Introducing local or exotic houseplants into your Virginia home is a great way to improve your indoor air quality (IAQ) naturally. That’s because houseplants provide a beautiful, healthy, and inexpensive way to filter out many volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can be quite harmful. Specific plants get rid of particular pollutants from the environments, so it is a good idea to have a mix of plants in your home.
Aloe Vera
This interesting little plant has medicinal as well as IAQ benefits. It helps to remove formaldehyde and benzene from the air, which are substances found in paint, adhesives, caulk, and other interior building materials. It’s always a good idea to have a professional test your indoor air quality, as there are many factors that affect IAQ that you might not be able to detect. Another advantage of using Aloe Vera is that you don’t have to worry if you don’t have a green thumb as they are low maintenance plants.
Spider Plant
The spider plant is also one of the easiest plants to take care of in any kind of environment. Even if you’ve never taken care of a plant, you can’t go wrong with this hard option. NASA conducted studies on houseplants as a means to clean air on spaceships, and they determined that the spider plant quite effectively removes toxins from enclosed spaces.
Boston Fern
The Boston Fern is an aesthetically pleasing houseplant that offers superb air filtration, as well as great beauty. While this plant requires a little more care, the trade-off is the removal of formaldehyde and xylene, from your indoor air. Keep the Boston Fern in indirect sunlight, but make sure the air is moist. The plant thrives in humidity.
These are just a few of the many houseplants you can use to naturally treat the air in your home. However, even the best houseplant can’t keep everything out of the air. That’s why it’s important to contact your HVAC contractor for professional indoor air quality solutions.
Weather Makers, Inc. provides effective indoor air quality and duct cleaning services. Give us a call today at 757-263-4869 for more information or to schedule an appointment.