Imagine that winter’s approach is just another country music song. The song goes like this: “The temperature drops, the windows close, doors slam shut and all I got were those yucky, wheezy winter blues”.
There’s a very good reason that this happens. Closing up the house really is a big part of it all. The winter induced end of fresh air coming into your home is what concentrates the contaminants that can make you ill.
The old time environmental experts explained that “the solution to pollution is dilution”. Sounds hokey, but it is a simple principal. That process of dilution in summer is that if there is a contaminant or odor in the home, the fresh air will disperse and dilute it.
Another factor that effects indoor air quality in winter is that the operation of heating systems elevates and spreads airborne contaminants. Most people think of heating systems as spreading heat through the home. Today, we need to think about heating systems as distributing mold, allergens, formaldehyde, sewer gas and whatever else is in the building. Even hot water heat systems create convection to distribute the contaminants.
If you are wondering whether we are talking about your home, you will have hints that there is something wrong when you have environmental problems. Our bodies try to protect us by issuing those warnings. If something does not taste good, smell good or feel good, it is usually not good for us. Many times, our pets react to toxins before we do and give us the “heads up” that there is a problem. We should pay attention to the warnings.
Signs of an environmental problem in your home, school or workplace can include:
By the way, not everyone in a home may notice the symptoms. That does not mean that there is not a problem. What it means is we are each different in our genetic makeup, current health and health history and the sum of all the exposures you receive in each of the places you spend time. As an example, some children can have severe reactions to peanuts. Most kids could live on PB&J. That is just “how it is.” We are each different in how we react to exposures.
The place to start on the path to a healthy home is looking at changes you may have recently made. How moisture and air move through your home can be affected by changes in furnace systems, windows, doors or insulation. Building additions and interior french drains can also change the nature of the indoor environment. If you had any of those changes to your home, you need to have a second look at the indoor environment.
Furnaces need checked by a qualified, expert furnace service professional or home inspector each heating season.
When a mid-range efficiency furnace is installed that uses interior air as combustion air, gas hot water tank and gas dryer vent gases can be pulled back into the home from those venting appliances.
Gas hot water tanks are another common source of indoor environmental issues.
This is particularly true in cold weather. Oversized chimneys will not properly vent when cold. When a high efficiency furnace is installed, the hot water tank usually needs to be connected to a flue liner, which is a smaller vent. In as many as 20% of the new furnace installations that I have inspected, that change was not made. The reason is that the liner needs installed from the roof and costs time and money. Not installing that system makes it possible to give a lower bid on a furnace installation job. The true cost of that omission of the liner is flue gases staying in the home and presenting a health risk to the occupants of the building.
Stored materials are often a hazard.
We often bring stored toxins into the home. The can of gasoline, the pesticide for your yard, the damp and moldy furniture cushions and the super-duper cleaners all make their way into the building envelope for storage in winter.
The simple recommendation is to not store any chemicals in the home, particularly when someone sensitive to these products lives there. An outside storage shed is one solution. Properly disposing of the products is another solution.
When cold weather comes, pests and other animals think of your home as a safe and warm place to live.
Mice, rats, birds, bats and squirrels are some of the animals found in homes. I have also found ground hogs and shrews in homes. When animals pick your home as there winter retreat, your home becomes their bathroom. If they pass away, it can also become their mausoleum. The result is odor and contaminants that can make a home smell bad and unhealthy.
The bottom line is that we are going to close our homes, schools and workplaces tight as a drum to save energy and stay warm. If you have the symptoms of sick building syndrome or notice an odor, look around for a problem. If you can’t find the cause, call a professional to help you. Good health is a precious gift that we do not want to squander.
Contact Envirospect.com to find a qualified home inspector near you.
Imagine that winter’s approach is just another country music song. The song goes like this: “The temperature drops, the windows close, doors slam shut and all I got were those yucky, wheezy winter blues”. The indoor environment can become a problem in winter.
With a little knowledge and preparation, you can have a healthier and safer household this winter.
Give us a call to perform and environmental assessment and testing as needed. 724 443 6653 www.envirospect.com
Picture the glass of cold lemonade, filled with ice …..It is sitting out on your picnic table at your 4th of July family picnic. (That is a much better mental picture than a snow shovel anyway)
The outside of the glass is covered with condensation. In fact, there is so much condensation that there are streams of drips of water running down from outside of the glass.
Please forgive the mental picture. I am not trying to torture you with thoughts about a hot humid summer during the freeze that is stretching from our California franchises up to our locations in New England. I am really talking about what is happening in the outside walls and attics of a home in cold weather.
With my “Mr. Science” hat on, we are talking about condensation, which is the result of temperature differences and humidity. If you go up into your attic on a bitter cold day, you are likely to see icicles hanging from the nails in the attic and frost on the roof sheathing (sheathing is the wood you see when you look upward in the attic)
The warm air of the house where we breath, sweat, shower and cook is moist. There may even be a few water leaks. The water vapor laden air travels upward until it hits a cold surface and then condenses on the surface. The attic sheathing frost is a result of that water vapor freezing. The icicles hanging on nails happens because metal fasteners conduct the cold from the exterior more readily than the wood, so, more airborne moisture collects on the nails than the wood. (a glass with 10 ice cubes has more condensate on the outside than a glass with 1 ice cube.
That wet wood from condensation is the water source that can start mold growing in your attic over the winter. Those same science principles can result in interior moisture being trapped inside the hidden areas of the walls of a house, particularly in the walls of finished basements.
When the water condenses instead of just passing through wall cavities and exposed surfaces, the water soaks the wood, paper on drywall and any other available surface that will grow mold.
Now let’s talk about that same glass of ice water in the arid desert. You will not have condensate……… even on the 4th of July. Low humidity=low amount of water vapor available to condensate
The lesson…………We need moisture/humidity control in attics, even in winter. Many of our clients that have mold issues had stopped running their dehumidifier in winter because they did not think it mattered. OR…they turned their furnace humidifier to a high humidity setting.
High humidity can be a source of mold even in winter! Be careful to dehumidify your home to 45% relative humidity….even in winter.
As Winter Makes It Environmentally Unfriendly Approach
Policies are written to replace damaged materials “in kind”. That means that there would not be an improvement to the construction methods or materials even if it would prevent reoccurrence of the insurance loss.
As an example, imagine that your claim is water damage due to ice dams at the gutters. The actual interior plaster damage would be corrected. The roof and gutter condition that allowed the leak would not be corrected as a part of the claim.
Mold is often the result of winter leak issues. Many homeowner’s insurance policies have exclusions or limits on mold claims. In other instances, the mold is not discovered until the insurance claim repairs are completed.
Most insurance policies that have limitations on mold will still cover mold “consequential to a covered claim”. What that means to the homeowner is that if a leak occurs, the leak should be reported. If those repairs are covered, and mold occurs as a result of the leak, the mold would be covered.
On the other hand, if you have a leak, but do not report it because the repair costs less to fix than the deductible and mold does occur, you will not be covered for the expensive mold cleanup.
What’s Next When Winter Damage Occurs?
The first responsibility you have under your homeowner’s insurance policy is to do everything reasonable to limit the damage. If there is a broken pipe leaking through the wall, turn off the water at the main valve. If water has leaked across a floor, clean the water up. If sewage is backing up from the floor, don’t flush the commode.
Take any needed action to prevent injury to others. If a barrier needs set up, put it in place. If lighting or warning notes need placed, do so.
The loss needs reported as soon as possible. Disaster recovery contractors need access to stabilize conditions and dry out the home to reduce the chance of mold.
Homeowners should document conditions for handling the claim. Take photographs of all conditions and repairs. Document phone conversations. Include times and subjects discussed and arrangements that are made.
The bottom line is that homeowners should do everything possible to avoid winter damage. If you have a winter weather problem, fix the conditions that allowed it to occur.
Adding a combination thermostat and humidistat for areas that can become either too cold or too wet is a great idea. This can be placed in areas like crawl spaces, garages or cold bathrooms. If you purchase one designed to tell you the outside weather remotely, you can place that remote in the area you want to monitor and have the main part of the device in the living space where you can read the temperature and humidity. These generally cost less than $30.00.
When you leave a home for an extended time, turn off the main water valve. If you are leaving in freezing weather, turn off the water at the meter and then open spigots to drain some of the water out of the pipes.
If you are going to be away during freeing weather add a remote thermometer connected to an alarm system. These can call you if the temperature in a home goes below 41 degrees Fahrenheit. For systems like SimpliSafe Security systems, you can purchase the device for $30.00 and add this to the system in less than 30 minutes.
You can call it the “rules of the universe” or “rules of science” but the bottom line is that we can’t escape them. These rules are sometimes more of a harsh reality than others. Winter would be one of those times that they can give us lots of heartache.
Some of these rules of the universe that matter most in winter weather are:
Gutter and Roof Leaks Through Walls: This happens when snow and ice buildup on the roof. When the sun warms a little, snow melts and builds up in the gutter. The warmer house side of the ice dam melts and runs under the ice and into the house walls. One solution to the problem is heat tape in the gutters. The best long term solution starts when installing a new roof. Install a sticky membrane like “Ice and Water Shield” on the roof surface. This is generally a membrane that goes up the roof three feet and keeps the water from leaking through the roof for that distance.
Frozen Pipes: When water freezes, it gets 10% bigger. If it is doing that expansion in a confined area like a pipe or plumbing fixture, it breaks. The best solutions are draining the pipes or adding heat to cold areas. Some tricks include heat tape, opening vanity doors and tub accesses or adding a heater to garages or other areas that have pipes in danger of freezing.
Condensation and Mold at Windows, Attics and Basements: Put a glass of ice water on a table on a hot and humid 4th of July. Condensation will collect on the outside of the glass. If there are ten ice cubes in it instead of three in the glass, there will be more condensation. In the same way, if it is very cold outside, more condensation collects where heated areas meet cold surfaces. This is when mold will grow in attics, closets located on outside walls, crawl spaces and garages. You can dehumidify the entire house to have less moisture available for condensation or add heat to the very cold areas so there is less of a temperature difference.
With winter knocking at the door, trouble is the only thing warming up to come into our homes. Seniors and their caregivers face more winter weather challenges than most people.
If you have never had the experience of being in the shoes of an older person, imagine the time you had a very nasty ( featuring fluids streaming out of your body ) flu bug. Then remember the lack of ability to plan and accomplish your normal activities. That feeling of inability to cope with problems is what can happen to a senior, acutely ill or physically challenged person.
When it feels like life is coming at you like a train out of control, planning goes out the door along with good judgment.
Pride on the other hand .... you know what I mean..... old fashioned, overwhelming stubborn pride........ sticks to us like a leech on the back of our necks sucking out the ability to ask for help, especially when we need help the most .
The combination of financial demands, inability to work through problems and difficulty in asking for help can make winter a serious challenge. Caregivers who understand these facts can make the difference in quality of life and possibly even life and death.
Consider both the physical and financial aspects of dealing with winter. The basic needs include food, water, heat, clothing, sanitation, communication and medical needs. When time, energy or money run out, even the most important need can be ignored.
Help The Person Get Ready for Winter
There are basic chores than need done for winter. Help put away summer items. Get out stored winter clothes. coats, boots, gloves and other cold weather essentials. Tasks that may seem simple, can be daunting to someone aging or in ill health.
Get emergency supplies in place. Taking away the fear of being trapped without the essentials can be tough on a person. Pick a closet to cabinet and gather emergency supplies. Stocking a place with LED flashlights, a backup battery radio, bottled water, food that can be eaten out of the package when utilities are off are the types of things that take the fear out of winter storm entrapment.
If they do not have a cell phone, consider a TracPhone or other emergency phone. It doesn't need to be an expensive phone, but supply a simple phone available if the regular phone system goes down or the person needs to leave a home.
The isolation of winter is one of cold weather's biggest and meanest challenges. Set a time to talk. Anticipating a call can be as exciting as a phone call itself during dreary weather. There are many ways to make these talks interesting and meaningful. Asking about a story or experience from the past can be a great thing for everyone. You may even want to take notes about "the way things were" for a family history.
Talk money. This is a tough one. People do not like to talk about the subject of if there is not enough money for utilities, medicine and food. They may be embarrassed, or too confused to apply for programs that can help with expenses like LIHEAP for heating assistance. A few hours of effort sorting out these issues could take a lot of stress from a person you care about.
Find out about essential medicines and put in place a plan that makes sure there is always a sufficient supply of these on hand. Whether the difficulty is delivery or payment, there are programs and options that are available. Making those arrangements could take some time, but will be worth the effort.
Send a "thinking of you” basket when a storm or other event is coming. That provides a supply of food, but more importantly lets people know that you care. It can relieve the stress of not rushing to the store before the storm.
Do not forget the pet. This is one of the most important things in many homes. Food, water and a place to go if evacuating the home is very important.