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Tips for a Healthy Garage
I am a healthy home consultant and, as such, have devoted my career to making sure people's homes are as healthy as possible. After all, we spend 90% of our time indoors. I've written articles devoted to many parts of the house, including kitchens, bathrooms, foundations, and even ductwork. Since we do not normally live in garages, this might seem like an odd topic to cover. But the fact is, over 80% of new homes have garages, and most of those are attached to our homes directly—and they do affect our health.
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This home construction trend was not always the way. We used to park outside, even in cold climates, or use detached garages. In the late 1960's we used carports as open-aired, covered solutions. Now, some view garages as part of our driving culture's status symbol, with homes having attached 2 or 3 car garages being standard. But is this trend healthy?
The short answer is no. A healthy garage does not exist, unfortunately. We know this intuitively, as we put our smelly things in the garage: the car, the gas for the lawnmower, the central vacuum canister, paints, household chemicals, and more. But just because we put something in the garage does not mean it is really out of our homes.
How To Ensure the Entry Door Is Airtight
The entry door should also be airtight, with good weatherstripping in place on all four surfaces of the door edges. To ensure the weather stripping is working:
- Take some children's chalk, and chalk the seals.
- Close the door, and then open it and see where the chalk has and has not transferred to the door itself.
- Adjust the weather stripping, on those that you can, and replace it where you cannot.
Also, automatic door closers are code requirements now and are an excellent upgrade for the older garage. Door closers help ensure that the house's door is never propped open while working on the car.
What Are the Air Quality Risks With Central Vacs?
Do you have your central vacuum canister installed in your garage? This exhausts fine particulate that the filter doesn't capture. That fine particulate bonds with the petroleum products, creating bigger, meaner toxins that can enter the home. Clearly, this is not ideal. The solution is to ensure that your central vacuum exhausts outside of the garage - an easy fix. Likewise, if you have any other vents into the garage, like dryer vents, they should also exhaust outside.
Get the Chemicals Out
I would bet that you don't need all of those chemicals in your garage. If you are storing them there, where it's "safe," the simple truth is that if they are that toxic, you should not use them. There are healthier options for almost all household chemicals. If you need to keep some, put them in a vented locker, exhausting outside, just like you might do at the shop.
How Exhaust Fans Can Help Air Quality in Garages
The above recommendations are low energy, passive suggestions. Doing them once and maintaining them is the first, more straightforward step. For active solutions that require power, exhaust fans are an excellent idea. Install a properly sized exhaust fan, typically a bathroom type fan, hard-wired to the garage door opener. Every time the garage door is powered up or down, the exhaust fan should run for 15 minutes. This system will dramatically reduce the combustion products and hydrocarbons in the garage and make things much healthier. You can easily add this solution when building new, as well.
Some of these details apply to those driving or thinking about purchasing an electric car, but not all. Notably, the carbon monoxide from combustion will be absent.
Other garage-related issues could affect your family's health, like:
- particulates
- moisture
- de-icing salts
- fertilizers
- and pesticides
Whether you store these items or not, your vehicle's tires may have picked them up along the way and dragged them into your garage. The bottom line is that it's essential to remember attached garages add many air quality risks to your home. Addressing the issues will help you improve your home's indoor air quality and your family's overall health.
Stephen Collette
Stephen Collette is a Building Biologist, Building Science Consultant, LEED Accredited Professional, and a Heritage Professional. Stephen is the owner of Your Healthy House and lives in Lakefield, ON with his wife and 2 daughters.
