Healthy Indoors Magazine
Issue link: https://hi.healthyindoors.com/i/892198
MAY'S WAYS— October 2017 24 Check with a gutter professional to see if you have enough gutters and downspouts to handle your roof-water flow. Be sure that your downspouts are connected proper- ly; they should direct water away from the foundation wall. Drywells can silt up over time and lose their efficiency. If your downspouts empty into drywells, look at the down- spouts during a heavy rain to be sure that the piping emp- tying into the drywell is not overflowing. Last words: Many clients have told me that they don't go down into their unfinished basement, or they've never looked into their crawl space. Since air in a house flows naturally from bottom to top and out, especially in the heating season, up to 30% of the air that you breathe inside your home comes from be- low-grade space. Pay attention to conditions in your below-grade spaces. Your health and the health of others who live in your home may depend on it. Jeffrey C. May combines his education as an organic chemist and his over twenty-five years of experience inves- tigating building problems to specialize in indoor air quality. Founder of May Indoor Air Investigations LLC in Tyngsbor- ough, MA (www.mayindoorair.com), Jeff is a former Adjunct Faculty Member in the Department of Work Environment at University of Massachusetts Lowell, and is author or co-au- thor of four books on indoor air quality (published by The Johns Hopkins University Press), including My House is Killing Me: The Home Guide for Families with Allergies and Asthma. Once a teacher (physics, chemistry and biology), Jeff is a nationally recognized speaker; he has given pre- sentations to Massachusetts General Hospital (Pulmonary Grand Rounds), Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Society of Architects, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Indoor Air Quality As- sociation, and the Maine Indoor Air Quality Council, among others. His memberships include the American Chemical Society, the New England Chapter of the American Indus- trial Hygiene Association, the Indoor Air Quality Associa- tion, and the Pan-American Aerobiology Association. He is A gutter system should be cleaned out at least 2 to 3 times a season — and more often if there are tall, shedding trees near your house. Efflorescence is a sign of moisture intrusion from the exterior May Indoor Air Investigations LLC Efflorescence consists of crystalized, water-soluble minerals, either from the concrete or the soil. A gutter garden May Indoor Air Investigations LLC No tree branches should extend over a roof or gutter system. I like to see downspouts inserted into solid, 4" PVC piping that is buried two inches under the soil and that extends to daylight - either at the edge of a landscape furrow or downhill from the house.