A Palatka air-quality call, from the first sneeze in February to the last filter in May

Run this list before you call

Most air-quality complaints in Palatka have a seasonal shape, and a homeowner can rule out the simple causes in an afternoon:

1. Pull the filter. If it is gray and bowed in February, the pollen is winning. Change it, and note the date.
2. Check the humidity. A cheap hygrometer in the bedroom. Above 55 percent with the air conditioning running points at the system; above 60 means the house is growing things.
3. Look at the vents and returns. Black dust around a supply register is usually filter bypass. A return grille furred with lint has not been cleaned in years.
4. Smell the first minute. The odor when the system starts tells you where it lives: musty means a wet coil or pan, sulfur means well water somewhere it should not be, burning dust means the heat strips or a furnace that was not cleaned.
5. Walk the outside. Pollen in the condenser, a crawlspace vent blocked, a dryer vent blowing into the return side of a manufactured home.
6. Think about what changed. New flooring, a painted room, a new pet, a renovation two doors down on a historic-district street with lead paint and plaster dust.

If the filter and the humidity fix it, you are done. If not, the rest of this page is the visit.

When the checklist stops being enough

Call when any of these are true:

• Humidity stays above 55 percent with the system running normally.
• Someone in the house has asthma or allergies that flare indoors during the February-to-May pollen run or on dusty spring days.
• The musty smell comes back a week after a filter change.
• A hygrometer reading in one room is far higher than another, which points at a duct or crawlspace problem.
• The house has been through flooding along the river, Dunns Creek or Crescent Lake, and the smell started after.
• You are about to spend money on a portable purifier for every room, which is almost always the wrong money.

The visit, in order

The first call. The person who answers takes the symptoms, the house type and the water source, because a well-water house in San Mateo and a city-water bungalow in Palatka Heights get different first questions.

Arrival, about 51 minutes from the Palm Coast shop. The technician starts with instruments: humidity in several rooms, particulate counts, static pressure across the duct, and supply temperature. Then the filter, the indoor coil, the drain pan and the first few feet of return duct.

The findings, in plain words. In Putnam County the usual list is some mix of a filter that cannot catch pollen, a coil or pan that stays wet, return duct pulling air from an attic or crawlspace, and a system oversized enough that it never runs long enough to dry the house.

The options, priced separately. Typically drawn from:

Problem	What Cook’s installs or does
Pollen, mill and farm dust getting through	Media filter cabinet, or a whole-home filtration or purification system from the Lennox Healthy Climate line
Musty coil and pan	Coil cleaning, drain treatment for well water, a UV light at the coil
House stays damp	Whole-home dehumidifier, blower speed adjustment, duct sealing; right-sizing when the system is replaced
Return duct drawing dirty air	Return sealing, a new return in historic homes with only one
Tight new house that never gets fresh air	Ventilation system with controlled fresh-air intake
Dry, static winter air in a gas-heated home	Humidifier, with well-water treatment where needed

The work. Many fixes happen the same visit; a whole-home dehumidifier or ventilation system is scheduled. Prices are quoted before anything is installed.

Call 866-266-5709

What Cook’s does, specifically

Cook’s offers whole-home filtration, air purification, ventilation, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, duct cleaning and sealing, and the Lennox Healthy Climate line of indoor air products, all installed to work with the system already in the house. The thing we do not do is sell a device for a problem we have not measured. A dehumidifier in a house whose real trouble is a sweating belly duct under a double-wide in East Palatka is a wasted purchase, and we would rather fix the duct.

Keeping the air clean after we leave

• Filters monthly through the cooling season, and more often from February to May when the oaks and pines are shedding.
• Humidity under 55 percent, checked with the hygrometer you now own.
• Coil and drain on the spring tune-up every year, treated for iron and sulfur on well water.
• UV lamp bulbs replaced on the manufacturer’s schedule; they dim long before they go dark.
• Dehumidifier filters rinsed and drains checked twice a year.
• Watch the dry springs. When the pine plantations and sand mines are putting smoke and dust in the air, run the fan continuously through the fine filter for a few days.

Everything on this page runs from one number. Call 866-266-5709 when the sneezing starts, or before.