Your house is a safe haven, so you need to take special care while choosing the materials to be used in its renovation. As a homeowner, you should make sure you keep the blacklisted building materials as far away from your home as possible. These harmful materials can be both natural or synthetic. Therefore, you must not think that it is only synthetic materials that cause trouble.
Thanks to the Internet, we now have a lot of information available regarding the type of materials to be used in renovations. You can learn about other homeowners’ renovating experiences online and you can even create your own blog to share yours. It is always good to learn from other people’s mistakes, rather than your own ones, so here is a list of materials you need to avoid when renovating your home interior.
1. Lead
Although its use is now banned, things were not that strict from the beginning. Lead is a metal frequently used in roofing material, paint and plumbing. Exposure to lead fumes can cause calcium to cross the blood-brain barrier and affect your nervous system. Special care needs to be taken while renovating an old house as the construction industry heavily relied on lead-based products a few decades ago.
2. Wood Treatments
Various chemical compounds are applied to wood to increase its life and strength. Creosotes are widely used as treatment and they come in different forms. These are based on oil, water, coal, and tar. The coal-tar creosotes are among the most dangerous ones. In order to preserve wood from insects, arsenic is added to it. This material is also considered to be harmful and can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.
3. Asbestos
This material was the most popular building material in the 90s. It was later discovered that using asbestos in construction can cause lung cancer. It is also deemed as a strong respiratory irritant as it was used in pipe covers and flooring.
4. Fiber Glass
It is used as an insulator because it is good with handling the heat. Another use of fiberglass is in roofing. Although once installed, fiberglass helps maintain the temperature, but its other drawbacks are seen by construction workers who cut and trim it into pieces. It disperses itself into the atmosphere in the form of small particles that are inhaled. People with asthma have reported irritation because of the particles.
5. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
VOCs can either occur naturally or be man-made. These chemicals have a low boiling point which often results in their accumulation in the atmosphere. These compounds are found in paints, plastics, synthetic fibers, and protective coatings. A common VOC is formaldehyde which evaporates at a mere temperature of -19°C/-2°F/254 K. These compounds cause dizziness, eye irritation, and major kidney damages.
6. Cadmium
This metal has been used in the construction industry because of its anti-corrosion tendencies. It is malleable and can easily be transformed into any shape at relatively low temperatures. Cadmium is used along with other metals as it helps impart strength and color in them. The fumes from cadmium are dangerous as the particles are even finer than those of fiberglass. It can cause fluid accumulation in the lungs and inflammation of lung tissues leading to death. Exposure of cadmium is also linked with cancer.
7. Flame Retardants
These materials are incorporated into the materials during manufacturing to prevent them from catching fire. These retardants for a thin protective layer over the materials and stop the spread of flames. Upon heating, these materials degenerate and turn into toxic substances that damage lungs if inhaled.
Final Words
When renovation your house avoid the above-mentioned materials and make sure:
- You don’t let kids near the renovation site.
- Seclude the part where construction is undergoing.
- Everything is cleaned well after the work is done.
This way you can get the best results for the new look of your home and your family.