 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Submetering for Condos Newsletter - Issue #1Indoor Air Pollution — An Invisible Danger in CondosWhen you get right down to it, we all want the same thing from our homes - a healthy, safe place to live. In a condominium, it often falls to the condo board to deliver on the promise of health and safety. Security guards are hired to protect from intruders, and maintenance staff repair damages to the property. But what does a condo board do about an invisible danger like indoor air pollution? Studies show that indoor air pollution levels can be two to five times higher than those found outside, and that most people spend 90 per cent of their time indoors. In fact, experts recognize indoor air pollution as a serious contributor to respiratory disease, including lung cancer. Today's houses, condos and office buildings are built to be energy efficient. In order to avoid heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer, they hold air inside. This type of tight construction doesn't allow the building to breathe, and affects air quality. During fall and winter months, when the windows are tightly shut and less fresh air can circulate, the risk is even greater. How can you tell there's a problem? Just because a condo is clean and orderly doesn't mean there isn't a problem with air quality. Most indoor air pollutants are hard to detect because they are invisible to the naked eye and odorless. But if condo owners start complaining about the following symptoms, you may want to have a thorough air quality test performed:
Top indoor air pollutants in condos Condo residents are vulnerable to all sorts of indoor air pollutants. But according to Frank Haverkate, a certified environmental inspector and president of Haverkate and Associates Inc., dust and mould are the top pollutants to look out for. "Usually we don't have ventilation issues in the newer buildings because the HVAC systems are well designed," says Haverkate. "However, what we're seeing in the individual units is a duct issue. Either the residents' in-suite HVAC system does not have a sufficient furnace filter or duct filter, or it has none at all. They really don't have the mechanism to get the dust particles and other particles out of the air." Haverkate says mould is also a big problem, especially when cooling coils and evaporator trays on air conditioners and heaters don't drain properly. The first step to take, says Haverkate, is to avoid making the problem worse. We see a lot of cases where condo boards have ordinary building maintenance clean up the mould growth. And that's when health complaints really start coming in from individual condo unit owners. Because now they're aerosolizing the mould spores and causing a bigger problem. You have to know what you're doing and you also have to have the right equipment. You need properly filtered vacuum cleaners, and air scrubbers. Otherwise, you're almost better off leaving it alone." Calling in a professional to take care of the problem is the next step, but that can be expensive. Just to get an air quality assessment, which looks for everything but mould, costs anywhere from $400 to $700. A mould assessment, which requires lab sampling, costs between $1300 to $1500. And if a problem is found, the cost rises even higher. The solution? "Maintenance is key," says Haverkate. "Condos really need to have duct cleaning done. They need to have those condensate pans inspected regularly to make sure that they're draining properly, not seeping into the insulation. And if leaking does occur, then they should deal with it properly." By making an initial investment in maintaining a building before problems develop, condo boards and individual owners will end up saving a lot of money and avoid trouble in the long run. |
 |
