Tackle any sign of a leak at the first opportunity.

A leak doesn’t have to be an active drip. It can be something as simple as a crack or hole in caulk around the plate that backs a shower control. Water will inevitably move into that hole, where it then gets trapped. Some will evaporate. But some will remain behind, leading to weakened drywall and mildew build up.

Eventually, the damage will spread. When that happens, what could have been a minor caulking job now requires removing the shower control and maybe part of the wall in order to repair the damage. In most cases, procrastination does lead to larger expenses.

One common place for water leaks or drips is at the joints or bottom of pipes under the bathroom and kitchen sinks. Improperly applied compound or plumber’s tape leaves a small hole. Water seeps out anywhere it can. It oozes out of the joint and gravity carries it down to the bottom of the U-shaped pipe, where it drips onto the cabinet floor.

From there, the mildew starts to develop. The cabinetry, usually some form of pressboard or treated plywood, starts to rot and weaken. Over time the surface will bow. Eventually the wood fibers develop a hole, allowing the water to seep down to even more critical areas.

Feel your pipes from time to time. Make sure they’re dry around the joints and at the bottom of the ‘U’. That’s especially important right after any small plumbing job. That’s the time – when pipes have been newly installed or freshly cleaned – when the evidence of your plumber’s tape application skills are tested.

Look for water leaks that start higher up, too.

Kitchen faucets are notorious for having cracks or small holes in the caulking or sealant. Water tends to sit behind the plate that attaches to the sink at the base of the faucet. When homeowners clean behind there it’s common to use the hard metal surface of a steel wool pad or layered sponge. The caulking gets scraped.

A couple of years go by and little by little that caulking is scraped off, dries out and gets accidentally removed by repeated water exposure and cleaning. Temperature changes near the window speed up the process. Winter temperatures keep the surface cooler than the rest of the room. Summer sun coming through the window bakes the caulk. That causes small contractions and expansions that help weaken the seal.

Give your plumbing a good inspection, the way a home inspector would when you buy or sell the house. Find any drips, leaks or just holes where plumbing attaches. Fix them now before you have to tear out a floor or wall. A little maintenance now is a lot less costly than a huge repair later.

-The Fixie Chix

Tune into www.Home&YardRadio;.com with the Fixie Chick Saturdays at 10:00am on 950 ESPN for more must have information for your Home & Yard!
Women owned businesses. DIY Home Improvements. Look at my other businesses: http://www.fixinchix.com & Healthy Homes of Rochester http://www.healthyhomesofrochester.com
Well save you money on your home’s energy costs.

Brenna Hartmann also writes for the Democrat and Chronicle’s Living Section in Rochester, NY. In addition she writes monthly for The Property Source Magazine and the Home and yard Handbook which she was the founder and since has sold the handbook entity in order to spend more time with her family and children.

Websites were developed by www.crystal-hosting.netcontact them for all your web development and hosting needs.

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The first thing to keep in mind is that Spring isn’t the only, and not always the best time to do prep work. If you need to re-seed bare patches, just before the first snowfall of the year is a good time to start. The seeds will get worked into the soil by the weight of the snow and lay dormant for Winter.

Then, as Spring arrives with the first melt, the seeds will be in good mud and start the early stages of germination. As the sun hits them, you’ll get good, fresh grass in a couple of weeks.

At the same time, since crabgrass and its relatives don’t thrive in the Fall or Winter, you have a head start on that kind of weed control. As the grass continues to spread, it has a better chance of crowding out crabgrass, which may not develop at all.

Then you can apply the recommended Spring fertilizer at the earliest possible week. That helps to give those young shoots a great beginning and, if you use weed control fertilizer, you can solve two problems with one effort.

As that snow continues to melt off you’ll find areas where the grass has become thatched. That’s a condition in which the blades get lain over one another, then compressed from the snow pack on top. Some of them die over Winter. As a result, you have a kind of straw-like covering, hence the name ‘thatch’.

Solving that problem is easy, though. Just cut the grass a little later in Fall than you need to just for length control. That keeps the height down and helps keep thatching to a minimum.

Then, follow up in Spring by raking the grass. Of course, if you raked in the Fall, there won’t be any leaves to get rid of. Nevertheless, this helps pull up thatched areas and allows air to get to the soil.

If the ground has become hard, or the soil is the sort to easily become compacted, you can follow that up with an aeration. There are several ways to do that. You can use a special attachment on a riding lawnmower and run it over the grass. There are also special large-drum rollers with spikes poking out you can use.

A very inexpensive method involves using special shoes, somewhat like golf shoes with spikes on the bottom. You just put them on then walk around the area you want aerate. The shoes make tiny holes that allow air to easily penetrate the soil. At the same time, it makes channels for solid fertilizer pellets to fall into.

After you’ve de-thatched and aerated, your lawn will be in good shape to carry out weed control, seeding, fertilizer application and regular mowing.

Whoever said lawn care was easy?

-The Fixie Chix

Tune into www.Home&YardRadio;.com with the Fixie Chick Saturdays at 10:00am on 950 ESPN for more must have information for your Home & Yard!
Women owned businesses. DIY Home Improvements. Look at my other businesses: http://www.fixinchix.com & Healthy Homes of Rochester http://www.healthyhomesofrochester.com
Well save you money on your home’s energy costs.

Brenna Hartmann also writes for the Democrat and Chronicle’s Living Section in Rochester, NY. In addition she writes monthly for The Property Source Magazine and the Home and yard Handbook which she was the founder and since has sold the handbook entity in order to spend more time with her family and children.

Websites were developed by www.crystal-hosting.netcontact them for all your web development and hosting needs.

Where an interior room angle is, say, 90 degrees the outside corner is also thought of as 90 degrees. But, measured the same way, it’s actually 270 degrees. That difference produces just one of the many wrinkles inherent in an exterior lighting scheme. Add to that the presence of bushes, trees, few if any enclosed hallways or spaces and you have a decidedly different environment to illuminate.

Security is one of the most basic concerns in many exterior lighting schemes though it’s rarely the first.

Deep shadows produced by nooks, bushes, trashcans and other common outdoor home features present a challenge. But flood lamps are designed to solve that exact problem. Place them on both corners of a wall, angled inward and there will be very few places for potential home invaders to hide.

Add motion sensors near points of entry – low windows, small garage doors, the front and rear entrances and so on – and you can have a system that saves energy and looks more low key, but still covers your home. Many come with timers or other features that allow you to ensure they don’t come on during the day or at other undesired times.

All of the above may be categorized under the heading of ambient lighting. Clearly, though, the outdoor scheme is very different than providing general room illumination indoors.

But home protection isn’t the only reason to add lights to the exterior. Convenience can be important, too. That’s where task lighting comes into play.

You drive up onto the driveway then walk up to your front door. That journey might be sufficiently illuminated by street lights. But trees, rural neighborhoods and other factors may cause them to be absent or inadequate. A child’s toy on the sidewalk can be a hazard. Finding keys and the front door lock can be annoying without good coverage of the walkway and entrance. So, task lights that give adequate light to the driveway, walkways and front door become important.

There are times when you’ll need to do minor repairs when it’s dusk or dark. A broken window may not wait until morning. Dusk may be the only time you have to finish a section of garden. Good task lighting can provide you with permanent or mobile solutions.

But when people think of exterior lighting, accent lights are usually uppermost in mind. Giving the home that finished look is often best accomplished by placing lamps at a dozen spots around the house.

The lawn is a popular spot, since both grass and walkways can be covered by the correct choice and placement of lawn lights. Small solar-powered lamps have become an often selected option, and for good reason. Solar lawn lights allow for wire-free, easy installation that never requires batteries.

Wall accents are another frequently found feature of exterior lighting schemes, thanks to their ability to provide focus. Small indirect spots can give a home that ‘looks like a quality TV commercial’ touch. Exterior wall sconces come in a hundred different designs. That makes it easy to integrate them with the rest of the home design or add decorative accents that suit any individual taste.

Invest in exterior lighting and you’ll be more secure, walk and work with confidence, and add a beautiful illuminated look to your home.

-The Fixie Chix

Tune into www.Home&YardRadio;.com with the Fixie Chick Saturdays at 10:00am on 950 ESPN for more must have information for your Home & Yard!
Women owned businesses. DIY Home Improvements. Look at my other businesses: http://www.fixinchix.com & Healthy Homes of Rochester http://www.healthyhomesofrochester.com
Well save you money on your home’s energy costs.

Brenna Hartmann also writes for the Democrat and Chronicle’s Living Section in Rochester, NY. In addition she writes monthly for The Property Source Magazine and the Home and yard Handbook which she was the founder and since has sold the handbook entity in order to spend more time with her family and children.

Websites were developed by www.crystal-hosting.netcontact them for all your web development and hosting needs.

Properly laid and sealed tile will keep water from getting into unwanted areas for decades. But sometimes caulking isn’t perfect and it can dry out and crack. Taking the time to make a good seal the first time around can prevent expensive repairs later.

One way to do that is to get tile to fit well during initial installation.

In the shower, the spout and shower head pipe often have to come through tile. Measure carefully and ensure that the hole is no larger than necessary. That will make final caulking easier and more secure.

One good way to do that is to take one or two pieces of tile and lay the pipe onto the tile, then score the tile around it. It’s possible to simply take the stated pipe size as a guideline. But people often get confused between inner and outer diameter. Stated pipe sizes are of the outer diameter and, for threaded pipes, of the threads not the pipe body.

Measuring the actual outer pipe diameter gives an exact answer. It also prevents any errors introduced from using the measurement of the threads rather than the pipe itself. These should be the same, since the threads are created by grooving the pipe, but small differences can occur.

It may be easiest to use a single tile, score it and break it in half, then use a tile saw to carve out a perfect half-circle on each half. The two pieces should fit back together very closely with only a very small gap between the pipe and tile. Using one piece broken in half helps ensure the edges will fit together accurately. Leaving only a very small gap helps reduce any caulking errors.

After fitting everything in place, seal the gap with a thin bead of caulk using a caulking gun. Before it has time to dry fully, take a very slightly damp sponge and wipe away any excess from the tile to leave a nice clean result. A wooden cuticle tool or ice cream stick makes for a handy device to ensure that the bead is even around the entire circumference of the pipe.

After it dries, inspect the results carefully to ensure there are no small gaps anywhere. This is the time when you make the difference between a well-sealed pipe or virtually guarantee a later repair job.

-The Fixie Chick

Tune into www.Home&YardRadio;.com with the Fixie Chick Saturdays at 10:00am on 950 ESPN for more must have information for your Home & Yard!
Women owned businesses. DIY Home Improvements. Look at my other businesses: http://www.fixinchix.com & Healthy Homes of Rochester http://www.healthyhomesofrochester.com
Well save you money on your home’s energy costs.

Brenna Hartmann also writes for the Democrat and Chronicle’s Living Section in Rochester, NY. In addition she writes monthly for The Property Source Magazine and the Home and yard Handbook which she was the founder and since has sold the handbook entity in order to spend more time with her family and children.

Websites were developed by www.crystal-hosting.netcontact them for all your web development and hosting needs.