Tips

Tips for Homeowners

Tips: Fire Safety | Electrical | Plumbing | Doors and Locks | Appliances

Fire safety

Tip #1: Don't burn your house down.

Smoke Alarms

Have properly placed and properly functioning smoke alarms in case a fire does happen.

The majority of fatal house fires are in homes that do not have properly placed and properly functioning smoke alarms.You might not be able to save your house but you can save your family.

The proper type of alarms and their placement are detrimental to your family's safety.

Know your smoke alarms expiration date.

Smoke alarms expire 10 years after their date of manufacture. You can find the date of manufacture stamped on the back of the alarm.

Know about your smoke alarm's batteries.

Most smoke alarms have batteries. If the smoke alarm is hard-wired, it will have a battery for back-up power in case your home's power goes out.

If your smoke alarm is not hard-wired, and is powered only by a 9 volt battery, there is a good chance that it is outdated and needs to be replaced.. Since 2019, New York State requires that all battery operated smoke alarms sold have a 10 year sealed battery - no more batteries that you can steal when the TV remote battery dies. This does not apply for hard-wired smoke alarms, the back up battery can be either a 10 year sealed batter or a disposable 9v, but still, don't steal it for your remote!

Know your smoke alarm's state of operation.

Your smoke alarms are designed to let you know their state of operation. For example, a single chirp every few minutes may indicate a low battery, while multiple chirps every few minutes may indicate that the alarm has reached its end of life and is no longer functioning.

The LED light also tells you the state of your alarm. For example, a solid green light on a hardwired alarm usually indicates that it is properly powered and in a ready state. And a flashing green light on a hard wired alarm usually indicates that an alarm had been sounded and was triggered by that particular alarm.

The only indicator that seems to be universal is the low battery single chirp. All other indicators not only vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but also from model to model from the same manufacturer.

Here is a chart for LED Light Indicators on First Alert Alarms.

Use the silence or hush feature for false alarms.

Sometimes you get the bacon just a little too crisp, and your smoke alarm thinks it is something more serious. Your smoke alarm is just doing its job. The good news is that most smoke alarms have a built in feature that will allow you to temporarily silence the alarm. Simply press the silence button and the alarm will be deactivated for a few minutes, giving you time for the smoke to clear. It will automatically return to service after the "hush" period has ended.

If you have an abundance of false alarms, you may have a poorly placed alarm or the wrong type of alarm. You could also just be really bad at cooking.

Appliance Fire Safety

Have your dryer and its duct-work thoroughly cleaned regularly.

Each year, there are almost 14,000 house fires caused by clothes dryers. Of these fires, the majority are due to lack of proper maintenance (failure to clean/excessive lint build-up) followed by inappropriate use/placing inappropriate items in the dryer, and inadequate venting.

The proper type of alarms and their placement are detrimental to your family's safety.

Tips: Fire Safety | Electrical | Plumbing | Doors and Locks | Appliances

Electrical

The mystery light switch. Do you have a light switch that does nothing?

It may be a switched receptacle, which is simply a receptacle that is controlled by a switch. The idea is that you can keep a floor or end-table lamp plugged in and turned on, controlling it by the switch.

Sometime it can be difficult to locate the switched receptacle. The receptacle may split, so only half of the receptacle is controlled by the switch.

Tips: Fire Safety | Electrical | Plumbing | Doors and Locks | Appliances

Plumbing

Avoid my #1 call for water leaks caused by freezing: Sillcocks.

A properly installed frost-free sillcock should be just fine through the winter. However, you must remember to never leave a hose hooked up once it starts getting cold. The hose will prevent the sillcock from draining, making it vulnerable to freezing.

This is the most common call I get for freeze damages. Most always it is because someone left a garden hose connected.

Garbage disposal rules of thumb: how to keep it running problem free.

Actually, its proper title is food disposer, despite being mislabeled by everyone, including the manufacturers. They are made for food disposal, not garbage. Let's keep yours running problem free with these guidlines:

#1. If you can't chew it, neither can your food disposer. Bones, shellfish, and fibrous vegetable peels can all jam your disposer.

#2. If it would choke you, it can choke your food disposer. While you can chew fork-full of spaghetti noodles, you would likely choke if you poured a bowl-full into your mouth all at once. Feed only small amounts of pasta and rice into the disposer at a time.

#3. Keep the opening covered, always. Use a disposal strainer or the stopper to keep unintentional items out of the disposer. You would be surprised at how many coins, paper clips, bottle caps, lids and other small items I've pulled from disposers.

Tips: Fire Safety | Electrical | Plumbing | Doors and Locks | Appliances

Doors and Locks

Eliminate your chance of accidentally locking yourself out of the house and improve security with this tip.

Locking your handle lock and closing the door behind you as you leave is a bad habit. It's just a matter of time before you lock yourself out. Better to use your key to lock the door from the outside. Best if you have to use a key to lock the door, such as with a deadbolt only lockset. (More coming soon..... I'm trying hard to update the entire website, please bear with me.)

Rekeying your rental property locks when changing tenants: you can do it yourself.

(Coming soon..... I'm trying hard to update the entire website, please bear with me.)

Tips: Fire Safety | Electrical | Plumbing | Doors and Locks | Appliances

Appliances

Keep your dishwasher running efficiently with a little vinegar.

(Coming soon..... I'm trying hard to update the entire website, please bear with me.)

Keep your garbage disposal running smoothly with these rules of thumb.

(Coming soon..... I'm trying hard to update the entire website, please bear with me.)