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Olympia Indoor Air Quality Services

Simple tips for a complex issue.

Moisture makes mischief …drier is better for IAQ so control of moisture is key. Why? Because of something called water activity. Water activity is a measurement of available water, just as pH is a measure of alkalinity or acidity.

A glass of water has a water activity of 1.0.

Bacteria and mold can thrive in certain water activity levels, but not in others. This explains why meat and fresh fruit spoil so quickly and must be refrigerated. They have a high water activity level, while dried fruits and crackers hardly spoil at all, because their water activity level is below the point where organisms can grow. You can store these items in your cupboard.

Microorganisms need food and water to thrive, just like people. Food sources for them are all around, so there’s not much we can do about that. But we can control their “water supply”.

Reducing biologicals in the environment
  • Fix roof and pipe leaks promptly
  • Maintain cooling and dehumidifying equipment and disinfect drip pans often
  • Insulate to prevent condensation
  • Ventilate damp areas to dry them
  • Reduce humidity. Run air conditioning in humid climates

If you use wet cleaning, dry carpets quickly with fans of dehumidifiers or use a system powerful enough to sufficiently recover the moisture, such as our Vortex. Keep air conditioning/ventilation systems running during drying.

dust miteDust mites
12% of us are allergic to them. They thrive on dead skin cells and require humidity above 50-60%.

They cannot be eliminated but their population can be controlled by using proper vacuuming and keeping your indoor atmosphere dry.

As a benefit of cleaning carpet with HOST ten years of ongoing scientific research that proves just one HOST cleaning reduces:

  • Dust mites by 78%
  • Mold spores by 85%
  • Cat allergen by 80%
  • Dust mite allergen by 75%

(NOTE: Our hot water extraction (HWE) can often remove even higher levels.)

Bacteria and mold are dramatically reduced also. Because HOST sanitizes as it cleans, you can be certain that a HOST-cleaned carpet is truly deep down clean!

Reducing dust and VOCs – two potential indoor air pollutants

Control dust by switching to treated dusting cloths.

Use high efficiency vacuum bags. You can use HOST Carpet Cleaner with confidence as it is not dusty.

Switch to lower VOCs (Volatile Organic Compound – an organic chemical that gives off an odor) paints, adhesives, and cleaning products. In use, HOST has low VOCs too!

Remember, carpet is a friend in your home/facility. Unlike hard-surface floors, carpet acts to filter and hold pollutants that are in, or enter, the building…reducing the amount of pollutants in the air. The soil and pollutants then are removed by proper vacuuming and cleaning.