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Shelter Ecology, Inc. also has the following product lines available but are ordered per job as needed:

   • Origins 100% post consumer
     recycled plastics countertops
   • Velvit Oil Products

LINK TO PODCAST Learn more about Cindy's book that is in process that exposes indoor air and other environmental toxins and lifestyle solutions for them on a live podcast with Christine Horner, MD on Radio For Your Health.

Setting Priorities For Building Green or Renovating: Healthy Home Design Is One

Green Building, an umbrella title given to eco sensitive and healthy building- offers several different philosophies for building. Shelter Ecology, Inc. focuses on the philosophies that support the health and well being of you and your family. With so many choices to make when building green, unneeded confusion is often created in the design process due to need to clarify priorities for you and your families needs.

The focus of your choice should not depend on the question: "Is this the correct, or the incorrect way for me to build green?" Instead, your question should be: "What are my families needs for building (green)?" If your main priority is to create a healthy home through moisture free, mold free and chemical free design strategies then you have come to the right website for your needs.

Healthy Home Design Respects Your Health and Well- Being

Different climates offer different design strategies for creating a healthy home. The Southeast, where I reside, has mixed to high humidity outdoor air for over 200 days of the year. The Northeast is very similar with the exception of longer and more extreme cold temperatures in the winter. Much of the spring and summer (and some of the early fall) in these areas will have months of high humidity days and nights (60-100% outdoor humidity). This can create mold problems inside homes due to the nature of moist (humid) air which is absorbed by porous materials rather than passing through a space like dry air does.

This fact in itself requires design and building strategies that are very different than homes in arid, dryer climates. This fact therefore prioritizes the need for:

• Conditioned (heated, air conditioned, ventilated and dehumidified) indoor air quality so the moisture can be "wrung out" of the humid air before settling into your porous indoor materials like wood, masonry, drywall and fibers.

• Tightly constructed homes that allow you to control your indoor air, keeping humid air out.

Myths about Tightly Constructed Homes

Cindy Meehan-Patton, President of Shelter Ecology, Inc. believes that a tightly constructed home offers you more control over your indoor air quality, while a leaky home offers you less control. The media has presented us with case studies of tightly constructed homes resulting in toxic indoor air. This occurred because of toxic interior material and appliance choices, locking chemical and gaseous vapors in the house along with the lack of proper mechanical ventilation required in tight envelopes. Shelter Ecology’s healthy home design principles involve a tight, energy efficient envelope with properly sized mechanical ventilation, heating and air conditioning along with the use of natural and not-toxic building and interior design materials within standard construction perimeters.

Shelter Ecology, Inc. Offers Comprehensive Services

The Shelter Ecology Green Products Catalog offers many of the products necessary in creating a healthy home. Cindy also offers Architectural (residential) & Interior Design along with Healthy Home Consultations. If you are building a new home and need help putting all your ideas together into a refined design, Cindy can help you by offering archetectural and interior design working drawings to build with. Cindy offers a package that includes:

1.	A set of working drawings for your contractor to build with that places all your interior rooms and furnishings according to your families needs. This set of drawings should include: – Floor plans, exterior elevations, building sections, building details, electrical plans and interior cabinetry elevations. Often times a site plan will be needed as well.
2.	Complete specifications for healthy home materials and systems components according to your budgetary needs.
3.	Educational materials on healthy home materials and methods.
If you live in an older home, which often means a "leaky" home, there are steps you can take to try and preserve the structural integrity of your home as well as maintaining cleaner indoor air quality. Shelter Ecology, Inc. offers do it yourself, step by step, processes for drying out and cleaning up your indoor air allowing you to maintain a healthier home rather than a more toxic home.*** ***Shelter Ecology, Inc. does not offer Mold testing, instead her consultations (by phone) start with a questionnaire to determine whether you have mold and to some degree what family of mold it is. If the question and answer process results in mold remediation beyond what you can do yourself, Cindy will recommend an Industrial Hygienist or a Certified Mold Remediation expert to assist you in your process. If the consultation is an on site visit, then she acts as the "canary" due to her sensitivity level to mold and chemical toxins. However, Cindy will not be able to offer test results naming the specific mold (for insurance purposes).
FIXING THINGS UP YOURSELF? Check out the online product catalog for products that allow you to correct toxicity quickly and easily. Link from right for your personal Home Tour