How Proper Crawl Space Ventilation Can Improve the Air Quality in Your Home

Air quality is something that is so important yet we often discount its impact on our lives. With so much concern about the air we breathe in the environment around us, we pay too little attention to the air we breathe in our homes.

Even the most health-conscious among us are so focused on eating right, limiting our caloric and fat intakes, and exercising regularly but don’t think very much about what we put into our lungs. You don’t smoke because it isn’t good for your body, but chances are you’re inhaling as many toxins and pollutants into your respiratory anyway.

The worst part about it, your home maybe the very thing doing this to you. The good news is, you can do something about the problem and it starts with proper ventilation of your crawlspace.

Air Quality Concerns

Your home’s indoor air is affected by and contains a myriad of elements and ingredients, all of which can have a direct influence on your health. Some are harmless, others can be detrimental to your well-being at elevated levels. You can’t really avoid some of these allergens, particulates, bacteria and other contaminants, you can only hope to reduce them for improved quality of air.

This is important because the Environmental Protection Agency has found that the air inside most homes in the United States can be exponentially more toxic and polluted than air that we breathe when we go outside. It sounds crazy but it’s true and it’s due in large part to the very materials that are used in the construction of our homes and all the internal systems on which they operate.

These toxins and pollutants come from things like glues and epoxies to carpets, paint, and formaldehyde used in the manufacturing of so many items in our homes. Even the structures our homes are built upon, the insulation we use, and our efforts to make windows, doors, and lighting more energy efficient can also yield harmful toxic influences on our air quality.

But if your home has a crawlspace, the flow air in the home can increase the negative effects of these harmful contaminants.

Crawlspace Dangers

Homes are built above crawlspaces risk having the air quality in the home tainted as a result of that air flow through the house. But while the home has all manner of toxins from the various items within, crawlspaces can bring up even more potentially harmful irritants in the form of bacteria and toxicity from the moisture in the soil and dirt beneath the home.

How is that possible you ask? Crawlspaces, much like basements, have soil and dirt around them from the earth underneath the home. These areas can absorb the water vapor that comes from the moisture in the soil and dirt by way of humidity, to levels of roughly 10-15 gallons of vapor a day. That turns out to yield a significant amount of the moisture found in your home.

Of course, moisture and wetness can be major contributors of bacteria, mold, mildew, and other various forms of decay. These things can breed toxins that are unhealthy to breathe in large doses. But guess what, when airflow shifts through your home those toxins can be swept up from the crawlspace and into the living areas of your home.

That means you are inhaling all of those unhealthy particulates on a daily basis and this can lead to a variety of respiratory conditions.

Crawlspace Ventilation

Crawlspaces used to be built with vents so that they could bring in outdoor air, as a way to make them healthier. But it was discovered that these vents were just bringing more moisture from the outside, which only contributed to the amount of moisture that could yield unhealthy air.

That has been changing over the years as building codes are adjusting the requirements for vents in crawlspaces with an eye towards reducing their impact on indoor air quality.

If your current crawlspace is improperly ventilated, then you may need to have the problem addressed as soon as possible, in order to improve the air you breathe inside your home.

Homeowners who are worried about this issue may have many crawl space questions and if this sounds like you, look for a reliable crawl space ventilation company in mechanicsville va who can answer these queries and diagnose the health and safety of the crawlspace that is under your home at the present time.

The longer you wait, the longer you are living in an unhealthy environment.