Indoor Air Quality – What to Do about Humidity While Away on Vacation | New York, NY

Posted by Andre & Erika Lacroix on
Chicago, IL | EZ Breathe

Indoor Air Quality – What to Do about Humidity While Away on Vacation | New York, NY

Finally, it’s time for the vacation that you have been planning for several months. You can finally put your feet up and relax for a few days or even weeks. Everything is booked, packed and ready to go. But wait, are you really ready for your vacation?

The prospect of getting away from it all can be really exciting. Preparing for your vacation can be exciting too. You get to plan where you’ll go and what you’ll do. However, you shouldn’t forget what you leave behind.

No one wants to come home to a mold infested home. But many homeowners forget about protecting their home from humidity and water damage for the period of their vacation. Many come back home to find that things aren’t as great as they left them.

The following tips will help you deal with indoor humidity and ensure indoor air quality while you’re away.

 

Chicago, IL | EZ Breathe

  1. Have your home inspected

Want to know what to look for in order to ensure good indoor air quality? Have your home inspected. This will help you identify areas in your home that are contributing to the high levels of humidity. Your inspector will also provide you with guidance on the best way to tackle these problems.

  1. Have your plumbing fixed

Do you have leaky plumbing? Are there faucets in your home that are dripping? Get a professional plumber in to ensure that these leaks are fixed. This will ensure that there are no puddles to contribute to the humidity levels in your home.

  1. Invest in a dehumidifier

If you haven’t already, ensure that you invest in a dehumidifier. Be sure to purchase one that can be set to automatically turn on when the humidity levels are too high and off when they have reached the optimum range. You can leave this humidifier running while you are away.

  1. Let your dehumidifier drain directly into the drain

Dehumidifiers are designed to turn off when their trays are full of water. This protects your home from flooding and the dehumidifier from water damage. You then have to empty the tray for the dehumidifier to continue operating.

However, you won’t be around to empty the tray while you’re on vacation. You can ensure that the dehumidifier continues operating by simply allowing it to drain into the main drain.

Apply these tips to your home so you can enjoy a worry free vacation and come back to a home to find good indoor air quality.

 

Written by Andre & Erika Lacroix

We are a 2nd generation family owned and operated business that has been working in homes with basements and crawl spaces for over 40 years.  We have been waterproofing and sealing about 500 foundations a month during that time as the largest Waterproofing contractor in the Midwest with 15 locations servicing 8 states.

20 years ago we would seal a foundation and recommend a standard dehumidifier to address the additional water vapor (humidity in the air) inherently found in below grade environments, such as basements and crawlspaces.  Back then, dehumidifiers were the industry standard to help with this problem. However, many of our customers were looking to us as the “foundation expert”, asking…

“What else do you have? I really am not getting results with this messy, expensive dehumidifier. My foundation is dry, walls are dry, floor is dry, so why does it still smell and feel like a basement?” 

We needed to find something better. Our company’s core values include offering world class customer service to every customer, every time.   So, we challenged our Research and Development department to find a real solution for our customers to combat not only the moisture, but also the odors, pollutants and unhealthy environment our customers were concerned about. We found, tested and installed a ventilation product for a period of three years. We private labeled that product as the EZ Breathe Ventilation System. The feedback in those first three years from our customers, as well as our installation crews, did not live up to the standard of quality to be included in our waterproofing process that offered a life time warranty. Once again, we needed something better.

We valued not only the results, but what we were learning from our customers. So, we went back to the drawing board, took matters into our own hands and made quality improvements to that first generation ventilation unit.

Our own EZ Breathe Ventilation System was born…reengineered, redesigned and much improved! We quickly learned that our crews were thrilled with the quality improvements, ease of operation and installation, but more importantly, our waterproofing customers loved the new, improved EZ Breathe unit as well.

Their feedback told us the air in their basements and crawlspaces felt better, but their entire home was benefiting from their EZ Breathe as well. We received countless letters thanking us because their whole house felt different, less odors, fresher air upstairs too, family members were feeling better, needing less allergy medicine, husbands were no longer snoring, children were no longer coughing as much, the home and it’s family were living healthier lives!

It was time for us to move beyond simply offering this innovative technology to just our waterproofing customers. Our passion and commitment to helping people improve their indoor air environments is what drove us to incorporate EZ Breathe Ventilation Systems as an independent company in 2003. We strongly believe that homeowners everywhere deserve a healthy indoor air quality.

We have spent the last 20 years dedicated to learning about the relationship between our home and our health; indoor air quality, the home as a system, building science and how it relates to indoor air quality as well as the challenges our modern day practices pose to the quality of air we breathe in our homes.