Buying a new house is an exhilarating moment, especially if it is your first. The thoughts of how and what you will do to customise it and make it feel like a home that you can really live in is a thrill that lasts for a long time. However, this positive mood can often lead you to overlooking minor defects in the house because you want it so much. While these are usually not serious and can be fixed there is one problem that you need to be aware of straight away: air quality. Not many people consider air quality when buying real estate, but you need to be aware of the very real risks that it can have if not dealt with straight away.
What Is Bad Air Quality?
Bad air quality can be caused from numerous factors, both man-made and natural, where the air quality is lowered due to some added element. If that sounds vague, it's because it is, and there are literally hundreds of possible things that can cause bad air quality, from pollen to car exhaust and regular old dirt. That is why it is important to keep poor air quality in mind when looking for a potential new home. You should be trying to minimise the factors that cause poor air quality and you should avoid obvious trouble areas, like near major roads or factories, if you can.
How Serious An Issue Is Bad Air Quality?
While, thankfully, Australia does not have any major pollution issues like cities in China and India, there is always a risk of poor air quality events across Australia, and you need to be wary of this danger, especially if you have a respiratory condition like asthma. Bad air quality is generally limited to places of high population density or in rural areas near mining, waste disposal or fracking. Freak environmental events are known to happen, however, and have hospitalised thousands, which means you should also be asking your air quality consultant what are the potential possibilities for those events to happen where you are buying a home.
What Can You Do About It?
Before finalising any purchase, you should look into air quality consulting. They will test for everything you can smell and see in the air as well as for the things undetectable by your natural sensors. Remember, while you may be able to tell there is a bad smell or if everything seems fine, an air quality consultant will have far better equipment that will be able to tell you if it is dangerous or not. You will be in and around the air in your house for, presumably, years to come; you want to make sure you are not unintentionally poisoning yourself. It may seem like an unnecessary cost at the time, but it could save your life. If you have any pressing questions about specific concerns you have, ask your consultant as well for total peace of mind.