Healing Your South Kansas City Home After the Holidays

Healing Your South Kansas City Home After the Holidays

Once the holidays are finally wrapped up and the visitors have all gone home, your home deserves a bit of attention. While spring cleaning isn’t for another few months, it’s still important to focus on maintaining a healthy house so you can start the new year in a safe and relaxing environment. Luckily, one of the most important areas to prioritize is also one of the easiest to stay on top of.

The indoor air quality of your house contributes significantly to the comfort and health of the home. Poor indoor air quality has the potential to increase health risks; in fact, one of the first ways homeowners notice a problem is when they wake up with allergy-like symptoms that are gone after an hour or two. Our industry experts at Koala Insulation of South Kansas City have a few ways you and your household can easily improve the air quality inside your home.

4 Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality

Dust & Grime

One of the most simple ways to improve air quality is by regularly dusting. This helps to remove the pollutants that stick to surfaces and prevent respiratory irritation. Not only does this help improve indoor air quality, but it's incredibly important to consider if someone in your household has a respiratory issue like asthma or severe allergies. Dust contains dead skin fibers, fungi, bacteria, and more microscopic mysteries that can be potentially harmful.

Some experts recommend dusting easy-to-reach areas once a month and harder-to-reach areas every three to six months. It's important to ensure you're not just redistributing dust, though; prevent this by wiping from top to bottom in the same direction and using clean supplies like a microfiber cloth. Once you've finished with the surfaces around your home, wrap up with a thorough vacuuming to collect fallen fibers, stray hair like pet dander, dirt, and sand.

Air Filters

The air filters in your home are a crucial part of improving your air quality; regardless of whether you're a first-time homebuyer or an experienced homeowner, you're probably familiar with the need to regularly switch these out for your AC's sake. However, only about 18% of Americans make it a regular habit. Experts recommend changing the air filters in your home between one and three months, which will depend on the system you have. It’s important to note, though, that many other resources encourage trying to change them every month.

The purpose of air filters is to collect allergens like dust, pollen, and other outside irritators that make their way into your home. When neglected, the dirty air filter can lead to these allergens lingering in the air system. This circulates the pollutants back through your home, increasing health risks. A clogged air filter could also be contributing to higher maintenance costs; not only could it be raising your energy bill, but dirty air filters can lead to significant damage to the HVAC system.

Fireplaces

It is crucial to make sure that you have a clean fireplace to maintain a healthy home. Making sure that your fireplace is properly cleaned can help prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, chimney fires, and smoke build-up while also increasing the overall efficiency of your fireplace. Even if you don't regularly use the system, it's important to regularly maintain the area just in case you decide to prepare roasting chestnuts over an open fire this year!

The Chimney Safety Institute of America has great resources to help you better understand routine inspections and chimney health. This can not only protect your home from potential fire damage, but it can also reduce health risks caused by clogged chimney chutes and drafty openings. Based on three levels of fireplace inspection, the Chimney Safety Institute explains in this article what you should expect, how to prepare, and what a proper inspection should cover.

Insulation

Having an incorrectly insulated home can contribute to many common problems but about 90% of U.S homes are either poorly insulated or underinsulated. Insulation contributes to a temperature-regulated space, helping reduce the stress on your HVAC system to maintain the desired temperature and contributing to lower energy bills. During the wintertime, the insulation throughout your walls, floors, and attic space also contributes to keeping the heat inside of your home.

When your local insulation expert comes in to evaluate the home, they're not just looking at the deterioration and age of your current insulation. They check for underinsulated or poorly covered areas, air leaks and problematic holes or cracks in the building envelope, and even potential hazards like moisture retention and mold growth on existing insulation. By scheduling an insulation upgrade, you're not only preparing for a warm winter but ensuring the integrity of your home.

Staying Healthy in South Kansas City

After the holidays, you may be looking for a well-deserved break. However, if you’re not maintaining a few minor routines around your home, you could be spending your time in an uncomfortable and unhealthy environment. Improved indoor air quality significantly decreases air pollutants, allergens, and other potential health risks for you and your household.

At Koala Insulation of South Kansas City, our team of insulation technicians focuses on increasing your home’s comfort and safety without sacrificing your time and money. We offer free evaluations to provide a breakdown of your home’s current condition in order to target deteriorated insulation and air sealing. Updated material not only improves indoor air quality but also temperature regulation, noise reduction, and energy efficiency. Contact Koala Insulation of South Kansas City to learn more about insulation’s impact on your home and schedule your free evaluation.