Unwanted Guest

Handymen can get some strange questions, for example:

Question: I have a guest living in my home and he doesn't pay rent, he tears up the place and he comes and goes as he pleases. I have a squirrel in my attic. I have tried to catch the little guy many times and I am embarrassed to say that he has outsmarted me at every turn. I thought it to be fun at firstbut I swear I heard him in one of our walls the other day and I amconcerned that he could bite into something that he should not. Should I beworried and what kind of damage can one squirrel do?




Answer: There has been a lot of success using an ultrasonic rodent repeller. These ultrasonic rodent repellers create sound patterns that the pest don’t like, and they will leave. These devices start around thirty dollars. It is best to purchase one that has a money back guarantee.

The main problem is to find the opening in your house they are using to get in. I recommend looking around the eaves and soffits for openings. Once you have evicted your unwanted guest it is time to seal these openings.

"Call Your Handyman and Take a KId Fishing"

Roof Flashing

Any handyman can tell you the important role roof flashing plays in avoiding costly leaks. Using the proper flashing in it’s proper place a good start, but keeping it in good repair will avoid costly repairs to the interior of your house. Inspecting the flashing from the exterior is a good start, but the real story is revealed from the interior of the attic. For example, valley-pan flashing can appear in good condition from the surface, but that is only part of the story. The way it was installed is not apparent from the surface, and improper installation will cause leaks that can only be detected from the underside of the roof.

Here is an example of questions I receive about roof flashing.
Question: We recently had some roof work, including the installation of drip edge. Could you tell me the purpose(s) of a roofing drip edge? Could you also tell me the proper location of a drip edge in relation to a gutter? (I fear that I may have had one installed incorrectly.)


Answer: Of all of the different types of flashing, drip edge flashing is the simplest. Drip edge flashing is commonly used at the rakes (gable end edges) and at the eaves (the leading edge of the roof where the gutters are installed). There are two basic types of drip edge. One type is known as “C”, this type of drip edge does not have an overhang. The other type is known as “Extended”. The Extended type has a hemmed overhang at the edge of the roof deck. Both types can be installed on the rakes or the eaves.
To prevent high wind and rain from entering at the rakes, the drip edge is installed on top of the underlayment. On the eaves the drip edge is installed under the underlayment, this allows any water that gets under the shingles to shed safely off the roof. If there are gutters on the eaves, the drip edge should be extended so water will flow directly into the gutters.

“Call Your Handyman and Take a Kid Fishing”

Childproofing Your Home

As a parent of three and a grandparent of five I realize the challenges, especially when it comes to safety matters. Getting ahead of the game is the answer to avoid harm to your children. Believe it or not, accidental injury is the number one killer of children in American. More children lose their lives to accidents in their homes than to disease or violence. According to the Safe Kids USA organization, 4.5 million children are injured in the home every year.

Every parent knows the danger of sharp corners that can cause head and bodily injuries. Let’s not forget the small objects that any child will put in their mouth and choke on before we know it. Childproofing is a major task and any stone left unturned could result in a potential danger to your child.

We know the dangers of cleaning products and keep them away from our children, but how about the automatic toilet bowl cleaner we use. Dipping their cup in the toilet bowl to get a quick drink is gross, but will not kill them. But a drink out of the toilet with a toxic automatic toilet bowl cleaner in it could be fatal. Toilet lid latches are a great idea, but only if all family members remember to latch them.

A nice warm bath for your baby is a good thing, but water too hot can cause burns and in some cases serious burns. While it is important to adjust bath water to a comfortable temperature for your baby, it is also important to adjust the temperature of your water heater. For safety reasons a water heater should not be set with a temperature higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

All electrical switches and plugs should have cover plates. All plugs should have child proof caps, or Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) on outlets near sinks and bathtubs.

Beware of furniture that has moving parts, such as recliner chairs and exercise equipment. It is easy for a child to get their fingers or other body parts caught in a moving part.

Installing window stops will prevent a child from getting their head stuck in a window or getting out of a window. This may sound funny, but a window that has stops will only allow the window to open four inches, see how this can help?
Window cords should always be removed or cut from any drapes or blinds to avoid strangulation.

Child latches on washer/dryers, refrigerators, freezers, drawers, and cabinets will also help prevent an accident. Installing door knob sleeves is a simple way to keep a child out of a room that you are not in.

Have your handyman inspect all decks and balconies for fall protection devices and general safety.

DIGITAL REMODELING!

Probably you were having supper with your spouse and talking about the house when the brainstorm hit you. Suddenly you glimpsed a way to get that extra bathroom the home had always needed, without putting in new foundation and adding on off the back of the house. So you grabbed a pencil and quickly sketched the rough idea on a paper napkin. It was pretty rough, and there was mustard on the floor-uh, napkin. Well, you're not an architect, after all.

You might be surprised what's available to you.

If you've got a nice home PC, you could have more fun than any video game, designing your dream house, or doing some realistic remodeling of the home you've already got.

I'm not talking about the software the pros use. Programs for professional architecture and engineering-programs like CADAM, Autocad, Datacad, Cadsoft, Argus, Microstation, etc-typically start at around $1000 and rapidly escalate to over $20,000 in cost. And that does not include the computer. Furthermore, if you thought learning that word processing or spreadsheet program was tedious and mind-numbing, I guarantee learning these programs will be exquisite torture. Nah, for what I've got in mind, you don't need to have a fat bank account or know anything about isometric projection or Cartesian coordinates.

For typically about $20 to $100 you now have your choice of several good design programs reasonably geared to the typical home user and enabling you to turn out plans any contractor can use and-best of all-allowing you to see the completed project in 3D on your computer monitor before you've spent a dime!

Compare some of these products and select the right one for you.

"Call Your Handyman and take a Kid Fishing"

I’ve got the Itch

The most popular do-it-yourself project may be retrofitting insulation into established homes. And why not? There is arguably no other home improvement project which will so reliably add to our comfort and so quickly return the cost of the investment.

Although sealed wall cavities are rarely accessed by do-it-yourselfers, attics, crawlspaces, and basement walls are often done by them. While we advise caution and appropriate preparedness for any home maintenance activity (prudence is your best defense against injury-hire a professional if you are unsure of the job!), for most homeowners the most daunting prospect may be the sneezing and itching that can come from handling fiberglass batts.

Within the last couple years some new products have become available which can change all that.

Perhaps the most widespread are encapsulated batts. In general, these are the same fiberglass batts you've always known, but wearing a thin plastic sleeve. The plastic sleeve makes the batts much easier to handle-you can work with them without metamorphosing into a human porcupine, bristling with tiny spikes of broken fiberglass. Expect to wear long sleeves and a respirator just as has always been done with fiberglass batts-the fiber detritus is so tiny, and the sleeves usually open-ended, so that you will still likely have some contact. A radical and seldom-mentioned benefit of the bagged batts is more even, less moisture- and humidity-dependent, performance from the fiberglass batt. Not long before the batts were introduced, a re-examination of the standard R-value testing method brought the realization that the testing method was characterized by very low humidity. When elevated humidity was introduced, the batts' R-value dropped significantly.

Another remarkable new product is Owens-Corning's "Miraflex," the first new form of fiberglass in almost 60 years. Miraflex is fiberglass but looks and feels just like soft, non-spun cotton. It is formed by blending two types of glass fiber, the strands having random curls which keep them from irritating the skin. Don't stuff your pillow with it, though. It comes in an encapsulated batt and I'll let you figure out why. R-value for Miraflex is about the same as standard fiberglass batts, approximately R-3 per inch.

Or you could get away from fiberglass altogether with a nifty old-time batt material, rock wool. Rock wool has been around since the 1930's. You can make some by spinning together fibers of molten basalt rock and steel mill slag. Or you could have a Canadian company, Roxul, do it for you. Ontario-based Roxul makes a modern rock wool batt with a springy edging that aids seal, Flexibatt. Roxul ships Flexibatt to the four corners of the earth (say, Chris, which way to America?). If you make the effort to locate some Flexibatt, you'll be rewarded with a material that is softer and more sound- and fire-resistant than conventional fiberglass. And you'll get substantially better R-value in the bargain, typically R-3.7 to R-4 per inch.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to insulate your house with blanket material like you cover yourself with at night (those blankets may be only 1/4" thick, but one or two of them keeps you toasty at night), why, give Greenwood Cotton Insulation Products of Roswell, Georgia a call. They make batts out of recycled cotton and polyester. Those batts just missed becoming blue-jeans or T-shirts-they're the leftovers from jean and T-shirt factories. R-value is about the same or a little better than conventional fiberglass batts, around R-3 to R-3.7. And, you will not itch.

If you want to make the neighbors "green" with envy and be really hip, you'll jump at the chance to stuff your house with "E2" from E2 Development of Burlington, Ontario. E2 is made of 100 percent recycled plastic soda bottles. Before you can finish a good belch, they'll spin you old cola bottle into a soft cottony blanket that costs just a little bit more than conventional fiberglass but insulates like a batt-and-a-half, typically R4.5 per inch.

I'll bet you're just itchin' to get started!

“Call Your Handyman and Take a Kid Fishing”

Our Home is Our Castle

Long ago, there was a time when we went to our windows, drew back the curtains-and stuck our heads out. There wasn't any window to open, no pane of glass to keep out the wind and the rain. Such was life for the crowned heads of Europe as they looked out the windows of their castle. Glass windows had not been developed yet. So much of our ordinary comfort is unimaginably better than even the greatest wealth of times past could purchase. A draft-free place to live where the temperature never varies more than a couple degrees, no matter the chill or heat wave. A place where light and the waking hour activities it makes possible are determined by the indweller and not the fluctuating rhythms of the earth and sun and moon. A place filled with music and entertainment, better than ancient royalty knew and more promptly and tirelessly than they could command. A place with doorways into millions of other homes, libraries, museums, and businesses of every kind. A place where the comforts of the bath are available on demand in heated luxury. A place where our food is available in quantity and variety fresh from all parts of the world, chilled or heated as we might wish and without dependence on season. All this and with a gleaming carriage at our disposal pulled by two hundred silent horses, or maybe two such carriages, should we grow tired of our "castle. Now we need our handyman more than ever to keep our castle well maintained and safe.

Decked Out

As a handyman we know the importance of regular deck maintenance and repair. Finding rotten boards and repairing them is important for safety reasons. Unfortunately, most wood rot occurs in places that can be hard to see. Most early rot will occur under the decking boards, at the ledger boards, and on the underside of stair treads. Cleaning and sealing deck boards will increase the life of your deck. If there are nails that or popping up, just nailing them back down is futile. They will need to be replaced with longer deck nails or screws. The vertical wood deck supports should be inspected once a year and repairs made as needed. Masonry deck supports require less maintenance, but still should be inspected.

I receive a wide verity of deck questions. I thought you would like this one.


Question:
We are buying a two-year-old house that just had a new deck added to it. The deck is very nice; it is one of the things that made us want the house. The deck starts on the ground floor, and has steps going to the second floor deck. It is very sound to walk on, but my husband noticed that the piers holding up the deck are covered in cardboard. Is this normal construction? Will this cardboard hold the deck?
Answer:
The cardboard you see is only a temporary form for concrete piers. It is a common practice to build large decks on concrete piers. To form the round concrete piers, they pour the concrete into a heavy cardboard-like tube. After the concrete has hardened, the “cardboard” form can be removed. The concrete finish can look a little rough and show stripes from the form. Sometimes the contractor will just leave the concrete that way; sometimes they will put a finish coat on it to hide the imperfections. This is very good construction, but the cardboard forms should be removed, to prevent a path for wood-destroying insects to get to the deck.

"Call Your Handyman and Take a Kid fishing"

Open and Shut Case

Your handyman knows the importance of preventive maintenance to keep equipment working properly, but sometimes equipment just wears out. For example, garage door openers get regular use and often abuse as well. Your handyman knows the importance of regular maintenance on the garage door, such as oiling rollers and hinges to reduce wear and tear on the motor that has to raise and lower the door assembly several times a day. Often the garage door opener motors play out earlier then they should from the stress of constantly opening a garage door that does not work freely. In a lot of cases if a piece of equipment has out lived it’s normal life expectancy, it may be time to replace it instead of repairing wasting money on repairs. This is something your handyman can help you with.

Question:

We live in a twenty-year-old house that still has the original Craftsman garage door opener. It has never given us any problems until yesterday - it just stopped working. The light comes on, but the motor does not run, or even make any noise. We pulled the cord that lets us open the door by hand, and that works fine, so we know that the door is not stuck.

Is there anything else we can check?


Answer:

The motor has a built-in breaker to protect it from an overload. If this trips, the motor will not run, but the light will still work. Look on the motor for a reset button. Hold it down for a few seconds, and then try the motor again. If this does not work, considering the age of the unit, I would think that the motor has exceeded its useful life.

You can have it repaired, but it may be a better investment to replace it. The normal life expectancy on a garage door opener is about 10 years. Your 20-year-old unit may be fixable, but at this point it may just start giving you problems and costing you more money. Door openers are not very expensive, and the new ones have better safety features.

Improve Your Home and Save Money

We all want to do our part to conserve energy for environmental reasons, but let's not forget the personal savings. Low cost energy-efficiency improvements can reduce your monthly energy bills, and pay for themselves quickly. For years handymen all over have helped homeowners reduce energy cost with affordable energy-efficiency improvements. Not long ago Energy Audits came available to homeowners, however homeowners have been slow to take advantage of these programs. It's a no-brainer, a program that will examine the energy efficiency of your home and at the same time give your handyman a detailed list of improvements to reduce your energy cost. Think about it!

Energy Audits

Increased energy efficiency and resource conservation are good for the environment and good for the economy. Indeed, they are good for all of us. A home energy audit will show you how to save money on utility bills, increase the comfort of a home, increase the value of a home, and help improve the environment. An energy audit will examine, measure, and evaluate the factors that affect energy use in a home, finding all energy saving opportunities. The information gathered during the energy audit is analyzed using specialized software to produce a comprehensive Home Energy Tune-uP® Report.
The Report shows which energy-efficiency improvements would reduce energy costs and make the home more comfortable.
The analysis takes into account regional variables such as local weather, implementation costs, and fuel prices.
The Report contains estimates of the savings, costs and payback for each energy-efficiency recommendation.
The Report identifies the group of improvements that, if financed, will save more on energy bills than it costs. These are the improvements that everyone can make since they require no out-of-pocket cost when financed.
The detailed recommendations section enables contractors to provide preliminary cost estimates without a visit to the home.
It also explains how to get the best energy savings from these improvements by listing related no-cost low-cost measures that can be taken.

You can reduce your energy expenditures by developing energy saving habits:
· Showers usually require less hot water than baths. Additional savings can be realized by installing simple water-saving shower heads. This will reduce water consumption, which is good for everyone. The primary benefit is lower heating bills brought about by using less energy to heat less water.
· Use heat-generating appliances such as washers, dryers or ovens during the cooler hours of the morning or evening. This reduces the load on your air conditioner in the summer, and actually helps heat the house in the winter.
· Electric cooktops are energy drains. Use the appropriate burner for your pan size. Also, flat bottom pots make better contact and conduct heat from the elements more efficiently than pots with warped or rounded bottoms.
· Wash only full loads of clothes when possible and clean your dryer's lint filter after every load.
· Consider replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. Fluorescent bulbs put out approximately four times as many lumens per watt. For example, a 25 watt fluorescent bulb provides as much light as a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Fluorescent bulbs also last about ten times as long!
· In the summer, keep drapes and curtains closed on the sunny side of the house. In the winter, open those drapes and curtains on sunny days to take advantage of the sun's heating power. Close all drapes, blinds or shades at night in winter to make use of their insulating properties.
· Use an exhaust fan to pull excess heat and humidity out of the kitchen and bathroom in the summer. Be aware, however, that exhaust fans can rapidly pull the heat from your house in the winter.
· Perhaps the most often quoted hint for saving energy in the home is to set thermostats at 68° F in the winter and 78° F in the summer.

These How-To's are provided as a service from Lowe's, the Original Home Improvement Warehouse of How-To information for the World Wide Web.

Lock Bumping, Are You Safe?

As a handyman I am always posting articles about home safety and home security. We are always getting calls to install deadbolts and window locks. Thanks to a comment posted by Brett, I wanted to post this article about “Lock Bumping”. Lock bumping is a Locksmiths trick to open cylinder locks. By using a special series of cuts on a regular key, plus a series or taps, thieves can open almost any lock in minutes. Thanks to the internet anyone can get information on how to make a bump key, making your traditional deadbolt lock easy prey for a break-in. From an insurance company stand point this type of break in leaves no evidence of forced entry and a reluctance to pay a claim. There are several very inexpensive ways to protect yourself from break-ins due to lock bumping, including a popular device called “LockJaw”. Ask your local handyman about installing one of these devices on your dead bolt. The small cost for this safety device is well worth the peace of mind.

“Call your Handyman and take a Kid Fishing”