SRE Home Services

07/18/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Mosquitoes are out in full force (I forgot repellent, and got bit on my legs over 25 times in under 30 minutes today!) One way to keep the population down is to make sure you don't have any standing (still) water around your home; this is a perfect breeding ground for them.

This articles offers some good advice, and tells you which "gadgets" to avoid. http://www.prevention.com/health/stop-mosquito-bites/slide/13

How to stop mosquito bites this summer, plus what doesn't work to keep them away.

07/11/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Especially with the heat wave we'll have this week, it's great to have a programmable HVAC thermostat that will save you some money while you're away from home (by not keeping the home as cool), and then have your home nice and cool for you upon your return. The Nest system allows this, but Honeywell and others provide a less expensive solution that accomplishes the same thing. Both Nest and Honeywell offer a thermostat that you can even control from your phone, computer, or laptap from wherever you are! I've replaced several thermostats with these, and helped configure the customer's router to allow connectivity.

07/04/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Be sure to take care of your US flag so it will last longer and continue to look beautiful, and of course use proper etiquette to treat it with respect. The 2 links below should help with both. Happy Independence Day!

https://www.elmersflag.com/4-tips-on-how-to-maintain-your-flag/

http://www.military.com/flag-day/flag-ettiquette-dos-and-donts.html

05/24/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Be sure you're periodically sealing your deck and other exterior pressure treated wood features (like fences and landscaping walls) to extend their life.

Most semi-transparent stains and deck sealers need to be applied annually. Solid stains will typically last 4-5 years. Of course, the wood needs to be very clean before re-applying these products, so make sure you pressure wash it first.

Lastly, remember that new pressure treated wood must cure/dry for at least 6 months before you apply any sealer or stain to it.

05/09/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Disposals are simple...just flip the switch, right? I've replaced dozens of disposals because someone didn't follow these rules. Review them to prolong the life of your disposal, then of course call me to replace it when it finally wears out, as they all do.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/packages/kitchen-fixes/7-important-rules-for-using-a-garbage-disposal?soc=sitepackagesocial_20160830_65255676&adbid=10153759220546727&adbpl=fb&adbpr=20534666726

04/04/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: With Spring right around the corner, now is a great time to inspect all of your window screens and replace any that have holes in them.

With only a few exceptions, screen material can be replaced without replacing the whole frame. But, there are at least 3 different colors of screen (aluminum, grey, charcoal), so be sure to take your old screen with you when you buy new so you can match.

03/28/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Make sure the water from your downspouts is diverted well away from your foundation.

This is critical to ensuring a dry basement. If you allow enough water to collect around the outside of your foundation, you will eventually have water in your basement (causing damage and mold), so the key is keeping as much water away from your foundation as possible. Make sure you've extended each of your downspouts (with 4" black pipe or something else) so that wherever the water discharges from it, it will flow downhill "away from" your foundation. The further away it discharges from your foundation, the better.

Related, it's critical that the ground around your foundation slope "away from" the foundation. If the ground slopes towards your foundation, thus letting rain water flow towards your foundation, you'll likely have wet basement issues at some point.

03/21/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Clean or replace the grease filter(s) in your over-the-range hood or microwave.

These are easily forgotten, and can become completely clogged with grease, thus reducing or stopping air flow. They're pretty easy to clean with a strong degreaser (you might even use one from an auto parts store, but of course don't put that in your sink), or you can measure them, and buy the same sized one(s) at Home Depot or Lowe's.

03/14/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Keep the drain outside of your basement door clean and in good working order.

If you have stairs down to your basement door, then you have a perfect place for water to accumulate, fill up, enter your basement beneath and around the door, and cause lots of expensive water and mold damage! I can't tell you how often I've seen this occur in basements. The key to preventing this is keeping all of the debris away from the drain cover outside your door (I'd check it at least weekly, and even more often during the Fall when the leaves are falling), and periodically running water into that drain and making sure it's still actually draining. When it clogs with leaves and debris (or even ice buildup in the winter), then the next rain could very well create a flood in your basement.

03/08/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Be sure to keep everything at least 1 foot away from all sides and the top of your outdoor HVAC unit(s).

These units (either an AC or a Heat Pump, depending on your system configuration) rely on lots of air passing through them to operate properly. If you restrict that airflow by leaning things up against them, building something above or around them, or allowing vegetation to grow over/around them, then you will restrict the air flow, causing the system to overheat and then prematurely fail.

02/27/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Be sure to periodically test your GFCI receptacles (the safety folks recommend monthly).

GFCI receptacles (the ones with a test button on them usually found in bathrooms, kitchens, garages, outdoors, and unfinished basements) are very important for you safety. They are used in any area where water could be present, and their purpose is to immediately turn the power off if you happen to come in contact with water and the power from the receptacle (you'd get a small shock, but the power would rapidly turn off vs a more serious and potentially dangerous shock). But, they're a mechanical device, which means they wear out over time.

To test them, you should plug something small into them (like a lamp...I wouldn't use something with electronics in in like a phone or laptop), and then push the Test button that's on them. The lamp should go out. This test means that the GFCI receptacle has successfully "tripped"; i.e., turned the power off. Be sure to press the reset button (usually a bit harder to press) to restore power to that receptacle.

One last thing: in some homes, rather than having GFCI receptacles throughout the house, 1 or more of your breakers at the breaker panel will be a GFCI breaker, and it will have a test button on it. Plug something into one of the outlets that that breaker feeds, then push the Test button on the breaker to make sure the power goes out. As with all breakers, to reset it, turn it all the way to the off position, then turn it back to the on position.

02/21/2017

Home Maintenance Tip of the Week: Be sure to caulk around the top 2/3 of your tub spout and overflow cover where they hit the wall (but don't caulk the bottom 1/3 of them so any water that happens to get behind them can drain out the bottom into the tub or shower pan).

Not having caulking around these areas is one of the key causes of water leaks, which of course causes expensive wood and drywall damage, and mold. If there's not caulking around the top 2/3 of both of these, then water that runs down your wall when you're taking a shower will run behind these and into the wall. (Yes, the overflow cover has a rubber seal behind it, but they wear out over time, and are no longer waterproof. And your tub spout has no such seal.)

Also, your overflow cover usually has grooves cut around the edge about 1/3 of the way around them. These grooves must be on the "bottom" of the overflow cover, not on the top; at least half that I see have these grooves on the top, and that just lets water run right into the overflow cover, and potentially behind the tub.

Lastly, be sure to use silicone caulking wherever water will be present (like in the kitchen and bathrooms).