Tips For Winterizing Your Home

In addition to wrapping pipes and properly preparing plumbing for winter temperatures, homeowners can let certain spigots and faucets drip to keep the pipes from freezing. The imminent arrival of cold weather means homeowners should take precautions to stay comfortable, reduce fire hazards and avoid unnecessary expenses, including broken pipes or excessive heating bills. Frank Davies, manager of Little Hardware in Mountain Brook, and Chief Leland Rhudy, fire marshal with the Mountain Brook Fire Department, offer some helpful tips. [Mountain Brook is a suburban community near Birmingham Alabama] Of course, consumers like to hold down heating bills, and Davies offered suggestions. Check doors and windows to prevent air leaks. “There’s simple, self-adhesive weather stripping that can take care of most of that,” Davies said. Removable…

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Pitch in and Save Money

Home improvement projects can be expensive. While the size and complexity of a project will affect how expensive the project is, homeowners can expect to shell out a pretty penny when they renovate or remodel areas of their home. Most homeowners experience “sticker shock” when obtaining quotes on home renovation projects. But renovation–minded homeowners need not reconsider their commitment to remodeling, as there are various ways to cut the costs associated with home improvement projects. One such way is for homeowners to pitch in and do some of the work themselves. Calculating labor costs can be difficult, as such costs can vary greatly depending on the project and the specific contractor chosen for the project. However, some estimates suggest labor will account for anywhere from…

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7 Things Your Lawn May Be Trying To Tell You

 “I’m Thirsty” If you can see your footprints in the lawn after you’ve walked through the grass, that’s a sign your grass is starting to wilt. Translation: It needs water. This is most likely to happen in the dog days of summer when the heat takes a serious toll on turfgrass. So drag out those sprinklers, and give your lawn a drink! “Help! I’m Drowning!” Lawn mushrooms are a sign that your yard is too wet. If these fungi appear after heavy rain, they will usually go away on their own. However, you see them regularly, you’ll need to find a way to dry out your lawn. The first step is to cut back your watering routine. If that doesn’t help, try improving drainage with…

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Winterizing Your Home

Winterizing Your Home Now would be the ideal time to prepare your home for the cold months ahead. Performing a few quick and easy maintenance chores around your home could save you a lot of time and money later. The Better Business Bureau, along with the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), suggest the following steps to prepare your home for winter: Have your furnace checked. Make sure the furnace filter is clean. Check the thermostat to be sure it is working properly and the pilot light is functioning. Have the heating ducts cleaned on an as-needed basis. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, duct cleaning has never been shown to actually prevent health problems. However, if you think duct cleaning might be a…

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Scam Alert: Shipping Trick Fools Holiday Shoppers

By Better Business Bureau. November 28, 2017. This holiday season, be sure to vet websites before making a purchase. Scammers are using phony UPS and FedEx tracking numbers to fool shoppers into thinking their package is on the way, according to recent BBB Scam Tracker reports How the Scam Works:   You are shopping online and find a site with amazing deals. The website and the products look legitimate, so you decide to take a chance and make a purchase. After checkout, you get a confirmation email that contains a tracking number from UPS, FedEx, or another shipping service. What happens next depends on the scam. In some versions, the tracking number provided is completely fake. In other variations, the number is real and appears to work…

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Seasonal Home Maintenance Checklist

Homeowner’s can save substantially on home repair costs with some basic periodic maintenance. This seasonal list identifies steps you can take by season and includes monthly, quarterly, biannual, and annual maintenance items in an easy to use checklist format.     Winter December   ☐ Inspect, and possibly change out HVAC filters ☐ Clean kitchen sink disposal ☐ Clean range hood filters ☐ Inspect your fire extinguisher(s) ☐ _______________________________________ ☐ _______________________________________ ☐ _______________________________________ January   ☐ Inspect, and possibly change out HVAC filters ☐ Clean kitchen sink disposal ☐ Clean range hood filters ☐ Inspect your fire extinguisher(s) ☐ _______________________________________ ☐ _______________________________________ ☐ _______________________________________ February   ☐ Inspect, and possibly change out HVAC filters ☐ Clean kitchen sink disposal ☐ Clean range hood filters ☐…

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Home Remodel Tips

Home Remodel Tips The following home remodel tips were provided courtesy of Erdmann Exterior Designs How To Prep For A Home Remodel Remodeling can be stressful whether you are working with a contractor or you are doing it all yourself. It is important to understand which tasks you are capable of taking on yourself and when you should bring in a professional. ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY Be sure to do some research on the type of project you are looking for. If you are willing to compromise on a few things you could potentially save thousands of dollars. When you can, always go with stock options and sizes. Custom is always going to cost you more. You can also save money by planning…

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3 Easy Home Improvement Projects You Can Tackle Right Now

(BPT) – During the milder months – like summer and fall – homeowners naturally tend to prioritize working on the exterior of their houses, because the weather is nice. But in the winter, we’re more apt to tackle smaller home improvement projects inside. This seems like a no brainer, right? After all, no one wants to redo landscaping when it’s 35 degrees outside. With that in mind, Chip Gaines, host of HGTV’s Fixer Upper and lead contractor/owner of Magnolia Homes, offers these three easy home improvement projects to help you make the most of your winter indoors. Repaint your walls While you’re holed up inside the house decorating for the holidays or just escaping the cold, you may start noticing places on your walls in…

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Four Projects to keep water out of your basement

Most yards can soak up a few days of rain without puddling. But eventually every yard runs out of storage capacity. Then groundwater follows the path of least resistance – often into that big hole in the ground, your basement. These four drainage projects can help. Two are simple improvements at the foundation that direct water away from the house. Two require excavation (a contractor with a back hoe) to greatly increase water-holding capacity. Increase the slope   Overflows from gutters and downspouts can erode the ground next to the foundation, leaving a gully that traps water in the worst place – next to the foundation. Filling the gully helps. Adding enough fill to create a slope away from the house helps even more. Ideally,…

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6 Kitchen and Bath Upgrades that are “the whole package”

Let’s face it – once you get past high school, the people who go farthest in life are the ones who are the “whole package,” those who balance style, good looks and brains. The same can be said of kitchen and bath upgrades. The ones that will stand the test of time – the ones you’ll love as much in five years as you do the day they’re installed – are the improvements that blend style and intelligence. Sure you might fall in love with that $5,000 built-in coffee maker, but are you going to adore it as much when you’re still paying for it five years from now? And when you sell your home one day, will buyers agree with you that it was…

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