Keeping your home well ventilated: how a pre purchase property inspection can help
A home with sufficient ventilation is absolutely crucial – both for the health of the home and for the health of your family. But when finding a home, what sort of ventilation features should you be looking out for? And how can a pre purchase property inspection help?
Why is ventilation so important?
On the simplest level, ventilation is about the flow of air from outdoors to indoors (and vice versa). And while it’s all air, the control of flow is super important to ensure that there’s not too much stale or damp air in the home and that everyone is breathing clean air.
Ventilation is perhaps the most important way to control moisture and dampness inside a house – and it’s no surprise why that is so crucial. Dampness and moisture inside can lead to all sorts of structural problems for a home and cause mould in places you don’t want. Proper ventilation also means that things like dust, pollen, smoke and bacteria can’t get trapped indoors, meaning everyone is healthier and happier.
What can you do yourself to improve your home ventilation?
The first thing you can do to keep your home well ventilated is to open doors and windows whenever you can. I know in winter that can be difficult, but keeping the windows open when it is nice and sunny means that as much natural airflow can get in as possible. Keeping interior doors throughout the house open also helps in circulating fresh air.
It’s also important to make sure you’ve got extractor fans in your bathroom, laundry and kitchen so steam and condensation don’t hang around – even if you’ve got an external window. Sometimes in particularly damp areas a home will still need some help to stay clean and dry. In these cases, many people use the help of a home ventilation system.
A healthy home with ventilation
If you own a rental property or are building a new home, then there are ventilation guidelines you’ll need to abide by as part of the Healthy Homes initiative. These guidelines dictate all sort of things – the exhaust capacity needed for extractor fans in the kitchens and bathrooms, the ratio of doors and windows needed in each room, and the types of ventilation needed in every single room. It’ll depend on your home and the size of each room. Read more about the guidelines here.
Ventilation and a pre purchase property inspection
Before purchasing any property, you’ll want to make sure it’s sufficiently ventilated to save you any health problems or structural challenges in the future. While I’m not a specific Healthy Homes inspector, ventilation is one of the big things I check for when conducting a pre purchase property inspection. A badly ventilated home is immediately a red flag.
So do what you can in your current home to keep the air nice and clean. And when it comes to looking for your next property, keep ventilation at the top of your mind and get the help of a property inspector to check it before signing on the dotted line.
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