Volatile organic compounds in different interior construction stages of an apartment

Abstract Building materials are considered as the major sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) indoors. During the interior construction process, different building materials are introduced into a room at different times. However, little attention has been paid to the phased material introduction during the interior construction process and the possible implication of this characteristic. In this paper, field measurements were conducted in a new apartment in Beijing from the beginning of interior construction to completion as a case study. A total of five construction stages namely the putty, wall paint, door and doorframe, cupboard, furniture had been measured. Chemical compositions and the concentration variation patterns during the interior construction process were obtained. The VOC concentrations exhibited a pattern of step changes, which suggested the necessity of considering the phased introduction of building materials during interior construction process in indoor VOC modeling. The measured VOC variation patterns could also be used to identify indoor emission sources under certain circumstances.