It’s fair to say Aussies love a good home renovation.
Collectively, they spend a whopping $12 billion every year on various property improvements and modifications.
While these are predominantly designed to increase their market value and make their residence more liveable and comfortable, they also represent an opportunity to improve the degree to which they safeguard your health.
Considering we spend around 65% of our time at home, it pays to make healthy choices when we renovate to reduce our risk of succumbing to illness and injury.
But how can we go about doing that?
Here are some excellent renovation strategies that will not only look good but also increase your likelihood of staying in the best of health.
1. Replace the flooring
One of the most impactful ways to transform the look and feel of a home is to replace the flooring.
Nothing possesses quite as much of a ‘wow’ factor as timber, luxury vinyl or laminate flooring. Not only do they add a touch of style and elegance to your home, but they also can make it appear bigger too.
Additionally, these types of flooring tend to be more hygienic than carpets, which are full of dust mites and other pollutants that can become airborne when you walk on them. (An act that could trigger allergies or respiratory issues like asthma).
This type of flooring also tends to be more durable and easier to maintain and clean. So, pick one you most like the look of and will fit into the colour scheme of your walls.
Should your budget not be able to stretch to the entire home, prioritise replacing carpets in areas that can get wet, such as the kitchen, laundry and front and back door.
2. Allergy Free Paints
Painting is another easy way to freshen up the look and feel of your property. However, not all paints are created equally.
Back in the day, the walls of many properties were decorated with lead-based paints, which offered extra protectiveness and durability over other types. However, lead is highly toxic, and constant exposure to paints made from it can lead to major health issues, particularly in children.
If your home has been decorated with toxic paints, you should hire a professional to remove them safely before repainting with an allergy-free variety approved by the National Asthma Council of Australia as part of the Sensitive Choice programme.
3. Improve the air quality
When renovating, it is a good idea to take steps to improve the air quality in your home.
It doesn’t matter how clean you try to keep your home; its air quality could decline rapidly if it is exposed to tobacco products, dirty air conditioning and heating systems, chemicals from cooking, and excess moisture.
Over time, this type of indoor air pollution can cause several health issues, including heart disease, respiratory diseases, cancer and cognitive deficits.
To counter this, consider upgrading your heating and air conditioning system to something more modern and environmentally friendly.
Additionally, it is a good idea to add extra windows to your room to allow for better air flow and improve your ventilation system.
4. Install glass splashbacks
While tiles have always been a popular option for lining the walls behind bathroom basins, kitchen benches and other wet areas, they can be unhygienic.
Unfortunately, the curves, textures, and little crevices in the grouting and tiles create spaces where mould, grime, and harmful bacteria can thrive. As a result, this can not only affect the cleanliness of these surfaces but possibly negatively influence the air quality as well.
For this reason, consider installing glass splashbacks, as they are a much more hygienic option. They are also very easy to clean and, as they are available in several different colours and patterns, can be a fantastic design feature as well.
5. Add screens on your windows and doors
Insects can be a real nuisance in Australia, especially in the warmer months of summer when you have your windows open to create a breeze.
While their incessant buzzing can be very annoying while trying to eat or watch TV, these pesky bugs can potentially spread unpleasant diseases like E. coli, Salmonella, Hepatitis A and Typhoid, particularly if they rally around food preparation areas.
Thankfully, you can easily prevent this from happening if you install screens on your windows and doors. Doing this has the additional benefit of improving airflow into the home.
Aside from the screens, consider incorporating fly zappers into your home.
6. Put in skylights
It is a good idea to add extra windows and doors to improve the air quality within your home. However, you should also introduce skylights to increase natural light further.
Research has proved that the more natural light that floods into your home, the more likely you are to be in a good mood. This is because it helps to maintain a healthy sleep-wake cycle and create hormonal equilibrium.
Therefore, the better the mood you are in, the less likely you are to suffer from conditions like depression.
Another great way to introduce natural light is through an extension like a sunroom.
