What is a Healthy Home Consultant? Do You Need One?

Reader Contribution by Paula Baker-Laporte Faia
Published on September 26, 2013
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My story: how I became a healthy home consultant.

My degree is in Architecture.  I never imagined that being a Healthy Home Consultant would become a regular part of my professional practice. In the early 80’s I lived in a home that made me chronically ill. Once it became clear that the cause of my poor health was my home I also realized that my education had been woefully deficient when it came to health. In my quest to become well again my architectural background turned out to be a huge asset. I was trained to understand how buildings are put together and how the standard construction process works. I had an insider view of how it needed to change to incorporate all of the many facets that go in to creating a healthy home. I went on to become a student and practitioner of Building Biology. This science, which originated in Germany, studies the relationship between human health and the built environment. Between my architectural education, my own personal experience with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and my Building Biology training I gained a set of specialized knowledge that I have remained passionate about for over 20 years. In my healthy home consulting work I have been able to help hundreds of people throughout North America, Mexico, Costa Rica and as far away as Israel, and Switzerland. I have had the opportunity to experience many climate-and culturally-based variations of “home” and to work with professional colleagues including architects, builders, physicians, building officials and inspection and remediation specialists world-wide to determine what makes buildings sick and what makes them support health.

Four Reasons for Hiring a Healthy Home Consultant

There are a variety of reasons for hiring a Healthy Home Consultant and here are the four most common:

1. Something in my house is making me sick but I don’t know what it is. It is prohibitively expensive to test for every chemical that might be in your air so before calling a Healthy Home Consultant you would benefit by doing a little detective work on your own. Refer to my article What the Nose Knows for some tips on scoping out your home. Once you have gathered some information a Healthy Home Consultant who specializes in detection and remediation of unhealthy situations can help you by doing a general visual inspection aided by various instruments to measure general air quality, electro-magnetic radiation, water quality etc. The consultant can help you determine the most important testing and then design a protocol for remediation once your test results are in. The Building Biology website has a great deal of free information to help you with your initial investigation and lists Healthy Home consultants certified through the Institute.

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