The Princess and The Pea

by Jeffrey C. May July 1, 2011

The story of the princess who couldn’t sleep because of a pea tucked under numerous mattresses is a fable, but sometimes it’s astounding how little it takes to create a problematic IAQ exposure. These exposures may seem no-big-deal if you don’t have allergies or asthma, but to the sufferers, the problems are serious.

One fellow had been living in a house for several years. Before moving in, he’d updated the property by converting a ranch into a beautiful, architect-designed home. He decided to save money on the addition by building over a dirt crawl space rather than a basement —­ a decision that for him, proved to be a mistake. The man had always had asthma, but soon after moving into the house, he began to experience constant nasal congestion and sinus problems, in addition to worsened asthma symptoms. Rodents were getting into the crawl space through construction gaps and were nesting in the exposed fiberglass insulation. Sampling determined that the fiberglass was severely infested with mold, growing in the captured dust due to elevated relative humidity. (The crawl space was well-ventilated, with four foundation vents, and humid air flowed into the space.) The old bulkhead at the back of the house provided access to the crawl space. An abandoned pipe hole over the old bulkhead door allowed copious amounts of “fresh” air to flow from the crawl space into the basement, and from there to the gorgeous rooms above, due to a 1-inch gap in the door at the first floor leading to the basement. Rodent activity and wind flows disturbed the falling crawl space fiberglass, and spores from the moldy insulation were aerosolized. The spores then moved with air flows up into the house. The man was very allergic to mold. Right after my site visit, he sealed the hole above the old bulkhead door and installed a sweep to seal the gap at the bottom of the first-floor door leading to the basement. This made a big difference. He’s still planning to have the crawl space professionally remediated, but still, several weeks later he emailed me that his asthma symptoms were greatly reduced and he was able to breathe through his nose for the first time in years.

In another home, a three-year old boy had a chronic cough and needed nebulizer treatments several times a day. Half the house had been built in the 1600s and had been renovated. The other half was only 10 years old. The house was a jewel, but hidden in all that beauty was a small, but significant, IAQ problem, lurking in three small rugs. One rug was in the playroom, one in the little boy’s bedroom and one in a small hall off the kitchen, where the boy sat and played while his mother cooked. The rugs contained deteriorating wool fibers. When disturbed, such fibers can release vast numbers of microscopic, irritating particles that can be inhaled deeply into the lung. While I was still at the site, I suspected that these three rugs might be problems, so I asked the little boy’s mother to roll them up and put them in the garage. When I last spoke to her, she told me that the little boy was better.

My last story is about a man who was a writer and worked at home. He’d set up his workspace on a second-floor balcony that looked over the great room below. The man had been experiencing headaches at home for years. He was a tea aficionado, so the kettle on the stove was in frequent use. Unfortunately, he always placed the kettle on the left-rear burner, which was not adjusted properly. The carbon monoxide (CO) concentration above the burner pegged my Bachrach Monoxor at over 2,000 ppm. This is a dangerous concentration if breathed directly, but the gas was being diluted by the room air down to a concentration that didn’t affect others in the house. This man, however, was more susceptible to CO than most. Whether he was in the kitchen or in his workspace above, when the stove was on, carbon monoxide was brewing. He switched the kettle to the right-rear burner, and most of his headaches went away.

So, the moral of these stories is: Don’t discount a potential problem because it seems small!


From the May Indoor Air Investigations Newsletter, February/March 2008. Reprinted with permission of Jeffery C. May. © 2008 Jeffrey C. May. Visit www.mayindoorair.com.


To Read the Full Article

ASHI offers its members unparalleled resources to advance their careers. ASHI offers training for inspectors at all levels of knowledge and experience, including resources about all major home systems. Members benefit from a vast network of experienced professionals, providing a community for mentorship and knowledge sharing..

Learn More About Membership »

In this Issue

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Professional Networking

Grow your professional network, find a mentor, network with the best, and best part of the community that’s making home inspection better every day.