Ep 015 - How is Your Health is Impacted by Home Maintenance

Welcome to Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, where you'll discover strategies to save money, save time, and be better organized in managing your largest financial asset and biggest expense, your home. Your hosts, John Bodrozic and Beth Dodson, who are co-founders of HomeZada, have been supporting homeowners for over 20 years. They are here to share with you their tips and suggestions, as well as interviews with industry experts, with the goal of helping you become a smarter homeowner. Now, here's your hosts, Jon and Beth.

Welcome to another fantastic edition of Be a Smarter Homeowner podcast. Today, we're going to talk about home and your health and the relationship between your health and your home and that unique relationship there. And before I turn it over to Beth, one thing we always talk about on our podcast is the importance of home maintenance. But usually there was— the reason for that is we're trying to say you need to make your home efficient and operate well and avoid fix-it costs and reduce energy costs. But home maintenance has a huge, uh, impact on whether your home is healthy.

It does.

So Elizabeth, what is a healthy home and why is that important?

So a healthy home is something that actually operates for you to remain healthy within it. And what I mean by that is, is it safe? Is it actually a home that you can be healthy within? But at the same time, does it operate perfectly and functioning? Because that is an indicator of a healthy home, and it does impact your health. But today, what I thought we'd have some fun with is Talk about the elements, air, earth, wind, and fire, and the impact it has on your home, and thus, could potentially have on your health if you're not caring for your home.

And one thing that's important, I think, is the amount of time we spend in our homes is growing.

Yes, it is.

Right?

I think we've seen statistics by other parties that talk about 80 to 90% of our times we're now spending inside of our homes.

Yes.

Obviously, with the pandemic and changes of work-life balance, a lot more people are spending time in the home. So, you really want to make sure your home is healthy for you and your family. And, like Beth said, the 4 elements of air, water, fire, and earth are great elements, but they can also be elements that can create an unhealthy home.

That is correct.

So, where do you want to focus first on those 4 themes?

I want to focus on air. Because I know that's a big interest in a lot of homeowners right now, air quality. And oftentimes, if we are not caring for our home, many times we can actually suffer from things like asthma, lung disease. We can actually get rashes or have fatigue or dizziness. And, and I apologize, I'm gonna keep looking at my notes because I have so much I want to talk about. And if you have lung problems, then it could lead to cardiovascular problems, which is heart problems. And we definitely don't want any of that to happen to any of the homeowners who are living in their homes. So there are tips that we can do and tasks that we can do to prevent or minimize this poor air quality that we have in our homes. We can't prevent— so let me just make sure it's very clear for those people who live in Fire areas. You can't prohibit fire smoke from getting into your home. You can close your windows. But what I'm referring to for air quality is the tasks that we can do that make a difference as to whether or not we can remain healthy.

Yeah, absolutely. And that your— let's face it, air gets into your house through open doors and open windows. And sometimes you have those on purpose open during the summer and spring months.

Which is also good.

And sometimes you want them closed to keep the cold air out. And, let's face it, a lot of your air recirculates depending on what your HVAC system is as well. So, the mix of where the air is in your house is coming from recirculating what's already in it as well as the air getting in either on purpose or not on purpose through the different ways that basically air gets into your home. So, you've already kind of talked about some of the health challenges that people could have as a result of— Yes.

Poor air quality.

Poor air quality. What can you do as a homeowner to minimize or minimize the bad effects and maximize the good effects of good air?

Well, one of the first things you can do is change your air filters. Change them regularly. Do not wait. Change them regularly. In fact, I think on our Facebook page, you'll be able to see a fresh, clean air filter and an ugly. Dirty filter, and there is a distinct difference. You definitely don't want that air coming back into your home. That's one of those things. One of the other things that you can do is make sure you're getting your HVAC equipment checked. You know, you hire the professionals, they'll let you know whether they're operating properly. It's really, really important. I will be a firm believer in if you get an opportunity, definitely open your windows to let fresh air in. Potentially even have plants in your house that can actually help with air. And plants are natural air filters, some of them are. And then, if you don't want to take care of plants, invest in an air filter in various rooms so that it can filter out some of the air that could cause problems like dander from pets, like dust, et cetera. But at the same time, remember, simply cleaning your home and dusting it is one of those areas where you can pick up a lot of this, and dust has a way of causing a lot of challenges, specifically for those people who may have lung or asthma-type issues.

Absolutely. And when you think about your windows, right? We open our windows in the spring and summer because we want the house to cool down and we want the fresh air coming in. But your windows have screens on them, most of them do, right?

Yes, definitely.

And those screens over the wintertime and even in the summer, get built up with dirt and dust, right? So here's a maintenance tip, right? You need to clean your exterior screens and windows at least once or twice a year, because if you open the windows and all your screens are dirty and then air starts blowing in, guess what? You're blowing in all those particles into your house because your screens are super dirty. Something that a lot of people just don't even think about.

You know, and in addition to that, you know, simply, especially if you have pets, because I know a lot of people picked up more pets and more family members during the pandemic. Make sure you're vacuuming regularly as well. It's really important. So we gave you some maintenance tips. We gave you some—

I have more.

Oh, you have more tips?

I do.

Oh, go ahead.

I have 2 more. Oh, let's do this. One is caulking and weatherstripping around your windows and doors.

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

Right? This goes back to the, for temperature reasons, you don't want cold air to escape and hot air to, you know, either escape depending on what time of season it is. So Under and around your doors and windows. You wanna make sure that you're not allowing air to come in because that's also another source of particles and others to come in. And another very, um, not frequently done, but it really depends on the age of the house, right? If you have a central HVAC system, you have ducts that carry hot and cold air to all the rooms.

That's right.

Um, not something that's a DIY task, but there are a lot of HVAC services where you can actually clean the inside of your ducts.

Yes, exactly.

So just think about, you know, a home that's 40, 50 years old, it's got 40 or 50-year-old ducts, it may also have accumulated dust and dirt in there, and you can actually go in and clean that as well. Huge impact on air quality inside your house.

Those are great tips. So some of these tips that we just brought up, you can simply do yourself. They may take you 10, 15 minutes, maybe take you a little bit longer depending on the size of your house and the quantity of, for instance, air filters you may have, Or you can hire out for them. And, but nothing too challenging at all.

I have one more if you'd like.

You're gonna add another one, all right.

I am. Carbon monoxide detector.

Yes. Oh my gosh. Huge, huge, huge ones.

Right? That's kind of a safety issue, right?

Yes, definitely.

And let's face it, carbon monoxide is a gas that may leak into your house if you have gas appliances. You can't smell it.

That's correct. And—

You can't detect it with the nose, and it's very dangerous. People have—

Oh, it's deadly.

Died. Yeah, deadly from carbon monoxide. So you need to install carbon monoxide detectors or—

And check the battery regularly.

And check them to make sure that that's actually in place.

Yes, that, that's a huge one. So not only does that impact the air quality, but it actually is the ultimate safety mechanism within your house.

Absolutely. So, sorry, I've taken you off track. I know you wanted to get back to the elements. What element do you want to talk about next?

I want to talk about water next.

Water?

Because water is one of those things that, um, it can just do a lot of damage to a home, and it could cause problems for people.

And— I thought it was the source of all life.

It is. It is.

We need water.

It's good and bad. So, water is like one of these beautiful things, but it also can be very deadly in some cases. For instance, if you're surfing in a— surfing, if you're not an experienced surfer like me, that's not a good idea. But water can cause some serious problems in your home. If you have rains and you have gutters that are clogged or grading that is too close to your house and it's running into your house, then all of a sudden water can build up And get absorbed within your house. And what we mean by that is, um, you could actually end up having areas or cracks within your foundation, within your walls. You could have water coming in through your attic, which can then go downstream. And then of course, this could all— moisture build up and you get mold. And mold is not pleasant at all. It can actually make you extremely sick. You can develop all kinds of challenging situations because of mold, and that could be everything from skin irritation to respiratory situations to cardiac situations. But here's the biggest thing is it could also cause you severe challenges and potentially death as well. So you want to make sure that you're doing your best to take on tasks to make sure that mold and other types of water is not getting into your home so that it can cause more problems. Do you see any other problems that water could cause to the human body?

Yes, because there's two— conceptually, there's two concepts to water. One, you're talking about avoiding water getting into your house unnecessarily.

That's correct.

Through roof leaks and through other leaks, but let's face it, we use water to cook and drink.

That's correct.

So, what is the quality of the drinking water that you have? Oftentimes, some people will go to their local water district and they'll actually produce reports over whether their water is treated. And, some people will go the extra step of putting in water filtration systems to actually filter the water additionally to try and take out as many contaminants that the water may have as well. So, It's the combination of, can the drinking and cooking water that I'm using be more healthy by installing additional products and treating that? And then the flip side, which is what you talked about, which is, how do I minimize water creating damage?

That's correct.

And it's also, I was listening to you talk about water creating mold. It's sort of like the water and the air combination now.

Yeah.

It's 2 elements coming together and working in a negative way, right? Water creates moisture, Moisture that doesn't dry out can create mold. Mold creates spores. The spores get carried through the house through wind that gets blown around through your house. And now you've got, you know, 2 things going on. It's not very healthy home if you've got that.

No. And for people who live in dry areas, that's really important. But for people who live in humid areas, that's even more important. So pay attention if you live in humid areas because there's just moisture in the air to begin with.

So what are the things that the homeowner can do to prevent bad water from causing problems?

Well, I think one of the things they can do is check their grading, that it's away from their house. It's the first thing, that it rolls downward away from the house. The other thing is clean out your gutters or have a professional clean out your gutter. That's really, really important because if you're not cleaning out your gutters, then they could spill over and into your walls. Check around your home. For areas where there could potentially be leaks. If you've got a rainy season and you get the opportunity to climb into your attic, climb into your attic and check to see if there's any leaks. Also check around toilets. I'm a firm believer in sometimes toilets, because we're not paying attention to the underneath and the behind them, they could cause some problems. I also am a firm believer of checking all kinds of faucets to make sure there's not, you know, like those drips. That could occur, that could be a bigger problem in the future, or could represent a bigger problem. I also check underneath sinks because you never know if there could be water dripping from something underneath the sink, and it's really important. And then, because you brought up water for drinking, I'm also a firm believer— before you even invest in a water filtration system, you can actually have the water tested, and there's third-party water testing. sites that if you send in your water, they will test it for you, and it's a nominal fee. And I know I've done that because I wanted to test and make sure our water was, was good, and it is. And so, I think taking on some of those tasks can also help make sure that we are healthy in our homes. Anything else you have to add?

Yes.

Jon has some more.

And it has to do with the foundation of your home.

Yes.

Right? You've talked about The grading, you want rainfall to roll away from your home. But sometimes, let's face it, we have homes that are built on slopes and hillsides, and it's sometimes unavoidable. Sometimes the water table of where your home is built will cause water to potentially, during rainstorms, to accumulate under your house. Yeah, that's a good point. Now, if you live with a house with a raised foundation, what you really want to do is make sure that it doesn't accumulate there over time. And a lot of the exterior of a house, you see those little small vents.

Mm-hmm.

Right? The reason those vents are there, you want to make sure they're clear from landscaping that's preventing airflow.

That's a good point.

Because if water naturally, let's say some water does accumulate under your house, airflow through those vents will actually help evaporate that water because you don't want that standing water to remain under your house because then that creates the opportunity for all those downstream problems. And just to add one more other sort of bit, I know that a lot of homes, especially on the East Coast, they have basements.

Yes.

Right? And if you have basements, odds are you're gonna have a sump pump.

Oh yeah.

Which is, again, the water's gonna accumulate 'cause you've dug down into the ground to build a basement. And during rainstorms and rainy season, you may actually have water accumulating in and around your basement. And there's a sump pump which will have to turn on automatically, which will pump a lot of that water out depending on how your house is designed. So you wanna always make sure that your sump pump is working. Especially before rainy season, because the last thing you want is your sump pump to not working and then you end up with flooding in your basement.

Yes. And you bring up another good thing when it comes to East Coast, and we talked about it briefly— humidity. A lot of folks on the East Coast are now investing in humidifiers, dehumidifiers in their home. You want to make sure that they're also working properly, because if they're not, then that moisture will continue to accumulate in your house, and that could cause that mold and what other— what, um, other problems to occur as well. And we want to make sure that you stay healthy, and so does your family.

What's your next element on your thematic—

Fire.

Fire.

Fire.

Good and bad, right?

Yes, you need it to cook with, but fire can turn your house into rubble in a matter of minutes. And, um, more importantly, if any of your family members is in it, this is also very deadly and very damaging. Fire can cause you issues to skin because you can get burns. Fire can kill you, unfortunately.

Smoke inhalation.

Smoke inhalation can also kill you and also cause damage to your lungs and therefore your heart. And then additionally, if you have a mishap, for instance, with a gas barbecue, I had to think about it for a second, a gas barbecue outside, if you're not properly managing that, that can blow in your face and that could cause serious damage, not only to the skin, but to your entire body. And you wanna make sure that you're taking the appropriate tips to make sure you're managing around fire.

Yeah, so you brought up what I call, what's the source of potential fire starting in your house? So, you talked a little bit about the cooking and the gas, Appliances. There's also electrical fires.

Yes.

Right? You overload your electrical circuits.

Yes.

There's fires that could start from the back of your dryer that's full of lint.

Yes.

And then there's fires that can start on the outside of your house.

Yes.

I.e., let's say wildfires.

That's correct.

That come from afar. But candidly, even people that are mowing their lawn spark, you know, an empty lot next door that's got dry brush, or a car comes by and it sparks something, right? A fire could start near your house on the exterior and then it quickly gets into your house.

That's correct.

So what can you do to basically minimize fire from starting, whether it's inside your house or outside of your house, is a huge key thing to think of. And I also put it into kind of 2 categories, which is what can a homeowner do to prevent fires from starting in the first place? And then a second category we should explore is if a fire does start, And your home, what can you do to suppress it or put it out quickly? And if you can't, how do you get your family out safely?

That's correct.

Right. So there are really 3 levels of that. So do you want to focus in on any one of those?

Yeah, let's start off with how you can prevent it first. And so the first thing is preventing fires is one, making sure you are cleaning out your dryer vent. 2, and if you don't want to do it yourself, have it professionally done. 'Cause there are people that can do that. 2, if you are in your kitchen, we all have fume hoods and we talk about this a lot, but fume hoods, by cleaning them out, you are removing the grease that accumulates in them so that you can make sure this works for you. In fact, recently I actually put my fume hood components in my dishwasher. It worked, it was super easy. And then allow the dishwasher to clean it. The other thing that you can do is make sure all your connections, if you have, gas stoves or outdoor fire pits or outdoor grills, that those connections are properly cared for. And I'm not saying that you necessarily do this yourself. I'm saying you definitely hire a professional for this who's experienced in doing this, but make sure everything is connected properly. The other thing I would look at is make sure that if you have electric, I'm a firm believer in this. Please do not take a surge protector or a— I'm losing my train of thought here— a multiple-use plug and plug 20 bazillion things into it. Just don't do it. Just, it's literally reevaluate what you've got plugged in and do you really need it Because you are going to overexpose the electrical circuit and sockets, and they're just going to be overwhelmed.

Yep. 2 other things that I'd like to point out as it relates to trying to prevent fire. One is preventing exterior fire from coming into your house. So, it's trimming the trees that may be dry or dead that are near your house, branches that may be hanging over your house, right? Because you don't want a tree to catch fire And then it's much more likely that the embers fall on your roof and now your roof's on fire. Can you clean your roof with pine needles or anything else that may be dry up there that may also catch fire? So it's trying to clear as much dry brush around your home is a huge aspect of trying to prevent fire. And the other 2 things I like to point out, which most people forget, which is there are 2 specific holidays that create lots of opportunity for fires.

Yes.

One is July 4th. People like to light fireworks outside, right? Going back to the cleaning the dry brush. And the other is Christmas.

Oh yes, lights.

You have lights, you have a dry Christmas tree in the house. All those things can create sources of fire. So you really need to be really diligent around those 2 specific holidays because in the course of celebrating those holidays, we wanna make sure safety is first. How about steps that you should do to prevent fires from growing if you're home and you actually spot a fire from somewhere?

Oh, definitely. I'm a firm believer in if you're cooking, make sure you have lids on hand, mitts to cover the lids because you don't want to burn yourself. Baking soda will also put stuff out. Fire extinguishers will also be relevant. And having fire extinguishers in key areas of your home is also really important. Because you can actually access them easily. There's no sense in there being a fire upstairs somewhere— why it would happen upstairs, but no sense— if your one fire extinguisher is all the way downstairs. So have fire extinguishers in those potentially— potential areas that are going to cause fires, like kitchens and laundry rooms, but also in other areas just to be on the safe side.

Smoke detectors, obviously, is a natural, right? Fires could start while we're sleeping, so we need to be alerted. And it's also the, the segue is also into having an escape plan for you and your family, right? So, depending on how your house is laid out, if a fire starts and you don't have time to try and suppress it, you need to get out. Whether it's a 2-story house, you may need those retractable ladders to be able to get out from the second story out of a window. It's going through that planning process with your kids about how to get out through their windows or through multiple points depending on where a fire fire could start. That's a huge family sort of safety planning tip that I think everybody should do once or twice a year just as a quick little drill. Yeah, exactly.

We do it when we're in schools. We practice fire drills in schools, so why not?

Exactly.

On boats.

Anything else on fires that we missed, or do you want to go to your last element?

No, I think there was a lot of things we covered on fires, and if we've missed something, we'll, um, we encourage everyone to let us know, um, in the comments. But also, let's go to the last one, which is Earth. So we talked about a couple of things when it comes to earth, and this was a little bit more unique one. So John brought up trees causing potential fires. Trees to me are also associated with earth. If you've got trees that are too close to your house, then they can actually fall into your house and cause damage during major storms or just because they're getting older. And if you're in your house in those particular areas, That could be very problematic for you because it could cause massive injury to you. The other thing that I think of when it comes to earth is, um, and I apologize, I'm looking at my notes because I really have all these different things, is understanding the actual slope of your house, which we talked briefly about, understanding whether you live in mudslide areas, which I've never lived in a mudslide area, but I'd like John to talk more about that a little bit. Some people live in earthquakes areas, not everybody, which I've also never experienced. So John can talk about that because he's experienced those. But also, when I look at earth, I also look at rodents or insects. Insects could actually do severe damage to your home and to ultimately the health of the family. I mean, if you get too much Water damage. They can bring in termites, which are earthbound a bit. Moles and voles can come in and destroy your landscaping, which could cause problems for you because things could dry out and they could then turn into spark a fire. And then you could actually have soil contamination if someone were to dump something unexpectedly. Let's say you have chemicals you've been working with. And you accidentally dump them near your home, that's just not a good thing.

Absolutely not. Definitely don't want to do that.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, think of other things.

Um, I mean, you could talk to earthquakes and, and mudslides more than I could.

Well, just maybe expand upon what you talked about with the slope of the house, right? I mean, let's face it, a lot of homes are basically built on a flat lot, but a lot of homes in various places are built on hills, and you may have an upslope in the house or a downslope. Or a house that where your lot slopes from left to right, or a mixture of all those things.

Yes.

So a lot of those homes, right, are probably more susceptible to soil erosion and foundation damage, right? Because storms create wet soils and then your foundation could, you know, impact your foundation. A lot of those homes have retaining walls, right? And those retaining walls are designed to prevent Earth from sliding. But a lot of those retaining walls need to be built with drainage behind them.

Yes.

So, you probably don't know this if you already bought a home with a retaining wall, but you want to make sure that that retaining wall is being held in place. So, you need to monitor it, that it was installed correctly with some drainage around there. So, it's really trying to pay attention to homes that are built on various slopes to essentially watch, you know, all the sort of elements that are designed to keep the home where it currently is in its foundation and making sure that the elements of, you know, primarily water may not damage the soil around your house that may impact the foundation.

Yeah, it's one of the tips that I suggest everyone do. And that reminds me, it makes me want to go out and go inspect my retaining walls right now. So, because I'm a firm believer, that's one of the tips that I would suggest to everybody is go around your house and And inspect your grading, your slopes, your retaining walls, your irrigation. I'm a firm believer in doing that all the time.

Yeah, a key tip is if the if the rate if the wall is getting soaked with water, the water could be seeping through the walls, which means it may not be draining enough behind the walls. That's kind of a key thing. The other point, which was a great point, which is also a huge tip for everybody, which is pest control.

Oh yes, right?

The whole termites, ants, all you know sort of all the different pests that can have all kinds of pests.

I got rattlesnakes, I've got rodents.

Right, but I'm talking about the ones that are earthbound ones.

I know. They could impact your house, huh?

We could have a whole other episode about wildlife animals that could impact your house. Maybe we have one of those.

That would be good.

Let's talk about Beth's relationships with squirrels.

Yes.

Anyway, any other final tips on sort of maintenance on what to do to sort of on the earth aspect of taking care of the damage to your house?

No, I think it's just making sure people understand that their trees are trimmed back, their shrubs are trimmed back, that they are checking their walls, they are checking their drainage, they are also checking around their house. It's really important to understand if this earth comes in your house, like we talked about with air quality. So, it's really important to make sure that you are cleaning your screens and other areas of your house. If you do have dirt, in your backyard because you— or in somewhere in your house because you haven't had the opportunity to do your landscaping yet, that's also important to pay closer attention to the dust and the dirt that will get in your house. And you may have to have more cleaning more frequently if you're going to open your windows regularly.

Great. My, uh, my closeout for today's show is, um, I know that during the show we kind of pulled up a couple of sites. I know that, um, federal government has a Housing and Urban Development, and we'll put those in the show notes that kind of talks even more in depth about all these different things about maintaining a healthy home. And my last closeout is almost the action item of the importance of creating a maintenance schedule or a maintenance calendar to remind you of these things. And I know we've talked a lot, a lot, and it may feel like it's overwhelming, but kind of keying on what you said at the beginning, a lot of these tasks are like 5, 10-minute tasks. Yeah, they're It's just remembering to do them is the important part. It's if you forget to do them, then you're living in an unhealthy, unsafe home. And even the other tasks, they may only be half-hour or 45-minute tasks, maybe once a weekend, a month. It really goes back to that importance of having that, you know, maintenance calendar to remind you of these things. Because let's face it, we're always going to forget to do some of these things. Let's use technology to remind us of those things.

I'm a firm believer in that, and I'm with John on this. These tests are really simple. Um, we want you to be as healthy as you can and to have your family be as healthy as you can living within your house. And now that we're spending more time in our house, we wanna make sure that we're providing the information of what could happen if your house isn't healthy enough for you. And we wanna avoid any of those issues because they can be severe and they can be deadly, and we wanna make sure we avoid that. But, um, any closing thoughts?

Nope. Over to you.

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