Healthy & Comfortable Homes
How do you define comfort in your home? Does your kitchen and bathroom spaces have enough ventilation? Are dangerous particles being filtered out of the air? Do you have enough light filtering into your home? When thinking about remodeling or building a new home, you shouldn’t compromise on wellness. Here’s a few ways to be healthy and comfortable in your home.
Mold weather-proofing
In midwest and beyond, homes are built tight and weatherproofed to keep the moisture out. If you want your home and the renovations that are done to it to last for a long time, you need to ensure that your siding, roofing and windows are weatherproofed and done right.
If it’s not, water or moisture can intrude and mold will start to grow. This can cause numerous problems - expensive mold mitigation for starters but also long-term health effects as well. Before undergoing a remodel, it is important to get your exterior in order to ensure it’s working correctly. The last thing you want is to complete a project, just to find mold or water in the basement or worse.
Sealed, but ventilated
Indoor air quality is a popular topic for good reason: The quality of the air inside your home can make the difference between being comfortable and being unhealthy. And, if the building’s envelope isn’t sealed correctly, air from the crawlspace (that can harbor everything from dead rodents to debris) can infiltrate your home. One way to address this issue up front is the installation of heat recovery ventilation systems. These systems take air from the outside, filter it, put it back into your HVAC system, then push new fresh air throughout the house.
Appropriate natural light balanced with creative fixtures really gives the kitchen a comfortable and healthy feel.
Replace your lighting
It’s all in the details. Sometimes simply things get overlooked if you’re not working with an interior designer. You don’t have to live with age-old fluorescent fixtures under your cabinets or harsh spotlight in the living room or den. By adding elements like pendant lights with your under-cabinet lighting, overhead can lighting and creative fixtures in dining or entertaining areas, you can create a warm environment that offers lighting options for different moods or times of the day.
It’s all about having the right light and temperature balance. Again, an interior designer can provide invaluable resources and information in this area.
Replace leaky windows
Often times, when a home is finely getting a major remodel, its’ a home from the early to mid 1900’s. And many have beautiful single-paned windows. Unfortunately, the original wood in these windows has often rotted out. The next steps here are crucial to brining your home up to date in a healthy and comfortable manner. Your windows may need repairs or replacement of the wood or vinyl or fiberglass frames. Each have their own advantages, like durability, energy efficiency, soundproofing and price points. If you can’t do all the windows in the home due to budget, then start with the ones that your family is near most often so you’ll realize the biggest difference in your remodel project.
Tend to the small things
Maintain and clean your bath vents, dryer vents, and the grease traps of the stove vents. Ensuring basic maintenance around the house is being done, offers a major impact to air moving freely around the home. You won’t even need a maid, it’s pretty simple.