Healthy Home Building Consultant

I have been helping folks create healthy homes for over 6 years now!

A certified Building Biologist Practioner, I began this journey with the build of my own tiny chemically safe house, the place in which I started to recover from mold illness and severe chemical sensitivity.

My main expertise lies in materials available in the US and Canada.

Healthy Home Consults are for you if:

• You own or rent a house, apartment or trailer
• You are building or remodelling
• You live with environmental sensitivities, allergies or asthma, including the most severe MCS
• You have children or are expecting and want to provide a healthy home for them
• You are a builder, architect, designer or developer and want to collaborate
• You are healthy and want to minimize exposure to toxins to prevent health issues

Areas I can assist you with:

Healthy Material Selection

We will go over your specific sensitivities, needs, and level of toxin avoidance, and you will come away with a list of products to use in your build or renovation.

This may involve self testing materials for your own reactions. If you don’t have reactions (or obvious reactions), I will use your level of toxin avoidance to recommend products.

You will come away with pros and cons of materials you might have read about.

I will take into consideration the system as a whole, so that your moisture management system is intact and point out areas that are mold prone.

If it’s a new build, you will come away knowing the typical steps to choose an architect, builder, materials and job site supervisor.

I can work with your team from start to finish if you need.

I help healthy folks and sensitive folks who range from those with mild allergies to those with extreme chemical sensitivities.

I’m not just analyzing the SDS and what the manufacturer is telling us about what’s in it, I’m also using industry knowledge to suggest what additives are typically used and undisclosed. And I use my experience and that of thousands of chemically sensitive folks to choose the safest products.

Remediating Chemical Offgassing

If you have an odor or chemical offgassing we will troubleshoot the cause and what can be done about it.

You will come away with strategies to then implement. These might be removing materials, sealing, cleaning with special cleaners, using ozone, choosing the right air purifier, putting in air exchange, using positive pressure and “baking” a house.

If we are having trouble figuring out the source, I will recommend a number of low tech and high tech ways to figure it out.

Healthy Home Audit

You will come away knowing how to make your current dwelling a healthier home.

We might look at one room like a bedroom and top to bottom make it a healthier healing space, or we might look at how to find testing for VOCs, radon, and mold.

Topics include: which materials should be removed and replaced, helping to select the best air purifier for your needs, choosing water filtration systems, choosing furniture, beds and other household items.

In Person Inspection

This can be done in person in the south Vancouver Island and Victoria, BC area. Update: During COVID I will not be conducting in-person inspections.

I use my nose and reactions as well as knowledge about problematic building materials to asses problem areas in your home or to help you find a new healthier home to buy or rent.

Buying, Building a RV, Trailer, or Tiny House

If you want to buy, build or renovate anything on wheels we will look at which ones are best for your chemical sensitivities and which ones are more mold resistant.

If you are buying, you will come away with pros and cons of different brands as well as different strategies (buy one that holds up and let it offgas or buy one and trade it in when it goes moldy).

If you are building or gutting a trailer we will look at typical problem areas that done wrong and are prone to mold and I will refer you to a building science expert if there is something I can see will likely go moldy.

You will also come away with which low offgassing materials will be best to use.

If building a tiny home on wheels I can walk you through the process of finding an architect, builder, choosing materials and supervising.

Camping and Simple Shelters

Whether you need to camp out of necessity or purposefully in order to unmask and bring down sensitivities, we will get your camping set up together.

You will come away with the confidence to camp even with severe sensitivities and limitations.

You will know which types of tent material to consider as well as what other gear you need.

If you cannot tolerate any ready-made tents we will look at custom making a tent or shelter out of almost any material you can think of – hemp, cotton, non-offgassing plastics (both hard plastic and flexible rolls), metal, foam, and wood.

Mold Avoidance Consulting

For a detailed overview of what I offer with mold avoidance coaching, see this post dedicated to that topic.

Booking and Contact

 

Urgent appointments on weekends and (US) holidays can be booked here.

Note: Topics I Don’t Cover

• Remediation of mold, pesticides, lead, radon and asbestos (consult with specialists in those fields).
• Pest control choices (consult with a non-toxic pest control specialist).
• Mechanical systems: HVAC, appliances, electrical system concerns, and water heaters (consult with experts in the required mechanical field).
• Building science advice (should be provided by an architect, engineer, or other building science expert).
• How long does x take to offgas. Unless it’s a simple chemical that has been studied, it’s not likely someone has the answer to this. I have sniff tested many products myself and have experience from thousands of chemically sensitive folks, but I don’t have an answer for every product.
• EMFs/EMR
• Materials outside of North America – Evaluation of building materials, homes, and products outside of Canada and the US.
• Recommend a builder – I don’t recommend specific builders including tiny house companies. I do have some builders, designers, and architects on my resource page and can guide you through the process of finding a builder. More on why I don’t recommend builders here.