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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 adds to the overall comfort of the building, but it also ensures that the home is healthy. Damp and wet 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 mold. Mold can have a significant impact on your health. It can trigger asthma, cause coughing and also affect your skin.
For a dry home to be dry it must have a solid exterior that water can not penetrate. The most commonplace for this to happen is through the roof. Making sure 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, it is important that the water is 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 home 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 containments that may be harmful to people.
It is important to make sure that cooking and dining areas are kept 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 is better for your mental health.
Homes can be kept clean with a small amount of regular effort. Simple things like a cleaning rotation ensures that everything in the home gets cleaned regularly. How we clean homes is also important when it comes to our health. Some cleaning products can be very harmful if used incorrectly.
Cleaning products that contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) must be treated with caution. These cleaning products can cause skin irritation, headaches, nausea and vomiting. These products should only be used when absolutely needed. There are often safer, healthier cleaning alternatives that can be very effective.
There are a number of 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. This allows family members to relax.
When it comes to making your home safe, a little can go a long way. Most homes have some sort of 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 your life and are incredibly important to the safety of a home. These alarms should be tested regularly and have working batteries. Intruder alarms also help to deter burglars.
Additional fire safety measures must also be considered. Make sure to keep flammable materials away from fireplaces and that fireguards are used. A safe home will also have fire extinguishers. Different extinguishers are used for different fire types, so make sure you have the type you need!
Pests are not welcome guests in our homes. Not only are cockroaches, rats and mites unsightly in our homes, 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 for people with allergies and asthma. 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. There are traditional traps available, as well as humane no-kill traps. Smaller insects can be deterred with sprays or pellets.
And finally, we can make sure that all the food in the house is securely stored. Loose food such as oats should be stored in containers with tight-fitting lids. Making sure that all food scraps and crumbs are cleaned up is another way of removing a food source for pests.
Well-ventilated homes have fresh air that flows 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 mold in your home. Mold can have negative effects on 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 any furniture or structures. If you do not have a ventilation system you can retro-fit your home with one. Extractor fans above cookers and vents from living areas to the roof can greatly improve the ventilation in your home.
Contaminants can have severe effects on our health. Health and safety has, unfortunately, not always been at the forefront during the construction of homes. This has lead to some very unsafe materials being used.
Buildings made with lead-based paints and materials made from asbestos have had some tragic consequences. It is vitally important that we surround ourselves with materials that do not harm us.
Firstly, you must identify if you have any dangerous contaminants in your home. You can hire an industry professional to inspect your property. This will give you great peace of mind. If your home has lead paint in it, 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 these.
For most, the primary reasons for having an energy-efficient home are financial and environmental. But did you know that energy-efficient solutions also have an effect on the safety of your home?
Modern, energy-efficient boilers and heating systems are much safer to have in your home compared to an older, outdated, inefficient system. Some of these systems can leak carbon monoxide into your home.
Making sure that you have a safe, energy-efficient home can be done in many ways. One of the best ways to do this is by checking the Energy Star ratings of your appliances.
Highly rated appliances are safer than older ones as they use lower 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 small issues regularly before they become bigger problems. This makes sure that your house is safe and reduces the chances of accidents happening.
It can also prevent your home from falling into poor condition. Doing regular maintenance is very cost-effective as it can prevent costly repairs 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 to 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 a bit more work, but can really 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 come take care of it.
We all deserve to live in a safe, healthy home. If you feel that you need the help of experienced, caring professionals to make your home healthier, get in touch with us today!
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