When I moved into my house 10 years ago, it wasn’t very old and almost everything inside felt new.
The carpets had been recently installed, the appliances were replaced a year prior, and a new coat of paint was covering walls, ceilings, and the entire home’s exterior.
Walking inside the first time, it smelled like a brand new house. I was shocked when they said it was going on eight years old that summer. Moving in at this time gave me a good baseline for comparison years later. I say this because now that it has been a decade, I am running into issues left and right. I knew I would need a new roof, but I wasn’t expecting new pipes throughout my house needing to be replaced. On top of that, I was having respiratory issues in my house and was getting my air conditioner cleaned regularly from my HVAC supplier. Eventually my technician suggested that I get my ductwork cleaned. He assumed that the reemergence of mold growth on my AC coil each time was a sign that there was mold in the ductwork as well. They use large brushes that scrape up dust and mold growth from inside the metal ducts, but I was really worried that all of this contaminated dirt would make its way into my house. I was reassured when they told me that they have large vacuums at the openings of the air vents to collect any particulate as it is stirred up and dislodged by the brushes. This prevents the mold spores from contaminating the inside of your home. After a week of clean ductwork, my allergies all but vanished.