Catching Some Rays

By RL Gordon • 12/14/2020

Every season has its effect on a home.

Here in sunny Florida, summer is about as bad as it can get for a home. The sunshine takes a tremendous toll on many of the exterior materials. Heat and humidity can cause expansion,opening cracks and allowing moisture to enter the walls of the home that can cause extensive damage, including but not limited to mold. This can become a major health risk. Older generations often don’t think too much about this as they grew up never having a problem in homes that were built to standards much lower than today’s. However truly things are much different today.

The building codes in place today require homes to be much more air tight – part of the final ininspection requirement is a new air blower tests to determine the quality of the seal on the home. The test measures how many times the air in a home would change in an hour (must be at least three and no more than seven). So obviously the requirements for building a home have changes in the recent past. The energy efficient designs and practices save us on electrical costs, but can negatively affect the air quality inside our homes if we are not careful.

As summer heats up there are several things we as home owners can do to protect our families and our investment.

It All About the Caulk – Make a small investment in a good quality tub of caulk and spend a few minutes inspecting the exterior of your home – regardless of age. The seals on exterior doors do become compacted and are easily replaced.
Check Your Sprinkler Settings – Often damage is caused by improper sprinkler systems constantly wetting the exterior of a home. This is not only an invitation to moisture damage and mold, but also an invitation to termites because it provides everything they need.
Always use Bath and Range Vents – The humidity increase is staggering when hot showers steam up bathrooms and pots boil in a home. There is little escape for this moisture which causes the temperature in the home to feel hotter, and provides air born molds and bacteria the perfect incubator to grow.

At R. L. Gordon & Company, we work hard to overcome these conditions and pay attention to the latest developments in building to find solutions to the problems. We use synthetic materials on the exteriors of the homes we build instead of less expensive woods. We design our air-conditioners with higher air flows, and work directly with some amazing sub-contractors to make certain the system installed is sized properly to remove moisture and other air pollutants. We educate our clients on the importance of utilizing exhaust fans in their kitchen and bathrooms.

If you are considering purchasing a new home, or planning to build your forever home, come and talk to us! We would love to go over in depth why we think our homes are exceptional!

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