The COVID-19 pandemic has led us to rethink much of modern life - everything from the way we do our jobs to how we care for our kids and shop for groceries. Ideally, it should also lead us to rethink the way we design and live in our homes.
The home builders at Borski Homes Inc understand this, so we’ve put serious thought into how we can help everyday homeowners make their homes that much safer. Whether you’re building a custom home or taking on kitchen or bathroom remodeling, we hope these tips can help you make your home a healthier place to be.
1. Upgrade to antimicrobial surfaces.
One of the ways to slow the spread of COVID-19 and similar pathogens is to regularly sanitize frequently touched surfaces. But what if your surfaces sanitized themselves? Copper and its alloys, like brass and bronze, have antimicrobial properties that kill germs within minutes or hours. Choosing doorknobs, cabinet fixtures, wall plates, and other fixtures that are made of brass or copper could help keep your home that much safer - and it can be done as part of a custom home project or in conjunction with bathroom or kitchen remodeling.
2. Go touch-free whenever possible.
Germs like COVID-19 are spread in part through touching infected surfaces - so if a surface is never or infrequently touched, it’ll be hard for that surface to spread the virus. If you’ve been considering upgrading to a smart home system, now might be the time to make the investment. Activating lights, blinds, and even door locks via your voice or a smartphone means you’ll have fewer surfaces to worry about sanitizing. Best of all, this home improvement can be done on any home at any time - although if you’re building new, you should ask your home builder about integrating a smart home system right from the start.
3. Don’t forget the air you breathe.
COVID-19 is a respiratory virus, so even if surfaces are kept pristine, the virus can still spread through droplets in the air. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your HVAC system is dehumidifying and sanitizing the air you breathe, not just making it warmer or cooler. Make sure your home builder has picked a correctly sized unit for your new home, and ask about choosing a system with humidity filters (to cut down on mold growth) and extra filters for extra safe and healthy air. You can also do this if it’s time to upgrade your HVAC system.
4. Keep your water safe and clean.
While COVID-19 isn’t a waterborne illness, there are plenty of inconveniences and health hazards found in our water - everything from carcinogens like chlorine to hard minerals like calcium. A whole-home water filtration and softening system is a great idea for this reason. If you’re building new, talk to your home builder about adding one right from the start. You can also add a whole-home softener at any point in time, or stick to point-of-use filters if a whole-home system isn’t in your budget right now.
5. Design to age in place.
We are going to be blunt: while you might be young and healthy now, you won’t always be. Your home should be designed not just for your present but for your future needs. That means talking to your builder about age-in-place guidelines. Ask about adding decorative grab bars to the bathroom, and make sure anti-slip tiles are used in the shower. Minimize steps and bumps between rooms to make them easier to navigate with a walker, crutches, or wheelchair. Doing this will not only help you if you plan to stay in your home for the long haul (or if you happen to get injured), but it can also enhance your home’s resale value.
If you’d like to build a custom home or are hoping to remodel your current one and want it to be as healthy as possible, we invite you to call the home builders at Borski Homes Inc. We proudly serve Bryan, TX; College Station, TX; and the surrounding areas, and we’d be thrilled to take your new home or remodel to a safer, more satisfying level. Call today
to get started!