Favorite Plum Tree

During a brief few hours the other day, I could have  sworn it was spring. There was a real sense of warmth and I could feel the heat radiating on my face. I even caught a whiff of a floral scent from the favorite fruit bearing plum tree that I parked next to.

I was able to admire a few daffodils and the forsythia was a brilliant yellow too.

It got me thinking about living in a place that experiences all four seasons. Honestly, it seems like winters and summers dominate our part of the country, but growing up in the bay area, I had to develop an appreciation.

Naturally, I began catching up on some home improvement projects of my own including raking up the yard and replacing a faulty bathroom faucet that was beyond a washer repair.

Forsythia

Here are a few of the springtime projects that are worth looking at.

• Cleaning out gutters ( a necessary evil when trees are around)
• Verifying sprinkler system status (broken heads can do lots of damage)
• Changing out HVAC air filters.  (A clogged system is wasteful)
• Opening up foundation vents ( let your crawl space breath)
• Repairing leaks and running toilets (Water adds up quickly)
• Hoses and supply lines (If you have to ask, the answer is yes)
• Inline water filters (not all places have them)
• Look at the roof (we now have a 2 roof maximum till tear off)

I get the feeling that, like me, many of us are getting up the nerve to make that call to a contractor to see about improving our living spaces.

Look it over and make a plan

Look at your kitchen. Look at your bathrooms. Do a physical inventory of your home and spaces. Look inside and out, on top and underneath. Keep a watchful eye.

Hint, (think like water)

Unlike a fine wine that gets better with age, our homes, toys, and systems deteriorate with the passing of each season.

Plan, prioritize, and budget for the repairs. What is on your list? Whether you fix it yourself or have others do it, please don’t wait until it is an emergency. Trust me, nothing good comes from procrastinating until a failure occurs.

Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, email me directly or visit our contact page.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove and replace them at once.

Frosted Edge

For years now I have noticed an interesting phenomenon that I am not sure anyone else notices. It has to do with recognizing roof patterns in the winter. This is clear evidence that heat is escaping through your roof.

Head down the block and check out your roof and compare it to your neighbors place. Of course there are a myriad of issues that could be contributing to the results you find, but this is a telling sign.

If your roof is the bare one when others have snow or frost, despite having a similar pitch, you could be losing a boat load of energy in the form of heat. This year has been ridiculously light on or late for snow, but you can see it on the frosty mornings too.

Thermal imagery is available in the valley, which that can do a more accurate picture for you. There are also companies that specialize in energy efficiency audits. But for now, this crude visual tool may get you moving in the right direction.

Missing Insulation

The fix could be adding insulation or filling a hole. It could be as simple as a detached exhaust vent. The important thing  to understand is that there is no one size fits all approach. You need to figure out what is causing the problem and address each individual situation to fix the overall issue.

Here is another look at what you might see if you look at your roof at just the right time.

From a remodeler’s perspective, this is always on our minds. At Levco, we always take a look at  the attic and make sure that the existing conditions are addressed and that anything we disturb is re-insulated when we are done.

Over the years, we have made many recommendations to homeowners when we’ve seen problems, and remodeling is a good time to have these issues evaluated and addressed.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove them at once.

Fall In Boise

Although we remodel here in Boise Idaho and we do not really offer these services, I would like to get the word out to “Show that we care.” about you and your home. Planning for cold weather is a good thing to do. I especially like getting these things done during our brief Indian Summer. The list may seem long but taking care of the items isn’t so bad. I believe we all do some form of looking at these things subconsciously; the checklist form may help those that grow accustom to seeing things out of place. As an idea, knock several off the list per weekend till the weather turns cold. By the way, the list is in no particular order. I offer this to my clients of Levco Builders and anyone interested in prolonging the life of their home.

Dirty and Clean

1, Change Filters Regularly
I leave my HVAC fan on all the time to even out the temperature in the home The circulating air has the added benefit if being run through my 4″ pleated filter. I found that changing the filter when we switch from AC to Heat and visa-verse is a good time to switch. Everyone’s filter will need to be changed a different intervals, mine works out to every 6 months.

Operable Foundation Vent

2 Close Foundation Vents
This is a good thing especially if you do not have a conditioned air space. Radon gas is technically held back by plastic sheeting covering the ground and here in Idaho we live in a moderate Radon area. Open foundation vents allow some circulation and that is a good thing for 2/3 of the year. Winter temperatures allow freezing temperatures to enter the home and potentially cause damage by freezing water in pipes. Not to mention the wasted heat caused by allowing freezing temperatures to attack from below. Ground temperature here in Idaho is about 65 Degrees as is the water temperature, so why not take advantage of a warmer crawl space. I have also seen foundation vents below grade that have permitted a superhighway for water to enter the home.

Hose and Bib

3 Remove garden hoses from the faucet
This one gets so many people in trouble. Frost proof faucets are an amazing thing. They shut off the water inside the home where freezing temperatures are much less likely to be. That being said you can make even the best faucet fail if you leave the hose connected. Water trapped in a faucet has the potential to freeze inside your home. When a hose is left with water trapped in the neck of a frost proof faucet, the neck bursts freezing on outside of the gasket but it is still an unnecessary spring time repair.

Clogged Downspout

4 Be vigilant about gutters
There are a multitude of commercially available gutter lids to keep leaves out and as I get older I realize that they are becoming more valuable. Lets face it getting up on the roof and blowing out the gutters is dangerous! My emergency medical side recalls many fall responses. Who wants to break a hip over a clogged gutter or worse! If you are planning to clean the gutters, consider attacking them from below if possible, the lower your body is to the ground the better. Checking gutters includes verifying that the downspouts work and drain away from the home.

Reverse Grade

5 Verify Positive slope from foundations
This is one that is simple to do and is worth taking a perimeter walk. Use your eye to confirm that there is a grade away from your home. We often see water that lands at the “Drip Line” headed back to the home. Especially if you have a basement this can cause acute and chronic problems. This is also a good time to look for tripping hazards like bicycles and kids toys. Fixing this situation would be fairly simple. It would involve lifting out the tiles, repacking the base gravel and repositioning the tiles.

Gable vent screen

6 Check Roof, and Gable vents.
Roofs wear out over time, look at the condition of your roofing material, a warn out roof should not come as a surprise. Look especially at vents that are near trees. I have seen bats, birds and squirrels entering homes to be where it is warm for the winter in a bed of insulation. Correcting holes with small grid metal mesh will usually do the trick.

Clogged exhaust vent

7 Ensure exhaust ducts are clear.
This includes bathroom exhaust fans and dryer vents. One is done by either removing an interior connection or an exterior vent cap. Vacuum, brush or blow them out. Excess lint I suppose can cause fires but more commonly just extends the drying period of clothing and makes exhaust fans worthless. These ducts to the outside are one of your best defenses against humidity build up in the home. Here in Idaho we find that humidity is usually inverse to the temperature so the warmer it is the lower the humidity. It is not uncommon to have humidity in the 25% in summer. Human comfort levels of humidity run about 40%. According to the EPA, with the humidity above 60% mold can grow very quickly. Humidity causing devices like showers, hand washing dishes, plumbing leaks, and clothes dryers can cause mold to grow if left unchecked. Make sure fans are working properly and left on long enough to dehumidify the room. Electronic timers. This is a cool devise to make your indoor air quality better. When I take a shower I tap the button 3 times and it insures that the shower will dry out completely. I’ll be darned if I can get my wife to do the same.

Blowing in a blanket

8 Look for opportunities to add insulation.
Making a great thermal barrier between inside and out will greatly decrease the likelihood of condensation buildup. When hot and cold come together on a surface where humidity exists (the glass in this example), this is where the moisture will condense. I have seen condensation build up on painted cinder block walls so it is not just glass that is the culprit. This is also why we no longer place plastic on top of insulation before drywall is installed (in cases where we suspect this could occur).

Detector test

9 Test Smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors.
Take a broom handle and push the buttons to ensure they are working. I am not a fan of changing the batteries annually. Rather check them and if they work Cool! if not they give you the early warning beep. If you do not hear a beep, replace the battery. On a side note they are only usually rated to operate for 5 years or so so you might want to upgrade the entire unit. Mine have been in for 10 years and work fine. There is also a smoke in a can you can use to test them if you want to verify proper operation. This is also a good time to review your escape plan especially if you have small children remember, studies have shown that even the loud beeping of a smoke alarm is not always enough to awaken children.

Too Close for Comfort

10 Remove potential fire hazards
Although stacking stuff in front of the furnace and at the base of a gas water heater seemed like a good thing at the time… This is a potential combustion point. Get stuff put away safely. You should have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and in a garage shop area. Your furnaces and area heaters have not been on for months, a blow out with a compressor is going to get that dust out of the combustion chamber and off the fan fins.

The proper tool for blow outs

11 plan to blow out the sprinkler system.
This may seem like a no-brainier for those of you used to living here but it is worth a reminder for those that have just moved in from a warmer climate. It is not that you have to be the first one on the block to take care of this, it’s that you don’t want to be the last. Trapped water in plastic pipes above the frost line tend to crack in the very cold months. (Why can’t someone invent a self draining system?)