Category Archives: building

building, VOCs

Building for Asthma and Chemical Sensitivities

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Welcome to our new blog site and an our first post on this site.

Our soil tests have been completed and we should have our preliminary tender in about 2 weeks.  In the meantime I have been researching building materials that are better for people with asthma and chemical sensitivities.  Oscar has asthma,  intolerances to food chemicals and his skin is sensitive to chemicals in moisturisers, washes, sunscreens, etc.   The last thing we want is to build a new house that makes him sick or break out in eczema.  The things I’m targeting are paint, coatings for the floor boards and decking and carpets.

The main problem with paints and timber treatments is the VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) which can be released from products such as paint for up to 10 years.  The health effects of VOCs include (from Australian Government) eye, nose and throat irritation; headaches; loss of coordination; nausea; and damage to the liver, kidneys and central nervous system.   Some VOCs can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans.  Build-ups of VOCs in indoor environments have been associated with ‘sick building syndrome’.

Carpets are a problem for asthmatics.  At the moment we have all floor boards.  In the new house the ground floor will have floor boards throughout, but we thought that would be a bit noisy for the attic flooring.  But can we find a suitable carpet?  The recommendation from the Asthma Foundation if you must have carpet  is short loop pile with synthetic fibres.

One really useful site that I found to help with this is research is  Sensitive Choice.

The Sensitive Choice blue butterfly symbol is given to products and services that support asthma and allergy care. Products that carry the blue butterfly may be better choices for people with asthma and allergies.

Another useful resource was this Choice article on choosing carpets.

The products that we have identified to investigate using are:

Taubmans Easycoat with Microban 

  • Microban® (antibacterial) protection – lasts the life of the paint
  • Low odour
  • Low VOC formulation

Dunlop ComfortChoice underlay

  • Green Label accredited for indoor air quality
  • Ultra-Fresh treated to reduce mould, mildew and dust mites
Karndean Flotex Carpets (Sensitive Choice)
  • Zero VOCs
Natural carpets such as coir, sisal, seagrass and jute.
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builders, building, history

The big item on the to-do list almost done

Well the soil testing hasn’t been done yet (that bloke was legit) as we have been on a nice little holiday to the Sunshine Coast for week.  Hopefully it will happen next week, when I can arrange to have our ferocious guard dog locked in the house for a few hours.

But I did manage to almost tick off the most important item – money.  I had made an appointment with the bank before we went away, so I rocked up yesterday with all my details and they were nice enough to loan us some money.  I still have to submit lots more documents to get our pre-approval, but its nice to know we will probably be able to pay for this new house now.

I also managed to avoid signing up for any other bank products we don’t need!

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builders, building, history

And So it Starts

I had a phone message left this afternoon.  Apparently it was about the soil testing that needs to be done on our property.  I couldn’t understand the callers name, and he said he was from “something unintelligible” Consulting Engineers and wanted to know if anyone would be home tomorrow morning so they could come and start field works.  When I called back he didn’t answer with a company name and told me his client was someone I had never heard of.  When I questioned this he changed his mind and it was actually soil testing he wanted to do and said maybe my builder had sub-contracted the job to someone else.Apart from the fact  that I am definitely not going to let complete strangers into my yard if I can’t verify who they are, he had some nerve calling the afternoon before to have someone let them in between 8 and 9am the next day.  What is it with people who think you have nothing better to do than drop everything at a moment’s notice and who will probably actually not get there until about 12pm – wasting my entire morning!I know this only the first of many such situations.  On the upside, things are actually under way (assuming this guy was for real and not just a stalker).
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