How cleanable is your house?

The house I live in was built in 1948 and I've lived in it since 1992. The original owner was a doctor, a fact I've always prized. This fine old Florida ranch house was first situated on an orange grove that was once adjacent to a dairy farm. It had been a rental property when I bought it. Back then, it was filthy, with dog poop under the wall to wall carpeting(???), no intake filter on the central air unit, and

ancient cedar closets that were poisoning me. But it had 3/4 acres of beautiful yard right in the city--albeit overgrown with intertwining citrus trees. I fell in love but my allergies went haywire. I had some air quality people come in and diagnose the problems and hired someone to rip out the closets and replace with wallboard. We ripped out all carpeting and refinished the original floors ourselves (we were a lot younger back then), etc.

It's pretty likely that your current home is in very
livable condition but if you have any doubts (and
a few extra bucks) call in a home environment expert and have them inspect your house for possible problems. I learned some important things about my old house. For example, the north wall doesn't get enough sun so it tends to generate some mold on the outside and that condition can cause (invisible) mold spores on the internal walls of that room. If the mold spores travel in the air they can get into your duct work and spread. It is no wonder we have allergies! Sometimes no matter how much we clean we cannot “see” everything that impacts our well being. Now we always seal the outside north wall several times and paint it more often to deter this possibility. It was money well spent! What can you tackle by yourself and what type of professional would be better suited to eliminate whatever helps to eliminate dis-ease, dirt or dustiness?

• Do you really need a mold inspection or mold testing?
• What You Need to Know About Air Duct Cleaning