As a homeowner, you bear many responsibilities to keep your home in tip-top shape. From making sure your home is consistently clean to scheduling professional home maintenance services, it’s essential to make sure your home remains a safe space.
However, if you’re not quite a homeowner and are still in the process of looking for a house, you may want to research what components of homeownership are key to making your future house the perfect space. This can include certain decluttering and general safety strategies to keep your home comfortable.
You may find that even something as overlooked as air quality is the key to making your house into a dream home.
Safe and Healthy IAQ
According to OSHA.com, maintaining proper air quality is important to keep everyone in your home safe and healthy. Along with that, it can keep the structure of your home protected as well. If you need to improve your home’s indoor air quality, keep reading for some advice from Crawl Space Ninja!
How to Determine If Your Home Has Poor Air Quality
Determining whether your home has poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can be a little tricky in some cases, but there often are some obvious signs. If you or anyone in your household experiences continuous symptoms of coughing, sneezing, trouble breathing, or headaches, that could be a sign of poor air quality.
If you also notice an unusual odor or that the temperature varies in some areas of your home, those can be other key factors indicating the air quality in your home isn’t up to standards. Unusual odors can be caused by the buildup of mold in your bathroom, basement, or even your crawl space. That’s why taking proper precautions when you notice these issues is important.
IAQ Warning Signs
For current homeowners, you can look out for any of these warning signs at any time. However, if you’re in the process of purchasing a new home, they aren’t as simple to detect, so you may be required to do a radon test prior to purchasing. This test can help determine whether you have IAQ issues and if so, will give you time to come up with a game plan to improve the air quality before officially buying the house. It may be something as simple as opening up your windows or doors. This will let the fresh air in to improve the IAQ levels.
Selling Your Home
Are you considering selling your home? You could also perform a radon test before it is put on the market. This can save those who are interested in purchasing the home from having to go through testing themselves and can give them an idea of what the IAQ levels are at.
Tips for Cleaning Your Home to Improve the Air Quality
Cleaning your house regularly can help to reduce the buildup of dust, dirt, and even mold within your home. Dust and other fibers can lock into your carpet or furniture. Which can lead those who live in the home to experience allergy-like symptoms. Vacuuming, dusting, and sanitizing high-traffic areas will be in everyone’s best interest. It will reduce the chances of feeling sick and will keep your IAQ levels regular.
Low Traffic Areas Need Cleaning Too
If there are areas in your home that aren’t regularly used, you should still be cleaning them frequently. For example, formal living or dining rooms, or even guest bedrooms, that aren’t used frequently, can collect even more dust due to not being used. The more dust that builds up, the more these fibers will collect in the air.
Regular Cleaning to Identify Potential Issues
Additionally, regularly cleaning your home will allow you to keep a good eye on all areas. This can make sure nothing is wrong with the structure of your home. If you notice a certain area of your home is damp or has an odor, this could be a sign of mold. If you’re experiencing these issues in your home, consider checking your crawl space.
Crawl Space Repair Could Improve IAQ
Checking on your crawl space may not be on your cleaning checklist, but it’s something you may work with a professional on. Once you notice mold starting to grow within your home, no matter what room it is in, you should immediately have your crawl space inspected. The mold could start forming there first due to humidity and moisture. Hiring someone can help to break down what may have caused these problems, and they can jump right into fixing it.
Investing in High-Quality Air Filters
Cleaning up your home is a great way to keep your air clean and clear. If through a radon test, you notice the issue of poor IAQ in your new home, you may want to look into investing in air filters if the current filters aren’t sufficient. For those of you who live in an older home or have lived in the same home for a long period of time and are looking to make some updates, investing in a new ventilation system may be in your best interest.
Cost of Ventilation System
These new systems can be costly, but if you’re tight on money, consider applying for a home equity loan. A home equity loan allows you to receive a lump sum of money up front to help cover the cost of any home repairs or improvements. With this loan, you’d be able to update your ventilation system or use it to help with the cost of hiring a professional to install the system. Ventilation systems can range anywhere from an average of $2,400-$8,000. With that being a large investment, the home equity loan could be used towards that.
Why You Need Updated Filtration System
Not only will an updated filtration system improve your home’s IAQ, but it’ll also help to avoid any damage to the structure of your home and decrease the chances of mold or dampness from occurring. The costs of continuously fixing these problems can add up quickly, so if you’re in the process of installing a new ventilation system, this is something you’ll want to splurge on. This system can be a great investment and can improve your home’s overall worth.
Indoor Air Quality is Important
While it may seem like such a small factor that’s regularly forgotten about, maintaining the air quality in your home is important. Your home should be a safe and healthy space for your friends and family to enjoy time in. It may seem like a big undertaking, but as long as you’re cleaning your home frequently and making sure your home filters and cleaners are regularly checked, the air quality in your home will remain up to standards!