Buying a house is a major investment for any family. When you are considering the purchase of a home, you may want to consider doing air quality testing before you make your sale. When you hire a home inspector in San Francisco to do air quality testing when you buy a house, you can rest assured that your indoor air will be safe and healthy to breathe. An indoor air quality test can reveal any asbestos, lead paint, or mold in your house. Read on for a look at the importance of air quality testing when you are buying a home.

Determine Pollutant Sources

With air quality testing for your new home, you can determine any potential pollutant sources that may be affecting your indoor air. Some of the most common sources of indoor air pollution include mold, asbestos, and certain types of chemicals. With a thorough indoor air quality test, you can determine whether the house that you are thinking of buying could pose a health or safety threat to you and your loved ones.

Check for Proper Ventilation

An air quality inspection will also reveal any ventilation issues that may be affecting the house. Over the years and seasons, a home’s HVAC ductwork may become clogged with dirt, dust, and other forms of debris. By scheduling an air quality inspection before you decide to buy a home, you can determine whether the HVAC system is in proper condition for your use.

Provide Peace of Mind

Overall, an indoor air quality inspection is important because it will provide you with total peace of mind leading up to your purchase. By taking the time to have an inspector come to your home and evaluate the quality of your indoor air, you can rest assured that your household will provide a healthy and safe environment for you and your loved ones. If you are planning on purchasing a home in the near future, be sure to set up an indoor air quality inspection with a remediation company in your area.

If you are embarking on a home renovation project in San Francisco this summer, you may want to consider hiring a renovation contractor. With the help of your renovation contractor , you can update your living spaces so that they are perfect for your needs. In order to perform a healthier home renovation, it is a good idea to talk to your renovation contractor about whether you should schedule an air quality test before you embark on your remodeling procedure. Here is a closer look at how construction materials can affect your indoor air quality.

VOCs

The term VOCs stands for Volatile Organic Compounds. When you are performing a renovation project in your home, VOCs can be released into your indoor air. VOCs are dangerous because they can aggravate asthma, allergies, and other respiratory issues. When a person who has asthma inhales VOCs, his or her symptoms may be flared up intensely. To ensure that your loved ones are safe during a renovation project, it is important to make sure that any VOCs are removed from your indoor air.

Asbestos

Asbestos is another serious concern when you are planning a home renovation project. If your home was built in the 1970s or before, there is a chance that your home’s building materials may contain asbestos. Exposure to asbestos has been linked to a number of very serious health concerns, including lung cancer and asbestosis. In order to protect your family from the dangers of asbestos, you may want to consider scheduling an asbestos inspection for your home.

Lead Paint

Lead paint is another construction material that can greatly affect the indoor air quality of your home. Lead poisoning is a serious health condition that is especially dangerous for children. During a home renovation project, your contractor could unearth lead paint in your home. For this reason, you should make sure to schedule an indoor air quality test before you get started on your renovation project.

Does your home need mold testing or to be inspected for asbestos and lead paint in San Francisco? Your indoor air quality depends on your home being free of these harmful materials, and can also be affected by airborne particles, gasses, chemicals, moisture level, and temperatures.

Poor indoor air quality can affect the health of you and your family. Mold can contribute to allergy and asthma symptoms, and asbestos exposure can lead to lethal cancers. The air quality in your home also affects the structure of your home and its value. High moisture levels can promote the growth of mold and bacteria, as well as invite wood-damaging pests into your home.

If you’re concerned about the air quality in your home, call a professional mold testing company today. Safe Air Fast provides high-quality inspection services for testing your home or office for lead, asbestos, mold, and bacteria. We offer the best testing quality in the industry.

Asbestos exposure can cause serious, long-term health problems, so it’s important for your home to undergo professional asbestos testing in San Francisco if you exhibit asbestos symptoms. Only an expert in environmental and indoor air quality testing should perform asbestos testing. Here’s a look at the basic steps of preparing for and undergoing asbestos testing.

Identify a Risk of Asbestos Exposure
If you or anyone else in your household exhibits signs of asbestos exposure, or common asbestos symptoms, you’ll need professional asbestos testing in your home. If your home was constructed between 1920 and 1989, it may have been built with building materials that contain asbestos. These building materials include walls, flooring, pipes, textured paints, insulation, fireproofing materials, and electric wiring. When construction materials that contain asbestos begin to break down, the asbestos will become airborne, resulting in increasingly serious asbestos symptoms if the fibers are inhaled.

Hire an EPA-Approved Asbestos Tester
If you’ve identified areas of your home that put you at risk for asbestos exposure, such as disintegrating pipes, insulation, walls, tiles, or vinyl flooring, you must hire an EPA-approved asbestos tester. A professional asbestos tester is trained and licensed in safely handling and analyzing asbestos particles according to EPA regulations. Your asbestos tester will provide samples to an EPA-certified lab for analysis. You’ll then be informed as to whether you and your family are at risk for asbestos exposure.

Be Aware of the Asbestos Testing Procedure
EPA-certified asbestos contractors follow very strict procedures when performing asbestos testing. This procedure ensures safety, minimizes the risk of asbestos exposure, and ensures consistency in acquiring asbestos testing results. Anyone at risk of asbestos exposure must wear protective gear when in the room. The room is protected with plastic sheeting, and the area is sprayed with water to prevent airborne asbestos particles. Small samples of material are placed in an airtight container for testing. The sample area is contained to prevent asbestos particles from spreading. The protective gear that is contaminated by asbestos is placed in a sealed container and disposed of according to EPA regulations.

Your home is a place that you and your family should feel comfortable and safe in. If you’re in the market to purchase a new home, or if you’ve lived in your current house for years without knowing what’s on or behind its walls, consider hiring a professional to administer an asbestos, lead paint, or mold test in San Francisco as soon as possible. Older homes, especially those built before the 1970s, tend to have evidence of these toxic agents.

There are real dangers associated with waiting to test your home. Prolonged asbestos exposure can lead to serious health problems such as lung disease and mesothelioma. Dust from deteriorating lead paint can circulate throughout your home, and may end up in your lungs or in your drinking water—children and pregnant women are particularly susceptible to lead poisoning. Mold infestations, especially black mold infestations, can cause a whole host of health problems ranging from being benign to being potentially fatal. Symptoms of mold exposure include watery eyes, itching, sneezing, cough, asthma, fatigue, and brain and nerve damage.

If an environmental test reveals that your home or business contains asbestos, lead, or mold, you will need to hire licensed abatement or remediation professionals to remove the threat. But after the cleanup service is complete, it’s important to get one more round of environmental testing to ensure that the remediation or abatement contractor was successful and that the threat was completely eliminated from your home or business. If post-cleanup asbestos testing , mold testing, or lead testing reveals that the contractor was unsuccessful, you will have more leverage in requesting that the contractor come back and retreat the affected area.

In San Francisco, Safe Air Fast is the environmental testing company you can count on for post-cleanup clearance testing. Safe Air Fast provides asbestos, lead, and mold testing services for homeowners and businesses throughout the Bay Area. Call (916) 459-1069 to schedule environmental testing with Safe Air Fast of San Francisco today.

You take lots of different steps to protect your health and the health of your family, but did you know that one of the biggest health threats might be the air inside of your home? According to the EPA, the average indoor environment is up to five times more toxic than outside air, and in some cases indoor air pollution has been found to be 100 times worse. Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to improve the air quality inside your home and protect your family from the negative health effects of indoor air pollution.

Get Your Home Tested
First and foremost, you should know just how bad the air quality is inside your home. Air testing services in San Francisco can test your indoor air quality so you know exactly what type of contaminants and pollutants you need to eliminate or get under control. Testing services can also detect the presence of dangerous particles such as mold, asbestos, and lead.

Ensure Proper Ventilation
One of the best things you can to do in order to improve your home’s indoor air quality is ensure that your home is properly ventilated . For example, make sure that all fuel-burning appliances are vented to the outside well away from windows and HVAC intakes to eliminate breathing in toxic combustion fumes. When weather permits, open doors and windows to air out your home with fresh air.

Minimize Chemical Pollutants
Some of the leading contributors of indoor air pollution are the chemicals people use every day. To improve the air quality inside your home, minimize the use of harsh cleaning chemicals and most all aerosol sprays. You should also look for low-emitting products that have been certified and labeled by reputable organizations such as Green Seal. Manufacturer claims of “no VOC” or “eco-friendly” should be inspected and verified before you use said product in your home.

You may not usually give much thought to the air you breathe inside your home, but there are pollutants that could be harming you and your family without you even knowing it. Homes built before 1983 could have asbestos, which can lead to difficulty breathing, lung scarring, and cancer. Lead paint was used widely in residential homes before 1978, and lead is toxic to both humans and animals. Symptoms of mold exposure in San Francisco include allergies, sore throats, memory loss, and other serious issues. Instead of putting your health at risk, hire a company that performs just air quality inspections. In addition to having the expertise to get the job done right, this type of company will have no conflict of interest, as they will have nothing to gain from altering your results. Check out this infographic to learn more about hiring an air quality inspection company. Please share with your friends and neighbors.