Latin for Home & Health
Modern American homes are built fast, built cheap — and built with materials that off-gas chemicals, harbor mold, and undermine your family's health every single day.
Every material in a Salus-approved home must pass all five. No exceptions.
No chemical fire retardants. Materials must resist fire through their composition — not toxic additives that off-gas into your living space.
Materials must not support mold growth even when moisture is present — because it always is, eventually. No hoping it stays dry.
Natural pest resistance through material properties. Never through chemical treatments that compromise the air your family breathes.
Zero or positive VOC contribution. Your home's air should actively support health — not continuously erode it through off-gassing materials.
Every material must function 100+ years without replacement. Standard builders build for 30 years. Domus builders build for 300.
A material only earns the Salus Standard when it passes all five principles. Not four. All five.
The construction industry says energy-efficient homes can't have healthy indoor air. That's not a law of physics — it's a consequence of using the cheapest possible materials to meet code.
The Claim
"Tight homes need spray foam and OSB to hit energy code. Those materials off-gas. That's just the trade-off."
The Reality
Energy codes are performance standards — they tell builders what to achieve, not which materials to use. No code requires spray foam. No code requires OSB.
The Domus Approach
Mineral wool + MgO sheathing + dedicated air barrier + ERV ventilation = Passive House-level efficiency with zero chemical compromise.
The materials making your home sick were never required by any energy code. They were the cheapest shortcut to compliance — selected by the building products industry, not by health researchers. A different set of materials achieves the same or better energy performance without poisoning the indoor air.
Read the Full Position Paper →The global wellness economy has reached $6.3 trillion. We optimize our diets, our workouts, our sleep routines. We buy air purifiers and organic produce.
Then we go home to a sealed box built with formaldehyde-laden OSB, chemical-treated framing, and materials designed for builder profits — not occupant health.
The homes we build today will still be standing in 2100. The question is: will they be healthy to live in — or will future generations wonder why we chose chemically-treated, microbe-hosting boxes to save a few thousand dollars?
— The Domus Salus Manifesto
America got stuck in the standard-grade pattern of construction. Industrialization arrived before we could rebuild with permanent materials — and we never course-corrected.
Read the Full Article →OSB. Spray foam. Pressure-treated lumber. Engineered joists. Each one off-gasses into your home. Here's the science your builder never shared.
Read the Full Article →We invest trillions in wellness everywhere except the place we spend 90% of our time. The math on healthy home construction will surprise you.
Read the Full Article →A practical reference for homebuyers, builders, and anyone who wants to demand healthier construction. Free, and updated as new materials are evaluated.
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