For many of us we tend to keep the house pretty tight in the wintertime with doors and windows shut more than usual. This can create a bunch of air quality issues. We will discuss what you can do to make your air quality better and then dive into inspections when you are remodeling or building a home. All this and more in the second hour of Around the House show.

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[00:00:22] Eric Goranson: Now, if you're having a house built or even having things remodeled, I like to have certain stages that make sense to me, like as a minimum, I would like to see. An inspector come by and check out rough framing for you. And if you really want to have found somebody good, if they want to pop in right before the concrete pour for the foundation or slab on grade, that would be amazing because so many times I have seen concrete pours that the builder got really, really lazy.

[00:01:17] Eric Goranson: com and you can message me over there where you can find us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all of the above right there. Well, today I wanted to talk about making your air quality better in the winter months, you know, inside air quality when we're stuck inside. The weather's bad is a really important thing.

[00:01:54] Eric Goranson: You can get a hold of my friend Carolyn Blazowski's. Uh, company and [00:02:00] she can of course send out an air testing kit to you and these are all things that you can do and I'll put down in the notes down there where you can find her website to get that air quality test and this is really where you want to start trying to figure out what's with your air.

[00:02:32] Eric Goranson: If you've got an older house, those houses were kind of designed to breathe and you didn't have as active ventilation systems. Nowadays, when we build a brand new house that is airtight, we've got to have different things like ERV systems, which are energy recovery ventilators, Where you're bringing in, uh, outside unconditioned air conditioning and putting inside.

[00:03:18] Eric Goranson: Sometimes the air quality can be worse outside than you have inside. So then maybe ventilating and bringing in air from outside isn't great without some kind of filtration system. But really the things that you're looking for are like VOCs and VOCs are volatile organic compounds. Those can be found in anything from paints to your, um, Well, those little handy, uh, wipes that you buy in the round tubs that, uh, we use so much for cleaning up, uh, around the house, those things, they're typically give off a ton of EOCs and, uh, you know, when we were talking to Caroline a few years ago, she was saying that she could just about count how many are in a house by the air quality test.

[00:04:17] Eric Goranson: And so these are things not alone. I mean, you also got cooking too. So you could have, um, you know, all the chemicals that are coming off of the food you're cooking. And yes, when you cook. That does give off chemicals, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide if you're not careful. So these are things that we want to really pay attention to when we're cooking.

[00:04:56] Eric Goranson: When you have VOCs that can be from a lot of different things that can [00:05:00] be maybe the air freshener that you have plugged in and I'm not a fan of the indoor plug in air fresheners that give off the oils and stuff you think about that's almost like vaping you know you're putting out this colored oil out there for you to breathe not a fan you're better to get the house clean and use something more natural but really VOCs are going to come from could be that It could be the chemicals, it could be the cleaners, it could be a lot of different things.

[00:05:48] Eric Goranson: When that stuff off gases, it is putting it up into the air and that will make it inside the house, especially if it's in a basement. Or things like that. So these are things you want, really want to be careful with because that can really hurt [00:06:00] your indoor air quality, something to think about, but really when it comes down to it, you've got a couple of things.

[00:06:26] Eric Goranson: I mean, I have gotten a box fan and a one inch pleated, like a Merv, you know, eight, 10 filter, the good, good air filter in the one inch. And you can install it to the side of the fan, turn the fan on low or medium and put it in a room and you can get a lot of particulate matter out of the air that way on a budget.

[00:07:03] Eric Goranson: That's a great way to get some of the dusts out of there without having to put in any kind of an air scrubber. Now, I don't like the, you know, sharper image used to make these units you could put in and they were a hydrostatic thing. Not a fan of those. They never worked. Uh, I threw a mine away that I had that I had, uh, uh, sitting around.

[00:07:51] Eric Goranson: So, uh, take a humidity sensor, go around, do your stuff, measure the basement, measure the crawl space, measure the bathroom, measure the kitchen, measure the [00:08:00] bedrooms. Take a look and see what you've got going on. If you're over 60%, then you need to figure out a way to dehumidify that. I'm not a fan of the portable ones that you'd come around, have to empty.

[00:08:35] Eric Goranson: That's really got to run a long time to get that out of there. I like putting in, you know, higher quality ones that have maybe 100, 120 CFM. So that way you're moving a lot more air and you're getting it out there faster. So in a bathroom, upgrade that fan, make sure it vents all the way to the outside. If you're venting into the attic space, that's going to grow mold and that's going to be a expensive cleanup process there.

[00:09:20] Eric Goranson: And then let it run for a minute or two afterwards. You know, if you see particulates, if you're cooking meat or something like that, where you've got a lot of smoke, again, these are things that you want to do. Now, when we come back, uh, we're going to talk a little bit more about ventilation and some of the tricks with this, because you can get this right, or you can get this wrong and it can be expensive and I don't want you to have to waste money.

[00:10:09] Eric Goranson: What's up, this is Dixie Dania and Satchel from. The old Panther and you are listening to around the house with Eric G. We love Eric G and you should too.

[00:10:46] Eric Goranson: So we've been talking about in the last segment, we were talking about what causes, you know, low indoor air quality. And we were talking about all the different things you can do. Now, ventilation is one of the things that are good because you can [00:11:00] take that air and send it outside. It doesn't matter if it's a bathroom fan, if it's a kitchen range hood.

[00:11:31] Eric Goranson: Now one of the things that I want to bring up because it's very important is that I want to make sure that when you have ventilation and Things that are moving air outside the house now keep in mind Your dryer if it's just a regular dryer is putting hundreds of CFM out the house when it's running You've got a range hood that is anywhere from 200 CFM for a cheap one to 1200 CFM for a big one and CFM is cubic feet per minute And so you envision one of [00:12:00] those is like a basketball.

[00:12:18] Eric Goranson: You've got a thousand CFM and a range hood and then a dryer going all of a sudden you've got, you know, let's say 1200 CFM or more 1200 cubic feet per minute leaving the house. So what do you do on the inside? You've created a vacuum. Now, if you've got a really tight house. It was built recently. The problem now is that you're creating a vacuum and it's going to find the path of least resistance.

[00:13:03] Eric Goranson: So the answer to that, you don't want to be pulling around windows and doors and air leaks in the house. So really the answer to that is having makeup air. And that is meant for, if you have a, you know, HVAC system. So you've got that ducted system where you hook in a sensor that either senses that vacuum or triggers when the vent fans turn on.

[00:13:45] Eric Goranson: So it's something to really think about. Is you don't want to create that vacuum and that can be a problem, but you really want to have ventilation because that ventilation is key. Now, I also recommend ventilation in the garage. If you have a insulated [00:14:00] attached garage and insulated door, make sure you have it in there because if that's all sealed up and you park a wet car in there, you can have mold issues.

[00:14:31] Eric Goranson: You'll have static electricity, you'll have dry hands, you'll have, um, you know, it's hard on the fixtures and stuff inside. Anything would dries out. It's just not great. Or if you've got humidity where it's wet, it's moist, you could have high humidity issues, which then will create mold. And that's over 60 percent relative humidity.

[00:15:07] Eric Goranson: It could be you've got a shower leaking. It could be the ever roof leak. That's coming to a place that you haven't caught yet. It could be, um, in an attic or crawl space. It could be anywhere. So that is where you need to bring in the professionals to figure out where that mold is coming from. And that's why you want to start with this baseline.

[00:15:44] Eric Goranson: So you want to make sure and test that, but really trying to dive this in and figure out what's in your air is key. And that way you've got it under control because I tell you what mold can show up from a shower leak to a, um, I've seen, uh, [00:16:00] vent fans. That had uninsulated duct and that was condensing and causing mold in the roof of the bathroom, you know, so it doesn't take much.

[00:16:30] Eric Goranson: They didn't ventilate well, and people were not monitoring humidity and homes with basements are especially troublesome because. You can have a bare concrete wall in a basement and water just seeping through that in the water vapor, and then if you stack up a bunch of cold boxes or totes. All of a sudden you've got mold growing on the wall, you've got it growing on the, you know, on the concrete, you've got it growing in the boxes.

[00:17:18] Eric Goranson: I mean, it's shocking. We got dogs and I have a robotic, uh, LG robotic vacuum that I run almost every single day in the house and it fills it up with pet hair. Now, it doesn't get all of it because pet hair ends up getting around everywhere, especially when you have airflow. So it'll come under the under things.

[00:18:02] Eric Goranson: Uh, carpet is just one of those things that, uh, It can track so much dirt. It can track so much dust and dander and pet hair and, and human, I mean, skin that gets shedded off. That's another one. And so these are things to, uh, having a really good vacuum and having them professionally cleaned every few years are things that are really good.

[00:19:00] Eric Goranson: Hey, this is Ron Keel, the metal cowboy from Keel, the Ron Keel band and Steeler, we are rocking around the house with Eric G. Welcome back to the around the house show. This is where we have to get the most out of your home through information and education. We've been talking indoor air quality and the things that you can do to make sure that, well, you've got the healthiest air possible, especially.

[00:19:46] Eric Goranson: Basement woodshops or workshops are a really tough situation. Because you're creating sawdust, if you're going to be building stuff, you're going to be painting, sanding, you are creating a heck of a [00:20:00] mess. And by doing that, you are putting that particulate matter in the house, and that is going to really throw off your indoor air quality.

[00:20:25] Eric Goranson: You're going to need to have that condition space. I want to keep that as separate as possible so that air is not swapping upstairs because when you're working with wood, some woods are poisonous, some woods can be irritants, and there's a lot of different issues going on there. Plus, if you're staining, finishing, gluing, whatever, you could have other issues.

[00:21:04] Eric Goranson: So, when in doubt, put it in an outside building, but if you're doing it downstairs, there are ways of doing it. But I tell you what, it's a big project, so just make sure you're planning that out correctly. Now, here's another one that I've seen people trying to do now that can be troublesome as well. And this, this, why this goes bad is, is the homes that I've had to go into repair, where people are renting out homes to people.

[00:21:51] Eric Goranson: Thermofoil means that they're a plastic wrapped cabinet door that was done in the 90s and 2000s. Those will swell up [00:22:00] and uh, I have seen Particle board countertops swell up in these homes, everything else. And so do not build a basement greenhouse without a significant dehumidification system. And then you're just better doing one outside or putting in, if you're going to do it in there, they make, um, inflatable ones, things like that, where the moisture won't get out.

[00:22:41] Eric Goranson: And for the same reason, um, you know, hot tubs or pools or things like that, those need to be designed out by an engineer to make sure that you have if you're putting a hot tub in the basement. That you have adequate ventilation that you're not creating a mold problem down there because I guarantee you, you will, unless you deal with it.

[00:23:23] Eric Goranson: So those are all keys that I want you to think about in this process. When in doubt, try not to be doing those things inside the house because that will really do a lot of damage that are hard to recover from. So please spend a little time on that and you'll be a okay. Now, one of the other things I want to talk about here is that, you know, you can jump on Amazon and buy really inexpensive vacuums and investing in a good HEPA rated vacuum is key because if you're vacuuming a pet hair or you've got lots of carpets, You want to have something that's going to really work [00:24:00] well in pull as much dirt, dander, hair, whatever out of that carpet.

[00:24:26] Eric Goranson: That kind of system. Those can be great because it puts the, the, the situation out in the garage out there where the, where the bag and stuff is. But, uh, I really like bag systems better. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a good Dyson vacuum, but to me, I really like a good vacuum bag. With a HEPA filtration system in it, it's going to work so much better and it's really going to filter out the dust.

[00:25:08] Eric Goranson: The rest of this, I wanted to talk about building codes, building permits, building inspections. Whether remodeling or you're having a new house built and especially if you're having a new house built because let's talk about it here in the United States building code and generally, it is stricter than what is in Canada from what I've seen and please feel free to send me more information if you think of the contrary Cause I'm not operating up in Canada every day, but, uh, usually we have stricter code here in many instances than in Canada.

[00:26:08] Eric Goranson: But I have seen plenty of homes that met building code. That were horribly constructed as far as craftsmanship. I have been to homes that had massive bows and a wall. Everything is out of square, nothing is right, but it perfectly met building code because it was a safe structure, it just looked absolutely horrible.

[00:27:05] Eric Goranson: Now, here's the issue. We do not have a general building inspector code across the country. So some states you have to be very well educated. You have to have to have taken tests. Other states, it's kind of a free for all. Now, and in many states, the liability of that building inspector that you're paying to have a house inspection done, their liability in many states is only the cost of what you paid them.

[00:28:02] Eric Goranson: Now, that is the issue here is that you want to make sure that that everything was installed correctly, because you could have a shower built to building code and still have a leak. You could have Ventilation systems that don't work that meet code or undersized oversized HVAC systems. You see where I'm going here.

[00:29:02] Eric Goranson: It's the end of the show drinking down people. It's time to go. That time again, it's last call. Welcome back to the around the house show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education. Well, earlier in this hour, we were sure talking about, uh, you know, healthy air in your home.

[00:29:44] Eric Goranson: Like as a minimum, I would like to see an inspector come by and check out rough framing for you. And if you really want to be found somebody good, if they want to pop in. Right before the concrete pour for the foundation or [00:30:00] slab on grade, that would be amazing because so many times I have seen concrete pours that the builder got really, really lazy on.

[00:30:46] Eric Goranson: They're just pouring it right over the terrain. It was so dry that it was putting dust clouds up when the concrete was hitting. And you know something, if there's not an inspector there, nobody knows any different. [00:31:00] But that dry ground is going to suck all the moisture out and that concrete is not going to cure correctly and because they didn't do the right base, you know, it's not compacted correctly.

[00:31:31] Eric Goranson: Sometimes something will meet building code, but there's a massive gap there, or it meets code, or the walls aren't straight. I'd like to see somebody walk around and put a level on things. Great example, I saw a house that had met building code that was here in Oregon, it was in Eastern Oregon that I went down to take a look at.

[00:32:18] Eric Goranson: It was at four inches in the middle. Problem is, nobody caught it. House got built. Somebody walks out there and goes, What is going on with this wall? It perfectly met building code. There was nothing structurally wrong with that wall at all. Engineer probably could have looked at it and went, Yeah, we're good.

[00:32:51] Eric Goranson: So these are things that I want to see you get caught up with. And then as you go down the list here, what I'd like to see is [00:33:00] you get that framing one done. And then that way they're checking right before drywall, you know, I'd like to see that I wouldn't mind seeing one and insulation because I want to make sure things are sealed up correctly.

[00:33:27] Eric Goranson: And then when the project is done is the time that you do this. So, okay. Before you go do a walkthrough, send them through and make sure that everything is done and they're going to be there for a number of hours. They're going to check to make sure every light switch works, every outlet is on, that the garage door opener is working, everything is done.

[00:34:00] Eric Goranson: Then the builder has a chance to go look at it. They can re inspect it. And then you come out and take a look at it. That way, there's some accountability there. Now, just as an important step of this, is really, as you get this done, what I want to do is make sure that, that they do an inspection again at, um, at the, right before the end of the warranty period.

[00:34:46] Eric Goranson: You would not believe the things that I have seen caught at this final walkthrough. I have seen, um, where at framing it was great, but when they loaded too many shingles on the roof they broke a truss, [00:35:00] where there was a weak point in a truss, and they broke a truss. I have seen where the HVAC system is jam packed full of construction debris.

[00:35:32] Eric Goranson: I don't want your builder to go Oh the guy that usually inspects our houses is this Well, if they're working together, that's the last thing you want. You want somebody that's going after your best interests. So look for somebody that has building knowledge, like maybe they were a builder themselves and decided to get into this.

[00:36:34] Eric Goranson: So the more you can find out about them and their qualifications are great. And it depends on what state you're in. There are a lot of great States with great programs. That are there to protect the homeowner, for instance, in my state, uh, Oregon, the Oregon construction contractor board regulates home inspections in the state.

[00:37:17] Eric Goranson: So, here's where like South Carolina, they have, uh, the South Carolina Residential Builders Commission does. And so these are things here. The South Dakota real estate commission overseas. So you have these different inspectors out there. And so, um, there's a lot of States out there. Utah does not regulate it.

[00:38:00] Eric Goranson: But you have to file your license examination. You go in and do that. You have to do your, um, examination board, go through all this stuff. I love this provide proof of insurance and includes a 250, 000 for errors and emissions and proof of liability insurance in the amount of 20, 000 for injury and damages.

[00:38:56] Eric Goranson: Take your time, protect yourself, find the [00:39:00] right inspector and save yourself some money in the long run. All right, guys, that's it. Thanks for tuning into around the house today. We'll see you next week. Thanks for tuning in to around the house.