Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Impacts of Door Openings

Indoor Environmental Quality is a concern in all buildings but often receives even more attention in health care settings. In the case of door openings, there are once again numerous ways that specifying high performance products can contribute to the 18 possible points in this category.

Environmental Tobacco Smoke Control Strategies

The intent of this IEQ Prerequisite 2 is to prevent or minimize exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. The first option is simply to prohibit smoking in the building and the immediate surroundings. However, there is also a second option for residential healthcare occupancies where accommodation for resident smoking is programmatically mandated. In those cases, designated smoking rooms need to be isolated from other spaces in the building both by physical separation and by air pressure differential. All doors in smoking rooms or in residential healthcare units where smoking is allowed therefore need to be gasketed or weather stripped to prevent the transfer of environmental tobacco. There is no exact specification for weather stripping called out in LEED, however, weather stripping that meets UL 1784-2001, Air Leakage Tests of Door Assemblies and meet the performance criteria for allowable air leakage as specified in NFPA 105-99 Installation of Smoke Control Door Assemblies, should meet the intent of this LEED credit.

Acoustic Environment Strategies

IEQ credit 2 recognizes the effect of unwanted sound (i.e. noise) on the indoor healing environment and seeks to provide building occupants with spaces that are free of such intrusive or disruptive levels of sound. It is common to address sound control in wall assemblies, but obviously any openings in those walls need to be addressed as well. Door opening solutions can therefore play a big role in controlling sound transfer and help spaces achieve the available 1 point under Option 1–Sound Isolation. Doors, frames, and seals can be combined to achieve sound isolation that assures speech privacy, acoustic comfort and minimal annoyance from noise producing sources. Toward that end, door opening solutions are available with Sound Transmission Class ratings that range from STC 28–55.

Indoor Air Quality Management Plan Strategies

IEQ credit 3.2–Construction Indoor Air Quality Management Plan–Before Occupancy is intended to reduce indoor air quality (IAQ) problems resulting from construction or renovation to promote the comfort and well-being of construction workers and building occupants. There are two options to demonstrate compliance with this requirement, either to conduct a full building Flush Out or to conduct actual Air Testing. IEQ 3.2 is applied to all wood products and laminated wood products in a building including wood or laminated doors if they are used. These wood products cannot contain any added urea formaldehyde and must not contribute to the presence of other contaminants such as particulates, VOCs, or carbon monoxide (CO) among others. This is not based on a percentage as just one product in the building with high concentrations of any of these could negate the ability of the building to achieve this credit. Hence, the specification of doors that are free of contaminants in the first place is important to achieving satisfactory IAQ ratings. GREENGUARD Gold testing shows products that are below this IAQ threshold.

Indoor environmental quality is impacted by the choice of materials used for wood doors in healthcare settings such as the Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. Image by Craig Dugan Photography, courtesy of Cannon Design

Low-Emitting Materials Strategies

IEQ credit 4 has its intent clearly stated to reduce the quantity of indoor air contaminants. The requirements apply to the application of adhesives, sealants, finishes, and other products that are field installed within the enclosed building. In particular, wall and ceiling finishes and coverings, including those on doors, that are installed in the building interior must meet the testing and product requirements of the California Department of Health Services Standard Practice for the Testing of Volatile Organic Emissions from Various Sources Using Small-Scale Environmental Chambers, including 2004 Addenda (CA 01350). By specifying doors that are factory finished and have factory installed glazing, no contaminants are released into the building during finishing and glazing. Rather, they can meet the stated requirements at the factory in a controlled manner. Of particular concern to doors, composite wood and agrifiber products used on the interior of the building (i.e. inside the weatherproofing system) shall contain no added urea-formaldehyde (NAUF) resins. Composite wood and agrifiber products are defined as particleboard, medium density fiberboard (MDF), plywood, wheat board, strawboard, panel substrates and door cores. Therefore, it is appropriate to specify wood doors containing NAUF resins.

As an added strategy, it is also appropriate to specify GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality certification (or similar). This independent product certification helps to demonstrate that door opening products meet IAQ standards at the point of manufacture.

Indoor Chemical & Pollutant Source Control Strategies

IEQ credit 5 is intended to minimize building occupant exposure to potentially hazardous particulates and chemical pollutants. This begins with controlling the possibility of contaminants entering the building at entrances and other locations. Hence the first requirement is to address the regularly used exterior entrances in several ways. First, a walk-off system on the floor needs to be integrated with the main entrance areas. Further, at high volume entrances, a pressurized vestibule or similar enclosure needs to be included. Both of these rely on designing and specifying door opening solutions that are suitably integrated into the building entrance areas and function as intended. Attention to weatherstripping and sealing is particularly important to help assure that any contaminants are in fact controlled and kept from the interior as intended. The use of vestibules in this manner can also help enhance the energy performance of the entry. Similarly, the choice of revolving doors may also satisfy the pollution control and energy efficiency of an entry and may be worth considering.

Once inside a healthcare facility, the requirements continue to apply where hazardous gases or chemicals may be present or used in such as garages, soiled utility areas, sterilization and disinfection areas, housekeeping/laundry areas and copying/printing rooms. The strategy is to exhaust each space sufficiently to create negative pressure with respect to adjacent spaces with the doors to the room preferably closed. Therefore, for each of these spaces, it is critical to specify closers on all door openings in order to provide self-closing doors that maintain the intended separation of air.