When we bought our older home, my husband and I decided to seal as much of it as we could in order to keep our HVAC treated air inside.
We didn’t have the money to replace the windows and doors right away, so sealing all the cracks was a more affordable option for us.
My husband decided to invest his extra time on the weekend to seal everything off and he did his own research on how to effectively do it. When he was done, I noticed that he used a ton of supplies, but I didn’t question his technique since I wasn’t the one who researched the proper way to do it. A few days later, I felt like the air quality in our house had decreased. The air was stuffy and our entire family was sick. Despite my husband’s reluctance, we hired an HVAC professional to come look at our furnace. We had assumed that something was malfunctioning and causing the air to feel so different. The HVAC professional noticed the DIY sealing that my husband did all over the doors and windows and he began questioning him about it. According to the HVAC professional, he said that we’d over-sealed the house! I didn’t even know this was possible! The house was so tightly sealed that the air was stagnant inside and airborne illnesses were floating around with nowhere to go. The HVAC professional suggested we run an air purifier to help move and purify the air for the meantime. He was adamant that we hire an HVAC professional next year to seal our house though, because they knew exactly how much was needed to seal but still leave comfort.