Nigel Griffiths talks us through the key ingredients when it comes to creating a new house that is good for you and your family’s longterm physical and mental wellbeing

Package home specialist Baufritz (www. baufritz.com) takes an active approach to creating healthy premanufactured buildings by using natural products and materials that haven’t been chemically treated

It sounds obvious, but homes should be places that enhance our physical and mental health. Keeping us warm, dry and secure, they should be a refuge from the world, and a source of both comfort and inspiration. Too often though, properties are sources of pollution, either through damp and mould or through the chemicals which we unwittingly bring into our indoor environment. Poor quality housing may lack natural light, be cramped, cold, noisy or badly ventilated - and all these things can have a negative impact on our health and wellbeing.

Ventilation & indoor air quality

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of ventilation, as most transmission seems to take place indoors. Although there are Building Regulations about the provision of fresh air in dwellings, these have rarely been enforced, so existing buildings have work to do and it won’t be easy. For new builds there’s really no excuse. Make sure you have a proper ventilation design for the whole house and put in place a robust way to ensure the quality of the installation - so many whole house systems have been found to be incorrectly fitted or maintained.

A good ventilation strategy will also remove moisture (often immediately to the outside) from wet rooms such as the laundry, kitchen and bathrooms, to ensure that humidity levels throughout the property are kept down. People emit both moisture and CO2 when they breathe, and relatively high levels of both these are often present in bedrooms, making them a big risk area. As the door is usually closed most of the time the room is occupied, there needs to be a through-flow of air from trickle vents in windows or walls to the door undercuts.