HEALTHY HOME?

Over the last few months we have investigated design objectives to achieve a more sustainable home in our local climate zones. This month we will look at a few simple and costeffective alternatives that are available through selective material choices and specific design strategies that will improve the health of the indoor environment of your home.

Most of us spend a significant percentage of our lives indoors, so it is worth thinking about the air quality in our homes (especially in light of easily transmissible airborne diseases).

People often talk fondly of the ‘new home smell' (like new cars), but those odours actually come from Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), present in many glues and household products, and in a wide range of construction materials, new furnishings and the like.

VOCs are not good for your health long term. They are chemicals containing carbon that evaporate into the atmosphere at room temperature. Formaldehyde is one of the most common VOCs.

As the first simple step in a ‘clean air strategy' when building a new family home, we chose Low VOC building materials, like naturally termite resistant Cypress timber for all our framing. To further reduce the need for toxic chemicals, we also only use Termimesh, a specially designed, non-toxic, long lasting physical termite barrier, to reduce the need for extensive, expensive and repeated chemical treatments. Not only much safer for you, but also preferable from a wider environmental perspective. Inside your home, we further carefully chose all Low VOC products, laminates and floorcoverings, like Dulux's Wash&Wear Low Sheen Acrylic interior paint, which has both low odour and low VOCs.

All manufacturers of these materials list the VOCs contained in their products.

With winter now here, another obvious source of indoor air pollutants is smoke and combustion products. To maintain good air quality when you have a ‘crackling good fire in the hearth', firstly you need adequate fresh outdoor air coming into the room, to vent the pollutants to the outdoors, and keep flues and chimneys clean. Mould is also a rising worry with all the recent prolonged wet weather, and if, as many predict, we face more uncertain weather patterns in the future, it could be an ongoing problem, if a clear strategy to combat it is not built into your home from the outset.

Therefore, strategies to prevent mould getting started include adequately venting sources of moisture (from bathrooms, laundries and kitchens) externally to reduce condensation. Importantly, this also means installing bulk insulation and sisalation correctly in the first place, to reduce the build-up of condensation.

Another amazingly simple step to keep your home's air clean is to properly seal the internal garage door to minimise exhaust pollutants from the vehicles in the garage — and reduce the running time of vehicle engines in the garages connected to the home.

In short, ensure your home is well designed from the start, that allows for controllable ventilation and that can be well sealed when required, to avoid outside pollutants entering your home and compromising your health. Next time we will look at simple and cost-effective design criteria that you can employ now to make your home more easily accessible, especially as you age.

If you would like to know more about the clean air design issues raised in this article, please arrange a time to visit me at our Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street, Toowoomba.