Designing the Paint Booth Prior to Construction

• 1). Determine the size of equipment to be painted, and the amount of air needed to properly ventilate the paint booth. The size of the equipment will determine the total overall size required for the paint booth. A typical paint booth is 10' wide by 8' long by 6' high.
  
  
• 2). Select an HVAC system which is capable of controlling the temperature for a high-volume air supply. According to equipment supplier, Global Finishing Systems, a typical paint booth will exchange over 8000 cu.ft. of air per minute.
  
  
• 3). Identify the air source for the paint booth air supply. Paint booths can either pull air directly from the exterior of a building, or pull air from within the building's existing environment. When evaluating the paint booths air supply, considerations must be made including the building's exterior ambient temperature, seasonal fluctuations in temperature, and whether or not the buildings existing environmental controls can adapt to the increased air intake volume for the paint booth.
  
  
• 4). Design the paint booth's ventilation exhaust system. The fumes vented from the paint booth must be scrubbed of any VOC fumes and paint particles before being released into the surrounding environment. In most cases the fumes from the paint booth are drawn out of the booth and exit the booth via a high capacity ventilation fans.
  
  
• 5). Determine if any amount of the paint booths air supply will be recirculated during the painting process. Recirculating a portion of the paint booths air supply can diminish the expense of heating / cooling incoming air supply and thus lower costs. Recirculated air must be similarly scrubbed of V.O.C. fumes before being allowed to reenter the paint booth.
  
  

Installing the Downdraft Paint Booth

• 1). Construct the exhaust system for the paint booth. Under the floor in a downdraft style paint booth is a pit covered by an open grate, which leads to the filters, exhaust fan and the ventilation system. The air supply is pulled into the booth, down through the floor grates, and filtered before exiting the building. Before installing the booth, the ventilation pit and the exhaust ventilation system must be in place.
  
  
• 2). Install the commercially supplied paint booth on top of the exhaust system. The paint booth should be constructed as per manufacturer's instructions, and environmentally sealed so as to capture all fumes created during the painting process. Most downdraft paint booths are pre-fabricated and designed to create a well lit, environmentally isolated painting chamber.
  
  
• 3). Install the intake HVAC air supply environmental controls. Safety features of the booth should include temperature and air flow monitoring equipment. Safety controls should be designed to ensure that the recommended intake and exhaust airflow and booth's interior environment be up to specified conditions before any painting is allowed to proceed.
  
  
• 4). Test all aspects of the downdraft paint booth before putting into use. A highly technical environmentally controlled paint booth should be fully understood before any painting is allowed to take place, because the health and safety of the painter is completely dependent on the successful operation of the paint booth.