homeowner tips

9 Ways To Avoid Housefires

December 15, 2021 by khproperties 1 Comment

A fire in your home can happen at any time of the year, but with colder months upon us it’s easy to see how the danger increases with the setting of wood-burning heaters and the use of candles to create a cozy atmosphere. Most fires start in the kitchen and are caused by neglect. You set something on the stove and then get distracted by the phone, children, or daily life – it happens that easily. Heaters are the second most common cause of a house blaze and, of course, the risk of this increases in the winter months when we find ourselves trying to warm up just a bit.

Signs that your wiring needs an upgrade include lights dimming when you use an appliance and regularly blown fuses or trips of your circuit breaker. If that’s the case, call a professional electrician immediately.

As we head into winter, here is a list of potential issues and how to ensure you and your family stay safe.

Install and test your smoke alarms. Make sure the battery is in good condition (change them every time you set your clocks back). When you’re sleeping, you won’t smell the smoke. Research suggests you might fall into a deeper sleep.
Check your chimney to ensure there is sufficient airflow. If your chimney blocks up, smoke will pour back into the residence. The collection of dirt and soot represents a fire risk. It’s a good idea to clean your chimney annually. Even if you don’t use your fireplace very often, other problems can occur that could lead to a devastating fire, so have it checked out and cleaned.
Another annual exercise is a check of electric blankets if you have them. Watch for loose wires and cords that have frayed. If in doubt, throw it away. They’re not expensive to replace.
Portable heaters are a great cold weather solution but don’t put them near curtains or tablecloths. If you need to dry clothes, leave them at least 1m away from the heater. Think of it as social distancing for clothes!
Electrical overload is always a risk if you load up one power point. Avoid doing so and always unplug and disconnect appliances that are not being used.
Before you hire an electrician, lookup his license number. It is important that any electrical installation work is carried out by people who have the knowledge, skills and experience needed to avoid the dangers that electricity can create.
Another appliance danger lurks in the laundry. Check your dryer for lint build up. Clean away anything that shouldn’t be there. It doesn’t take much for lint to light up. The #1 cause of house fire is dryer vent maintenance.
Candles in the living room, or even when you’re soaking in a bath, are romantic and relaxing. But you must extinguish them when leaving the room for an extended period or going to bed.
Kids and matches are not a good combination. Always stow matches, lighters and fireplace lighters out of their reach. A common mistake is to keep a gas stove top lighter in a handy drawer.
Never leave cooking unattended, especially if you’re deep frying. Fat fires can destroy a kitchen in minutes and are one of the most common causes of fires.

Do You Have A Green Thumb?

December 17, 2018 by khproperties Leave a Comment

They say having plants in your home will make you happier and healthier. Lifetime Exteriors official site says that a burst of green along with the fresh, clean smell of flowers are welcoming and comforting and can take a house to a place you’ll call home. So what do you choose? How do you keep your plants thriving? Do you have a green thumb?

I’m not the best at keeping plants going. It’s a curse I was born with, but I continue to try. I’ll buy a plant, try and solve its riddle and usually succeed for awhile, but then somewhere along the line, the leaves start to turn brown and the plant starts to look a little rough. I google and try everything I can find, but in the end I tend to lose the battle. But I don’t like fake plants and refuse to use them in my home.

So how do you keep your plants alive?

Pick the right plants. Plants need sunlight to thrive and some need more than others. Pay attention to this when shopping – putting a sun thriving plant on a shady part of your living room is going to guarantee disaster and that’s why it is better to hire the home window tinting experts serving all of Fort Lauderdale to make sure that the right amount of sunlight enters into the house. Also watch for drafts. You may have a bright sunny window, but if the cold air is creeping in through that window, all the sun in the world may not save the tropical plant you put it in. Nu-Eco can help you design the right windows that let your plants breathe.

Watch the water. One of the easiest things to do is to overwater a plant. Trust me. Making things worse, overwatered plants often have leaves that turn brown and start to curl up…which is also a good indication of underwatering. Watering is probably one of the hardest parts to master. If a plant seems to be dying and you’ve been watering, back off on the water and see if that helps.

Poor potting. Read about the plant and know how to set one up. Proper drainage is usually required on most plants. Leaving water stagnating at the bottom of the pot and close to the roots can cause all sorts of fungus and diseases in your plant that will kill it off slowly while you watch in horror and try in vain to stop the slow spread.

Feed me Seymour. Don’t forget to feed your plants with fertilizers. Check your plants’ specific needs. Since they are not living in soil whose nutrients are replenished in the natural cycle, you’ll need to replenish those nutrients through fertilizers.

Despite all that advice, I still admit to being really good at killing a plant. I’m currently nursing a bird of paradise and some orchids and while I refuse to give up, I have a larger plant that I think I need to admit defeat on. If you have some great tips, we’d love to hear them.

image courtesy of Amadeusz Leonardo Juskowiak

Rain, Rain Go Away: Your Roof, Rain, And Sudden Leaks

October 18, 2018 by khproperties Leave a Comment

It feels like it’s been raining for at least two months now. Opening up the weather app on your phone makes you think, “certainly this app must be broken.” An endless row of grey clouds with cartoon rain falling from them. The rain keeps coming and with it comes discoveries of leaks. Roofs all across San Antonio are being tested and some homeowners are discovering for the first time, they have a leak and need to call for roof repair services in Easly, SC. People can read more here if they need the best roofing services. In sunnier times, your roof sat there, doing it’s job and no one noticed, but as the skies darkened and the rains came, your flat roof was put through the ringer and you woke up to the “drip, drip, drip” of the water coming through a patch in your ceiling. One could also check out more info to get their roof replaced.

Many homeowners see these leaks and wonder how they didn’t get noticed or caught during inspections or before they bought the home. The trouble is, there is no test for leaks on a roof.
You can’t simply dump enough water on the roof to see what happens. It is best to get redirected here for the best roofing services from expert companies. You have to rely on an inspection done by a professional roofer or commercial roof replacements Mobile , looking for signs of leaks – the water stains, issues on the roof like missing shingles or improperly sealed flashing – these signs can lead an inspector to think there could be leaks, but unless there is active rain, they often can’t say definitively.

Add in severe weather: strong winds, heavy rain (even the dreaded straightline winds that can physically lift shingles and force water under them) and suddenly you have a recipe for a new leak that no one knew about.

So what do you do? If it’s a newer roof, see if you can hire a professional roof repair near me. Many roofers like Carolina Home Specialists warranty their work and know that these kinds of weather events can expose issues that no one could have seen previously. Even if they feel it’s past their warranty or not covered, they should be able to give you a good look at what’s going on and what needs done to fix it.
Sometimes, they’ll even tell you the best bet is to just leave it as is because any “fix” won’t do much unless the one in a million conditions line up once again to cause the exact same setup that caused what is an anomaly that you’ll probably never get again if you tried.

If the leak is a bigger issue, call your insurance company and get them out to take a look. You have insurance for exactly these kinds of events and it’s time to use it. Get the adjuster out there and see what they think.

Regardless of the final fix, leaks are annoying when they happen (and they never happen while you’re sitting around with nothing to do – they always come at the worst times). Remember to try and minimize the damage. Get a bucket to catch the water, turn off lights and electronics in the room, cover carpets, and remove wet items as quickly as possible so they don’t sit, especially since items full of water sitting stagnant can lead to mold.

It can be frustrating to discover a new leak, but often there is no way anyone could have seen it coming. We spend a lot of time going through lengthy dry spells where water intrusion never has a chance to show itself. As well, those long, hot, dry spells cause shifts in materials (much like the ground around your foundation contracts when it is dry and swells when it is wet) and these shifts change how the pieces fit together, leaving gaps for water to work it’s way inside.

image courtesy of nan palmero

Don’t Get Stuck Without Water – Take Care of Your Foundation

October 8, 2018 by khproperties Leave a Comment

We’ve talked about foundations before. Caring for your foundation is a fact of life here in South Texas. Therefore, find more info about foundation services. While my particular problem isn’t the foundation, the root case is the same. Since we’ve had a lot of rain recently, the ground is nice and wet. As we begin to dry out, the ground begins to shrink and shift. In this case a main water supply broke. And after fixing it with the help of experts from Kansas City Missouri and releasing the water back into the system, another part broke. Then another. So it’s just an endless cycle. If you’re also having issues with your foundation or main drainage system, it may be time to consult a specialist in Foundation Drain Design Services.

While the crews work on fixing it once again, it seemed like a good time to discuss what happens that causes these types of problems and how you can help prevent them. (Cross your fingers that this time they fix it and it stays fixed…)

Because of our wet/dry flip-flopping here in South Texas, we experience a lot of changes in the ground. If you remember your basic science classes, when things dry up, they tend to shrink and shrivel up. When they get wet and start soaking up water, they expand. It’s like those little foam toys they pack into pellets and when you add water they grow into dinosaurs or monsters or whatever is the new cool thing that kids love. It’s simple science at work. The ground is no different. As it dries it begins to shrink and compact. When it gets wet, it swells and expands. Ever noticed how the soil in your potted plant pulls away from the sides of the pot if you forget to water it? Exactly.

As the ground shifts, it can move a lot of weight. This includes your foundation. When it expands it creates forces against your foundation, literally pushing it into a new position. When the ground dries up and shrinks away, it can leave voids – and all that weight likes to be supported, so your foundation will shift to fill that space left behind by the retreating earth. This could compromise your home’s structural integrity so having reliable foundation repair contractors inspect your home will uncover any issues that need to addressed immediately.

In the case of my water mains, it’s the same principles – voids left as the ground began to try left the pipes unsupported and the weight of all the water they were carrying caused the pipes to sag to fill this void…until the pipe couldn’t take it any more and burst.

So how do you combat this issue? Follow good foundation care. Keep the area around your foundation moist when the summer heat cranks up and the ground begins to dry up, learn more here. You don’t want standing water around your house (that can lead to the same problems), but you don’t want it so dry that you can see the ground pulling away from your foundation either. This article from Texas A&M is an excellent guide to watering your foundation. If there are visible damages, contact a foundation repair company at once to do a proper inspection and the necessary repair.

Take care of your foundation and it will take care of you. And don’t forget, your foundation carries the pipes to your home, so you don’t want to wind up like me…sitting here wishing you had enough water to take a shower.

image courtesy of joshme17

Holiday Decorating? Time for Some Early Spring Cleaning

November 25, 2016 by khproperties Leave a Comment

It’s holiday decorating time and apart from getting power washing Houston done, that can only mean one thing – trudging up to the attic, out to the garage, or perhaps even visiting the rented storage space to dig through the mountains of boxes full of years worth of holiday decorations to find what you need. In order to get to those boxes, you may find yourself wading through even more boxes and storage items. We all find ourselves doing it…saving items over time thinking we may use it again or perhaps holding onto it “just in case.” As we move from house to house, change our lives, watch our children grow up, we inevitably accumulate more and more and place it into storage. We know we had a reason for saving it, but are those reasons still there? It’s time to perform a bit of spring cleaning as we prepare for the holidays. We usually take the help of Pearland power washing for cleaning, every year. Take a bit of extra time and sort through the boxes that you stacked up in front of or on top of all of your holiday decorations. Take stock of what you have and consider what you need…and what can be packed up, sold, given away, or donated. A little bit of spring cleaning by kitchen exhaust cleaning service, all thanks to them who have given me a holiday decorating time. It will lighten your load and clear out the clutter. If you’re considering selling your home in the coming year, you’ll already have a head start on reducing some of the items that you may have held on to, but no longer need.

Don’t forget to consider some of those items for charitable donations. You may be able to take deductions on your taxes and there are those out there in need who would truly appreciate some help, especially during the holiday season. Good luck and have a terrific holiday, we’d love to see some of your holiday decorating!

image courtesy of Me in ME

Should I purchase an alarm system for my home?

January 3, 2013 by khproperties Leave a Comment

Alarm systems can be rather useful in a home, but much like insurance, they come at a cost if you never use them. People often wonder about the benefit of an alarm system versus the monthly cost of such a system. Many homes these days come pre-wired for security systems, so what’s a new homeowner to do? Have the system hooked up and monitored for a monthly fee or just hope for the best? Are alarm systems effective at stopping criminals from entering your home? What alarm monitoring company should I use?

Should I get an alarm system with monitoring and is it effective?

To pay a fee or not, that is the question. First, let’s discuss the alarm – whether it involves door and window chimes, motion detectors, video cameras, or glass shatter sensors – the obvious function is to make a ton of noise and scare off any would be burglars, and if you’re paying for monitoring, to notify the police that an alarm event has occurred. When the alarm sounds, the burglar has two options – ignore it and soldier on or run like hell in case anyone shows up.

In talking with police officers over the years, I’ve learned that most professional burglars aren’t afraid of the alarms. While the alarm may bring the neighbor out to look around, the truth is most of us ignore alarms these days. Since the pros know what they’re doing, they can be in and out before that alarm attracts any real attention.

So what about monitoring? Paying a company to “listen” in and report alarm events to the police seems like the logical solution. For a monthly fee, most companies will provide monitoring (and some will even provide security patrols to respond to the alarm). Once again, the professionals have a distinct advantage, knowing that the police are often busy and can take up to an hour to respond. If you know what you’re looking for, you could take a lot out of a home in much less than an hour.

Which alarm company should I choose?

Personally, I’ve had good experience with the big national companies (ADT and Brinks to be specific – which are now both owned under the ADT name), but it really depends on your budget and needs. Most companies will perform a basic install or “takeover” (if you already have the system, but need monitoring), but you should consider the various pieces of any system – how many contact points, motion detectors, etc. will they install and how much to monitor them (the more items to monitor, the more it costs). Some local companies offer security patrols and armed response, so check with neighbors and friends to see who they use and trust. The better your security system and response time, the better your chances of avoiding being burglarized.

Remember, if you do experience a break in, exit your home immediately and call the police. Do not touch anything (hopefully the police will be able to gather some evidence).

image courtesy of jepoirrier