Your Safe and Healthy Home, LLC

08/22/2026

Selling your Home and Mold
When you sell your home there is quite a process involved. And sometimes someone like me gets called into that process. If you plan to sell your home, I want to urge you to really PLAN! It will make things go smoother.

I have been in my home for 14 years. And when I was in that "buying a home" mode, I got pretty good at quickly detecting issues. Once you live in a house for a number of years, it is HOME...and just like looking in the mirror...we don't see the things that will probably jump out at some people.

What you don't want to have happen is to get blind-sided by issues that could derail, add unnecessary costs, or slow down your home selling process. And mold can be one of those issues. I have seen very small mold issues around plumbing fixtures in the basement, or under kitchen/bathroom sinks turn into much bigger issues that stop or slow down the home sale.

I hope that you already check out your attic at least once a season, if not once a month. Small issues in an attic that might have been there when you bought it, so they are "baked into the cake" for you, and haven't changed the entire time you've been in the home may be a HUGE concern for a new home buyer.

If you can look critically for these issues in your home, inside and out, top to bottom, and address them you can make things go better. If you need "fresh eyes" to do it, that is a good idea too!

Hope this helps! If you know someone selling a house...pass this on to them. And at the very least take a look in your attic!

08/03/2026

I was excited to see this on the news this morning. Mold/fungal infections are often misdiagnosed.

Aspergillus is found in just about all buildings and outside.

A new study suggests the threat of mold-associated illnesses may be severely underestimated.

07/25/2026

POST REMEDIATION VERIFICATION and a Tool for protecting your home or building
I have had a number of projects over the last 2 months that really bring home the importance of Post Remediation Verification. One of the projects was getting ready to rebuild the house. Had that been done before we found that not only did the house not pass the air sample portion of the PRV, but the visual examination uncovered areas that had large fungal growth issues that hadn't ever been addressed.

Unfortunately this particular customer had to discover PRV while doing research. The insurance company didn't educate the customer, the restoration company didn't help, but they were able to find the information.

Whether you are a contractor or a home/building owner the PRV protects EVERYONE in the process. We are all human. Getting another set of eyes, and instruments, on the most important investment of most people's lives is a good idea.

It protects the homeowner because in most cases they don't know what things should look like. They don't know that it can LOOK great, but still have a lot of mold spores, hyphal fragments and mycotoxins left behind. They don't have moisture meters or even humidity meters.

It protects the contractors because it documents that they restored the property to "normal", "acceptable" conditions. It also gives them a chance to educate the customer on how to maintain those conditions. Things like running a dehumidifier, and keeping Relative Humidity below 50% throughout the home/building.

The MOEN FLO is a great tool that I think virtually every one should get to prevent the huge water damage issues that I have seen in homes for over 20 years. I put one in my home almost a year ago, and the peace of mind is worth every penny. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C03D01Q?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder_k1_1_4&=&crid=26J63KFZWEBF8&sprefix=moen&th=1

As always, if you have any questions you can always message me here! Or call 330-622-1560

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.