Considerations When Building a New Home

Unfortunately, today's topic comes about from a situation that probably could have been avoided. A colleague of mine had purchased an RO (reverse osmosis) system, but wanted us to wait to install it since she was moving.

Something about the way she said it lead me to believe she was moving into an already-built home, not waiting for the builder to complete a new project for her. Had I known, we could have very easily set up her RO system for installation in the basement and just run the lines to connect to the kitchen sink and to the refrigerator. We could have also worked with her granite installer to get them to pre-cut a hole for the RO's separate faucet in her kitchen sink - typically at no additional charge...

That didn't happen, so when she called to arrange the booking after taking possession, we now had to get the granite people out for a service call to make the faucet's installation hole, and we now need to install the system and the storage tank under the sink, since the basement is finished and has a drywalled ceiling.

If it was a drop or "t-bar" style ceiling, we'd probably have been ok still, but there's no way to run the plumbing connections through the drywall without damaging or probably removing a few sections - not something she was wanting to do on her BRAND NEW home....

When we test the water and find out what sort of treatment (if any) she'll need for the whole-home, that is typically not too big a problem as connecting to the existing plumbing is quite straight forward. Only the drinking water system is causing problems. (It is a seperate system and uses its own plumbing connections.)

Too bad... But the lesson here is to always plan ahead. If you're building a new home, it is SOOO easy to get your drinking water system installed during the construction phase and it can all be neatly tucked-away - even inside what will be finished ceilings and drywall. We can also more-easily run connections to second floor areas.

Quite often, people would like to have a drinking water faucet right in their ensuite, or upstairs bathrooms. If the master bedroom is upstairs and you get thirsty in the middle of the night, its a lot easier to just pop your glass under a nearby faucet rather than head downstairs....

It never hurts to ask - if you're planning on building, or already in the construction phase, give us a call and see if there's any shortcuts you can take for a seamless installation. This is a great time to quit the bottled water habit. You can get better quality, for WAY less money, and an almost endless supply right in your own home - all it takes is a little planning and it can be a perfect setup.

Why Would I Want to Filter My Drinking Water???

This is definitely a question I get a lot. People quite often drink tap water, or even water straight from their well. Once you are used to the taste, the question of why bother filtering water comes up. There is a lot of discussion in this area, but it comes down to a few main points. Part one of this discussion covers background on water.

What's so Important about Drinking Clean Water?

Water is essential to every main function in your body. From operating the nervous system, building muscle, hydration, proper organ function – nothing in the body works without an ample supply of water. I recently read a great book by Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj called, "Your Body's Many Cries for Water." In it, he talks about the role that proper hydration plays in your body's key systems.

The discussion covers both mental and physical diseases, and how our medical community has spent a lot of time focusing on and prescribing drugs to treat symptoms of dehydration. Cholesterol problems, obesity, blood pressure, asthma, colitis, migraines, back pain, even heartburn can be greatly affected, by proper hydration.

In his book, he goes as far as recommending that people need, on average, ½ ounce of water for every pound of body mass. For example, a 150 pound person (gender doesn't matter) should be taking in 75 ounces of water, per day. That's about 2 ½ Litres, or about 2/3 of a gallon of water. Yes, that is going to make bathroom trips more-frequent, but try it for a week and see if you don't notice the difference!

Okay, so discussions of the need for water tell us about the VOLUME of water needed, but what about quality? Doesn't it just make sense that you would want your body to have the highest-quality water? I'm not going to get into all the potential down-sides of chlorine exposure here, but instead of focusing on the negative, what about the positive? I can't find one – I cannot think of a single "good thing" that can happen from consuming chlorinated water. Don't get me wrong – for municipal supplies, chlorine is essential for DELIVERING safe water to your home.

Once water leaves the processing plant, it can travel through miles of pipe to get to the home – and this pipe isn't new. In the area we live in, most pipe is around 50 years old. Without chlorine, bacteria and a host of other contaminants would make their way into the water and into our homes. But just like you unwrap foods brought home from the store, we should be "un-wrapping" our water, in other words, removing the chlorine. Once the water makes its way to our home, it has done its job.

If you think about why it is added, doesn't it just make sense? Its hard to watch any TV shows lately without hearing about pro-biotics and anti-oxidants in pills, yogurt, drinks and all sorts of things we consume. Ok, so let's think about it – we're taking pills and "eating right" to keep beneficial bacteria in our bodies, and to keep oxidants from doing damage (ie. that's what Anti-Oxidants do!) We then ingest water that is dosed with chlorine – an OXIDANT.

What does the chlorine do? It kills bacteria (all bacteria, both good and bad) and it oxidizes things. Again, this is WHY it is added to the water. Beyond drinking it, we also bath and shower in it. –did you know your body intakes more chlorine in a 10 minute shower than it does in drinking 10 glasses of chlorinated water? It enters the body through pores in the skin and through the lungs when the water is heated and chlorine gas is created. The same thing happens in the kitchen when you do dishes (either manually or with the dishwasher!)

We take all these steps to improve health, then drink and soak in a chemical whose only function is to reverse the exact things we're trying to promote!

Stay tuned for Part Two, when I discuss treatment options. For more information, please see: www.douglasenviro.ca

Green Home Award using Active Air Purification

This is a great story - a story about turning a negative into a positive.

This home had some water damage that lead to a mold problem. After inspections and remediation, the home was treated with a Sanitization Protocol by a NORMI Trained Professional. Included in the package was an ActivTek "InDuct" purifier for each of the home's heating and cooling zones.

This allowed the home to qualify for the NORMI Healthier Home Warranty - a warranty that ensures the home's air quality will remain excellent, and that mold will not return. This is the only lifetime mold warranty I've ever heard of and one of the main reasons we chose to work with NORMI as our training and certifying partner.

The home undertook a drastic transformation and the end result was a safe and healthy home, free from odours and making things much easier for anyone with allergies. The active purifiers are the same brand we use and recommend for our clients - they are NORMI Approved, meaning that the National Organization of Remediators and Mold Inspectors has tested the product and found it to dramatically improve air quality, and in this case even surface sanitization (!) without having negative effect's on the home's occupants.

We have had great successes using these active air purification systems - they are a long way away from the old "ozone generator" technology. they use a system called "ActivePure" to produce a plasma that is circulated by the home's furnace (or air conditioning) system.

Instead of working like a filter and needing to bring pollutants to a single area to attempt removal, the system ACTIVELY goes out and destroys bacteria, yeast and molds on surfaces and in the air. These systems work 24/7 to protect your home, while reducing odours and making things all-around more pleasant for the occupants.

Allergy relief, odour removal, mold prevention - these systems do a fantastic job of cleaning the air.

For more information on the NORMI Certificate of Sanitization program, or to locate a NORMI Trained Professional near you, please see www.normi.org.

For more information on how these systems can be deployed to help your air quality and even to do it in a measurable, objective way, contact Douglas Environmental Solutions - www.douglasenviro.ca

Using Reverse Osmosis for Flower Arrangements

On Friday, I stopped in at my local florist, Shig's Flowers and had a chat with the owner, Marty Shigehiro. I was picking up some flowers for my wife Carri, when we started talking about business. I mentioned I was doing some writing about the different things that can be done with Reverse Osmosis (RO) water once people break free of relying on carrying 40 pound jugs of water back and forth from stores.

When you have a basically un-ending supply of RO water, you don't need to worry about "using it up" so things like making all your coffee, teas and juices all the sudden get you better tasting product - as well as about a 25% savings on those purchases. Since you aren't covering up things like chlorine and dissolved rocks (hard water) when you make something like concentrated orange juice, instead of 3 cans of water, when you use RO water, you get to add a 4th can - definitely an easy to see savings....

At any rate, beyond the "obvious uses" I was talking with Marty about flowers. He suggested there definitely is a difference when you are using reverse osmosis water. The plants are healthier and last longer. It makes sense though - plants are definitely sensitive, and they certainly can't find any natural areas where they'd be growing in chlorinated water!

I guess its probably counterproductive to Marty for me to pass this on, since if you use your chemically-treated hard water from the tap, flowers don't last and you'd have to buy them more often - sorry Marty.... You didn't say anything about keeping this a secret. Until next time!