sliding and folding glass doors count as exterior doors and are closed and latched with the rest.
Windows and exterior doors
Closed, but not taped or sealed.
Fireplace and stove
Their doors closed.
Dampers
Exhaust, intake and flue dampers closed.
Interior doors
Open, where they are installed.
Heating and cooling
Turned off.
Registers
Supply and return registers fully open, where they are installed.
What happens when the fan goes in
A fan is fitted in an exterior doorway, in a frame and panel that close off the rest of the opening. The fan moves air through the doorway until the house sits at the test pressure, and the amount of air it has to move to stay there is the leakage. The result is one reading for the whole house.
Testing a custom house before or after the drywall
A custom house can be tested before the drywall goes up or after. A test before drywall reads the shell as it stands that day, so whatever the plan relies on to stop air, whether sheathing, house wrap, sealed top plates or a sealed roof deck, has to be complete by then. A test after drywall reads the finished shell. On a custom build the builder picks the point, and the booking works the same way either way.
Trades working in the house on test day
On a custom build with trades still inside, work can continue during the test as long as the house stays in the test-day set-up and nobody uses the doorway holding the fan. Noise, dust and work on the lot next door have no effect on the reading. The person named as site contact is the one who keeps the house that way until the fan comes out.
Scope
What the reading leaves out
A blower door reading is about air leakage alone. Other parts of a custom house are covered by other sections of the energy code.
Insulation
How much insulation is in the walls, floor and attic is not part of the reading.
Windows and glass doors
Their energy ratings are set out elsewhere in the code.
Heating and cooling equipment
The size and efficiency of the system are not measured by the fan.
The limit
The limit for a new Santa Rosa Beach house
Section R402.4.1.2 of the 2023 Florida Building Code, Energy Conservation, allows a new house no more than 7 air changes per hour at 50 pascals in Climate Zones 1 and 2. Table R301.1 places Walton County in Climate Zone 2.
At 7 or below
The reading is within the limit.
The retest
Run under the same conditions as the first test, so the two readings compare.
Other services
Gutters, a garage door and shelving for the same house
A new house can need our other services before move-in, and they are booked through the same office.
Gutters
Seamless gutters formed on site to each roof edge, scheduled around the builder.
Garage door
A new door measured to the opening, with a new opener if you want one.
Wire shelving
Closet, pantry and laundry shelving that we supply and install.
Same county
Blower door tests in other Walton County towns
What to expect
From booking to a reading in Santa Rosa Beach
- 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 bigger house get a looser limit?
What does air changes per hour mean?
What does 50 pascals equal?
Can the test happen before the driveway and landscaping are done?
Does the house need to be furnished?
Does a detached garage or pool house count?
Get a quote
Request a Blower Door Test in Santa Rosa Beach
Use the form to book a test on a new Santa Rosa Beach house, and the office will follow up.
