Offering Civil Servant's Discount on Home Inspection Services

How to Improve Ventilation in Your Home

House Pro Home Inspection Inc.   |  

Rows of open windows

Living in a stuffy, poorly ventilated home is not a fun experience, especially if you have allergies to certain irritants or dust! Having to dread coming back home every day is not something anyone should do. However, so long as you learn how to improve ventilation in your home, you can improve your situation!

Open up your home

Now, there are two steps to this particular piece of advice on how to improve ventilation in your home. The first and easiest is to take advantage of the natural ventilation that your home affords you when you open up all your windows and doors. Do not discount the effectiveness of this, since if your home has a decent number of windows, you can perfectly air it out. The second step would require you to solve the issue of lacking windows and doors by putting them in, enabling step one! Now, be warned that this is one of the messiest and possibly most expensive remodeling projects to do in your home. If it causes more severe wall damage, it would also fall under the most expensive fixes a home inspection can uncover when trying to sell. And, of course, you have limited opportunities to air your home during winter.

Trying to improve ventilation in your home by opening windows
Sometimes, all you need is the natural ventilation of your home.

Have fans installed

Another way to improve ventilation in your home is by installing fans! Large or strategically placed ceiling fans do wonders for air circulation in a house, especially if you put them next to windows where they can encourage faster and more efficient air cycling from the outside. This can vastly improve your attempts to air out your home, but it doesn't fix the underlying problem that you can't do it when it's cold out. Another complication is that responses to ceiling fans are mixed when trying to sell your home. When staging a home, you can rearrange furniture, remove pieces in the way, and add some décor to attract buyers, But you can't precisely remove your ceiling fans, and some people absolutely loathe them.

Get an air cleaner

Air cleaners have gotten surprisingly good over the years. You can tell the difference when using a good brand! They also come with an added benefit: protection from airborne diseases. While browsing for one, there is one metric you need to pay attention to, and that's the device's Clean Air Delivery Rate, or CADR for short. The CADR of the device needs to meet and preferably exceed what is recommended for a room where you plan to use it. If you buy a weak device that can't handle the entire space efficiently, you won't notice much change in the air quality within your home. Also, know that you don't need both an HVAC system with filters and an air cleaner in the same room. Either will do a fine enough job on their own.

An air cleaner
Air cleaners can also come with beautiful scents.

Install filters

Air filters are a possible solution for your air quality problems if your home has an HVAC system. This is an AC system that also features air ducts throughout your home. And it is a helpful addition and way to improve ventilation in your home all on its own. Unfortunately, air filters are a necessary addition to the HVAC because the accumulation of dust and harmful particles within the AC devices and air ducts can quickly become discomforting or even harmful to the health of people living in the home. Regular cleaning helps, but air filters are better. Installed both on the units and the air ducts, they ensure that your home is protected and your HVAC works perfectly. However, note that the experts from 247logisticservices.com advise carefully and professionally storing any extra filters. If they get contaminated, they are useless.

An old AC
Old ACs particularly need good filters.

Put in exhaust fans

Exhaust fans, sometimes called 'extractor' fans, are another excellent way to improve ventilation in your home. However, note that these are exclusively used in kitchens and bathrooms. They are fans built directly into walls in rooms with poor natural ventilation. Most often due to few or no windows in a room that sees a lot of use causing high humidity levels. Interestingly enough, if you need to turn exhaust fans immediately due to odd smells from the sewage when browsing a property, it is one of the reasons to get a plumbing inspection before buying a new home. That is because it is a possible sign of stagnant piping, which could be because of several different issues. The exhaust fans will mitigate but never eliminate the stench in such cases.

Look into attic vents

The final way to improve ventilation in your home is by installing attic vents. Two different types of vents make up the circulation system in the attic. First, there are intake vents, typically located on the lower part of the roof, under the shingles. They allow fresh, cool air to enter your attic. Then there are the exhaust vents near the top of your roof. They release air that has heated up from the warmth of your attic. Thus carrying with it the stuffiness and foul smells of your home. Now, you might think this is a horrible addition that would ruin your home's heating. However, it's very beneficial for your efforts to regulate your home's temperature, especially during summer when it does wonders to prevent overheating in your attic. Just get a reliable and licensed home inspector to ensure they're installed correctly.

Final Comment

Try to follow our advice on how to improve ventilation in your home. We guarantee you’ll make the air in your home refreshing once more in no time! Just remember that some of the solutions on our list are much cheaper than others, so try them first!

BACK