As a landlord, you are not present 24/7 to witness how your residential tenants live their daily lives.
You are not there to witness what they eat, whether or not they smoke, if they burn candles or spritz air fresheners, or what they use to clean with.
So when a tenant calls to complain about indoor allergies or claims your rental property is making them “sick,” you may not know where that fine line is between taking them at their word and doing indoor air quality further research.
The good news is, Clean Air Solutions Hamilton can help you navigate through this process and determine whether there is something inside your rental property that is adversely impacting the health of your tenants.
Possible Causes of Tenant Health Symptoms
A number of possible issues could potentially cause rental tenants to experience health symptoms while occupying one of your rental properties.
The most common causes include indoor pollutants, airborne toxins, household mould or mildew, and unidentified leaks (e.g., radon, carbon monoxide).
The best way to find out what may be causing the health complaints is to schedule an indoor air quality test. This silent and unobtrusive 72-hour test uses a small monitoring device that runs continuously over the 3-day testing period.
During this time, the device will record toxin levels across a range of known airborne pollutants. When the test concludes, the device will generate a detailed analysis in the form of a printout that identifies potential hazards.
Your Clean Air Solutions Hamilton indoor air quality advisor will then review the test results with you and recommend options and action steps. In nearly all cases, there are multiple options available to resolve indoor air quality concerns that can fit any budget and space.
Professional Air Duct Cleaning Can Take the Toxins Outside
It can be frustrating to find out the air in your home or one of your rental properties is of poor quality. It can also be scary, because that very same toxic air can potentially impact your health or expose you to liability if your tenants seek legal counsel.
The truth is, research today proves that the air quality in the average home or workplace is two to five times worse than the surrounding outside air. There are several reasons for this increasing toxicity, including lack of proper air circulation and ventilation.
But an even bigger contributing factor is dirty air ducts. In most homes and businesses, the indoor air duct system (the same system you rely on to transport temperature controlled air to all the rooms in the space) has never been cleaned since the date it was first installed.
A similar analogy might be if you drove your car for hundreds of thousands of miles but never changed the air filters or the oil. Can you imagine how dirty and toxic your car would become?
Unfortunately, your indoor air duct system doesn’t come programmed with a handy reminder system to tell you when the air ducts are filled up with dust and debris and need to be cleaned and sanitized.
Plus, since you can’t see the air ducts, it is easy to forget they are even there, let alone that they need occasional cleaning and maintenance to function the way they were designed to work!
With a professional indoor air duct cleaning service, all of that toxic debris, including pet dander, dust mites, mould and mildew spores, pollen, volatile organic chemicals, pesticide residue, insect and rodent debris, and more get vacuumed out of the air ducts and transported securely away from your location.
The air ducts are then sanitized and deodorized. This is like hitting the “reset” button on your indoor air quality setting—the effect is not unlike getting a whole new squeaky clean air duct system!
While it typically isn’t necessary to run a second indoor air quality test to confirm the results, if you were to do so, you would discover that the test results are quite different—and much cleaner and safer, too.
HEPA and U.V. Indoor Air Quality Supports
For new construction or spaces that have recently had the indoor air ducts cleaned and serviced, we recommend installing one of two air quality supports to maintain the cleanliness of your indoor air:
- HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filtration system. This system works to trap even very tiny airborne particulate toxins to remove them from your indoor air supply.
- Ultraviolet (U.V.) purification system. This system works to neutralize airborne particulate toxins before they can enter your indoor air supply.
You can use these indoor air quality supports on their own or together to keep your indoor air clean and pure in any size space.
Right now, during our Breathe Clean Air event, you can save 20 percent off any of our whole home indoor air quality equipment, including whole home HEPA filters, whole home U.V. filters, heat recovery ventilators, and whole home humidification systems.
Carbon Monoxide and Radon Detectors
Some spaces are more vulnerable to toxic levels of carbon monoxide and radon, each of which is a potent, odorless, colorless airborne gas that carries potentially deadly health impacts.
Radon is emitted from the surrounding land. It is a major cause of lung cancer today.
Carbon monoxide is emitted from stoves, vehicles, generators, air conditioners, heaters, and similar appliances and devices. It earns its nickname “the invisible killer” honestly.
Luckily, you can install a pair of detectors that will alert you if levels of carbon monoxide or radon increase to toxic levels inside your space.
Give Us a Call
Here at Clean Air Solutions Hamilton, we are proud to be part of the solution to ever-worsening indoor air quality in Canadian homes and businesses.
Give us a call at 905-544-2470 to find out how we can help you improve the quality of the air you breathe at home and at work!
