[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. We've been talking about the 10 things you can do to clean up the indoor air quality for a healthier home. And here's another one here. That's super important. And I didn't even know this until I started working with my friend who was on last week's show, Caroline Blazowski, America's healthy home expert.

[00:00:22] Eric Goranson: And she warned me of this in my garage and in my house. And she has done so many different air quality tests for people. That's her job. She's done thousands. And when you run an air quality test, it's amazing the stuff that you find. So the first thing I want you to do is not keep any of those chemicals, especially the stuff in your garage, your thinners.

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[00:01:28] Eric Goranson: Welcome to The Round The House Show, the Next Generation of Home Improvement. I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today. Happy July. We are in summer and there are so many things going on around. I hope you guys had a great 4th of July week. This has been a great week. I took some time off last weekend to play a little catch up and give my knee a rest.

[00:01:48] Eric Goranson: I've been fighting that thing and hopefully we'll be on the mend here today. I wanted to talk a little bit about 10 things you can do to clean up your indoor air quality for a healthier home. But first, if you want to find [00:02:00] out more about us, give us a call here at the studio at 833 239 4144. That number again, 833.

[00:02:06] Eric Goranson: 4, 1, 4, 4. Or you can just head over to around the house online. com for more information over there. That's got the radio show, the podcast, and of course the television show, which is around the house Northwest. And we're creeping up on 500 videos over there as well. So there's a ton of content. You can catch for around the house today, these top 10 things you can do.

[00:02:29] Eric Goranson: We talked last week in a best of show, because I took some time off. It was just great to go back and revisit an old show that talked about healthier homes and healthier building materials for your homes. And I wanted to talk today about things you can do to just help that indoor air quality. And these are big ones that are really simple to manage.

[00:02:47] Eric Goranson: And so this is stuff that can really help first on my list is to make sure that your bathroom vent fans. Are in good working order and they're going to get that nasty air in the bathroom outside. [00:03:00] Now this could be hair products. It could be cleaning products. It could be steam. It could be anything that's coming in to that bathroom in there.

[00:03:08] Eric Goranson: All those products have chemicals that we're using on our bodies, as well as mold, mildew, all that stuff that happens inside the bathroom. So having a great working fan, That exits all the way outside is key. And so my rules for this is I really want to see something that is a higher end fan in there, not something that's the builder basic.

[00:03:27] Eric Goranson: I want to see something that moves at least a hundred CFM if you've got a shower or a bathroom in there and then get quickly to the outside. And that is not going up and fastening in next to a vent in the roof. This needs to go Completely ducted all the way outside. Now the problem that you have with bath fans out there, and this is where we get into issues sometimes, is the ratings on them.

[00:03:48] Eric Goranson: They rate that at the back of the fan. So if you turn that fan on and it's, uh, let's say it's 100 CFM fan, that's 100 cubic feet per minute. Problem is that could go 20 feet down. You have an [00:04:00] elbow, which takes a lot of energy out of that air movement and then goes out another 10 feet. And all of a sudden that could only be maybe 80 or 75.

[00:04:07] Eric Goranson: So you want to make sure and get the biggest fan you can and then run a longer a bigger insulated duct out there. Now you need to follow building code with that, but in my area, they want to have a flux duct that is fully insulated. So you don't get condensation on the inside that goes out outside of the building.

[00:04:23] Eric Goranson: So you just get some flux duct, run it out, and then either run it out the roof or out a gable end. I'm not a fan of doing into soffits. I think there's A lot of problems that can happen there, unless that's the only option you have and building code allows it. I would stay away from that, but this is how you can really keep that air quality up in that bathroom.

[00:04:42] Eric Goranson: And the other thing is, you want to make sure that people use it when they take a shower or bath and then they leave it on 20 minutes after they walk out of the room. So that way you can get that air movement and get it. All of those bad chemicals and moisture because that is going to be a huge contribution to humidity inside your home.

[00:04:59] Eric Goranson: If you [00:05:00] don't now, building code used to allow in many areas if you had a window, but nobody would open the window up in the summer because it was too hot. It was too cold in the wintertime, depending on where you're located and it could actually put in as much humidity. So you really want to have this bath fan working well.

[00:05:15] Eric Goranson: And my favorite brand is Panasonic out there. I think they make the best fans. I swapped out a Panasonic and put in a bro new tone one and the Panasonic did a better job and was quieter. So that's just my personal take. That is not any kind of advertisement, just my personal experience. I might actually, even though I still have that fan, I actually might put that fan back in because I wanted to test out the, the bro new tone one, but it just was not As durable as the Panasonic.

[00:05:42] Eric Goranson: And so the pro new tone one in my experience has gotten noisier and noisier as time goes on and I've cleaned it and it's just becoming a lot noisier. And the thing is I've noticed too, as it runs, it gets a little bit noisier as well. So I'm going to probably put that Panasonic back in and swap that back out because I did my [00:06:00] test.

[00:06:00] Eric Goranson: I think I know where it is and I know it's how it's performing. So that's the one, some of the things that happened at my house when I tested out new products. So just something to consider. Now, the same rules go for your range hood, that kitchen when you're cooking, and it doesn't matter if you've got a gas cooktop, for instance, or if you have a electric top or induction, you still need to vent that outside.

[00:06:24] Eric Goranson: And depending on the hood, you need to get a much bigger hood probably than you actually realized to go outside with this. And here's one of the bigger issues with this. So if you've got a gas cooktop, for instance, and you fire that thing up, you should be turning that vent fan on every time you turn that on.

[00:06:41] Eric Goranson: And I'm guilty of this. I don't always do that because you're giving off a lot of chemicals in that combustion process. But then when you're searing, you're cooking, you're giving off all these oils and stuff that's getting errors. It's basically putting a mist up into the air. And so that you want to get ducted and go outside.

[00:06:59] Eric Goranson: That's why it's [00:07:00] always so greasy up inside of the hood is it's one of those things you want to deal with to make sure you got it under control. So that is the, one of the biggest things as far as to contribute to bad air quality in your home is not using that vent fan. And if you've got a recycling one where you have that little charcoal filter that kicks it back into the room, this is a great DIY project for you to get that vented outside hard ducted.

[00:07:24] Eric Goranson: I don't want to see flux duct in there. If you can get that hard ducted all the way outside with the proper diameter out there. Now, if you've got a big 48 inch range, for instance, with a griddle, you probably need maybe a thousand CFM and you need to do those calculations based on. What you're cooking because here's what happens if you don't have a big enough fan And you're cooking something maybe you're frying something on the stove top there whether it's induction or anything else And if that smoke detector is going off Guess what?

[00:07:50] Eric Goranson: That means it's not grabbing enough of that and pulling it outside. The other issue that causes, though, is if you are taking 500, 600, [00:08:00] 700 CFM, maybe 1, 000 CFM and kicking that outside, and you've got a newer house, you need to do what they call make up air. Now that is replacing that 500 or 600 cubic feet per minute.

[00:08:12] Eric Goranson: And you think about that 600 cubic feet per minute is like 600 basketballs of air blasting outside. So you need to make that up inside because otherwise you're going to create a vacuum. And what can happen is if you've got that, that like anything, let's, let's call it a gas water heater inside or a gas furnace that can actually be pulling that Bad air that's coming out of there that could have all the chemicals from that gas combustion, including carbon monoxide.

[00:08:38] Eric Goranson: You can actually vent that back into the space backwards because that's the path of least resistance into the home. So you need to have a makeup air situation there. Now, if you've got an older house that is pretty, pretty passive, as far as letting air in and out, that's not well insulated, that's a whole different story.

[00:08:54] Eric Goranson: It's going to pull it out of the crawl space. It's going to pull it out of wherever those leaks are in the home. But [00:09:00] makeup areas, you get that house tightened up is going to be very important. So you can put that new air back in and then you're not grabbing dirty air. If you do this, it's going to get filtered.

[00:09:09] Eric Goranson: It's going to run through your system. So it's going to be clean air coming in versus dirty air. That's coming out of who knows where around the windows, cracks in the foundation, whatever you've got out of a, you know, a vent in the basement. You just want to make sure you get that dialed in because that's going to be key right there.

[00:09:24] Eric Goranson: So making sure you're using that fan. And second of all, making sure that's going outside all the way. And if you've got one of those micro hoods, maybe it's time when you do your next remodel to come up with a better plan. If you've got a little tiny condo, sometimes you're stuck with those, but micro hoods are some of the worst for trying to sit there and get clean air.

[00:09:43] Eric Goranson: All right, guys, we're going to go out to break right now and we come back. I'm going to give you the rest of my top 10 things we can do to clean up your indoor air quality for a healthier home. Just as soon as around the house returns.[00:10:00]

[00:10:06] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining me today. We've been talking about the top 10 things you can do to clean up your indoor air quality for a healthier home. Now, if you're just joining us on the radio, last talking about having a great working vents in your bathroom and of course using the one in your kitchen and making sure that it's working properly and venting outside.

[00:10:24] Eric Goranson: Now the next one here is really important because this can lead to very expensive repairs and abatement inside your home. And that is monitoring your humidity because here's what happens if you have a area in your home. Um, maybe it's or a basement or a corner of a basement or maybe it's just a bathroom out there.

[00:10:44] Eric Goranson: If it's getting above 60 percent relative humidity, that is the recipe for mold. That is where you will get that growing. And that is where you can have some serious issues. So I want to make sure you're monitoring in different spots, your house. No, if you've got a smart thermostat, [00:11:00] most of them, if not all of them now have a humidity monitor, but that's at that location only.

[00:11:05] Eric Goranson: And so here's my trick for this. This is what works really well. Jump online and buy one of those cheap outdoor weather stations for checking your weather outside that does temperature, humidity, all that kind of stuff. And then you can take it around, take, don't use it outside, put that sensor in different places in your home, throw it in your crawl space for a couple of days, throw it in the corner of the basement.

[00:11:26] Eric Goranson: Throw it in a bathroom and start watching to see what you're doing there. Now you can go more high tech. If you want to spend more money, you can get air quality sensors that you could put in that'll test a lot more humidity and PM 2. 5, which is that a particulate matter and hydrocarb, all the different things you'll see, all the chemicals that are coming up.

[00:11:46] Eric Goranson: And so those are things that you can take a look at if you want to go a little bit deeper, but just for humidity, that's a cheap, easy way. Okay. To measure that. And then you can go, wow. Okay. Basement's got a humidity problem. We're going to get mold down there. What are [00:12:00] we doing? And that's how you can really track this down.

[00:12:03] Eric Goranson: Now there's ways to control humidity inside the house. And it's depending on the situation you've got. And you think about it back in the desert areas. If all you people out there that are listening, that grew up in the desert, we used to have a swamp coolers that would pump hot, moist air into your home.

[00:12:20] Eric Goranson: But that cooling effect of that moisture coming across you did help you cool. It made you feel cooler just because. It was a cooling air that came across that humidity help. But the problem is that could lead to a moldy mess. And so that's where that issue is. And so a couple of things that can happen to help reduce humidity is going to be airflow, getting the airflow balanced in the house.

[00:12:44] Eric Goranson: Maybe you've got a basement that doesn't have any vents. And humidity is getting trapped down there. What you can do is consult your heating and cooling professional and make sure that there's air movement down there. So maybe putting in a couple of ducts, maybe adding a little bit to that system, maybe putting a mini split in [00:13:00] that area, whatever you need to do to condition that space, that can sure help.

[00:13:04] Eric Goranson: Second of all, if someone made a mistake in your AC unit, when they installed this and messed up and put too big of a unit in, if that unit is short cycling, It is not doing its right job when it's in cooling mode to remove, or even if it's a high efficiency one with heating to remove that humidity out of your home, it turns on for a minute, it turns off, turns on, turns off.

[00:13:30] Eric Goranson: It doesn't have enough time to move enough air to control that. And so what happens is that's not doing its job. So there's a couple of different things you can do. If it's in a crawl space or basement, you can make sure you've got the right in a crawl space. Make sure you've got at least six mil.

[00:13:47] Eric Goranson: Plastic down on there, make sure that's styled in. If it's a basement, You can make sure that you don't have any water leaks down there or water coming in through that into a water intrusion type of situation, or even more so you can go [00:14:00] down there and paint one of the different blocking primers and paints on the walls to slow that down to see if you can keep some of that humidity from coming through because that humidity will come through that concrete.

[00:14:10] Eric Goranson: That moisture travel will push through if you've got wet soil out there. And so that's something to consider there. Now, the other thing is too, when you're thinking about this, here's another one that can contribute. If you've got a basement, if you're gutter downspouts. Are draining within 10 feet of your home.

[00:14:27] Eric Goranson: And you're in an area that gets a significant amount of rain. We're not talking death Valley here. We're not talking rain forest either on the other side of that coin. But if you get significant rainfall, that water that's coming down and dropping all of the square footage of the water, that's hitting that roof, dropping it right next to the foundation that will contribute to your indoor humidity.

[00:14:46] Eric Goranson: If that water's getting down there and it's going to push naturally into that basement area. So you want to make sure that you've got those gutter downspouts. Coming out of the gutters, going to the downspouts and then going at least 10 feet downhill and away from the [00:15:00] foundation of the home on all the corners out there.

[00:15:02] Eric Goranson: That will help reduce that humidity inside. And that's an easy DIY project. You can use ABS, you can use PVC, put it underground, put it into a dry well. You can put it where it pops up onto the surface of the ground later, depending on what you're doing, but you don't want to have any perforations in that pipe.

[00:15:18] Eric Goranson: In the first 10 feet so that way that can get away. It doesn't go back into that space So that's a great one right there to do so always monitor humidity and keep an eye on it Worst case you might have to put in a whole house dehumidifier And that's something to consider. I'm, not a fan of the little portables one They use a lot of energy into these days.

[00:15:38] Eric Goranson: A lot of them are throwaway units who get a couple of years out, you have to throw them away and it's just a big waste. If you spend the money and get a good one that's sized for your location and for your square footage, that's going to work so much better. And that could be its own standalone unit down in a basement.

[00:15:53] Eric Goranson: It could be something that's down in the crawl space. And I've seen people as well go into a cross space encapsulation [00:16:00] and go that route. It's just really depending on what you want to do and what you're trying to control. But the first thing you got to do is find out where that humidity is coming from.

[00:16:08] Eric Goranson: All right, here's the next one that's really good for keeping that indoor air quality clean. And that is having a good air filter and or air scrubber. Now you want to have something, and I'm not just talking that little one inch filter, That is in your HVAC unit. Now, here's the thing. If you've gotten like a mini split heat pump, many times you're limited to whatever they put in there.

[00:16:31] Eric Goranson: And those, a lot of those units don't have the ability to add a better filter to that, which is unfortunate. But what you can do is you've got an HVAC system and you could have your heating and cooling professional come in and actually add a better inline filter into that. And so what that does is if you put in a big air scrubber air filter, Now you're going to get a lot more of those particulate matters.

[00:16:53] Eric Goranson: You could put in some of the scrubbers that will actually go through and go a HEPA filter, heated HEPA filter. There's a lot of [00:17:00] different ways to do it, depending on what you're trying to do. In my house, I put in with the carrier unit, which is a, their air filter. So it has a carbon strip on the filter.

[00:17:10] Eric Goranson: It gives it a, a charge. And so it attracts. All of the, uh, dust and particles and it kills and cleans all the stuff going through there. So it does a really good job of getting pet hair, all that dander, all that junk that's in my air and out of the house. Now, the thing is too, is you got to consider where your intake is for your HVAC system.

[00:17:32] Eric Goranson: If you've got pets and it's coming through a floor register, Where maybe it's grabbing all the stuff on the hardwood floor, sucking that in. That's one thing. If it's in the ceiling, sometimes you'll get less dirt, but you're not going to get that same airflow down below. And so that won't pick up that dirt.

[00:17:48] Eric Goranson: It does a little bit better job, but really this comes down to having a great air filter that someone designed. For your system. And I don't recommend just going out and buying the best one you can get [00:18:00] because you can cause problems. If you've got a higher MERV filter, where you're looking at these filters and that's the filter rating.

[00:18:08] Eric Goranson: If you put in too big of a filter, you can actually cut down the airflow. So you want to make sure that the filter has the right airflow for your system. So. Don't always get the best one. The best one could cause some problems with your system and cause it to work harder than it should. All right, around the house.

[00:18:23] Eric Goranson: Be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.[00:19:00]

[00:19:10] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round the house show, the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. If you're just visiting us for the first time on the radio, thanks for tuning in. We appreciate all of you radio listeners out there and make sure that you're, if you're here, a commercial in our show, make sure that on the radio, that you're touching base with those people say, thanks for sponsoring around the house in your area.

[00:19:32] Eric Goranson: Uh, because those are the guys that keep our show on the radio. This is not one of those pay for plays. We don't pay to be on a station. So those advertisers. Or what helped us get our content out there. And so that's, what's helping you get this on the radio right now. So a special thanks to all the radio stations, all those program directors, and of course, all the sponsors and advertisers that you hear in the show, because that's what keeps this machine running and us on the radio in your area.

[00:19:58] Eric Goranson: So thanks for joining me today. [00:20:00] Here's the thing. If you want to find out more about me, head over to around the house. Online. com. And of course you can give us a call in the studio here. We've got a number that you can sit there and leave a message if we're not in the studio. And that is 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44.

[00:20:13] Eric Goranson: That number again, 8 3 3 2 3 9 4 1 4 4. We've been talking about the 10 things you can do to clean up the indoor air quality for a healthier home. And here's another one here. That's super important. And I didn't even know this. Until I started working with my friend who was on last week's show, Caroline Blazowski, America's healthy home expert.

[00:20:34] Eric Goranson: And she warned me of this in my garage and in my house. And she has done so many different air quality tests for people. That's her job. She's done thousands of them out there. And when you run an air quality test, it's amazing. The stuff that you find. So the first thing I want you to do is not keep Any of those chemicals, especially the stuff in your garage, your thinners, your bug killers, [00:21:00] the weed killers, all that stuff.

[00:21:02] Eric Goranson: If do not keep this in a building that is attached to your home, this should be outside in a carport, in a shed, something like that, because those things do off gas and it will work its way back into your home. And what's funny. And it's something that I've noticed with Caroline and she told me this and.

[00:21:18] Eric Goranson: She's done it multiple times. She can go through an air quality test and see what chemicals are underneath your sink. She can go and go, Hey, do you have what? Two or three of those flip top canisters where they have the sanitizing wipes in them? How many do you have? Oh, three. Yeah, it showed up on the air quality test.

[00:21:35] Eric Goranson: So all of these things are off gassing chemicals. Any of these cleaners, chemicals, paint, especially the oil based products, those are all showing up. So if you're storing any of those cleaning chemicals like that in your, especially the harsher ones as well. Laundry detergents, that kind of stuff, it doesn't make sense.

[00:21:53] Eric Goranson: But if you have all these different specialty cleaners that are harsh ones, Make sure that you're storing those in a building that's not attached to [00:22:00] the house because that will show up even your garage, even though it's sealed up, it's still going to end up in that airspace because most of the time people put that air handler out in the garage and it is going to always be sucking just a little bit of air in and when that does, it's grabbing that air and putting it back into the home.

[00:22:16] Eric Goranson: So the more you can do to keep that stuff out of your home, the better off you are. It's really simple. You can just go take the time, move that out to the shed. Okay. Bye. Any of those things like that can really cause bad air quality inside. So that's one of those that take your time, get it moved out, but it's something you could do on a Saturday.

[00:22:31] Eric Goranson: It's really easy and get those things moved out and it will make a difference in your air quality. Anytime we can get rid of those chemicals, the better off you're going to be. So here's another one here that I'm sorry, guys, I got to call you out on this and I've had one of these myself, but sometimes this is tough.

[00:22:48] Eric Goranson: Sometimes this is your only option, but there's some things you can do to make sure this doesn't happen, guys. We're going to have to get rid of those basement workshops if you've got that basement workshop [00:23:00] downstairs where you're painting, you're staining, You're oiling things up. You're doing your store in the store in the lawnmowers and you're working on those things down there.

[00:23:10] Eric Goranson: Whatever. Sorry, guys, unless you're going through and going to really seal that off and make sure it has its own heating and cooling system that you've got an air barrier in between that's completely sealed off through that house. Really, you're just putting those chemicals back up. The sawdust is ending up in the house.

[00:23:27] Eric Goranson: It's going to be hard on your air handler. It's going to be really tough. So getting rid of that basement workshop and maybe moving it out to a building in the backyard, all the guys out there that are still doing it because they're in a city situation, I get it. It's not optimal, but do what you can to make sure you seal off those areas.

[00:23:44] Eric Goranson: Because again, it's just like what we were talking about before that stuff really causes havoc on your HVAC system. And of course that indoor air quality upstairs. So getting rid of that wood shop, sometimes those chemicals that you're using on the wood stuff can [00:24:00] be pretty tough. I mean, I even get with some woods.

[00:24:03] Eric Goranson: I will get allergic reactions because some of the woods are toxic. And if you're getting little bits of that's missing your air filter up in your house, now you're creating a toxic situation. I will break out from doing woodworking projects with certain woods. So what I've been doing is I'm doing a much more F putting much more effort into dust control method because I put in vacuums on my saws.

[00:24:24] Eric Goranson: Now you'll see when I'm doing my TV show, I'm doing a lot more of that just because of the reactions I get to this. Yeah. And you don't want that inside your house. So spend some time, see if you can move that to another location, get it outside the envelope of the building and you'll be better off. So see what you can do with that.

[00:24:41] Eric Goranson: It's an important one. So, sorry guys, I had to call you out on that one and that's something to do. So here's the next one. We talked about a little bit last week in that segment in the hour, but if you're doing remodeling in your home, let's get to hard floor surfaces, go to hardwood floors or hard surfaces.

[00:24:59] Eric Goranson: Over carpet [00:25:00] and we talked about it last week. You missed it in that best of don't worry about it But carpet is one of the nastiest surfaces we can have in our home one. It traps all the dirt Dander if you have pets, it's just getting nasty It is just a capture thing and unless you've got just a ridiculously good vacuum system It's gonna be a mess guys.

[00:25:21] Eric Goranson: So if you can get rid of those carpets, you're gonna be better off Because now there's nothing for that to collect in and those hardwood floors and some of the click vinyls, those kinds of things, those work. And the other part is that there's so much formaldehyde and so many chemicals in these carpets, especially on some of them where they were doing a treatment system on them.

[00:25:41] Eric Goranson: So they're putting stuff in to keep them. So the guard on the top fits, so they don't stain. My favorite though, is if you're going to go carpets and you have to go carpets. That to use one of the stain proof ones, there's that, I think it's had to pond Serona stain master. There's a lot of different brands out there now that make it.

[00:25:57] Eric Goranson: So the, the actual [00:26:00] fibers have the color built into them and they don't stain. So it's made out of plastic, basically like recycled pop bottles and, or corn husk. I've seen a bunch of different stuff out there, but long story short with these will really, Do a better job of not staining, but you're still going to have those issues of whatever is showing up in that carpet is getting sucked down there.

[00:26:24] Eric Goranson: And I tell you what, if you've ever remodeled in a house that had was well cared for, and they had a great vacuum, a good HEPA vac. Things were getting cleaned all the time. You still pull up that carpet and pad and man, you still see big dust, dirt, skin cells, everything from the pets. It's trapped in that.

[00:26:44] Eric Goranson: And so I'd much rather do that. And that's one of the things too is using the right vacuum cleaner and the right cleaner. I am, I have been absolutely amazed at how my indoor air quality has gotten better at my house. This is not on the list, but it's a subcategory [00:27:00] here since we're talking carpets.

[00:27:01] Eric Goranson: Cleaning machines that help clean the house. And so, I installed here a few months ago, made by Roborock. It is one of the robot vacuum cleaners. Now, this is what's cool. This is the Roborock S8 Max V Ultra. So I've got hardwood floors on the entire first floor. Those hardwood floors sit there and get dirty for my dogs playing outside.

[00:27:25] Eric Goranson: For us walking around, we get dirt on the floor. We get pet hair. We get all that stuff. So here's what I do is that machine runs almost every day. And what I do is it goes through and it mops, vacuums, scrubs the floors every single day. And it dries them. It does a really good job. It works on my hardwood floors really well without damaging them.

[00:27:47] Eric Goranson: And I don't have to empty it cause it empties itself into its own system. So once a week I put in new water, drain out the bad, clean out the bag goes into its own bag that has changed the air quality in my home. [00:28:00] It has made it so much easier to keep clean. And my filters last so much longer because I don't have all that dust and dirt floating around.

[00:28:08] Eric Goranson: And so if you get that every day, That's a key right there to making sure you've got that great indoor air quality. So I run that thing every day. It's a very thorough machine. You can set it up for different things. It will do that whole floor. And that's really our floor that gets the most dirt down there.

[00:28:23] Eric Goranson: Cause of course it's the first floor. So the stuff that gets tracked in from the dogs, the pet hair, all that stuff. It takes care of it and it's awesome. So having something in a system to keep things clean is also gonna help you with that indoor air quality. That's a big one. Just cleanliness round the house.

[00:28:40] Eric Goranson: We'll be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere. We got one more important segment to go this on.[00:29:00]

[00:29:05] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round the house show. The next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. If you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house online. com and make sure you, if you're a podcast listener out there, make sure you subscribe on your favorite podcast player.

[00:29:19] Eric Goranson: No matter what you got. I think we're on just about everyone out there. If there's one that you don't find out about. See us on, and you're like, Hey, I can't find you. Send me a message over to round the house online. com. And I will make sure that we can get on there. If it's something open for us to do now, we've been talking about my top 10 things you can do to clean up your indoor air quality for a healthier home.

[00:29:37] Eric Goranson: Let's review this real quick of where we are so far. One have great working vents in the bathroom. Making sure those things vent all the way outside. Number two, a good range hood that vents outside, getting all that chemicals, all that carbon, everything that you're burning outside. Monitor humidity. Make sure that you've got that basement crawl space anywhere in your home.

[00:29:58] Eric Goranson: Make sure that you don't have any high [00:30:00] humidity issues there and a good air filter or air scrubber. On your HVAC system. Now, here's one little trick guys. And I've done this. This is going to be fun. If you don't have a good HVAC system, let's say you're a baseboard heat, or you've got maybe a little window air conditioner and you've got steam heat and you've got an old home.

[00:30:19] Eric Goranson: What I have done is I have gone down and got basically a box fan. So I'll get a box fan and I will build a box around the intake side of that. And seal up and tape up and put air filters on that. And then I will run that in a room and let that filter the air. And if you put good air filters on there and seal it up really tight on the intake side, it will filter that air.

[00:30:44] Eric Goranson: So you can make your own air filter doing that. It works out really well. Just make sure you don't do, make sure you have a big enough filter. So you don't burn up that fan. It needs to have enough air going through there. So you don't want to burn it up and cause fire, but. If you build this out, maybe a 24 by 24 box of [00:31:00] filters there, get some big filters.

[00:31:01] Eric Goranson: It'll work fine. And that'll really help you clean up indoor air. And if you're a renter, that's a good little tip right there for you. And it's something you can tackle yourself really easy to do. Get some duct tape, put it together that way. You'll be good to go. All right. So that's another one there.

[00:31:15] Eric Goranson: Watch what chemicals you keep in your home. Any of those cleaners, make sure you don't have those around. Uh, keep them outside to shed any of that heavy duty stuff. Cause it will show up in your air quality testing and sorry, guys, no basement workshops and ladies, all you people down there working in the basement.

[00:31:29] Eric Goranson: If you could take that outside to another building away from the home, you're going to have cleaner indoor air and then go hardwood floors or hard surfaces over carpet. Cause carpet just traps and off gases and gives you tons of problems there. The next one here is what I wanted to talk about, and this is something that's really important.

[00:31:48] Eric Goranson: That can be a big problem. Do not use air fresheners in your home. You know, those, uh, plug in type ones, you put the oil in really, all that is like a vaping chemical. [00:32:00] All you're doing is all that oil that comes out of that, that gunky sticky stuff is now in your air. So I have absolutely stopped using those in my house.

[00:32:10] Eric Goranson: I threw them away years ago. Oh, I'd like to have it smelling fresh in here. No clean your house, do other things to keep it go natural. But do not use any of those plug in air fresheners. And I'm not a big fan of the spray ones either. Take a look, use something natural. Do not use some of those chemicals out there.

[00:32:28] Eric Goranson: Cause it's really tough. Watch what you're using. Those things can be really bad for indoor air quality. And those chemicals now end up in your lungs and you don't want to be vaping that stuff inside your house. That's really what you're doing. So get rid of those vape style plug in air fresheners. Those are a key to having cleaner air inside your home.

[00:32:49] Eric Goranson: Now, the next one here, I think is important. It's something you should be doing every year or two. And I think this is really important. Get an air test. Now there's a couple of ways to do it. One, you can buy your own indoor [00:33:00] air quality tester. They make these things, you can get them online, there's good ones out there, you can move them around your house, it will tell you what the particulates are, what chemicals you've got for VOCs that are out there, it'll tell you if you've got too high a humidity, it'll give you some certain things.

[00:33:16] Eric Goranson: It'll give you a basic test. And that's not a bad way to go, but if you want to go the ultimate way. This is where you bring in the professional, somebody like, uh, Carolyn Blazowski, America's Healthy Home Expert. Talk to her, because what she can do now is she will send you one of her exam and air kits.

[00:33:34] Eric Goranson: That'll go on in your house. She will walk you through how to test this. And then you know exactly what's in your air. Exactly. She can tell you exactly what goes through that because it's capturing it. And that lab test will tell you what's going on. And I think it's super important to do for a number of reasons.

[00:33:51] Eric Goranson: If you have a mold issue in your house, or you let, let's say you're having some health issues, you're having respiratory issues, and you think it might be [00:34:00] to some hidden mold in the house, or maybe you've got a sick house where you've got something going on there. The easiest way to do this is to call her, have her send out a kit, and then it's going to say what's going on.

[00:34:12] Eric Goranson: Now that's super important. Then you can start troubleshooting it, and I think it's important, I think that every builder should do this for every house that they built. When that house is completely done, They should run an air test because then you're going to see if there's mold in the air. If there's anything else, what's off casting, you'll have a good idea and you have a baseline.

[00:34:33] Eric Goranson: So that way down the road, if you've got any other issues that are within that warranty period, works pretty good guys. Works pretty good. And it helps protect the builder and the homeowner as well. And tells a lot of what's going on. So I think every couple of years, if you have a, like leaky windows, where you've got mold inside that air, that cavity around there where the insulation is and air is coming through that, that will show up on these tests.

[00:34:57] Eric Goranson: And so many times you can find [00:35:00] problems before they raise their nasty, ugly head around your house. So that will really show up. So these are things you want to make sure. To do. I think it's really important to every few years, get that air test. It's really going to help you out and help just have a healthier home.

[00:35:15] Eric Goranson: Now here's another one that's really hard and it's a battle for many people. Clutter traps dirt. And if you have too many things in your home, and I'm not talking about the people with hoarding disorder that clearly has its own health issues that has health, safety, welfare, from fire to emergency. We all know that is not a healthy situation, but if you have probably 20 or 30 percent more stuff that you should have in your house, maybe it's piled up where you can't keep those surfaces clean.

[00:35:46] Eric Goranson: That could be an issue because if all that dust is getting, you know, stirred up every once in a while as you go clean it because it's not getting taken care of. Because it's collecting dirt that can really be, you [00:36:00] know, nasty in there. So that is one of those that I would take the time, make sure you clean it up.

[00:36:04] Eric Goranson: Less clutter does keep your house cleaner because it's just easier to keep clean that way. So something to think about. And within this, if you're doing cleaning and you've got hard surfaces, get that shop vac out, your garage vacuum, get underneath those couches, the entertainment centers, all that stuff.

[00:36:23] Eric Goranson: You'd be surprised the dust bunnies that collect up down there. And if you can get down there and get that cleaned up, you're going to be better off. Now one of my honorable mentions is getting the right. We talked about this a little earlier, but I think this is an honorable mention to bring back up because I think it's really important.

[00:36:40] Eric Goranson: Making sure that you are going through and using a good quality vacuum when you clean the house. Now, I'm talking about the 50 one, or even, maybe not even really the Dyson's. I'm talking about something that's got HEPA filtration that really gets that air clean. And anytime that you could [00:37:00] put a HEPA filter in there, You're keep making sure that you're not kicking that dirt back up inside the house.

[00:37:06] Eric Goranson: So we're trying to really keep these hard surfaces or even soft surfaces like carpet Or any one of those other ones really clean if you can get that dirt Dander skin cells all that junk that's down there if you can get that up and out Having a high quality vacuum is a good step for it because you can get that out Now another tip here that's not on our top 10 list.

[00:37:27] Eric Goranson: That's good You And it's something I'm horrible about taking your shoes off when you come in the house, because think about all the stuff you're walking through. If you're walking on public transit, that's what's ending up on your floor. If you're out there walking and you have a step in some dog, that's, that's gross and it's coming in the house.

[00:37:45] Eric Goranson: So the more you can do of kicking off those shoes, but the door before you come in, the cleaner the house is going to be, and the less you have to worry about it. And so there's a lot of stuff out there that really can be pretty nasty. So keeping those shoes. From walk around the house could be a really great thing.

[00:37:59] Eric Goranson: [00:38:00] Now, if you've got walking issues and you need to wear shoes, awesome. They also make some scrubbing things that you can do by the door to clean those shoes, come in booties, that kind of stuff. But I get it. If for health reasons, you need to have shoes on because socks or whatever are slippery, but to maybe change off into some.

[00:38:18] Eric Goranson: Slippers or sandals as you go around the house and keep the outside shoes outside in the inside shoes inside. And that can keep for a healthier home as well. And then the last one here is just use that common sense guys. Use the common sense around your home and making sure that you're washing your hands, making sure that you're cleaning things up and of course, disinfecting when you can.

[00:38:40] Eric Goranson: If you've got mold, take care of it in the bathroom. If you've got things like that, really getting after stuff, And the last one here is not on the list, but I think it's really important. Make sure you get that radon test done. So that way, you know, that you've got clean air that way. And that's part of that indoor air quality testing that I talked about, but I didn't mention it.

[00:38:59] Eric Goranson: I just want to [00:39:00] make sure that you're doing radon testing. So you make sure there is no healthy level of radon. So you just want to make sure that you've got that under control and completely out of the house. And that's going to make for a safer place for you as well. So something to consider. All right, guys, if you want to find out more about us, I've got a ton of videos and you can find those for any project you're going to tackle.

[00:39:19] Eric Goranson: That's over at around the house online. com. Take a look down there and you'll see that. And if you want to hear some of our extended, we're starting to put out some extended podcasts here. So if you're not catching those, you can join our premium membership club. That's for tuning in to around the house show.