Greening your new apartment or leased commercial space

One of our goals in writing this blog was to share with the world some of the interesting situations that many home and business owners face with greening their home and work environments.  One situation that we receive many questions about is how to handle greening new rental apartments and leased office space.  Earlier this week, we visited two newly leased spaces that looked great from the outside but as we entered the spaces, the odor was just overwhelming.  The spaces were painted and cleaned around 4 days earlier but the smells still persisted.  In these cases, “freshly painted” meant it. 

The best scenario that we have noticed is to just simply ask the landlord before signing the lease or rental agreement. However, we have noticed that many landlords are not paying for the products but asking for the renter to pick up the costs.  In a recent repair project that we completed in New Brunswick, NJ, the renter paid the difference in using AFM Safecoat paint compared to an unhealthy alternative.

Green with Envy Home Store Healthy Leasing or Renting Checklist

*Painting-Use zero or low VOC paints from companies, such as AFM Safecoat, before moving into the space.

*Cleaning-Hire a professional green cleaning service to clean before you move.  The costs are minimal and who really wants to see what the previous tenants left behind!!

*Carpets-What is under the carpet?  This is a very important question.  We have seen some really nice hardwood flooring under some really tacky orange shag carpet.  How old is the carpet?  This may dictate what action can be taken because carpet is one of the leading causes of indoor air pollution.  One of our clients actually picked up the costs of carpet removal because the padding was urine infested.

*Showers and Bathrooms-Check for water leaks around the showers and under the sink.  We cannot say enough about mold and the related health problems that this will cause your family or co-workers

 *Location and previous users of the space- We cannot stress this enough to our clients because of the problems that we have recently noticed and remedied in our area.  One of our clients at Green with Envy Home Store was actually going to rent a space for a day care that was previously used by a dry cleaner.  Another great tip is to research your neighbors.  A current project in a North Jersey condo has cigarette and cigar smoke seeping into the unit from the neighbor’s window.  We thought the smoke was from our own client.  We realize that this is a very difficult project but check on your neighbors, especially in an industrial setting. 

Renting and leasing is a long, grueling process but a few simple steps will make your new home, apartment or business space the healthiest environment possible.