The impact of interior construction on the indoor environmental quality

Abstract

The presented paper deals with the evaluation of the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in two apartment units in different phases of interior construction. The first apartment is in the initial phase of an unfurnished apartment and the second in the final phase of a fully furnished apartment. The results of IEQ monitoring indicate that in terms of thermal-humidity microclimate, the required legislative limits were met and the differences between the unfurnished and the fully furnished apartment were minimal. Only the operative temperature values were not in the legislative range. The average particulate matter (PM) concentrations of the two representative fractions (PM2.5 and PM10) were 21.10 μg/m3 and 564.72 μg/m3 for the unfurnished apartment and 4.67 μg/m3 and 68.15 μg/m3 for the furnished apartment. The legislative limit of 50 μg/m3 for PM10 was therefore significantly exceeded, especially in the case of an unfurnished apartment in the initial phase. The average TVOC concentration expressed in toluene equivalents was 1955 μg/m3 in a furnished apartment and 910 μg/m3 in an unfurnished apartment. Both of these values exceeded Mølhave’s recommended limit of 200 μg/m3. The presence of xylenes (51.19 μg/m3) and ethylbenzene (17.27 μg/m3) was detected in an unfurnished apartment. In addition to xylenes (171.63 μg/m3) and ethylbenzene (79.25 μg/m3), toluene (78.34 μg/m3) was also present in the furnished apartment. The concentrations of these compounds were below the legislative limits, except for ethylbenzene for which no legislative limits are set. The above results show that further surface treatment and furnishing of the apartment contribute to the increase of the VOC levels in the indoor environment. In the case of unfurnished apartment, workers are exposed not only to elevated concentrations of TVOC but also to elevated concentrations of PM10 and should therefore pay attention to the protection and safety of health during the work.

Keywords

• indoor environmental quality
• residential building
• sick building syndrome
• interior construction