Indiana Real Estate Routine Maintenance

If you think home maintenance means fixing something only when it’s broken, then you could be in for some costly surprises. Routine maintenance can help identify and address home-related issues early and prevent them from becoming bigger problems later.

Spring and summer are ideal times to perform critical home maintenance projects. The improved weather allows better access to areas of the home and yard that may have been inaccessible during winter, and the additional daylight allows more time for outdoor work than other times of the year.

“Cars get routine maintenance from a mechanic and people get regular checkups from a doctor, but unfortunately our homes often get neglected until it’s too late,” says Rhonda Hills of Kudzu.com, an online resource for homeowners looking for expert home advice and local service providers. “Homes need constant attention, and in most cases regular maintenance can help save thousands of dollars by allowing owners to catch problems early or prevent them altogether.”

* Get your air conditioner serviced – Properly maintained heating and air conditioning systems run more efficiently and have a longer life expectancy. During a maintenance visit, your HVAC technician should check your system’s refrigerant levels, clean the condenser coil, replace dirty filters and calibrate your thermostat among other things. The goal is to ensure your air conditioning system is operating properly and is in tip-top-shape for the warmer weather ahead.

* Inspect the roof – Wind, rain, hail and other weather events can damage the roof and leave it susceptible to leaks. When conducting a visual inspection, try to stay off the roof. Instead, start from the ground and look for missing or damaged shingles, discolored spots or areas of the roof that sag.

* Check toilets for leaks – The average home loses 10,000 gallons of water per year to leaks, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s enough water to fill a swimming pool. To ensure your home is leak free, start by checking your toilet. Just drop food coloring in the toilet’s tank. If after 30 minutes the water in the bowl starts to change colors, then there is a leak. This can usually be corrected by replacing the toilet’s flapper.

* Have your home pressure washed – Pressure washing your home can keep it looking brand new and can also extend the life of your siding or other building materials. Dirt, mold and mildew will gradually accumulate on your home, deck and other surfaces, and you may not even notice it. In some cases, these contaminants can deteriorate building materials and can create slick, unsafe walking surfaces.

* Get your gutters cleaned – Gutters help capture rain that hits your home and direct it as far from the structure as possible. Clogged gutters cannot properly redirect water and can lead to water pooling against your home’s foundation and leaking into your crawlspace or basement.

* Rake and aerate your lawn – Raking a winter’s worth of leaves will allow sunlight and nutrients to reach your sod, and aerating the lawn will prevent soil compaction, improve drainage and promote better root development.

* Have your trees trimmed – Pruning is typically done to remove dead or diseased limbs, eliminate overcrowding or to prevent potential hazards. In addition to creating a healthier tree, pruning can also allow better light penetration which can be a benefit to plants below.

* Look for termites – Termites are wood-destroying pests that can cause thousands of dollars in damage to your home. The most obvious sign of a termite infestation is a termite swarm, which is when winged termites take to the skies to find a mate. These winged termites are easily confused with winged ants, so if you spot a swarm, gather some of the winged specimens and immediately contact a professional pest control company so they can inspect.

Have a quality home inspection performed on your Indiana real estate today and learn about home maintenance and ways to help your home stay in good shape.  A licensed Indiana home inspector from Certainty Home Inspections will inspect your home as if they were buying it for their own family.  Book your inspection online now!

Fire Protection In Your Home

Cleaning, dusting, freshening and organizing – these steps are all typical activities for a spring cleaning routine. But while you’re organizing your house or home office this season, make sure you’ve added organizing and streamlining your family safety and fire plans to your to-do list.

While you can never plan for a fire, if one does break out, it not only puts you and your family in danger, but also compromises the safety of your community fire fighters and first responders. The spring season is the perfect time to review your fire escape plans as you simultaneously tackle your traditional spring cleaning to-do list. By reviewing these fire safety tips from Duracell and taking precautions, you can help keep both your family and local first responders safe.

* Check your smoke alarms once a month to make sure they work. If your alarms are 10 years old or older, it’s time to replace them, because alarms can become desensitized over time. If possible, purchase interconnected alarms. If one alarm goes off, all the alarms connected in your house will go off, helping to alert everyone in all locations of a possible fire. Also check the locations of your smoke alarms. Have at least one on every level of your home, and one inside or near sleeping areas. Also replace the batteries inside your alarms once a year with batteries you trust, like Duracell.

* Develop a fire escape plan for every room in the house. Make sure all family members know of at least two exits for every room in the house, and where an outside meeting place will be – away from the house. If you have a second story, have portable escape ladders stored in each of the rooms so family members can escape safely. Practice a fire escape drill twice a year.

* Changing weather temperatures can cause windows and doors to stick, so make sure every member of your family is able to unlock and open these escape opportunities – especially as the seasons change. If you have security bars on doors or windows, have a “quick release” latch so it’s easier to get outside in an emergency. Also keep stairways and doorways open – not blocked with clutter that could slow down your escape.

* Practice safety with candle flames, space heaters and cigarettes. Blow out all candles if you plan to leave the room or go to sleep. And keep space heaters at least 3 feet away from anything that could burn. Turn them off before leaving the room or going to sleep. And make sure all cigarettes are completely extinguished and wetted down with water before being put into the trash.

* Be educated about your community first responders: Did you know that of more than 1 million active firefighters in the U.S., about 73 percent serve on a volunteer basis?

More than 23,000 volunteer fire departments in the United States operate on tight budgets to help keep your community and your homes safe in case of, and when, fires strike. Many volunteer firefighters report they spend up to $500 of their own money each year in purchasing supplies and equipment for their department, according to a U.S. Fire Service Needs Assessment Survey.

You can support your community volunteer fire department by simply doing what you already do, purchase batteries for your household. Through the Duracell Power Those Who Protect Us battery donation program, with every purchase of specially marked CopperTop batteries, a battery donation will be made to volunteer fire departments across the country to help power the devices and life-saving equipment volunteer firefighters use. Through this program in partnership with the National Volunteer Fire Council you can direct the donation to your community by visiting Duracell.com/protect or Facebook.com/Duracell.

To have an Indiana home inspector or Louisville home inspector  check your smoke alarms, either book online now or call our toll free number now 866-417-9591

How To Clean A Dryer

How To Clean A Dryer

Unlike your washing machine, your dryer will need some ongoing regular maintenance to keep it working properly and safely. Let’s talk about how a dryer works first. You put wet clothes in and it spins them around with hot air and the exhaust vent sends the damp air outside. The hot moist air should end up outside, not in the crawl space or garage.

When your clothes are being tumbled around they tend to lose bits of fabric or tiny fibers, this is usually caught in the lint trap. Always keep the dryer lint trap clean, it will be located inside the dryer door or on top of the dryer for ease of access. The best way I have discovered is as simple as using the dryer sheet to clean the filter trap. The dryer sheet picks up all the lint, keeps your hands clean and lint free and then you just toss them out.

If you allow lint to build up inside the exhaust pipe it can overheat creating a potential fire hazard especially if you have a gas dryer, and your new energy star dryer can lose its energy efficiency.

Here are some tips to clean out the exhaust pipe.

• First unplug the dryer (we don’t want anyone to get electrocuted).
• Pull the dryer out away from the wall so you can get behind it to work.
• Take a screw driver to loosen the screw on clamp (this is what holds the pipe on the dryer)
• Reach into the hole where you took the pipe loose from and pull out any lint or debris (a vacuum works well)
• Now reach into the pipe as far as you can and pull out any lint (again the vacuum works well for this). Most build up will be within the first twelve to sixteen inches
• After all the lint has been removed put the pipe back on the dryer and replace the clamp. Tighten the screw back down snug. We don’t want it to blow off when the dryer is put back in use.
• Now go to the outside and remove the vent cover and clean this end out.
• Look inside to see if you missed anything.
• Plug the dryer up and run on fluff for ten minutes. This will blow out any loose particles left in the pipe so don’t stand in front of it.
• Check the outside for good clean air flow; you are ready to put the vent cover back on.

To have a quality home inspection done by a certified Indiana home inspector give us a call today or booked online and have one of our three licensed home inspectors perform a home inspection for you.

Carbon Monoxide

Just when you think you’re safe, a recent nationwide survey has uncovered that a majority of American homes are dangerously under-protected when it comes to fire and carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.

Even those equipped with smoke and CO alarms are at risk according to the study, which revealed that two-thirds of U.S. households are not in compliance with the national recommendation for the number of smoke alarms set by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Even more alarming is the 90 percent of homes that do not meet the recommendation for number of carbon monoxide detectors, including 40 percent that report having zero working carbon monoxide detectors.

“These statistics confirm what we’ve feared for years – that far too many homes in this country are not as well protected as they should be against the dangers of fire and CO,” says Deborah Hanson, director of external affairs for First Alert, a leader in residential fire and CO detection devices. “What’s more troubling is that many people don’t realize that their families are at risk.”

Despite the low number of NFPA-compliant homes, nine out of 10 respondents to the survey reported feeling “certain” their homes are adequately equipped with smoke alarms, and 62 percent reported the same for CO alarms.

“There is a clear and concerning lack of awareness among homeowners regarding the number of alarms required to fully protect a home and its residents,” adds Hanson.

The current recommendation by the NFPA (www.nfpa.org) is to have at least one CO alarm on each level and one in or near every bedroom or sleeping area. For smoke alarms, homes should have one installed at the top of each staircase and one in every bedroom or sleeping area. To put this into perspective, the average-sized home in America – a two-story, three bedroom house – would need a minimum of four smoke alarms and five carbon monoxide alarms to comply with NFPA guidelines.

In addition to installing the recommended number of alarms, The Home Safety Council (www.homesafetycouncil.org) suggests implementing the following precautions at home to help protect against fire and CO poisoning:

* Regularly test smoke and CO alarms -Regular maintenance is just as important as having the correct number of alarms. Be sure to test alarms monthly and replace batteries twice a year. Smoke alarm units should be replaced every 10 years and CO alarms every five years. These are simple tasks, but vitally important when it comes to home safety.

* Plan and practice a fire safety drill -Identify exits and if necessary, equip second-floor rooms with escape ladders. Practice actually going through the motions, and finally, identify a meeting place outside so everyone is accounted for.

Add a “network” of smoke alarms – Many homeowners may not realize there are alarm networks available for home use, which are wirelessly connected and “talk” to one another to alert to a fire in a different room. First Alert ONELINK alarms are connected, and if one alarm goes off, all alarms sound and can “tell” homeowners the location of the fire.

“Each year nearly 3,000 Americans die from home fires and CO poisoning claims another 450 lives,” says Hanson. “Our goal is to bring these numbers down by continually educating consumers about the dangers of fire and CO and teaching them how to protect themselves, their families and their homes.”

While Certainty performs its home inspections, we use sniffers to tell us whether there is a leak around your furnace.  If you would like to have a home inspection done by a qualified home inspector give us a call at 866-417-9591 or book your home inspeciton online

We serve all of Southern Indiana and Louisville Kentucky including, Jeffersonville, Clarksville, New Albany, Sellersburg, Seymour, Bedford, Madison, Columbus, Paoli, Corydon

Don’t Let The Bed Bugs Bite

The Real “Blood Suckers”

“Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite tonight”

I remember telling my children and smiling whenever I said it, but now it’s real.

Bedbugs are back! And it looks like they are here for a while. Everyone is talking about them, they have been found in local homes and even hospitals.  There is a lot of information about Bed Bugs almost everywhere you look but there are many facts and several myths. Here is a short list I have put together of each.

Facts

• Bedbugs do not have anything to do with cleanliness, they can infest the cleanest of homes and hotels and bed bugs are routinely found in 5 Star Hotels. They are very common in university dormitories where there is lots of people moving in and out
• Bedbugs prefer human hosts, but they will bite pets
• You can pick bed bugs up in Hotels in your luggage. Bedbugs are great at hitch hiking back to your home in your suitcase whenever you travel
• Bedbug infestation can wreak havoc on the human psyche; it is very unnerving to think an insect may be feeding on you during the night. It can cause anxiety even after the infestation has been eliminated
• Bedbug Infestations are expensive. Having a professional to get rid of the bed bugs can be expensive.  Different treatment solution may be used but more than one trip by a professional is usually necessary to solve the problem. Sometimes bedding; mattresses, furniture, electrical equipment and clothing may have to be discarded compounding the problem. Mattress covers that are bed bug proof are available
• Bedbugs are hard to kill, but pesticides, heat and cold are all used in controlling them
• Bedbugs are most active at night usually at the very early hours of morning
• Bedbugs are very mobile, they can travel across the floor up furniture easily in a very short period of time

Myths

• Bedbugs only infest houses and Hotels that are not clean
• Bedbugs cause diseases. (Bedbugs are not vectors of other diseases like mosquitoes and ticks, although they leave an itchy welt and some people may experience an allergic reaction.)
• Bedbugs will crawl all over you, (Bedbugs will crawl on you but they prefer to crawl up to their host and bite with their piercing mouth parts without crawling on them. One of the common characteristics of a Bed Bug bite is that they appear in a row; this is because the bed bugs will line up on the sheet and bite level with the sheet they are on)
• Bedbugs only live a short period of time. (Bedbugs can live up to a year without feeding and can multiply very fast.)
• Evidence of bedbugs is hard to see,(Bedbug bites are little red dots usually in a row. They leave little red dots on the sheets.)

Tips:

• Adult Bedbugs are about ¼” long, oval and are reddish brown and do not have wings. They are very flat with long slender legs and antennae.
• When you travel and first get into a hotel room, pull back the sheets and look along the seams for the Bedbugs especially near the corners. Even if you do not find active bugs and see the red spots near the seams continue to look. They also like to harbor along the headboard and around picture frames on the walls close to the bed. In severe infestations you may see them along the walls at the carpet.

Being diligent and inspecting your hotel room when traveling and being aware of your surroundings even when going to the movies (yes, they have been found in theater seats) is the best prevention of the Blood Suckers

Garage Door Safety & Maintenance

On a recent home inspection in Jeffersonville Indiana we decided to do an article on garage door safety; just stop and think about this, a garage door may be the heaviest working part of your home. Most people have never given very much thought to all of the safety features of a garage door, or even just how hazardous a malfunctioning garage door may be.

As often as your garage door is used it is really important to take into account your maintenance and safety conditions. There are various moving things which may come loose and fail possibly resulting in someone to getting injured. The garage door is a motor-driven piece of equipment which is frequently being opened and closed above your vehicle in addition to your entire family.

Over time there has been several unique kinds of garage doors installed in garages of which consist of individual panel doors that will kick out to one piece roller doors, however the most familiar style is most likely the panel garage doors. These kinds of doors are actually simple sections hinged to one another that are hanging on tracks using a spring system to help with raising the garage door. They may be manually operated but today many of them have a garage door opener which has a remote opening devise allowing you to operate the garage door from inside your car or truck.

The following are some maintenance ideas to keep the garage door safe and secure and last for several years;

•             Visually look at your garage door for any cracked areas notably where the garage door opener attaches at the top of your garage door

•             Check to be confident the door rollers are not loose or damaged, and lubricate them once a year or if you ever start to hear noises

•             If the garage door has the safety sensors, test them monthly by means of closing the door and blocking the beam being very careful to not have anything in the route within the door in the event the reverse detectors do not work

•             Doors built after 1993 have got the reverse sensors together with the pressure sensing unit. To try the reverses sensing unit device; put a roll of paper towels on the garage area floor under the garage door and once the door opener detects the pressure it should reverse and begin to open

•             Look for loose nuts, mounting bolts or anchoring screws then tighten as needed

•             Do not allow the young children to spend time playing using the garage door since there are a number of pinch points on your garage door, and ensure the garage door opening and closing button is beyond the reach of children

•             Visually check out the garage door springs, there are two common styles of garage door springs; torsion springs as well as extension type springs. For those who have extension springs there should be a safety cable going inside the springs for safety

•             Be sure the whole family understand and learns how to utilize the emergency safety release option

Safety First; you can do some minor repairs like tightening loose bolts but if the springs need work get in touch with a professional garage door service provider for making the repairs.

If you don’t know how to maintain the safety of your garage door, you can contact Certainty Home Inspections to have a home inspection done on your Indiana or Kentucky home which will allow one of our home inspectors to check out the safety of your garage door for you.

Louisville Home Inspector talks about GFCI Receptacles

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI) are circuit breakers installed at the panel to provide ground faulty protection for the whole circuit. Circuits with GFCI’s need to have fuses or breakers to shut off the electricity in the case of an overload. GFCI’s receptacles are currently required in the United States for bathrooms and washrooms, outdoors, in garages, above counters for a kitchen sink or wet bar, and in unfinished basements and crawlspaces. They are typically installed to protect against electrocution in areas where a person is susceptible to grounding hazards, such as wet locations and when using equipment outside.

There are three types of GFCI’S that can be used in residential properties:

1. The receptacle type is used in place of the standard duplex receptacles found throughout the house. Some GFCI’S may protect other outlets down line in the same circuit. Sometimes the protected outlets will be in different rooms. For example, if an outlet in a patio does not work you should check other locations such as baths or the garage for a tripped GFCI which protects the entire circuit.
2. The circuit breaker type is installed in the electric panel and protects seledted circuits. Although there are limits to the number of outlets protected sometimes a single wire will run from the breaker, through the house, to bathrooms, kitchens and ouside locations protecting each of these.
3. The portable plug in type may be used in area where permanent protection is not available such as with extension cords for power tools operated outside from an unprotected circuit.

Chimneys And Their Caps!

Chimney caps and crowns are used to stop the damage to your chimney. Chimney caps simply act as a roof for your chimney. The water will be deferred from the chimney and kept from entering the chimney and causing deterioration of the masonry and brick. Water can actually do more damage to masonry chimneys than a fire can. A chimney is constructed of a variety of masonry and metal materials, including brick, mortar, tile, steel and cast iron. All of these will deteriorate sooner if susceptible to water. Masonry products deteriorate quickly when exposed to the freeze and thawing process.

Water can cause interior and exterior damage to your chimney. To help maintain your chimney for longer wear and tear, we suggest you install a chimney cap that will help prevent the deterioration of your chimney and give it longer life. A strong well designed cap is inexpensive and can help keep water out, as well as, animals. Caps also serve as spark preventers, preventing sparks from landing on the roof. A chimney cap should be constructed to overhang the chimney by at least two inches. There is a waterproofing cement you can use to cost the crowns to help with any damage.

For better protection use flashing to seal between the roofing material and the chimney. Flashing prevents rain water from running down the chimney into living spaces where it can damage to your ceilings and walls.

Paint should never be used as a water sealer because it will trap moisture inside the chimney and accelerate deterioration.

There are products that have been developed to specifically waterproof a masonry chimney. These products are vapor permeable which means that they allow the chimney to breathe out, but not in. Therefore water that has penetrated the chimney or moisture that has come from inside is allowed to escape, while the waterproofing agent prevents water from entering from the outside.

Water damage to a chimney is usually a slow subtle process. Sometimes it is not noticed until it becomes a serious problem.

Certainty serves the Louisville Kentucky area as well as Southern Indiana

Driveway Cracking

A damaged sidewalk can easily hurt the curb appeal to your home. Fortunately, sidewalk repair can be done yourself. To repair a sidewalk you will need to follow these steps:

1. Determine the type of damage you’re dealing with. Some damage is hard to repair and other isn’t Most types of sidewalk cracks are easy to fix. Big sections of sidewalk that have heaved and broken into pieces are not easy to fix and will most likely require a contractor to fix the problem

2. Determine why the damage occurred. Either there has been a lack of control joints or sometimes tree roots can be the cause.

If your sidewalk is cracking you might one to consider installing a few extra control joints. You can install control joints by using a masonry blade to cut lines in the concrete but do not cut completely through the sidewalk but rather about a 1/2 inch into it. These control joints allow the concrete to expand and contract in certain weather conditions.

If tree roots seem to be the problem, clear around the tree roots and cut them away with a pruning saw. Be very careful though, this can stunt the growth of the tree and sometimes even kill the tree.

What material do I use to repair my sidewalk?

The type of material you use depends on how large the crack is. For little cracks, you can use concrete grout. For larger cracks they can be fixed with caulk and the largest cracks will need to be repaired with concrete patching compound.

Sidewalk cracking can be a potential safety trip hazard at your new home and should be corrected to avoid accidental falls and trip hazards.

Certainty Home Inspections serves all of southern Indiana including the New Albany Indiana. To book your inspection online, visit us online or call us toll free at 866-417-9591.

Louisville Home Inspector Reports Double Tap

Double tapping is a term used to describe a condition created when two or more electrical connections are made at one terminal or breaker. Although commonly found, it is recommended that each branch or service wire be individually connected to their own terminal or breaker. Most breakers or terminals are designed to connect one single wire. Multiple connections at terminals or breakers runs a greater risk of the wires becoming loose and causing possible arcing and increasing the risk of fire. At Certainty, our inspections identify this type of electrical concern that should be corrected by a qualified electrician.
To the left is an example of double tapping, please visit other inspection discoveries at www.certaintyinspections.com

 

To get a list of contractor referrals for all your home  inspection needs visit us here

 

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