Fine Debris At Base Of Siding Looks Like Insulation Dust

The most common ingredients in house dust in a healthy home are.

Fine debris at base of siding looks like insulation dust.

I discovered little pyramids of real sawdust on the driveway apron next to garage doors. If this material is pushed through cracks where the window frame meets the wall or along the trim board and door frames this is a sign of a subterranean termite. When mold growth is on unpainted metal in an air handler it is most likely dining on organic dust and debris found on those surfaces. In a building exposed to pressures from high stack effect warm air rising or mechanical pressures such as those from duct leakage or exhaust fans staining can sometimes occur at the carpet edge where the interior or exterior wall joins the carpet.

You will note that mold growth is present on the air handler insulation on the metal surfaces of the blower assembly on refrigerant and condensate piping and even on the paper labeling on the blower cage. I have been finding small piles of brown beads that look like coffee that has been ground very fine. I looked up and found dozens of perfectly round 3 8 holes caused by borer bees aka carpenter bees that drill into the cedar in order to lay their eggs and nourish the larvae. Look for holes on all the surfaces even the ones that aren t obvious easily visible.

The home remedy for fiber glass dust exposure on the skin is to rinse the skin with cold water to get rid of fiberglass dust embedded on the skin surface. These pile have been at the base of the frontdoor sidelight interior and exterior on porch. After that take a warm shower so that. Even if you have an excellent filtration system on your air handler the dust can be sucked in from places that don t get filtered and blown into your home usually leaving fine gray dust everywhere.

For this reason subterranean termites build mud tubes along the surface of the object they feed on to insulate themselves from the dryer surrounding air. Entomologists call the sawdust created by insects frass. Carpenter bees chew holes in dead wood to make their nests. Depending on the insect frass contains chewed up wood pieces or fecal pellets that are mostly wood along with dead insects and miscellaneous debris excavated from the nest site.

Look at your eaves door jam and possibly siding anything wood really around where the dust is accumulating. An expert can usually tell which insect left the frass by looking at it under magnification. Air entering the building through holes and cracks will leave dirt and dust on walls where there is exfiltration and on the insulation that covers those leaks. House dust might be a contributor to building air quality complaints if the dust has high levels of problem particles such as mold dust mite fecals pollen sub micron particulate debris bacterial contaminants pet hair mouse dander or fecal dust and similar particles.