Why UFAD & Raised Access Flooring Improves Lease & Rental Values

As a building owner, attracting and maintaining high-value tenants is critical for profitability. Installing a raised access floor system and underfloor air distribution offers many benefits for your occupants in the areas of occupant comfort per ASHRAE standards, layout flexibility, spaciousness, and ease of access to wiring and plumbing systems.

When you offer a suite featuring a raised access floor and underfloor air distribution, they give you the benefit of marketing:

• A sustainable unit design
• A more energy-efficient layout
• The flexibility of modifying the space/environment as needed
• Increased occupant comfort and productivity

Because of these benefits, installing raised access floors in your building or facility will make an attractive option for potential business tenants, allowing you to maximize your lease and rental values. Let’s examine how these factors directly affect the profitability of your business and commercial lease holdings.

UFAD & Raised Access Flooring Impact on Lease and Rental Values

Increased Ceiling Height

One of the unique properties of a building designed to incorporate underfloor air distribution is the need for a significant reduction in the amount of ventilation ductwork as compared to using a traditional overhead ventilation system. And in so doing, you can reduce the slab heights of the individual floors, resulting in reduced slab to slab heights. The result is greater ceiling heights which allow for more natural light and improved options for design aesthetics.

Layout Flexibility

With a raised access floor system in place, you can also offer the benefits of a modular power system. Because a plenum space already exists underneath the floor to accommodate the air conditioning system, it’s much easier and cost-effective for a business tenant to take advantage of that space to run cabling and wiring.

And because these pre-made pathways are already in place, there will be less structural changes to be made to accommodate the building’s electrical needs; prefabricated power supply and wiring systems can easily be sourced and installed to fit right into the floor, offering enormous flexibility for configuring of electronics and the placement of workstations.

Finally, because a raised access floor provides so many options for easy configurability, a tenant can take a space originally intended for one purpose and easily reconfigure it to suit another operational requirement.

Energy Cost Savings

Another big selling proposition is the potential cost savings due to lower energy requirements to heat and cool the space. Less ductwork means less air resistance in the ventilation pathway, in turn requiring less powerful ventilation fans to deliver fresh air to the occupant. With a 20% improvement in airflow efficiency, you’ll be able to provide the required cubic foot per minute (CFM) ventilation standards to your occupants while paying less.

As well, since underfloor air distribution delivers the conditioned air from the lowest levels of a room, you’re only paying to condition the lower six feet of the space - whereas an overhead system has to force air down to the occupant zone from the top, in effect meaning you have to pay to condition the entire zone.

Improved Air Quality

Airflow delivered from the floor has a measured positive effect on indoor air quality. In addition to the previously-noted ventilation effectiveness as it impacts cost savings, floor-delivered air also has the benefit of acting like a displacement piston - pushing suspended air particles such as smoke and dust up and out of the way instead of mixing it where it can be exposed to others.

Indoor Air Quality is a critical factor when obtaining WELL Certification, a well-known standard that you can use to market your building’s sustainability and that it contributes to the occupant’s overall comfort and health.

For example, casinos - one of the few indoor environments left in the United States that allows tobacco smoking - have seen enormous indoor air quality improvements by installing underfloor air distribution systems in tandem with a raised access floor. Any commercial or larger space can see positive air quality changes which will improve employee comfort and lead to better health and comfort.

Increased Occupant Productivity

The improved thermal profiles and air quality provided by a UFAD system will result in a huge increase in occupant comfort, which has in turn been shown to have a direct impact on overall productivity. A comfortable and healthy employee will work harder, longer and more efficiently - a massive benefit to any business looking to potentially lease your space. In fact, over the lifetime of a tenant’s occupancy, the savings afforded by this increase in productivity will dwarf all other operating costs - even overshadowing all of the other financial benefits of a UFAD system.

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Boost Lease Profitability and Tenant Retention with UFAD & Raised Access Floors

As a building or facility owner, a combination of a raised access floor and underfloor air distribution offers your tenants the benefits of lower energy costs, improved design and layout flexibility, and greatly improved indoor air quality levels. Marketing the green benefits of your building to potential renters is an excellent way to boost your bottom line.

AirFixture is a recognized industry leader providing innovative underfloor air distribution products and solutions for office buildings, casinos, event spaces, and government facilities around the world. Contact us today to speak to a UFAD expert and learn how this revolutionary system can deliver unrivaled air quality and significant energy and operational cost savings to your facility.