Air Quality
The quality of the air you breathe can directly affect your family's health. Pollutants and irritants in the air can cause asthma, allergic reactions, constant tiredness, and many more conditions. For your protection, we'll ensure that your home's ventilation equipment is working properly, and your indoor air is clean and fresh.
Our local affiliates are, or work with, certified professional mold, radon, asbestos and other air quality specialists.
With indoor air quality, there are two likely scenarios:
- There's a substance in your home that needs to be removed, such as mold, mildew or radon; and/or
- There are conditions in your home that lead to poor air quality. These may include poor ventilation in the living space, attic or crawl space, or conditions such as excessive moisture which can lead to mold that needs to be removed.
When a substance needs to be removed, that is fairly a straightforward project. Any qualified air quality specialist can accomplish this task. But the trickier part is finding out where the problem with your air quality originates. In this way, a home performance specialist is like a detective, gathering the evidence (e.g. where and how much toxic substance is present, measuring moisture levels, testing for poisonous gases and other toxic substances, which rooms are affected, etc.) and finding the source of the problem – then creating a solution that will clean up the existing problem and prevent it from happening again.
With our "whole house approach" you can be confident that we're dealing with the source of the problem, and not just putting a bandage on it. And you know that we're testing for all major sources of poor air quality, and not just the ones you can see or smell – because some harmful substances are invisible and have no odor. We are often able to find causes of poor air quality that you might not expect.
Did you know that a majority of the air you breathe in your home comes from your crawl space? Moisture and mold can create a musty smell and release toxins that can affect your family's health. Closing your crawl space keeps mold away and converts it into a semi-conditioned dry space – and saves you money on your energy bill. That's just one ventilation solution we'll explore to help keep your family healthy.
Improving your home's air quality can improve your family's short-term and long-term health, while increasing your comfort, saving energy, and improving your home's safety and durability. But the first step is to schedule an energy assessment to find out exactly what home improvement work is recommended for your home.
We were unaware of what was involved in an energy audit and your audior took the time to explain everything. We were impressed with the report which told us the areas in which we need to take action on. He never pressured us to use any particular contractors, he just suggested that we go to the Building Energy Pros web site to select contractors of our own choice. He did an excellent job and we HIGHLY recommend the Building Energy Pros. We already have recommended them to several of our neighbors. Again, EXCELLENT JOB!
Cynthia Simpson
The Building Energy Pros auditor was very knowledgeable. I was VERY HAPPY with him. He promptly E-mailed my energy audit report to me and I will consider all of his recommendations.
Tom McGee
We found out that our house really has no energy problems. We are happy to know that we
Leslie Stewart
I was very satisfied with your energy auditor. He was very qualified and spent a great deal of time with me. The energy audit was very informative.
P.B.
The energy auditor was very good and helpful. He keeps in touch with me to answer any of my questions.
D.G.
I was very satisfied with my energy audit. The auditor gave me some tips on attic insulation that were very helpful.
R.G.
I was very satisfied with my energy audit. Thank you!
R.S.
Very good service! I am going to replace the windows as the auditor had suggested.
D.W.
I was very happy with the energy audit. THANKS!
A. M.
My energy audit was very helpful. Joe Dempsey, your auditor, identified some structural problems that I was not aware of and explained to me why I need more insulation.
J. F.
The auditor was EXCELLENT! He spent ALOT of time with me. I am going to take 3 to 4 of his suggestions and correct these small items to save on my energy bills.
M. B.
The auditor did a GREAT JOB! He knew a lot about older homes, which we have. The report was very comprehensive. Thank you!
Vicki Nez/at
Your energy auditor was very nice and helpful. He answered all of our questions. We will recommend Building Energy Pros to our friends and neighbors.
Katherine McCaffrey
The auditor did a TERRIFIC JOB! The report was FANTASTIC! I will make all the repairs he suggested. I will definitely recommend him to everyone I know that could benefit from a home energy audit.
Steve Sleigh, Chevy Chase
The energy auditor was very professional and I am very satisfied with both the energy audit and the report I received. I will be referring the Building Energy Pros.
Tim Clary
I was very satisfied with the auditor. He was great and gave me some very valuable information. I will refer him to people I know who may need a home energy audit.
Willie Gantt
Your home energy audit proved to be very informative and helpful. I was not aware of the updraft created inside our walls because of the balloon framing construction. You said that that can cause heat to be pulled out of the house with the draft going up inside the walls and should be re-mediated. You also said that the attic insulation was insufficient and that fiberglass batts can leave spaces for around the edges causing heat loss and that it should have blown in insulation on top of what was there to seal the whole attic and increase the r factor. After going over your findings and telling me how you would fix the problems you told me how I could do it myself with stuff from the Home Center and for a quarter of the cost. Well, I did. I went into the basement and filled the bottom of the wall joist with unfaced insulation where they set on the sill plate. I then cut one inch foam board the size for each space and set it in and the sealed the edges of that with expanding foam as well as the sill plate to the foundation. I also sealed the sill plate to the foundation where the joist ran along it, as well as the top of those joist where it made contact with the subflooring. Next I went to the home center and rented their blown insulation machine and got ten bales of the insulation. I filled the attic on top of the batt insulation with about six inches giving another r-19 factor on top of the r-19 that was there. You said that the blown in would also help seal the heat loss around the edges of the batt. The work in the basement cost $144.00 and the work in the attic cost $328.00. After the 30% federal energy tax credit it will end up costing me about $330.00, which you said I should recover in savings in the first year. Thank You for all your advice and expertise. You made me aware of things I should consider and did.
Tommy Thompson