Is your attached garage contributing to poor indoor air quality? You can take the following steps to preserve indoor air quality and prevent pollutants in your attached garage from infiltrating your home.
There are a number of factors that influence a garage’s contribution to poor indoor air quality. These include:
- Pollutants that you store in the garage, including pool chemicals, cleaning solutions, paints and lacquers, and pesticides.
- Emissions from your car when it’s turned on and parked in the garage, or in the hour after you turn it off.
- Contaminants from other fuel-burning equipment stored in the space, such as a lawn mower.
In fact, experts agree and studies concur that homes with attached garages, more than those without, are more susceptible to pollutants that can degrade indoor air quality. Most homes with attached garages have cracks or holes in the shared walls, poorly sealed doors or places where air can enter through holes for pipes and wiring. In addition, since the pressure inside the house is often lower than the pressure in the garage – mainly due to effective ventilation in the house – often the dirty air from the garage is actively drawn into the home.
How can you solve this problem? There are a number of effective solutions, including:
- Eliminating the source of pollutants, by storing chemicals, solutions and pesticides elsewhere, or at the very least making sure they're tightly sealed in their containers.
- Driving the car into the driveway and closing the garage door before warming it up. Then letting it sit in the driveway when you get home for a while, before pulling it into the garage.
- Storing gas- or other fuel-powered equipment outside of the garage.
- Using the shared door as little as possible.
- Sealing air leaks in the wall between the home and the garage.
- Installing an exhaust fan in the garage, which will send fumes from your car and other pollutants outside, before it has a chance to enter your home.
Preserve indoor air quality by addressing contributing factors from your attached garage, sealing the shared wall, and installing an exhaust fan. For help with indoor air quality, or any other heating and cooling concerns, contact the HVAC experts at Joe Behr Plumbing & Heating. Serving Mid-Ohio homeowners since 1965.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about indoor air quality and other HVAC topics, visit our website.
Joe Behr Plumbing and Heating, Inc. services the Mid-Ohio area.
