Healthy Home Inspection
What is the Healthy Home Inspection?
Its not your general Home Inspection. The Healthy Home Inspection is designed to identify potential critical health and safety problems before they can cause injury or health issues. It relies on a science-based systematic approach protocol that uses a visual assessment plus state-of-the-art instruments in the diagnostic testing to check your home for hazards and deficiencies, and then provides practical recommendations to correct them.
What you don’t know can harm you…
Quite simply, a “healthy home” supports and protects the health and safety of its occupants. Scientists now understand how our houses can harm us. A home should have no indoor pollutants, no dangerous chemicals, no radon hazards, and no physical safety or fire risks. Unfortunately, many American homes have moisture and ventilation problems; asthma and allergy triggers; chemical and toxic exposures; and fire, electrical, and tripping hazards. Sometimes, poor construction is at fault. More often, inadequate or deferred maintenance leads to hazards. Also most homes in Florida need an Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) assessment performed periodically, suggested every 3 years.
What are just some of your homes building assemblies/components that have a problem can affect you and your families health and well-being and safety:
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Foundation problems
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Window problems
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Siding/Cladding problems
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Roofing problems
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HVAC problems
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Plumbing problems
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Cracking drywall problems
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Water leakage problems
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Flooring problems
The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) recommends that all housing follow the “Nine Principles of Healthy Homes” as shown below.
- Birth of a child or the presence of young children
- Member of the household treating for an existing health issue or illness (asthma, allergies)
- Member of the household having physical limitations or a handicap
- Member of the household having mobility issues or a disabled person moving into the home
- Elderly resident wishing to age in place or elderly family member coming to live with adult children
- Following completion of extensive home remodeling and renovation projects
- Recovery after an event causing major structural damage (fire, flooding, windstorm)
- Listing a home for sale or rent
- Purchase or rental of a home
Florida – 2017 Healthy Housing Fact Sheet https://nchh.org/resource-library/Healthy-Housing-Fact-Sheet_FL.pdf
What does a Healthy Home Inspection provide?
Its officially called an IAQ Survey…
IAQ Survey consists:
The IAQ survey process consisted of collecting background information regarding the building, a visual survey, environmental data collection, digital documentation of the survey findings (notes included with each digital and thermograms in any report), and non-invasive thermal imaging scan of the areas of concern.
IAQ surveys provide evaluations of air quality in public and commercial buildings. Indoor air quality is defined by the representation of concentrations of pollutants and thermal dynamic conditions that may negatively affect the health, comfort and performance of the subject building’s occupants.
An IAQ survey is often a repetitive cycle of information – gathering, hypothesis formation, and execution.
Environmental Data Collection:
Air temperature, Relative Humidity (RH), Total VOCs (TVOC), Carbon Dioxide (Co2), Ozone, Carbon Monoxide (CO) readings were recorded on both interior and exterior of the building.
The readings will be taken with a GreyWolf Advanced Sense Environmental Test Meter.
Airborne Particle Count Readings
Instrument used Grey Wolf Handheld 3016-IAQ NIST certificate #140202-059. Mold spores (fungi) are generally having a size of and measurements are taken from the laser particle counter at 0.3 micron. The key to a successful IAQ investigation is to be aware of the environment as a whole. Location, building history, complaints, and measurable factors such as temperature and humidity, can play a key role in uncovering IAQ problems.
When using a particle counter, be aware that a particle’s source may only be a symptom of a much larger issue looming under the surface. Remediation of the source may not address core problems of poor filtration, ventilation, or excessive moisture. Left unchecked, these conditions will cause the same symptoms, or worse, to reoccur with certainty. Moisture problems in buildings can increase the levels of airborne fungi by several orders of magnitude, from hundreds to tens of thousands time greater than ambient.
Ultrasnap ATP Swab Hygiene Monitoring Device
The systemSURE II instrument, in conjunction with the Ultrasnap ATP swap measures adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the universal energy molecule found in all animal, plant, bacteria, yeast, mold cells, and microbial contamination. When ATP is brought into contact with the unique liquid-stable luciferase/luciferin reagent within the sampling device, light is emitted in direct proportion to the amount of ATP present. The device measures the amount of light generated and provides information of the level of contamination.
Microbial growth and poor environmental hygiene can be troublesome in commercial and industrial settings. Hygiena makes it easier to detect microbial contamination quickly and affordably so decisive corrective actions may be taken quickly. Rapid Solutions for Microbial Detection…
Moisture Meters collection along with Thermography
Thermal imaging will not detect mold, but will detect temperature variations behind a wall to assist in finding cold spots that may indicate a potential trapped moisture or water intrusion issue. Once an area of potential concern is found, moisture meters can then be used to confirm if there is in fact moisture behind a wall. If a moisture problem is detected, then it is important to act quickly to fix the problem to prevent mold! Identifying and removing trapped moisture also stops your structural materials from rotting, which will, keep your building safe for those who live, work, or play in it.