Prevent Home Renovation Issues With These Air Quality Tips & Tricks
August 07, 2024
Making the decision to renovate your home is obviously going to be a big investment of time, money, and even convenience if you’re renovating your current home and still live in it.
If you want to make sure this experience goes both smoothly and safely, you need to think about maintaining good air quality and follow the tips we’ve got to keep the entire family healthy while the job is being done.
Deal With Asbestos Professionally
Older homes built before the 1980s have often used asbestos as one of the building materials to line walls and other parts of the home.
If you’ve got an older home, and the renovations you’re about to undertake involve knocking things down, you may want to get an inspection by professionals for the presence of asbestos first.
Originally, it was a very popular material in construction because it was discovered early on that it had impressive flame retardant properties, making it great for structural fortification, especially against fires.
Later, unfortunately, it was also discovered to be highly carcinogenic and inevitably cause cancer in anyone who had prolonged exposure to it. Once that discovery was made, asbestos was banned from all subsequent use, but of course, countless buildings in America were made with it before this.
Asbestos is harmless in its inert form as a lining or insulation, but if you start knocking down walls and creating asbestos dust, that can be a serious health threat. If asbestos is found in your home, you need a professional team to remove it and restore health safety to your home.
Confine & Dampen Your Work Areas
A very important air quality tip if you’re still living in a home that’s being renovated is to make sure proper barriers are in place for areas where work is being done. We don’t mean large bulkheads blocking rooms off, but plastic sheets should be in place to prevent excess dust or other particles from spreading into rooms that aren’t being worked on.
Another tactic in these same workspaces is to use water to “mist down” the area lightly before work begins. Once walls go down, things are cut, or grinding occurs, this now means the dust is more likely to sit and clump on surfaces rather than float freely in the air. This can make a big difference in reducing air contamination.
Get a New Filter For Your Furnace
There’s just one final task left to cap off your renovation once everything is done. If you want to make the most of your air quality, go down to your furnace and remove the filter.
The normal schedule for replacement is about three months or every seasonal change. But now, things are different.
Renovations tend to cause much higher amounts of dust and other particulates to go into the air, which is eventually caught by your home’s filter. It’s now much dirtier than it would normally be, and this impacts the efficiency of your HVAC system.
Replacing the filter means performance won’t be impacted, and your utility bills won’t go up. With that out of the way, your renovation in Fredericksburg, VA could be truly considered complete. Plan your improvements well, but always keep in mind that air quality is something that can have long-term consequences for your family. Keep it under control during the renovation!