How to Improve the Air Quality in Your Commercial Building
Posted on: 14 June 2016
If you frequently have employees who have allergy attacks or are generally ill while inside your building, it might be due to the air quality. Everything from how your HVAC system is maintained to what commercial cleaning schedule you adhere to can affect the air quality. Here are some tips for improving it for the health and wellness of everyone.
Keep the Office Clean
Many contaminants in an office environment are due to the housekeeping. If your office does not receive commercial cleaning services, all the dust and debris that builds up on various surfaces can ultimately lead to allergy attacks from the increased allergens. Regular cleaning of the building allows you to reduce dust and dander, in addition to cleaning surfaces that would have otherwise led to mould and mildew, which can also make people ill. Make it a point to have the kitchen and bathrooms cleaned, dust the furniture and electronic equipment, and have the carpets cleaned.
Bring in Air-Cleaning Plants
Keeping the air quality high in your commercial building may be as simple as knowing what plants to have indoors. Indoor plants are not just for decorative purposes, but can actually clean the air. Some excellent plants to bring inside include the gerbera daisy, snake plant, or peace lily. These are small plants that can be placed in pots and put on tables throughout the office. Your employees will enjoy the cleaner air and increased oxygen they provide.
Maintain Your HVAC Unit
You likely have an HVAC unit in your building that helps to provide hot or cool air as needed throughout the year. This unit needs to be maintained and inspected on a regular basis in order to run efficiently. If you fail to do this, then the clogged air filter could cause allergens to be released through the vents, or the system could lead to increased humidity, which also causes lack of good air quality. Make sure you have a technician inspect it on a routine basis and have those air filters cleaned or replaced regularly.
Reduce Chemical and Biological Contaminants
Due to the work you do or construction when remodeling your building, you may be unintentionally causing contaminants in the air supply. For example, if you don't have good ventilation, you might have condensation and increased bacteria or viruses that keep being spread around inside the building. Chemical pollutants might also be affecting your workers due to decreasing the air supply by accidentally spilling cleaning chemicals and not cleaning them properly or having the outdoor smoking area too close to an open window where the smoke comes inside the building. Work to control these contaminants to improve the air quality.
To get more tips and advice, contact an air quality consultant. They will run some tests to let you know what areas you need to work on in order to improve the building's air quality.
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