The Ontario Construction Report – December 2008 – PAGE OCR A7
Enbridge offers air sealing and ventilation training for contractors
MATTHEW DESROSIERS – The OCR Construction Report Editor
“That is Enbridge’s goal, of course. They can’t just fund
the course for the sake of funding it. We have to prove the
Build tight and ventilate right.
course is making a difference.”
It’s the philosophy behind Enbridge Gas Distribution’s
The measurement for success is seeing whether or not
Air Sealing and Insulation for Contractors training course.
there is a difference in the way contractors approach a job
The one-day training course is paid for in full by the com-
site before and after the training.
pany, who supplies trainers, materials and refreshments to
Topics during the day course include proven sales tactics
renovation contractors who are interested in learning more
to win projects, what is the investment in training, equip-
about the importance of a proper envelope.
ment and materials, solving failing roofs, retrofit weather-
Gail Lawlor, president of Energy Matters and designer
stripping, and how to avoid excess moisture/rot, mould, and
and deliverer of the course, said doing the program has
combustion backdrafting, among others.
shown her the need for it in the industry. Recently, building inspectors have started attending the
“It’s a great course,” said Lawlor. “It’s very logical, and
“Every single class I think about how much work we courses as well in order to get a better understanding of the
has lots of technical and practical how to.”
have to do,” she said. “And these are the ‘good’ ones that code and the reasons behind it.
The end goal is to help contractors understand that
are there.” Before each course, and six months after, Lawlor ad-
houses are changing, and the building code is going to be
Contractors are notoriously hard to get into a training ministers a test to the trainees to test what they know, and
changing soon as well. Because they can’t get them in the
room because there is really no incentive for them to train, to see what they’ve learned. The idea is to track whether or
classroom very often, they want to educate as much as they
she said. As a result, many don’t know as much as they not the course is making any progress towards improving
can, and expose the contractors to resources they can use to
should. air sealing and ventilation practices among contractors.
further their self-education outside of the training room.
The program was started when Lawlor received a call
from Enbridge. The company had been receiving calls from
customers regarding EnerGuide audits. The customers did-
n’t know who to contact for air sealing, and those contrac-
tors they did find who could do the job were often busy.
After identifying the need, Enbridge approached Lawlor
four years ago to form the program. One of the unique chal-
lenges from the beginning was finding contractors willing
to come to the training.
“I have over 25 years that I’ve been in this business,”
said Lawlor. “I’ve been working on a multitude of different
ways of getting contractors into the training room.”
Having worked with her in the past, Enbridge was com-
fortable giving her money to design the course they were
looking for. However, as Lawlor was preparing to launch
the program, the government pulled the EnerGuide pro-
gram.
“That was devastating at the moment, but (full marks) to
Enbridge, because they realized these contractors still
needed the training.”
Without the EnerGuide program to entice contractors to
train, it was difficult for the program to sustain itself. How-
ever, after offering free sponsorships to companies willing
to help secure registrations, the health of the course im-
proved.
Over the last three years, Lawlor has delivered 32 Air
Sealing courses for Enbridge, which translates into 400
people who have received training.
“We’ve had a very successful 2008,” she said. “We were
really pleased this year that we got to the next level.”
Part of the program’s success is the tie in to business op-
portunities for contractors. Lawlor has teamed up with Tony
Woods and Steve Tratt from ZeroDraft to provide a com-
plete package, covering the technical side of air sealing, as
well as new products available to use, and business oppor-
tunities that can be explored.
“We’re not trying to make anybody a full time air seal-
ing contractor,” she said. “What we really need them to un-
derstand is that they should do very thorough air sealing
every time they do any type of work to a house. Don’t miss
the opportunity to create a continuous air barrier.”
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