Tips On Improving In Home Air Quality
Often taken for granted, air quality is an important factor in our day to day lives—both outside, as well as inside our homes and workplaces. Children, people with asthma, and the elderly may be especially sensitive to indoor pollutants, but even healthy individuals can experience effects on their health years later after repeated exposure to indoor toxins. Here are three tips to help keep your air healthy
Keep your floors fresh
Vacuum two or more times each week and use a HEPA filter to remove concentrated toxins and chemicals as well as allergens like pollen, pet dander, and dust mites from floors, walls, carpet edges, and upholstered furniture, where dust accumulates; mopping picks up the dust that vacuuming leaves behind.
Keep Healthy Humidity Levels
Keeping humidity around 30-50 per cent helps keep dust mites, mold, and other allergens under control. A dehumidifier helps reduce moisture in indoor air and effectively controls allergens, while your air conditioner can also reduce indoor pollen count.
Test for Radon
This colorless, odorless gas significantly raises the risk of lung cancer and comes from the natural decay of uranium found in nearly all soils. It typically moves up through the ground and into your home through cracks and holes in the foundation. Testing is easy, inexpensive, and takes only a few minutes.
How to Repair a Lawn
Using Grass Seed:
Using a sharp spade or shovel, cut the area around the dead turf.
Use the flat part of the spade to lift off the dead turf.
Because you are removing at least a couple of inches of thatch and grass, fill in the area with some clean topsoil to keep it level with the rest of the yard.
Rake out the area until it is smooth and there are no big clumps in the soil.
Cast a thin layer of seeds on the area, and then gently rake the seeds into the topsoil.
Patching Your Lawn with Sod:
Bald spots can be repaired quickly by filling them in with cuttings from rolls of sod, which you can purchase from a garden center or directly from a sod farm.
For best results, you’ll want to make sure your soil is prepped correctly and seams between patches are tight.
Cut out the patch area in a rectangular shape. Use a shovel or sharp spade to dig out the brown grass—roots and all.
Prepare the area with compost and level. Loosen soil in the patch area with a rake to give the new grass roots a welcome spot to sink into.
Cut and lay the sod. Cut a piece of sod the same size as your patch area. Create tight seams between patches but don’t overlap or stretch the sod, and push sod firmly against the soil.
Water your new sod. Water sod thoroughly, and then continue to water daily for two weeks unless rain arrives. But don’t let water puddle on your new sod.
