DIY Network

	HOME BUILDING Index
	Custom Homes Electrical Systems & Wiring Garages, Basements & Attics Heating & Cooling Home Exterior Home Interior Inspections & Codes Insulation and Energy Efficiency Plumbing Rooms Sewerage & Septic Systems Site Preparation Other

BEST OF HOME BUILDING

Best Built Zone
Home IQ
Heck of a Deck
Weekend Projects
Home Renovations
Be Your Own Contractor

SPONSOR LINKS

Clean Air

From "Best Built Home"
episode DBBH-105F

This segment explores what a builder must do to keep the air in a house clean and healthy. The three main areas of concern are volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide and ventilation. Host Lynda Lyday explores the things in a house that release harmful chemicals in the air, and she takes a look at new heating and cooling units that use sealed combustion to keep harmful carbon monoxide out of the house. Plus, see how builders bring in fresh air on a regular basis to keep the house healthy and safe.

Figure A

Figure B

Figure C

Figure D

Figure E

There are many factors a builder has to consider when it comes to health and safety in their homeowners' new houses -- and indoor air quality plays a major role.

Did you know that indoor pollution can be worse than the pollution outside? It's true!

Hot water heaters, paint, varnish and cleaning products are all responsible for indoor pollution that can affect your immediate and long-term health. But homebuilders such as McStain Neighborhoods are finding ways to make sure the air we breathe inside is healthy and safe.

"The most important thing you can do in your home to have better indoor air quality is to have sealed combustion appliances," Justin Wilson, environmental manager for McStain Neighborhoods, said. Common combustion appliances (figure A), such as furnaces and hot-water heaters release carbon monoxide into the air through a process known as backdrafting.

Backdrafting is the gas created from an appliance such as a water heater or furnace spilling and getting sucked back into your house and the air quality is compromised -- and you breathe it. Sealed combustion appliances prevent that. "A sealed appliance is just that," Justin said. "If it's installed correctly there's no chance for the gases to be spilled back into the home. They're pumped from outside into the unit and directly back to the exterior where they never meet the home."

Having a sealed combustion furnace and hot-water heater is something homeowner Eric Fetzer, who you first met in Episode DBBH-103 of Best Built Home workshop, is excited about. "These pipes (figure B-- top and bottom) are the fresh-air intake and the exhaust air for the hot-water heater," Eric said. "So the hot-water heater has fans to pull in and push out exhaust air and so the whole system is closed, and it relies on the fans to keep the air from polluting the rest of the house."

There are lots of other things that pollute indoor air, which can take a toll on your health. "The odors or contaminates that are brought into a home either during construction or many times as people live in the homes are known as VOC's or volatile organic compounds," Justin said. For example, a new-house smell is one of these compounds, so builders want to have a little of that as possible when the homeowners move in.

New paint (figure C) has a lot of VOC's associated with it, as well as finishes and varnishes. Even cleaning products that you use in your bathroom and kitchen contain these volatile organic compounds, but finding products with low levels is easier than you think. During the construction process many builders take preventive measures -- such as using clean filters and using low-VOC primers, wall paints and finishes during the painting and staining process.

These days new homes are being built more and more air tight to maximize the home's efficiency, but with some appliances releasing carbon monoxide -- and the potential for VOC's -- in the air, proper ventilation is crucial to the home's air quality.

One thing that can be done to ventilate a home is to bring in fresh air, so if the builder has constructed the house tight, openings are created where there are non-contaminate sources so they know the air quality is good. McStain uses a ventilation system (figure D) that filters the incoming air, lowers humidity and removes contaminates. They also make sure that there's proper ventilation in all the bathrooms and kitchen.

Kitchen ventilation, in particular, is vital for the home's air quality. All air should be ducted to the outside (figure E). "I've noticed one thing," Marne said, "if you don't turn on the vent over the top of the stove and you cook say, bacon -- and since the circulation of the air inside the house is so efficient, you can smell bacon for a really long time."

Homeowners may not always know whether or not the air in the home is clean, but it's vital that they ask the right questions. Be sure to ask your builder if he or she is taking precautions for sealed combustion and VOC levels in paints, carpets and floorings.

Some builders will even test their houses to be sure they are healthy and safe. Find out more about these tests in the next segment.