A healthy home is a home that promotes a safe living environment and is free of health hazards.
There are eight main factors to consider when making your home healthier.
A dry home not only adds to its overall comfort but also ensures its health. Damp areas are breeding grounds for pests like cockroaches, mice, and mites. If your home has no damp areas, these pests must look elsewhere for their breeding grounds.
Damp homes are also ideal conditions for mould, which can significantly impact your health. It can trigger asthma, cause coughing, and affect your skin.
A dry home must have a solid exterior that water can not penetrate. The most common place for this to happen is through the roof. Ensuring that roof tiles are installed properly and that broken tiles are replaced is a great way to ensure that rain doesn’t leak in. When heavy rains do fall, the water must be able to drain freely.
Clogged-up pipes and poor drainage systems can allow for a build-up of water that can enter the home. The home’s plumbing also needs to be monitored. Small leaks over time can become big problems if not addressed quickly.
Cleaning our homes is a regular chore. It helps keep our rooms presentable, but it also has some significant health benefits. Homes with excessive dust can cause breathing difficulties for some people. Dirt and dust can also contain harmful substances.
It is important to keep cooking and dining areas clean and free of crumbs. These areas are feeding zones for mites, rodents, and roaches. Clean homes are also less cluttered. Cluttered homes are more stressful, so regular cleaning gives your home a relaxed feel and improves mental health.
Homes can be kept clean with a small amount of regular effort. Simple things like a cleaning rotation ensure that everything in the house gets cleaned regularly. How we clean homes is also important for our health. Some cleaning products can be very harmful if misused.
Cleaning products containing Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) must be treated cautiously. They can cause skin irritation, headaches, nausea, and vomiting. These products should only be used when needed. There are often safer, healthier cleaning alternatives that can be very effective.
There are several safety issues associated with any house. These range in size from tripping hazards and objects with sharp edges to potential carbon monoxide poisoning and fire hazards. Having a safe home means that there are no immediate dangers, which allows family members to relax.
A little can go a long way when it comes to making your home safe. Most homes have some poison in them. It may be for weeds, rats or other invasive species. One thing they all have in common is that they are harmful to humans, especially children. Storing these poisons in the proper area, ideally out of reach from children, in a locked container can help keep kids safe.
Homes must also be properly fitted with a suitable alarm system. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms can help save lives and are incredibly important to a home’s safety. These alarms should be tested regularly and have working batteries. Intruder alarms also help deter burglars.
Additional fire safety measures must also be considered. Ensure that fireguards are used and flammable materials are kept away from fireplaces. A safe home will also have fire extinguishers. Different extinguishers are used for different fire types, so ensure you have the type you need!
Pests welcome guests we do not want to our homes. Not only are cockroaches, rats, and mites unsightly, but they can also cause issues for people in the house. They can exacerbate asthmatic symptoms in children and spread disease. Cockroaches can travel from outdoor sewers, latrines, and drains into our homes. They are known to carry diarrhea, cholera, and other viral diseases.
Rats and mice can trigger asthma attacks in people with allergies. People who are allergic to these animals are often allergic to their dead skin cells rather than the fur of the animal. This means that allergies can flare up without the rat being physically present. Keeping these animals out can help reduce asthma attacks and allergic reactions.
Firstly, we should make sure that the pests can not enter the house. Areas such as window frames and door frames should be sealed properly. Pests can enter through tiny gaps in the home’s exterior, so every gap should be sealed. Pests can be trapped with a variety of traps. Traditional traps, as well as humane no-kill traps, are available. Smaller insects can be deterred with sprays or pellets.
Finally, we can ensure that all the food in the house is securely stored. Loose food, such as oats, should be stored in containers with tight-fitting lids. Cleaning up food scraps and crumbs is another way of removing a food source for pests.
Well-ventilated homes have fresh air flowing through them on a regular basis. This can make your home feel fresh, airy, and inviting. It can also help prevent some serious health issues.
In poorly ventilated homes, you are more likely to have higher levels of humidity and organic matter in the air. This can worsen the effects of eczema. In more severe cases, this can also lead to mould in your home, which can negatively affect your respiratory system.
Thankfully, there are some easy measures we can take to make sure that our homes are well-ventilated.
Firstly, make sure that any existing ventilation system is running properly and not blocked by furniture or structures. If you do not have a ventilation system, you can retrofit your home with one. Extractor fans above cookers and vents from living areas to the roof can greatly improve ventilation in your home.
Contaminants can have severe effects on our health. Unfortunately, health and safety have not always been at the forefront of home construction, leading to the use of some very unsafe materials.
Buildings made with lead-based paints and asbestos have had tragic consequences. It is vitally important that we surround ourselves with non-harmful materials.
Firstly, you must identify if your home has any dangerous contaminants. You can hire an industry professional to inspect your property, which will give you great peace of mind. If your home has lead paint, it must be removed. Airborne contaminants can be removed with the aforementioned ventilation system.
You can also test your home for radon and carbon monoxide. These are both silent killers, so you will need to monitor them.
The primary reasons for having an energy-efficient home are financial and environmental. But did you know that energy-efficient solutions also affect home safety?
Modern, energy-efficient boilers and heating systems are much safer to have in your home than an older, outdated, inefficient system. Some of these systems can leak carbon monoxide.
There are many ways to ensure a safe, energy-efficient home. One of the best is to check your appliances’ Energy Star ratings.
Highly rated appliances are safer than older ones, as they use less power, have a cleaner energy output, and often come with warranties that protect you if they become faulty.
Maintaining your home means taking care of minor issues regularly before they become more significant problems. This ensures that your house is safe and reduces the chances of accidents.
It can also prevent your home from falling into poor condition. Regular maintenance is very cost-effective as it can prevent costly repairs from being needed further down the road.
The best way to maintain your home is to make a maintenance schedule. Weekly cleaning rotas and inspection of alarms can help you stay on top of the day-to-day maintenance of your home. If you have kids, you can include these in their chores. Larger maintenance tasks, like inspecting walls, decks and windows, require more work but can pay off in the long run. Check for sloping walls, sagging decks and cracked windows. If you see something you don’t like, call an industry professional to take care of it.
We all deserve to live in a safe, healthy home. If you need the help of experienced, caring professionals to make your home healthier, contact us today!
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We specialize in building custom homes and renovations in the picturesque Sea-to-Sky Corridor, including Whistler, Squamish, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and Pemberton.
