Green Air is Clean Air: Part 4 of 4

Gasoline and oil, paints, paint thinners and pool, lawn and garden chemicals are some of the many chemicals in our lives we choose not to live without. Hence our goal is to separate ourselves from these chemicals wherever possible. Those means storing them in the garage or if you are building a new home, build it with a detached garage. In some cases building a storage shed is an even better solution to reduce our exposure. Because you are separated from them and not sharing the nearby dangerous air, you can live safely with the knowledge your clients will not be breathing these harmful air pollutants.

But if the garage is attached to the home, you clearly cannot separate them from each other. In this case you have to completely air seal the common wall and attic between the house and garage. That can usually be accomplished with caulks and foam sealants but in some cases you may actually need a carpenter to get into the attic and frame the space closed. This by the way, is not just a good means of preventing the pollutants from enter the house it is a critical fire safety feature which can slow down a garage fire trying to enter the home.

Regardless of whether the garage is detached or attached, ventilating polluted air is the next step in improving your indoor air quality. In the garage, simply install a solar powered ventilation fan that operates on a timer and sensor which is triggered by a car entering the garage. That will ensure the nasty fumes in the garage are regularly vented out and away from the house. Since it doesn’t use energy to operate and shuts off automatically this is really tough to be beat!

Because our cooking, cleaning, bathing and washing activities all increase the moisture level in our homes to levels not considered healthy we also need to learn how to properly ventilate our bathrooms and kitchen. That simply entails installing ventilation fans in these areas and ducting through the attic and out the roof. When buying a ventilation fan consider the following:

• An Energy Star rated fan will use less energy and have a noise rating so that it doesn’t disturb your next dinner party!
• Make sure the fan is properly sized for the size area it is ventilating because each fan has different capacities.
• Put your fans on timers or humidistats that will automatically turn them off or on

Consider these discussion tips with your next client::

• Add a fan to the laundry room. After all, with laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, pet food, litter boxes and wet and dirty clothes there is likely no other room that needs venting more than our laundry rooms!
• If the budget allows, adding a central vacuum system will make an unbelievable difference in reducing dust levels in your home when you clean.
• If you are replacing floors then install hard surfaces instead carpet which can be a big dust collector.
• Let them know you will take these basic safeguards during construction: 1. regularly change out the return air filters, 2. seal off the supply registers in the work areas and 3. Continuously operate temporary fans to blow the construction air outside the home.
• Recommend higher quality windows-they have lower air infiltration leakage ratings (not to mention they are more energy efficient)

In the next and final blog of our “Green Air is Clean Air” series you will learn the 4th and final step required to safeguard the air you and your family breathe in your home today.

To visit our next green certified home under construction or to answer your questions on how to improve your family’s indoor air quality you can contact me at Michael@GreenHausBuilders.com