Negative air filtration is used to trap and contain dangerous particles. By passing air through a high-efficiency HEPA filter, harmful particles in the air can be removed from the workplace. Because the particles are often microscopic in size, it is not feasible to expect a temporary wall alone to contain these particles. Mold, lead dust, smoke damage, and other common indoor problems often require negative air filtration. As part of remediation efforts, a temporary barrier system and air filtration are often necessary.
While the remediation work may seem complex at first to the layman, it can be a DIY endeavor. In any case where workplace particles must be physically separated from the rest of a room or building, negative air filtration is required. Fortunately, negative air filtration concepts are easy to learn. The standard procedure to encapsulate, contain, and remove any contaminant is as follows.
First, a physical barrier is needed to separate the work area from the rest of the building. For small home projects, systems like ZipWall, which are based on plastic sheeting, retractable clamps, and ZipDoors closures, are a cost-effective, easy, and simple solution. However, for large-scale commercial projects, more substantial barriers are needed. The use of temporary barrier systems like Edge Guard is the ideal method for commercial scale projects.
Edge Guard is quick-mountable, meets all mandatory safety standards, has the exhaust ports necessary to operate negative air machines, and includes a self-closing door to ensure particle containment. Once Edge Guard is installed and the negative air system is working, it effectively becomes a non-invasive door, and normal operation and business can continue in the same building without hindrance.
Once a suitable barrier has been in place, ensure that all return air vents and any other potential sources of drawing air from the workplace are sealed. If the air comes from the workplace being cleaned, the encapsulation effort becomes useless as the particles will spread throughout the building.
With a workplace now sealed off, HEPA filtered negative air machines can begin to clean the air. By continuously taking the polluted air out of the workplace, filtering it, then expelling the air through a HEPA filter and out of the workplace through the exhaust vent of the barrier, negative air machines begin to improve the quality of the air in the enclosed space. Once air cleaning has started, it is important that the air cleaner expels more air from the enclosure than is supplied to maintain negative pressure.
When used in conjunction with manual remediation efforts such as removing affected paint, removing contaminated materials, and using aerosol foggers, removal work can be done safely and easily without impacting people and other rooms in the affected building. These products can be purchased outright, as well as rented from services like Northwest Abatement Rentals.
