Tips to Ensure You Have Good Air Quality at the Office

Offices are often great places for collaboration and productivity, but this environment also has its fair share of toxins, allergens, and dust that gets circulated. All of this leads to poor air quality which can adversely effect everyone if not tended to.

These effects aren’t just limited to the air everyone breathes. Poor air quality can increase the amount employees get sick, and can even affect morale. In addition to hiring an office cleaning service, here are five simple tips for keeping the air quality high at your office. 

Change Your Filters Frequently

Changing your air filters is one of the simplest tasks, but yet is often overlooked in an office environment. Dirt and dust builds up in your filters over time, which is a good thing – that is the purpose of the filter in the first place. 

However, left unchanged, that dust makes its way through the filter and into the ducts, recirculating back into the office. Additionally, the buildup restricts air flow, worsening the problem. 

Filters should be changed at least once per year, but in a busy office setting, probably more like every six months. 

Pay Attention to Construction Work

Believer it or not, one of the biggest causes of dust in an office comes from regular (and often minor) construction work. Whether a quick repair to a wall or changing out a set of light bulbs, even the simplest of tasks can kick up unwanted dust and debris.

Be attentive to these projects that your staff handles, and try to open a window or two while it is happening. Use fans to push the dust outside, rather than allowing it to circulate throughout the office.

Larger construction projects pose even greater risks for office employees. Try to have the work down after hours, when the air quality will have time to improve. If that isn’t possible, consider investing in a good dust mask for employees to wear. 

Invest in an Air Purifier

Depending on the size of your office, this might be an expensive proposition. But, adding a desktop air purifier is a fantastic way to grab a lot of the toxins that exist in a corporate work environment. 

HEPA filtration uses technology to filter out over 99% of the allergens and toxins in the air, and is the best way to create clean air. Make sure you have enough purifiers to cover your office’s square footage. 

Keep a Clean Office

Dirty air starts with a dirty office, and you can nip this problem in the bud by keeping a clean office. If its just you, it might take nothing more than a weekly reminder to keep your desk tidy and fun some disinfectant over your table top and keyboard.

In a larger office environment, there are typically cleaners who handle this professionally. It is usually the office structures in the middle that suffer the most: those with more than one employee, but not enough to justify a cleaner.

Set up a weekly chore system, and actively enforce the cleaning. Even the most basic of weekly cleans will a long way to improving your air quality.

Clean the Air Ducts

While this task is more substantive than others on the list, it is also the most effective. Over time, dirt and debris naturally builds up inside of your air ducts – even regularly changing your filters won’t stop this. 

While possible to do yourself, its typically best to call in a professional to handle this task. Once per year is usually more than enough, and the long term effects of handling this will be noticeable. 

Conclusion

These tips range from incredibly simple to more involved, but implementing any of them will increase the quality of the air in any office.