Floor Coating that Exceeds VOC Limit

Project location: United States

March 3, 2015

Amanda Atkinson

Vice President, Sustainable Services
Holder Construction

LEEDuser Premium Member

3 thumbs up

Project location: United States

March 3, 2015

We have two CS v2009 projects in which a single epoxy floor coating exceeds the allowed VOC content. All other flooring products and coatings are compliant. In order to demonstrate compliance, we ran a VOC budget that isolated only the floor coatings for the project and submitted this as an alternative compliance path. In both cases, the epoxy floor coating had minimal impact and the products would comply under EQc4.2 utilizing the VOC Budget Method. We just received the review comments back on both projects. On one project, the credit was awarded with no comments. On the other, it was denied outright. Does anyone else have experience with this situation or suggestions on how to approach an appeal on the one project? Thanks.

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Jon Clifford

LEED-AP BD+C
GREENSQUARE

LEEDuser Expert

327 thumbs up

March 7, 2015 - 9:08 pm

Interesting…I have never tried submitting a VOC budget for IEQc4.3. One would think that it would be acceptable, and clearly, the first review team agreed. However, while the Reference Guide clearly offers the VOC Budget option in the “Calculations” section of the IEQc4.1 & IEQc4.2 chapters, Chapter IEQc4.3 offers no such option.

I suppose that you might put forward the points that IEQc4.3 cites the same VOC requirements as IEQc4.2 and that IEQc4.2 allows the VOC budget. Together, these points imply that the VOC budget is acceptable for IEQc4.3 too.

However, before making this argument, verify that you have properly reported the epoxy’s VOC “as-mixed.” Most epoxies require mixing two components. Part A & Part B each may be high-VOC, but they catalyze, and the VOCs are consumed. The resulting coating is often much lower in VOC than either component. Epoxy product data usually lists three VOC level, one for Part A, another for Part B, and one for “A+B”. The last one is usually the lowest and the one that SCAQMD requires be reported.

Finally, check the properties of the epoxy. Are you using it in an “industrial” application where it must resist exposure to chemicals or extremely harsh conditions? If so, it could qualify as an Industrial Maintenance Coating with a 250g/L VOC limit (rather than 100g/L as a regular floor coating).