Maintaining Your Building’s Air Quality - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Barrington Green of Pure Air Control Services. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Megan Ellsworth: Have you ever had a question about your roof and didn't know who to turn to for answers? Are you interested in learning more about one of the most important aspects of your home? Not to fret, the AskARoofer podcast is here for all you home and building owners. Join us as we talk with industry experts, roofing contractors, business owners and more about all things roofing and, remember, AskARoofer.

Hello, everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at askaroofer.com. We're back again for an AskARoofer podcast.

Lauren, we made it to 2023. Hello.

Lauren White: We did, I know. How exciting.

Megan Ellsworth: We're really excited to have Barrington Green with us here today from Air Control Services and in partnership with WTI, so let's just dive right in and say hello.

Barrington, why don't you introduce yourself and say hello.

Barrington Green: Will do. My name is Barrington Green. I am from Jamaica, as you'll hear in my accent throughout this interview. I've worked with WTI Pure Air Controls for 17 years, started as a field technician, worked my way up to supervisor. Now, I'm a project manager here with the company. A little bit about Pure Air Controls, we are a national indoor air quality provider with extensive experience in all kinds of facilities such as educational, healthcare, military, commercial, residential, law enforcement, warehouses, retail, just to name a few.

Lauren White: Great. We've heard that the best way to promote an environmentally healthy building is through a deep building decontamination that encompasses the entire air-handling system, so how does a building owner start that process and what does that mean, too?

Barrington Green: Well, most building owners are becoming aware of the basic of indoor air quality and how the air-conditioner system may affect the quality of the indoor air. However, it's best to have a professional assessment so that they can identify the current environmental condition of the building, the items that need attention and pretty much prescribe proper course of action once they come up with what's wrong with the building. They may start that process. They can start the process by contracting a certified indoor air quality professional. Professionals should be licensed to do work on AC units. The license should not just be about indoor air. They should be licensed for conditioning as well, the air-conditioning as well, or you can save some time and just call us here at Pure Air at 1-800-422-7837.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great. Awesome. Well, I'm glad you gave us the phone number because we're going to be going over that next or in a little while, too, how people can contact you and make sure that the air in their home and building is safe and breathable. One of the pillars of PACS is environmental safety. How do you guys ensure the safety and air quality of your clients' spaces?

Barrington Green: Well, most remediation process requires some level of containment or personal protective equipment that is determined by the type of facility as well as the type and extent of contaminant that is found in the building. In most cases, WTI Pure Air will implement engineering controls, administrative controls to ensure that the contaminant has been removed or contained within that workspace. We also go as far as we'll monitor the occupied space, and by occupied space we mean a space that's not contaminated. That's not the space that you're going to be working, so we monitor that space with particle counters and pressure differential equipment. Also, we'll run air scrubbers which are pretty much... It helps to minimize the particle that we're generating in the air by the removal of whatever contaminants that we found.

These negative air machines or air scrubbers are equipped with high pressure, high volume HEPA filters which are pretty much equipped to catch small particles that you may not be able to see. During our process, these machines are kept running, and we do keep a log of whether or not the particle level in the building is higher than when we started. If we're working on the particle level that's a little bit higher than when we started, then we're doing something wrong, and then we need to make the necessary adjustment, maybe adding more air scrubbers in the space or more containment within the area that we're working so everything is contained within that workspace.

Megan Ellsworth: That process also goes for the cleaning of HVAC systems. Correct?

Barrington Green: That's correct. Yes.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay. Cool.

Lauren White: In addition to that, what does a follow-up building check look like, and how often are those needed?

Barrington Green: Follow-up building health check, that needs to be done by a trained building scientist, and what they do, they will go in and they will collect information or data that's necessary for the process. These data is then sent. We can collect air samples as well and surface samples to make sure that we're checking everything, all the boxes are being checked. We'll take surface samples of desks, underneath desks, carpets, walls, stuff like that to make sure all the basics are covered. These samples are then sent to a specialized laboratory for analysis. Depending on the amount or type of contaminant, that determines what recommendation we would give to the client to start the process.

Every building has mold. It doesn't matter if you see it or not. It's there. It's within the environment, so we live with it, but it depends on the extent of the mold that we're going to say, "Okay, look, something needs to be done." Most building owners are responsible for providing a safe, healthy environment for you guys to be in while you work. Building health check will provide you the occupants with the necessary tools to say, "Okay," once we check this building. If everything isn't good, then we can go back and say, "Look, you are performing in an unsafe manner with occupants in this building." That's what building health check is about. Once we do the check to make sure everything is good, if it's not good, then we recommend ways in which you can fix it.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay. That's great. If a building owner or homeowner finds mold in their building, what should the first thing they do be? Should they call a service like you guys or should they try to handle it themselves? Probably not. What's the process look like?

Barrington Green: Well, it depends. It depends on how huge this condition is, this mold condition is. For you, you can probably try to handle it yourself if it's small, but then again you would need to know what you're dealing with, so it's best for you to call a professional, to be honest, and that's us. Again, that number is 800-422-7873, and you can ask for an account specialist, and they'll direct you to the right person.

Lauren White: Great, so you also offer weatherproofing through Tremco/WTI. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what that means?

Barrington Green: Pure Air Controls are now a part of the WTI family, as you guys know. All of our clients may have access to whatever service Tremco is offering. Waterproofing involves a wide variety of material and services which is provided to the building owner to protect them against water intrusion, heat transfer, air infiltration that may be coming into the building. We are pretty new to the Tremco family, so most of their services we are not yet all the way equipped, or I would say we're not all the way known yet within that field, but we are getting there because they just took over, I want to say, maybe a year ago. We're learning their process as well as their learning ours, so, yeah, that's it.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay. Awesome. That's really cool though that you are going to slowly bring that into your offerings, so, people, if they do have a mold problem from a water problem, they can... It's a one-stop shop for those people, so that's nice.

Barrington Green: It is. Yes, it's a one-stop shop. Yes.

Megan Ellsworth: You've mentioned the phone number of how people can get a hold of you. How else can a home or building owner find one of your licensed inspectors to help them with their building's HVAC system?

Barrington Green: Internet, online, or most of our work, to be honest, comes through word of mouth. We do a lot of work with universities and warehouses and stuff like that. Once we work at one of these facilities, then they understand, okay, this is who we are because we do provide excellent service, so word of mouth is really, really huge as well. As you guys know, we've been in business for over 40 years. We are known as the leading company within this field. We are known as the best. I'm not just saying that because I work for the company. Our records speak for itself. I can promise you that. If you go online and you type in indoor air quality, I guarantee you, Pure Air name will pop up first. If you're looking for a company to do some work for you, this would be it bar none. That's it. You don't have to go nowhere. I promise you.

We have our own laboratory for one, so if we go out and we take samples and we need the samples back as quickly as possible, we don't have to send it to different laboratories. We have our own laboratories on site that we can get samples back real quickly, because most other companies that do what we do, when they go out and samples are taken, they have to send it to an independent laboratory which takes weeks, sometimes months, to get back the results. With us, you're getting a one stop-shop where we go in, we take the samples, we don't have to send it nowhere. We do all our tests right here. The results are back within days, and we're good to go, so you're in the right spot if you're trying to get somebody to do some work for you in regards to indoor air quality.

Lauren White: That's really cool. That's good to know that you can have results in just a matter of days. Especially if you're dealing with mold, you don't want to be sitting around waiting for weeks to get those results if it's hazardous to your health. That's really good information to know.

Barrington Green: Yep.

Megan Ellsworth: Great. Well, thank you so much, Barrington. This has been an absolute pleasure.

Lauren White: Yay. Yes, and thank you so much, Barrington. We appreciate your time.

Barrington Green: No problem. I hope I was much help for you guys.

Megan Ellsworth: Thanks for listening to the AskARoofer podcast. Feel free to subscribe and leave a review. Go to askaroofer.com to ask a question.