The air you breathe and the water you drink have a significant impact on your health. To keep your water supply clean and healthy, you use a plumbing system to control the water that comes into your house. Did you know you can take similar steps to control your house’s air supply?
Responsible House offers indoor air quality services to help Central Virginia homeowners maintain clean, healthy indoor air. We are a certified building analyst professional and we use building science to uncover the root cause of poor indoor air quality in your home so we can solve the problem at its source. With diagnostic testing and custom-designed solutions, we can improve your home’s health and comfort.
What Causes Poor Indoor Air Quality?
Poor indoor air quality is caused by pollution sources that release contaminants into the air. Some of the most common indoor air contaminants that affect indoor air quality include:
- Mold
- Radon
- Pet dander
- Dust
- Tobacco smoke
- Pollen
- VOCs (volatile organic compounds)
Some of these pollutants originate from sources inside your home, while others are carried in through a leaky building envelope. Proper building science can solve this problem and help you maintain good indoor air quality.
How to Improve Indoor Air Quality
When working to improve indoor air quality, we look at the house as a system. As building scientists, we know how air and moisture move in a home, and we know how to control them. This allows us to provide effective, whole-house indoor air quality solutions instead of Band-Aid fixes that alleviate symptoms but ignore the underlying problems. We also have extensive general contracting experience, which allows us to implement complex solutions that most indoor air quality companies can’t handle.
Every house is different, and we’ll need to get inside yours to determine the best path forward for healthy indoor air quality. Some of the most common solutions we implement include:
Air Sealing
Air sealing is one of the most effective methods for improving indoor air quality. Air sealing stops the constant movement of air into and out of your house through leaks in its envelope. This keeps outdoor pollutants from seeping into your house and gives you much greater control over your indoor air. Spray foam insulation is the only type of insulation that actively works as an air sealant, making it a beneficial choice for your home.
Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs)
An Energy Recovery Ventilator is a piece of equipment installed in your home to mechanically bring in fresh air. They are able to replace the air in your home while minimizing energy loss, so you don’t waste lots of money heating or cooling air that’s sent outside. This energy exchange works with the law of thermodynamics. In the wintertime, the hot air going out is attracted to the cold air coming in and they exchange temperature. In the summertime, the moist air that is coming in is attracted to the dry air going out and loses the humidity. ERVs have 80% efficiency, making them an effective indoor air quality product for your home.
Crawl Space Encapsulation
Unsealed crawl spaces are highly susceptible to moisture intrusion, which can cause many problems in your home. Sealing and encapsulating your crawl space will help keep it dry and clean, creating a healthier home for you and your family. Once your crawl space has been encapsulated, it should be maintained to prevent new issues from forming. We offer annual maintenance plans that make crawl space maintenance easy.
IAQ FAQs
What are the signs that my home has an indoor air quality problem?
A musty or stale smell, air that feels stuffy even with the HVAC running, more dust buildup than usual, and condensation on windows are all common warning signs. Allergy or asthma symptoms that flare up more at home than anywhere else are another strong indicator, since your body is often the first thing to notice pollutants that you can’t see or smell.
Will sealing my home to make it more energy efficient trap pollutants inside?
This is a fair concern, and the answer is that it depends on how the sealing is done. A home that gets sealed without any plan for fresh air exchange can end up feeling stuffier, since pollutants that used to leak out through gaps now have nowhere to go. That’s exactly why we pair air sealing with ventilation solutions like an ERV rather than sealing a home and walking away. Done correctly, you get the energy savings of a tight house without sacrificing the fresh air your family needs. However, it’s extremely rare for a property to need additional insulation – especially if it’s an older property. Only new construction houses tend to have this problem.
Is running an air purifier enough to fix poor indoor air quality?
An air purifier can help with airborne particles like dust and pet dander, but it doesn’t address where those pollutants are coming from or how air and moisture are moving through your house. If the source is a leaky building envelope or a damp crawl space, a purifier is only ever going to be a temporary patch. That’s why we look at your whole home as a system and fix the root cause instead of just filtering the symptoms.
How does humidity affect indoor air quality?
Humidity that’s too high creates the damp conditions mold and dust mites need to thrive, while air that’s too dry can irritate your sinuses, skin, and respiratory system. Most humidity problems in a home trace back to uncontrolled moisture entering through a crawl space, attic, or gaps in the building envelope, which is why controlling humidity is such a central part of a real indoor air quality fix rather than something you can solve with a standalone humidifier or dehumidifier alone.
Call 540-942-2061 or contact us to learn more about indoor air quality testing and solutions.
Improve your indoor air quality!
Talk to us about indoor air quality solutions.
Request Your Appointment
Responsible House has been serving Virginia homeowners since 1995—and we’ve seen firsthand how indoor air quality impacts comfort, health, and efficiency. Humidity and temperature fluctuations are common occurrences in our …
