Indoor Air Quality Concerns
My home in Zone 5a CT, is leaky (15 ACH +/-, at last check), and I have a child who is very sensitive to toxins. Tomorrow the town begins paving our street with Hot Asphalt Mix and will finish in a couple of weeks. Since we are unable to move out of our home for two weeks, how do I keep the interior air – and, thus, my child – as healthy as possible?
Some pertinent facts: we have no HVAC (we use window units, which will be removed tonight); we do have several HEPA free-standing air filters, which will be placed in strategic areas around the house; the air in our home is very humid all year (I’m not sure this makes a difference, but what do I know?!); our windows are leaky, even with storm windows.
Are there any other strategies you would recommend? Thanks!
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Replies
Oh man, first, I totally relate to your predicament. Its terrible to be at the mercy of the city’s paving department or any other situation that compromises your kid’s health.
15ach is going to be a pretty large hill to climb in a matter of days. One thought I had that may be an economical way to knock that number down a bit is to focus on interior air leaks with a product like the 3M window film.
https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjbxtTG-6TrAhURCecKHQhaCKwYABAQGgJwdg&sig=AOD64_03FhArfQxPDN0KFejnINLV_lFybQ&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjvrs3G-6TrAhUDvJ4KHdA0CPAQwg96BAgOECg&adurl=
If you were to place this over the window as per the instructions and THEN follow that with a tape around the perimeter I believe you could certainly mitigate the air leaks for your two-week time frame.
I would also consider this technique around your outlets and light switches (at least as many as you can stand to not use for two weeks).
You might also try this around all but one exterior door if you have more than one.
Any can lights could use this too assuming you could leave them off. You may be able to turn them on if they’re led lights, but that film is pretty heat sensitive so I’d test it first.
Can lights, along with any other penetrations high up (like a kitchen hood’s vent) are going to be your worst offenders and as per Martin Holladay’s article are going to be your best bang for your buck.
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/getting-the-biggest-bang-for-your-air-sealing-buck
Finally, while it probably makes sense to focus on exterior walls first, don’t neglect the outlets or other penetrations on interior walls. Those will let in air nearly as easily as exterior.
Hope this helps, and if I’ve overlooked something hopefully other members will correct my assumptions.
This is a wonderful plan! Thank you for your detailed suggestions, all of which I will start on right now.
Most of the smells from resurfacing are VOCs, getting a purifier with an activated carbon filter should make a big difference for air quality. As the above poster said, air seal as much as you can focus on the rooms where you'll be spending most of the time, a bit of work there can make a big difference.
I just ordered an air filter with a carbon filter. It won't be here until Friday, but it's better than nothing. Thanks!