Join us on August 8, 2024, at 4 PM EST when Rick offers a live, one-hour webinar, “Sick House? Get Expert Advice About Where To Begin.” Admission free; registration required. Do you or others in your home have symptoms that seem to evaporate when you leave? Then it’s likely your home is causing those symptoms. […]
Squirrels in the Attic? Your Home Health and Safety May Be at Risk
Squirrels driving you nuts? If these enchanting little rodents have moved in overhead to shelter from winter weather, respond quickly. Your home’s healthiness and safety may be at stake. Squirrel problems are nothing to take lightly. Those cute little critters can chew through shingles, roof tiles, and wooden support beams. Also, they cause serious damage […]
Common Scents: Artificial Seasonal Aromas May Worsen Indoor Air Quality
Nothing says holiday like the scents of the season, don’t you think? But too often, today’s seasonal aromas are not those found in nature. Instead, they’re made up of chemically derived ingredients that can be harmful to indoor air quality and our health. We all love the comforting, warming aromas of pumpkin spice, apple pie. […]
Four Easy Ways to Get Lice Out of Your Family’s House – Fast!
As school rings in across western North Carolina, teachers, students and families look forward to a host of new, shared experiences. With the coming of fall, furry caps and wooly coats comes the inevitable gift of togetherness: head lice. Oh, my! My skin starts to crawl just thinking about head lice. Doubtless, an itch or […]
Got Ants? Make Them A Partner In Your Home Healthiness Investigation.
Ants can be a problem in your home. But they can also point the way to hidden healthiness challenges. When you were a kid, did you ever wonder why those ants were marching one by one? As a home healthiness examiner, I have learned a surprising truth! Those pesky ants are actually our friends, yours […]
Can You Overseal Your House?
Home Ventilation Should Balance Indoor Air Quality with Environmental Conditions In Western North Carolina, specific environmental conditions impact air quality, which can affect your family’s healthiness at home. These conditions – common to the southern Appalachians – include: Left unchecked, these environmental conditions can make your house – and its inhabitants – sick, complicating respiratory […]
Saint Nick’s Winter Healthiness Checklist
Whether Santa slides down the chimney at your house or lets himself in with a magic key, there’s more to getting ready for his visit than setting out the milk and cookies. A couple of weeks back, I got an email from an old friend. Let’s call him Nicholas. Last Christmas, it took him quite […]
Mold Growth Is Western North Carolina’s “Quiet Ecological Disaster” of Devastating Proportions
Consistently high dew points and weeks of warm temperatures result in a regional increase of indoor mold growth, worsening health conditions, and rising costs into the tens of millions. That’s why I think it’s fair to assert that Western North Carolina is in the middle of a quiet ecological disaster of devastating proportions. Right now, […]
WNC’s Older Homes Offer Charm, Craftsmanship – and Potential Healthiness Challenges
If you’re looking for charm and craftsmanship, our region’s older homes check all the boxes. From century-old log cabins sitting on a ridge to Craftsman cottages in streetcar neighborhoods, the southern Appalachian mountains have no lack of unique, one-of-a-kind homes. In fact, 40% of the United States’ 137 million homes were built before 1969, which […]
Chronic Allergies? Cockroaches Should Be On the List of Culprits
If you’re a hunter kitty, that fast moving, flying American cockroach, known as a “palmetto bug,” or its smaller, particularly invasive German cousin sure looks like fun. But what you and I know that kitty does not is that cockroaches are not only not fun, they’re also not healthy. In western North Carolina, allergens such […]