Warning: Is Your Home Properly Ventilated?

According to a 2009 EPA study, "Poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has become the 4th greatest health risk Americans face today."

The first step to improving your home's IAQ is by ensuring that your home is properly ventilated. The results will be a more energy efficient home (lower utility bills), a more structurally sound home and improved health for your family. Let's first address the aspect of your healthy family.

Your Healthy Family
By properly ventilating your home you will turn unintended air movement into planned air movement. The greatest benefit for the family is that your indoor air will have a predetermined plan to escape, taking with it unwanted odors, excess humidity, mold spores, formaldehyde, small particles of pet dander, other dust particles and a myriad of gases produced by paint, varnishes and unnecessary, excess exhaust fumes (from dryers, cooking stoves and ovens, wood burning stoves, inefficient furnaces, etc.). Nearly all of these contaminants have been determined to be the cause more than 40% of child and elderly asthma and to have been the cause of or have prolonged the condition of the following:

• eye, throat and nose irritation
• sinus infections
• allergies
• insomnia
• depression
• ADD and ADHD
• fatigue
• upper respiratory infections
• intestinal disorders

Steps to Improving Your Home's IAQ

1. Physically remove the source causing the contamination. (mold remediation, clean your air ducts, shampoo carpets, sanitize food preparation areas, remove moldy wallpaper, place heavy mats at each entry door)
   
2. Exhaust the contaminated air around the source. (feed the contaminated air out and away from the house)
   
3. Dilute the contaminant with outdoor air. (open all windows and turn on ceiling fans, exhaust fans, attic fans, etc.)
   

Your Healthy Home
A poorly ventilated home will produce a myriad of structural challenges. Here is a list of questions to ask yourself as a homeowner:

• During the winter, is there condensation on the inside of my windows?
• During the winter do I have ice build-up on my roof? Does the snow melt quickly off my roof? (This is a bad thing...very bad.)
• During the summer, is there condensation on the outside of my windows?
• Is there mold growth in the attic on the underside of the roof?
• Is there paint pealing in any of my rooms?
• Is there mold and/or mildew growth in my bathrooms?
• Have I noticed mold in the corners of my basement walls?
• Is there mold growth on the back of any wall paper?
• Does my home feel drafty?
  

If you can answer "yes" to any 2 - 3 of these questions, you are strongly encouraged to have your home inspected by a professional ventilation/insulation contractor. Unnecessary moisture on the inside of your windows simply drips onto the sill which, in turn, creates mold, mildew and rot. (Have you checked the pricing for replacement windows these days? EEK!) A drafty home simply needs to be weatherized. (You'll start saving on cooling and heating bills immediately!) Mold growth in the attic on the back-side of the roof is a sign that the roof is too warm in the winter. (Check the R-rating of the attic insulation.)

Summer is a great time of year to address any structural challenges. Protect your investment and your family. A certified ventilation specialist can spot all of your structural challenges any time of the year by using many techniques such as blower-door tests, infrared camera scanning, smoke testing, contaminant surveys and several other methods.

If you are local to the Cleveland, Ohio area and you would like to have your home surveyed for proper ventilation and insulation, Call Leigh at The Comfort MD to set an appointment for a visit to your home. 216.663.9300

Otherwise, I'm just a phone call or an email away!