Author: buildinginsights_vkv4y8

Winter is coming! There is more to preparing your home for winter than ensuring your furnace works. Don’t get behind on your preparations when the first snowfall comes, or the first -20 C day hits.

You likely drained your pool or stopped watering your lawn weeks ago, but you may not have turned off your outdoor water pipes. Water expands when frozen, and can cause burst pipes when it does. Turn off the water valve on the inside of your home, then turn on the outside tap to drain any water from the line.

Snow often falls and melts before falling again in the winter. That extra water can find its way into your sump pump, so it’s important to make sure it’s working. Simply take a few large pails of water to your sump pump and pour them into the sump pump pit. Eventually, it should turn on and pump the water out. If you eventually get near the point of overflowing, it is likely time to replace your sump pump.

Safely check your home’s gutters and clear them of any debris. You want to ensure that melted snow can drain properly and away from your home’s foundation and window wells in order to prevent leaks and flooding, which may not be covered by home insurance.

Finally, prepare for a nasty winter storm, one where power lines might be frozen. You should have a winter survival kit that includes a phone battery pack, non-perishable food, batteries, flashlights, and bottled water.

There are many other considerations to take around your house to ensure it’s ready for the long winter ahead. You can ask a home inspector to help you determine what maintenance might be required for your new or current home. Be sure that you can stay warm and safe this winter!  

Your home’s humidity not only affects the comfort of anyone inside of it, but also the health of your house itself. The ideal in-home humidity level should hover around 45%. Keeping it over 30% might be challenging in the winter, as is keeping it under 50% in the summer.

Low humidity levels occur in winter because cold air holds less moisture, and using a forced air furnace – to keep the air warm – causes even more moisture to be removed from the home’s air because the furnace combustion burns out what water vapor did exist. Low humidity can cause wooden floors and furniture to split. To combat low humidity, adding a humidifier to your home will help maintain a proper balance. One option is adding a whole home unit to the furnace, which would distribute water vapor within the heated air throughout the duct system. While the most expensive option, a whole home humidifier, yields the best results. There are a variety of portable room humidifiers that you can place in specific rooms that are more problematic.

High humidity levels occur in summer months when the outdoor air carries more water, though it can be observed by having condensation around your windows in the winter months. This can cause problems if water vapor penetrates walls or ceilings and mold starts growing. It can also affect your energy consumption, as you tend to feel hotter in more humid environments. It can also warp floors and peel wall paint. To combat humidity, a reasonably priced option is to add a portable dehumidifier in the basement – just make sure you empty it daily, or have the water drained out continuously with a hose. A high-cost solution is to install an Energy Recovery Ventilator to the home’s HVAC system.  Low-cost solutions include ensuring bathroom and kitchen fans run and exhaust steam outdoors.

Your home’s humidity has different effects depending on the time of year.  Ensure your home has the proper systems and appliances to deal with it appropriately.

Smoke alarms are often silent until you need them most. In order for them to blare their normally muted tone, it’s important to check on them periodically. While you should always follow the manufacturer’s instructions, here are some common guidelines for home smoke alarms.

Smoke alarms can have a failure rate of 30% after 10 years. Therefore, it’s important to replace them before that time, or after their expiry dates. When they fail, it’s often because of dust build-up, so get a small ladder and vacuum them. Another common cause of failure is dead batteries. Even if they are only used as a source of backup power, be sure to replace them yearly, or more. A good time to check your alarms and change the batteries is at Daylight Saving Time, twice per year.

Although new houses must meet current building codes for the number and location of fire alarms, older houses may not. In that case, be sure that there is one alarm on every level of your home, and outside of each bedroom area.

While you’re at it, take a few minutes to review your family’s fire safety plan to ensure that everyone is aware of escape routes (all exit windows and doors for every level) and outdoors meeting location in the event of a fire.  Be sure that your children know who to dial in the event of a fire as well as their home address so that they can communicate it to emergency response operators in the event they need to make that phone call.

Ensure smoke alarm maintenance and fire safety plan review is on your yearly home maintenance checklist to be prepared for an emergency.

Summer and the heat it brings is over and snowfall is imminent.  Your home’s furnace may already be running regularly, with the air conditioner ready for a winter of hibernation, however, you should not completely forget about your air conditioner until next year.  Maintaining it in the winter is important to preserve its longevity and reliability during the hot summer months.  Failure to do so could lead to nesting of animals, or rust or corrosion of vital components.

Before turning the A/C unit off for the winter, stand near it and listen to the compressor while it’s running to ensure there are no unusual noises, such as buzzing or grinding, which may be a sign of vital repairs to make over the winter.

If everything is in working order, turn off the breaker for the A/C unit.  This is usually located in a weatherproof box near the air conditioner on the outside of the house.  Turning it off prevents the risk of electrocution when performing other maintenance tasks, and also prevents the unit from turning on during an unseasonably warm day during the winter, at which point water could enter the condensing unit and then freeze.

Check that there are no cracks or rust in the unit’s casing, and that all seals are tight.  Add insulation on any exposed pipes and wiring to keep the wires and fluid within the pipes from freezing which, in turn, keeps the pipes from cracking.  Adding a cover on top of the unit when it will not be functioning for several months will keep further moisture and debris from unnecessarily entering.

 Ensuring your air conditioner is winterized will give you the confidence to know that it will turn on again when summer returns in a few months!

If you’re a handyman looking to purchase and renovate a fixer-upper, there are many risks to consider.  Most likely, a fixer-upper is an older home that has several issues a home inspector should thoroughly investigate so you to better estimate the money you will need to put into repairs and renovations.

Starting at the top, it’s important to asses the quality of the roof and attic.  A roof in disrepair that allows moisture into the house could easily add five figures to the cost of a renovation.

Underneath the roof, the core structure, foundation, and support beams need to be in good shape.  A home inspector can help look for major cracks, sags in the flooring, and other issues that might indicate concern with these three areas, which are most likely areas of the home you do not want to spend money fixing.

Building standards change over time.  An older home may not meet current electrical standard.  A home inspector with an electrical background will be able to tell you what needs to be done to bring the home up to code.

Similarly, plumbing standards change over time.  Older pipes made of cast iron need to be replaced after 50 years to prevent leaking.  If you are buying a home with pipes around this age, you likely want to be stripping down the house completely in order to run new pipes.

A fixer-upper can be a fun endeavour for a handy “DIY-er,” and a qualified home inspector can help ensure you know what you’re getting yourself in to before making the purchase.

You never expect your home to flood, but it’s important to be prepared in the event that it does happen.  Here are a few things to keep in mind for the first day or two after a home flood.

First, turning off all electrical and water services to the home.  While a flood may be accompanied by power loss, it’s important to turn off all breakers and fuses to prevent electrocution in the case someone is inspecting the basement when power is restored.  When investigating damaged areas, waterproof boots and clothing should be worn in case the water is contaminated.  Even clear water could contain chemicals and may not be safe when exposed to your skin.

As soon as possible, and before making any repairs yourself, fully document the damage by taking pictures and videos and contact your insurance company to understand your policy coverage and next steps.

The causes of your flooding may be numerous, from a sewer backup, or extreme weather, to a broken sump pump or a burst pipe.  In the latter two cases, fixing the problem yourself may be possible, or you could arrange a contractor to make the repair on short notice.  Water can be removed in a variety of ways, such as bailing out large amounts of water manually with buckets, or using a hose to drain.  Smaller amounts of water can be sucked up with a wet vacuum.  When water is removed, your home’s air conditioner, portable fans, and dehumidifiers can help to remove the humidity that was added to your home.

Before completing repairs to walls and carpets, professionals should be contacted to look for mold growth, which could happen depending on the time that has passed since the flood.

Experiencing a flood in your home is never a pleasant experience, but with a quick and pragmatic approach, damage and inconvenience can be limited.

Windows in basements have many purposes, such as allowing natural light and providing an emergency escape route.  Basement windows at or below grade will have a window well surrounding it to facilitate this, and it’s important to maintain them.  Windows are designed to shed water, but they aren’t waterproof.  Window wells ensure proper drainage around the window to prevent as little water as possible from piling around the window’s seal.

In order for the window well to properly disperse water, the gravel in it should be loose.  To ensure this, regular inspection for debris in the well should be performed, along with the prompt removal.  Debris could be anything that the wind blows in, such as leaves, branches, weeds, or kids toys.   

The grade of the soil around the well should be lower than the top of the window well, and the seal around the well to the house should be completely solid as to not allow water or dirt into the well.  This should especially be inspected in the spring and fall, as the ground’s freezing and thawing can force the well to become disjoined from the house.  A build of up dirt in the window well will may cause the gravel to become cement-like, and prevent water from draining properly.  

With a properly maintained window well, you can keep water outside and your basement dry.

By: Andy Bauman – FlowSpec Engineering Ltd.

You’ve purchased a home in the country, outside of the City, congratulations! Your home purchase likely involves the appeal of more space, a larger yard and some fresh air. Something that’s not typically top of mind, but requires your attention, is whether your new home is on a septic system. Away from city sewers and municipal wastewater treatment plants, septic systems (or wastewater treatment systems) are the traditional way of treating wastewater from toilets, sinks, showers, laundry, etc. within your home. This, as well as a drinking water well, are important parts of your rural infrastructure. When things are working normally, you’ll hardly notice your septic system. Working in the background, your system efficiently treats the wastewater from your home and reintroduces the treated water back into the natural water cycle. In the event of a malfunction due to improper maintenance, equipment failure, or simply reaching the end of its expected service life, significant investment may be required to get the system back on track.

There are a wide variety of types of septic systems installed today. The common elements though, involve a tank (typically made of concrete or plastic) which collects the raw wastewater from your home and provides varying levels of treatment. Wastewater then travels to the “leaching bed” (series of perforated pipe buried beneath the earth and situated in native or imported soil) where final treatment occurs. The wastewater is reintroduced into the underlying soil and finally back to the natural water cycle. Additional tanks or pumps may be involved for enhanced treatment of the wastewater or to overcome gravity flow. 

It’s important to remember that septic systems rely on a biological process involving bacteria that consume or break down household waste as it works its way through the system. With this in mind, washing paint brushes in your sink or putting harmful chemicals into the system will have a negative impact and should be avoided.

When assessing an existing septic system, there are a lot of things to look for, much of it is underground, and out of sight. Working with a trusted and reputable professional, who is familiar with septic systems, is the best way to ensure your homes system is in good working order. Items to be looked at would include: age of the system (building code requirements have been updated or changed over the years, though some older systems continue to work well), construction paperwork (design, installation or permit approval documents), maintenance records (regular pump-outs, replacement parts), visible items including access lids or soggy areas around the leaching bed (an indication that the wastewater isn’t going where it’s intended). A more invasive approach involves digging up areas of the leaching bed to uncover additional information about the performance of the system you simply cannot see on the surface.

If you plan on renovating your home, an addition, building a pool or workshop or simply landscaping the yard, this process may trigger an assessment of the septic system. In these instances, the existing system may be required to meet today’s standards in the Ontario Building Code. This could involve upgraded components or even a complete replacement. Meeting with an industry professional will shed some light on the situation.

In summary, a properly designed, installed and maintained septic system may service a home for a generation or more. Outside of routine maintenance, the system should continue to efficiently operate “out of sight, and out of mind.” Understanding what you have underground on your property, what condition it is in and how it plays into any future construction/renovation plans you have is imperative to ensuring you don’t have any unwanted surprises with your new home.

If you live in the country or on the edge of a city where there is no water service, and instead get your water from your own well, it’s important to regularly maintain it to keep high water quality, and to prevent expensive repair bills.

You may start to notice an issue with water quality simply by a change of taste when drinking tap water, however, annual bacterial checks should be done as well. These can be easily done after purchasing a water test kit from a local hardware store.

At least once per year, the well cover should be checked to ensure it fits properly and that nothing can leak in from the surface. If a vented well cap is present, it should be free of debris, and in-tact in order to keep bugs and animals out. If the well is around new trees or shrubs, their roots should not have grown to within ten feet of the well. Finally, the well’s casing should be at least one foot above the ground.

While components of your well and water system can break down over time, common sense should also prevail, such as keeping hazardous chemicals, such as oil, lawn fertilizer, and paint away from your well. Do not insert hoses or pumps into the well to retrieve water; use your home’s water taps and faucets instead. Be careful when mowing the grass around the well as to not damage it. Finally, when doing any kind of landscaping or moving earth around the well, ensure that the ground slopes away from the well to prevent surface runoff, as should have been the case when the well was installed.

Keeping these tips front of mind when performing these activities can ensure accidental contamination of your water supply does not happen. With proper care, you can maintain your home’s well to live its full and expected lifetime.

If you want to improve your home and aren’t a “do-it-yourself-er,” hiring a contractor is likely the route you’ll use to make the changes you desire. As something you infrequently do, finding the right contractor to create your vision may be challenging. Here are some tips to find the right one for you.

Create a list of possible contractors that can perform the type of renovations you want, either from recommendations from friends or web searches. Do thorough research before contacting them, such as finding out their business ratings on sites like the Better Business Bureau, ensuring they are licensed, and finding any ratings they have from past clients on their web site, Google, or social media platforms.

When you’re ready to reach out to them, do so with a list of prepared questions: do they take on projects of your size and scope, do they have their own references they can provide, and how many projects do they have going on at the same time? If you receive satisfactory responses, meet in person where the job is to be completed so they can visually inspect the area and ask their own questions to get a true sense of the scope of the work.

Before the work starts, get quotes from the top two or three candidates for comparison. Their breakdown should include an itemized list of materials as well as expected labor costs. When you compare the quotes, don’t automatically go for the lowest bidder. The low bid may speak to the contractor’s experience or quality of their work. Be sure to ask questions about all quotes to ensure you know what exactly is and isn’t covered. After you’ve decided, sign a contract, which should state start date, milestone dates, end date, and payment schedule (some money up front, the rest spread throughout the duration of the work, or the end).

By following these basic tips, you should have a successful renovation by a qualified home improvement contractor!