Your Safe and Healthy Home, LLC

05/16/2026

I had a very interesting experience in Total Volatile Organic Compound measurement in a home this week. I do this in just about every inspection I do.

In this particular home the longer I was in the home, the higher the TVOC levels reached. And they reached levels I'd never seen before. I took my meter outside to check if it was a meter issues, and it was completely normal outside.

As we went through the house from top to bottom the levels kept reaching new highs. At the point where the meter showed over 11000 ppb I saw the HVAC guy finishing up the installation of the water heater. I was relieved. I may have felt a little like when Pedro Paez, James Bruce, or John Hanning Speke discovered the sources of the Nile!

But this isn't about my adventures in TVOC measurement.

This is about how mundane things that every homeowner will experience can have dramatic impacts on the indoor air quality in the home. Every homeowner will eventually have their water heater replaced. Probably will paint or hire someone to paint. May stain or polish hardwood floors or furniture. And all of those activities will bring a LOT of chemicals into your home. The tighter your home is, the longer those chemicals will stay.

If you want to avoid this, and you should, because even if no one in your home has reacted yet, there is a certain point where someone may....and in the meantime huffing chemicals isn't a desirable activity for healthy minded people.

Demand the work areas are contained. Demand negative air ventilation is the areas where deep cleaning, or chemical containing materials will be used. Don't wait for symptoms! Also demand to see the Safety Data sheets for any materials brought into your home. Do that before you sign a contract, and have that in your contract.

05/02/2026

2 of the things I love most about my job are:
1. Helping people make their homes or workplaces healthier and safer, and
2. Learning new things while I am doing #1!

This week I had plenty of both!

I thought I knew everything there was o know about Aspergillus and Aspergillosis...and this week I learned something new about both.

Aspergillus is a mold found in most buildings and we find it in outdoor samples too.

Aspergillosis is when the mold infects/grows inside our bodies. Usually this happens for people with weakened immune systems.

This week I learned about Tonsillar Aspergillosis...that is when Aspergillus grows on the Tonsils! There is even s diagnostic code for it!

ICD-10: B44.2. Symptoms, treatment, cases. Tonsillar Aspergillosis: Causes, Symptoms, and Diagnosis Tonsillar aspergillosis is a rare fungal infection t...

04/23/2026

Spring has sprung! As I let my dog out when it was still dark the birds were performing their songs, and waiting for me to put out the food. I love Spring.

This is what I thought about as I saw the task I set for myself to post something on my company page:

The Importance of Controlling Humidity

I had a couple of lengthy discussions with people about how important it is for their particular home to control humidity this week. If you do nothing else, and just control humidity, you still have done something very important. A month ago we weren't thinking much about humidity/Relative Humidity...it was cold, our homes were perhaps TOO dry. Still, I have been in homes and particularly basements in the dead of Winter that had humidity too high. Some were humidifying, and humidified a room, or their whole home too much.

So what is the right level? 35-45% is the Sweet Spot! Mold and Dust mites don't do well below 50%. Most people are comfortable in that range (think Mama Bear in that old story).

How do you know what the humidity is? AcuRite has inexpensive meters you can put on each level and move around. AirThings measures it, and if you read my posts you know how I feel about AirThings.

02/27/2026

It is a sunny day in Akron Ohio! Some people are pretending Winter is over. I am not. This Winter has seen some of the longest sustained single digit temperatures that I recall in Ohio in some years. When it is really cold out you are more likely to get the dreaded SWEATY WINDOWS, AKA, condensation.

Condensation happens when a surface hits the dew point temperature and the air is at the right humidity level.

The colder it is outside the lower the humidity needs to be to condense.

Windows aren't the only places where this can occur. Exterior walls can easily have the same problem.

If you over humidify the surface doesn't need to be as cold.

Where there is water and organic material there is a huge opportunity for mold.

I see this often in rooms with a humidifier between heavy furniture and exterior walls.

If you have been getting sweaty windows...take a look in closets on exterior walls, between furniture and exterior walls.

Lowering humidity, raising temperatures, or moving air across those surfaces with ceiling fans, bathroom fans, kitchen range fans, or other fans can help.

02/26/2026

Yesterday I did an inspection for a real estate transaction. This used to be about 1/4 of my jobs, but with the tight housing market many people are waiving a lot of inspections. So it is less than 10% of my business now.

We definitely uncovered some much bigger problems. It is better to go into the biggest purchase of your life with more complete information. I DO NOT go into these with the desire to "kill deals", just to help people make more informed decisions and better deals for them.

01/03/2026

I have been following Mike Homes since I saw him speak at a professional conference years ago. This is a REALLY good primer on mold and health.

What I see a lot this time of year is people who are OVER humidifying. You can cause major problems with too much humidity, and particularly humidity trapped behind dressers, beds, etc. and condensing on cold walls. Dust plus humidity equals a great place for mold to grow.

MOST people don't react to mold...the ones that do it can be deadly. But mold can cause a lot of damage that will cost you a lot more than ventilating and dehumidifying your home costs.

If you have questions, lets talk! But this is a good read that is worth your time, and I recommend following Homes on Homes.

Mike Holmes has seen too much mold in Holmes on Homes and many more projects. That's why he knows best when it comes to testing for mold.

12/26/2025

I am really excited to share this study with everyone! It is very detailed. But for the people who have symptoms in their workplaces or home this will make a lot of sense. It combines things that I have done in buildings for the last 10 years, plus tools that I have recommended to customers directly and on this page to use (QEESI and BREESI) to self-diagnose chemical exposures and tolerance issues.

If none of this is relevant to you, I am happy for you and your family, but I bet if you start talking to family, friends and coworkers you will find that people in your life will find this relevant.

I hope this reaches some people who are searching for answers, and it helps them find relief. Please share this with anyone you think could benefit.

Environmental house calls can reduce symptoms of chemical intolerance: a demonstration of personalized exposure medicine - Volume 25

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas!

12/24/2025

A colleague recently asked me "what is your favorite kind of job", and I told him that I really like to help people who are suffering health issues in a building and are trying to determine if the building is the cause.

The reason this is a "favorite" is that although things have gotten a LOT better for such people (the understanding of this is better both in the medical and environmental professions than it was 20 years ago) it is still challenging. People can go undiagnosed for a long time, and are treated for symptoms, but often don't experience relief.

Lyme disease is one of the diagnoses that is often missed for a long time and can make people very sensitive/reactive to mold and other environmental contaminants.

Unfortunately, the understanding of family members, employers, etc. is still an area for improvement, and that is why I'm sharing this article.

Patients with persistent Lyme symptoms face medical limbo as federal officials and researchers debate causes, treatment, and what to call the condition.

12/15/2025

At the end of the year we all have our schedules over booked.

I want to thank everyone for following this page, I hope it and I have helped you this year. I was really happy with the growth of my company in 2024. And 2025 I nearly doubled the volume of 2024! THANK YOU!

Something I encountered a lot this year is bathroom showers with tile installed directly on drywall.

The problem with this is that tile grout, like most things in our homes, eventually deteriorates. When it does water penetrates. And that water eventually causes a lot of damage including mold.

I have been following Holmes on Homes for a long time. I urge you to also. Here is a link to a recent post on the right way to do it.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17haErDC9Z/