Missouri Real Estate News

Trends & Insight for Missouri Home Buyers and Sellers

MISSOURI REAL ESTATE NEWS
Trends for MO Home Buyers & Sellers

HOME IMPROVEMENT

EPA estimates more than 200,000 lead pipes still in Mo.

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More than 200,000 lead service pipes carry drinking water to Missouri families, according to a new estimate from the Environmental Protection Agency.

New lead water pipes have been banned for more than 30 years. But the EPA estimates that 9.2 million American households still get their water through aging lead pipes.

Just over 2% of those are in Missouri, ranking the state 14th in the country for its number of lead service lines. The EPA announced Tuesday that the state would get $106.4 million to update its water infrastructure through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Over the next 20 years, the EPA estimates the U.S. will need $625 billion to update water infrastructure.

The EPA’s regional administrator, Meghan McCollister, said in a news release that the funds would go to “ensure that Missourians have access to clean drinking water.”

“Missouri’s investments through this fund will aid in securing needed resources to address critical infrastructure needs, threats to drinking water systems such as lead pipes, and emerging contaminants such as (forever chemicals).”

The funding allotment prioritized states according to need, something that the Natural Resources Defense Council applauded. The environmental organization published a report last year saying the states that most needed funds to replace lead service lines were getting shortchanged.

“EPA’s changes will ensure a fairer and more equitable distribution of funding dollars to replace the nation’s millions of lead pipes,” said Cyndi Roper, one of the authors of last year’s analysis. “It’s good news for communities with the highest need that will now have access to more funding to get lead pipes out of the ground.”

The EPA banned new lead service lines — the pipes that carry water from water mains into people’s homes — in 1986 in an effort to combat lead poisoning.

Lead is a neurotoxin that, even at low levels, can harm children’s developing brains. Exposure to lead through water accounts for 20% of a child’s overall exposure, on average. For fetuses and formula-fed infants, leaded water is the No. 1 source of exposure.

President Joe Biden’s administration has pledged to remove the country’s lead service lines. But for now, little is known about where they are.

The EPA’s new estimates are projections based on a survey that water utilities filled out in 2021. But not every utility was required to fill out the survey. And some that did respond reported not knowing what their service lines are made of.

The EPA estimated Missouri has 202,112 lead service lines while the NRDC estimated in 2021 that the state had more than 330,000.

Water utilities treat their water to be non-corrosive so that lead won’t leach from the service line into people’s drinking water.

But a change in the water chemistry or construction that shakes up a pipe can cause it to start leaching the toxin into drinking water.

That’s what happened in Flint, Michigan, the most prominent case of lead-contaminated water in recent years.

But the issue isn’t unique to that high-profile situation. A pediatrician who helped uncover the Flint water crisis said it wasn’t the first, worst or last.

Something similar happened in Trenton, Missouri, where the water utility switched chemicals used to disinfect the water and the lead levels spiked. Trenton, like many other water utilities, doesn’t know where its lead service lines are.

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

Originally Appeared Here

How A 40 Year Old Company Built a Multigenerational Empire from Scratch

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How A 40 Year Old Company Built a Multigenerational Empire from Scratch

Starting a successful company is one thing. Making the right decisions to ensure that the company will thrive 100 years down the road is quite another. In many cases, business owners are so consumed by the daily grind of running a business that they don’t have time to work on the future of their business.

Many business owners are operating under the assumption that the next generation will have the same leadership capabilities as the founder. Succession requires careful planning as flying on a wing and a prayer and changing the engine on the plane at 30,000 feet is a less than ideal scenario.

“Each generation has unique abilities. Paving the way for the next generation to succeed requires a thoughtful approach to the smooth transfer of roles and responsibilities,” said Dan Loiacono, Managing Partner at DLA Companies, a Kansas City-based mergers and acquisition specialist.

It is far from a foregone conclusion that after future generations take the reins, the company will continue to be as successful as it was with past generations.

But the companies that do succession well are winning.

Case in point, Ben Romans started his tiny window, doors, and siding business back in the late 1960s, and from the very beginning was planning to build something that his whole family could grow into the next century and beyond.

When he passed the proverbial leadership “torch” to his daughter Brenda Walters, she picked up where he left off without missing a beat. The rest is history. Brenda has presided over one of the fastest-growing, largest locally-owned home improvement companies in Kansas City for the past 15 years.

“Now my talented daughter, working side by side with me for over a decade, has stepped up to take our company to new heights for the next 20 years,” said Brenda, who manages an average of over 500 home improvement projects a year for her family’s company.

One of the few women in a male-dominated industry, Brenda entered into this field with aspirations of following in her father’s footsteps, Ben Romans. She then promptly proceeded to transform Cornerstone Home Improvements into a woman-owned business by bringing her daughter into the fold in the most strategic way possible.

Me’Shelle Bishop, the granddaughter of founder Ben Romans and daughter of company president Brenda Walters, has been with the company since 2004. She paid her dues and moved up the ranks from front desk to Co-Owner in 2019.

Her mission is to be true to the original values that made the business successful in the first place. “We deliver to the homeowners a premium product at an affordable price with installation and service second to none,” said Me’Shelle.

Now that’s continuity.

This original feature story was written by Andrew Ellenberg, President and Managing Partner of Rise Integrated Marketing. To learn more about Cornerstone Home Improvements email meshelle@chi-kc.com or visit them here.

Homeowners Would Rather Renovate Than Sell

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Still hot as ever, the housing market is continuing to find new highs in 2022 but consumers now overwhelmingly agree that the time is right to mold the space around you versus putting it on the market and finding another property that better fits your needs. 

According to a survey of 1,000 consumers by LendingTree, 64% of respondents cited risings costs and shortages as obstacles to their home improvement plans, still, nearly half of homeowners planned to make home improvements this summer, citing comfort as their first reason for upgrading. 

72% of respondents said that in an ideal world, they would rather make improvements to their property rather than go through the hassle of selling and finding another property that better fits their needs. 48% of homeowners have renovation or upgrade plans this spring or summer, while 34% say they’re considering it. Millennials (60%) and Midwesterners (55%) are most likely to have home improvement plans. 

That’s not to say that everything relating to renovations are easy: nearly two-thirds of homeowners say recent economic turmoil has impacted their plans with 36% of that number citing higher material and labor costs while 16% cited supply chain issues. 

Overall, 62% of respondents indicated that there was some level of home improvement they want to make, such as renovating a kitchen (18%), but could not afford to do so. Looking to stretch their budgets, many homeowners turn to a DIY approach. 77% say they’ll make at least some of repairs during a renovation to save on costs. 

To fund these improvements, most respondents reported that they would dip into their savings to cover costs (60%), while other would fund with credit cards (25%), personal loans (12%), home equity loans (7%), unsecured loans (6%), home equity lines of credit (5%), and cash out refinances (3%). 

Click below to view the report in its entirety, including generational breakdowns of the data. 

Originally Appeared Here

St. Louis’ new recycling plan starts today

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ST. LOUIS – The City of St. Louis’ plan to clean up its image when it comes to recycling starts Tuesday. That plan includes the return of the city’s recycling program and a crackdown on illegal dumpers. The city also wants to be strategic with its trash pick-up.

City of St. Louis Operations Manager Nancy Cross said the city had to suspend alleyway recycling collection because of a national labor shortage. Last August, the city began offering $3,000 bonuses for new refuse truck drivers. Officials predicted a return of recycling service shortly after Thanksgiving.

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Officials predicted a return of recycling service shortly after Thanksgiving, but that didn’t happen. Still, the city collected $14-a-month refuse fees. About $3 of that is for recycling.

This comes as dumpsters are still overflowing in spots. A new map is making the return of recycling possible as the city plans to track which parts of the city produce the most trash. This will allow the department to be strategic with pick-up while freeing up drivers for separate recycling routes again.

“This is the first time we’ve done anything like that,” said Angela Pearson, special projects manager for St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones. “We know that everyone will continue to get trash pickup at least once a week. That’s standard practice for any city but we also want to make sure we’re being data-driven in our approach…so that we can continue to keep those bins and those dumpsters from overflowing.”

The city has hired nine new drivers but still needs about 10 more. The City of St. Louis is also more than doubling the number of illegal dumping surveillance cameras.

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“The mayor just geared it up like 5 times, put it on steroids. It’s going to be crazy heat. They’re going to go from 200 cameras to 500 cameras,” said St. Louis Refuse Commissioner Todd Waeltermann. “This is huge.”

Originally Appeared Here

Contact 2 gets results for woman with backyard deck dilemma

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ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A north St. Louis County homeowner is ready to dust off her patio furniture and fire up the grill now that her backyard deck is finally complete — but it took months and months of waiting.

Wanda Durns said last May she selected one of the largest home improvement retailers in North America for her new deck project.

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“I spent about $25,000 with Lowes, and everything had to be paid for upfront. I knew in the beginning, that getting the material would take time,” said Durns. “And I was fine with that. I just didn’t realize that a year later, it still wouldn’t be done. Lowes subcontracts. They sent three different groups of people out here.”

Despite the manpower and months of work, one missing hand railing was holding up the job.

“They called me about two weeks ago and told me the piece was in. I said, ‘Why are you calling me? You should be calling the company that’s supposed to install it,’” said Durns. “They asked me if there was any way I could get it. I said, ‘No, wait a minute. When I pick it up, do you want me to install it too?’”

That’s when she wrote Contact 2, and we contacted Lowes’ corporate office. To the company’s credit, it acted quickly. Less than a week later, Durns’ railing was installed, and Lowes gave her $2,000 in-store credit for unused material she paid for that one of the contractors hauled away.

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“I don’t know what you did, because I must’ve made 50 phone calls to them and couldn’t motivate anybody to move, but you certainly took care of it.” Said Durns.

Now if Mother Nature can provide us with some more sunshine and warmer temperatures, Durns will really be able to enjoy her new deck.

“Mike, I can’t thank you enough and everybody at the station,” she said.


Originally Appeared Here

New Design, Luxury Lifestyle, and Home Improvement News Magazine Taps Growing Demand for Ideas and Inspiration About The Hottest Remodeling Trends

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Life in Style Mills EndorsemenLike most homeowners, you’ve noticed remodeling projects in your neighborhood are on the rise, especially in the warmer months. People are spending more time at home, stoking an unprecedented boom in demand for ways to enhance their living and workspaces.  

People are redeploying the money they previously spent on restaurants, vacations, and gas for long commutes into remodeling and renovations that boost the value of their homes.  Houzz, an online home remodeling platform, reported a 58 percent annual increase in project leads last summer. 

“When you don’t venture out as frequently, people need their house to be an enjoyable space where they can bunker down and still be active, live in luxury, and have a blast,” said Martin Taggart, Owner of Team Real Estate, brokered through eXp Realty and publisher of Life In Style. 

The philosophy that his new design, home improvement, and lifestyle magazine brings to its readers every week is empowerment and knowledge. The digital magazine launched in April 2022 and is available online on the new LinkedIn Newsletter platform and the company’s blog. 

The multimedia news magazine is a go-to resource for anyone interested in design, home improvement, or simply living a more modern and luxurious life.  In each episode, readers can find entertaining feature stories on topics ranging from trends in home office design, contemporary homes, sustainable living,  transformative landscaping, and outdoor spaces to home entertainment, smart homes, theme rooms, and color choices. 

“Life In Style helps homeowners make more informed and inspired choices. It connects readers to design and home improvement experts who weigh in with original news, commentary and analysis,” said internationally recognized Interior Designer Karen Mills. She joined the news magazine as a regular contributor before the debut episode.  

Taggart underscored his publication’s role in building a community of inspired homeowners and home improvement professionals. Life In Style shines the spotlight on cool projects and exciting transformations. 

Mills was the host of Living Large, the nation’s first interior design radio show featuring exclusive interviews with celebrity designers from HGTV. It ran for eight consecutive years and created over 400 hours of original programming.  Wikipedia lists it along with Martha Stewart Living in the media section. 

“I decided to join the Life In Style bureau of experts because it will be the next hit home improvement and design news magazine,” said Mills, a prolific blogger, published designer, and international media guest. 

Kitchen remodeling saw a 40 percent jump in demand last June compared to the prior year. People cook and eat at home, so kitchens are the center of family life. 

“Homeowners are likely getting an extra incentive from record-high home equity levels. Home prices continue to gain as demand for housing soars. People are crunching numbers to calculate their ROI on projects,” said Justin Rabin, a loan officer at Fountain Mortgage. 

Just over 15 million residential properties were considered equity-rich in the second quarter of 2021, meaning mortgages on those properties were 50 percent or less than the value of the home, according to ATTOM Data Solutions. That represents 27.5 percent of all mortgaged homes in the U.S. 

“Many homeowners still spend most of their time at home and feel a sense of urgency about updating indoor and outdoor spaces. They are redesigning them for work, school, play, exercise, and more,” said Bryce Johnson, owner of Bryce Construction and regular Life In Style contributor. 

Over 75 percent of all U.S. homeowners said they did some type of home improvement project during the pandemic and plan to take on a new project in the next 12 months, per a recent survey by Porch.com. The top motivator was “finally having the time,” followed closely by the desire to increase home value. 

Riding a wave of popularity in the home improvement and design category, Life In Style attracts a discerning and affluent audience while drawing attention from other media. 

Digital publications like Life In Style are growing because they super-serve the “nesting” trend. People are actively seeking new ideas to spruce up their homes. They want to live their best lives. 

This new design, home improvement, and luxury lifestyle publication is an entertaining and educational resource for anyone interested in making their home a welcoming, stylish place to be during these uncertain times. 

Life In Style delivers whether homeowners need design tips or a little motivation to start a long-overdue project. Its original feature stories, stunning project photos, videos, and podcasts are the building blocks of functional and beautiful spaces. 

Home flips increase, but profits drop

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ATTOM’s 2021 U.S. Home Flipping Report shows that 323,465 single-family homes and condos were flipped last year, a 26 percent year-over-year increase to the highest point since 2006. Flips in 2021 represented 5.5 percent of all home sales, down from 5.8 percent in 2020 and 6.1 percent in 2019.

However, gross profit margins on home flips in 2021 sank to their lowest level in more than a decade after dropping at the fastest pace in more than 15 years, according to ATTOM. Homes flipped in 2021 typically generated a gross profit of $65,000, down 3 percent year-over year, and translated into just a 31 percent return on investment (ROI) compared with the original acquisition price, the lowest margin since 2008.

“While gross profits were lower for fix-and-flip investors in 2021, there may have been offsets that protected net profits,” ATTOM Executive Vice President of Market Intelligence Rick Sharga said in a release. “Fewer flippers financed their purchases, so their cost of capital was lower. And it took less time to execute a flip, reducing holding costs, and suggesting that less extensive – and less expensive – repairs were needed to bring the properties to market. A lot of the markup on fix-and-flip properties historically has come from the value of those repairs, but so have a lot of the costs that reduce net profits.”

Home flips as a portion of all home sales decreased from 2020 to 2021 in 53 percent of the metro areas analyzed. The biggest decreases in annual flipping rates were in Honolulu (down 83 percent), Atlantic City, N.J. (down 73 percent), Manchester, N.H. (down 57.7 percent), Rochester, N.Y. (down 48 percent) and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Home flipping rates increased in 47 percent of metro areas analyzed. The largest annual increases in the home flipping rate came in Utah and Texas, including Provo, Utah (up 114.3 percent), Salt Lake City (up 113.4 percent), Austin, Texas (up 111.2 percent), College Station, Texas (up 97.4 percent) and Ogden, Utah (up 95 percent).

The percentage of flipped homes purchased with financing in 2021 dropped to 38.7 percent from 41 percent in 2020 and from 39.9 percent in 2019. Also, 61.3 percent of homes flipped in 2021 were bought with all-cash, up from 59 percent in 2020 and 60.1 percent in 2018.

“In an environment where mortgage rates are rising as rapidly as they are today, investors buying with cash are at a distinct advantage over consumer homebuyers,” Sharga said. “The combination of rising home prices, rising mortgage rates and rising inflation is undoubtedly creating affordability issues for many prospective buyers, so it’s possible that there will be less competition overall for the limited inventory of homes available for sale.”

The metro areas with 1 million or more people with the highest percentage of flipped homes purchased by investors with financing in 2021 included Louisville, Ky. (55.6 percent), San Diego (55.4 percent), Seattle (52.6 percent), Portland, Ore. (48.6 percent) and San Francisco (47.6 percent).

The metro areas with 200,000 or more that had the highest percentage of flips purchased with all cash included Tuscaloosa, Ala. (90.6 percent), Buffalo, N.Y. (84.1 percent), Dayton, Ohio (82.8 percent), Detroit (82.2 percent) and Canton, Ohio (82.1 percent).

Homes flipped in 2021 were sold for a median price of $275,000, with a gross flipping profit of $65,000. That’s down from a 15-year gross-profit high of $67,000 in 2020 but up from $60,000 in 2019.

Those metro areas of 1 million or more with the largest gross-flipping profits in 2021 were San Jose, Calif. ($265,500), San Francisco ($172,000), Seattle ($149,950), San Diego ($145,500) and Washington, D.C. ($139,555). Those with the lowest gross-flipping profits include Kansas City, Mo. ($23,456), Houston ($32,300), San Antonio, Texas ($34,357), Dallas ($40,800) and Atlanta ($43,900).

Among metro areas with a population of 1 million or more, the biggest year-over-year percentage-point decreases in profit margins in 2021 were in Cleveland (ROI down from 101.5 percent in 2020 to 40 percent in 2021), Cincinnati (down from 83.5 percent to 40 percent), St. Louis, Mo. (down from 71 percent to 39 percent), Columbus, Ohio (down from 70 percent to 40 percent) and Providence, R.I. (down 65.7 percent to 36.4 percent).

The only increases in ROI in that group of metro areas were in Buffalo, N.Y. (ROI up from 92 percent in 2020 to 98.9 percent in 2021), Raleigh, N.C. (up from 14.5 percent to 19.8 percent), Nashville, Tenn. (up from 33.3 percent to 36.8 percent), Boston (up from 29.1 percent to 31.3 percent) and Phoenix (up from 20.8 percent to 21.3 percent).

Originally Appeared Here

Free Remodeling Idea Book from MARC (Mid-America Regional Council)

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The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), serving the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, offers a free Remodeling Idea Book for download.

The First Suburbs Coalition Idea Book examines four of the most common housing types found in inner-ring suburbs in Greater Kansas City — Ranch, Split Level, Two Story, and Cape Cod — and provides dozens of ideas for appropriate ways to update and make additions to them.

The 40-page, folio-sized book offers color illustrations of each design and the elements which can be renovated or added.

The book also addresses windows, doors and garages, as well as other basics of exterior appearance.

Considerations such as energy efficiency, financing and universal design are also discussed in the book along with a section of guidelines for selecting and working with reliable contractors.

There is also a Green Idea book – focused on incorporating “green” strategies into remodeling efforts – and a Universal Design Ideas book.

Visit the MARC website to download the books.

Missouri contractor charged with fraud for minority business claims

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Dive Brief:

  • A Missouri contractor funneled nearly $900,000 through two minority businesses to meet diversity goals on construction contracts without actually engaging the firms for their building services, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment last week.  
  • Brian Kowert Sr., a former co-owner and chief operating officer at what is now Russell HBD in St. Louis, paid two minority-owned subcontractors small fees to shuttle checks and contracts to non-minority firms on three projects starting in 2014, the feds alleged.
  • Kowert created duplicate contracts and purchase orders and fraudulently claimed the minority firms were doing the actual work, the complaint alleged. He altered checks to include non-minority contractors’ names after recording them as paid to the minority firms, according to the indictment.

Dive Insight:

Minority and women-owned business participation on construction projects has become a hot-button topic. Many government-funded projects set participation goals for underrepresented groups, while the industry has tried to change its White-guys-only image with diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Hal Goldsmith, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri who is prosecuting the case, said his office has received complaints of minority business enterprise fraud in the construction industry for years.

“Unfortunately, it’s more common than we’d like,” said Goldsmith. “Hopefully this will deter others in the construction trades from doing the same thing, where they really aren’t using legitimate minority companies and workers to perform on these construction jobs.”

Joel J. Schwartz, listed in court documents as Kowert’s attorney, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

Russell HBD, which succeeded Kowert’s original HBD Construction after the firms merged in 2020, also didn’t respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment. But according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the company said it had no knowledge of Kowert’s actions, and terminated his employment in December.

“This matter begins and ends with Brian Kowert Sr.,” Caitlin Russell, company president, told the paper. “We at Russell are fully committed to transparency and ethical financial stewardship. We do not tolerate fraudulent behavior or misconduct of any kind.”

Kowert’s son, Brian Kowert Jr., still works at the firm, according to its website.  

The indictment doesn’t name the two minority firms Kowert allegedly used as shells, which it said received payments ranging from $2,000 to $2,500, and emphasizes that the clients whose projects he built didn’t know about Kowert’s deception.

For example, the indictment said one client, Springfield, Missouri-based developer RAGA, unwittingly used Kowert’s bogus minority participation numbers in January during a presentation to the Missouri Housing Development Commission as evidence of meeting its goals for a senior housing community known as Logan Villas.

“RAGA and Logan Villas LLP and their employees had no knowledge of Kowert’s fraudulent scheme,” the indictment stated.  

Recent issues

Actual compliance with minority participation goals on construction projects has gained scrutiny nationally.  

The Federal Aviation Administration recently called out officials at the Kansas City airport’s new terminal project for not properly tracking minority contractors, and the Massachusetts state auditor found the state’s construction division failed to meet inclusion goals for women on 95% of projects.

In addition, in Congress last fall, minority contractors testified they were often used as “window dressing” to help prime contractors win bids, only to be pushed off projects after they’re awarded.

Paula L. Finch, an attorney at St. Louis-based Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C. who focuses on supplier diversity in construction projects, said minority workforce participation compliance varies by jurisdiction and that contractors often face challenges meeting goals laid out in project requirements.  

“From a big picture standpoint, we don’t have enough women and minority-owned businesses out there,” Finch said. “The unintended consequences of these goals is companies who try and get creative so that their bid looks better.”

Indeed, at Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane, which recently committed $4 billion to minority and women-owned suppliers, newly appointed CEO Thomas Laird told Construction Dive a lack of capacity at underrepresented firms was one of the biggest challenges he faced.

“The diverse contracting capacity is very thin,” Laird said, who emphasized the company partners with and mentors underrepresented firms to help address the issue. “We are very focused on trying to create that capacity.”

Originally Appeared Here

Can Air Purifiers Actually Remove Dust from the Air?

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Air purifiers are a popular home remedy for all kinds of ills, from smog to odors. But are they really effective at removing dust? Does it make sense to spend money on an air purifier when you can just use your air conditioner? Let’s look at whether air purifiers can really remove dust from the air, and if they’re worth the investment.

What is an air purifier?

An air purifier is a machine designed to improve the air quality in your home or office. They come in various shapes and sizes.

Air purifiers can broadly be classified as ACTIVE or PASSIVE.

Passive purifiers require that air pass through an internal filtering device first. This is effective, but what if the impure air hits your lungs before it hits the filter?

This is especially important to consider, given the recent infection rates of COVID-19 and its variants.  One infected person could spread the disease to other people before passive purification can have a chance of removing the virus. HEPA filters and carbon filters are examples of passive purifiers.

Active purifiers are proactive, in contrast. Active purifiers can reduce contaminants in the air without first drawing the air through their mechanism.

Although active purifiers are still relatively new, they have been proven to be more effective than older standards such as passive HEPA. Active purification includes photocatalytic oxygenation, ion generators and ActivePure’s proprietary technology.

Purifiers can be either installed in a building’s ductwork or portable units.

Do air purifiers remove dust?

Well, yes and no – this question isn’t very specific, so it’s difficult to answer. First, what does “remove” mean? If you put your hand in front of an air purifier for a few seconds, you would definitely feel much less dust in your hand than if you didn’t use an air purifier.

Also, the term “dust” is very broad. Every single particle in the air is not dust. There are many tiny harmful particles in the air that air purifiers do not remove. Having larger particles in the air is actually better for you and the environment (at least, in some ways) because they reduce the amount of harmful UV rays that reach the ground.

The amount of dust in the air is pretty much decided by the environment. There is no such thing as a dust-free environment. Humans are constantly breathing in dust and putting dust in the air.

How effective are air purifiers at removing dust?

In theory, an air purifier should remove all harmful particles from the air. The problem is that there is no such thing as a perfect air purifier. They are not able to remove all particles from the air, even though they may reduce the amount of certain particles in the air.

The amount of dust in the air is mostly determined by factors such as the weather, the amount of dust in the surrounding area, whether the windows are open or not, and other small factors.

This means that, in theory, an air purifier could remove up to 99.9% of a specific particle, like the pollen found in pollen-infested areas, or the HEPA dust that is generated from hardwood floors. But in reality, an air purifier will never remove more than 50-60% of all particles in the air.

Is it worth it to buy an air purifier?

For some people, the decision to buy an air purifier is obvious. They have severe allergies or are constantly dealing with dust in their house. (Here’s more info on how air purifiers work to clean air.)

If you are one of those people, it is definitely worth the investment to buy an air purifier. The best thing to do is look for a model that has high reviews for dust removal, as this usually indicates that it will be more effective at removing dust.

If you aren’t one of these people, there are a couple of things to keep in mind before deciding whether or not to buy an air purifier.

The first is the upfront cost of the machine. While it is technically possible to run a machine 24/7 and save money by doing so, in reality, the air inside your home will be dirtier over time. This means that you will have to spend more time and money to clean your air filters more often.

The second is the ongoing cost of running an air purifier. These usually run on electricity and produce some type of grime, whether it be the filth that collects on your air purifier’s filters or the microwaved rocks that your UV purifier produces.

Final Words

The debate about whether or not air purifiers remove dust from the air rages on. While there are no clear-cut statistics that can tell us for certain, the general consensus is that they don’t remove dust very effectively. But then – that’s not their intent! They are designed to purify air and remove common pollutants, allergens and toxins. They don’t do your household dusting for you, unfortunately. If you have allergies or asthma, live in high-smog areas, or with a smoker, you should definitely consider investing in a dedicated air purifier. If you aren’t one of these people, there’s a benefit – clean air is always better than dirty air, even if you don’t notice it bothering you.

If you do decide to buy an air purifier, make sure you check out the one we recommend, from ActivePure.

For more information:

EPA Residential Air Cleaners Technical Summary

Original Article Here