Category: Tips

We Bet You Didn’t Have These On Your Plumbing Radar

Make sure your travel plans include time for plumbing prep.

If you have summer travel planned, make sure your home is ready for it—especially if you’re going to be away for weeks or months at a time.

• Arrange to have a trusted friend or neighbor check in on your house and make sure everything is ok. Even an absence of a couple of days could lead to a big and costly mess if a leak goes undetected.

• Check your water-using appliances for loose or cracked hoses, leaks or other malfunctions.

• Turn your water heater down to its low, pilot or vacation setting. No need to waste energy heating water that won’t be used!

• If you’ll be away for an extended amount of time, consider turning off your water main and hot water heater and draining your pipes and tank.

• Empty the dishwasher and washing machine, and leave them open to air. While you’re at it, make sure your garbage disposal and plumbing traps are clean. That way, you won’t be coming home to musty, unpleasant odors.

• Make sure all indoor and outdoor taps are completely off.

• If your irrigation system is on a schedule, make sure it will run as desired while you’re away.
• Green Apple Plumbing & Mechanical NJ are the experts you can trust. We have been serving the NJ area for years with professionalism and expertise. Customer service and care are always our number one priority. If you have any questions or concerns call us toll-free at 888-315-5564

Top 5 Tips to Keep Your Garbage Disposal Running Right

Garbage disposals are great for getting rid of unwanted leftovers, expired food, and discarded peels. But we often take our disposal for granted—until it becomes clogged or stop working altogether.

5 Common Summer Plumbing Problems

While you’re having a good time in the backyard with your guests and the kids, your plumbing may be suffering under all the extra wear and tear.

6 Easy Summer Plumbing Tips

The heat is on!  Summer’s rising temperatures often coincide with an increase of water usage, both indoors and outdoors. 

Frozen Pipes: How to Prevent and Fix

Cold weather survival tips: From saving frozen pipes to warming Valentine’s hearts

With a blast of Arctic air set to sweep into New Jersey this weekend, now is the time to make sure furnaces are in working order and your home’s pipes are protected.

Low temperatures on Saturday night into early Sunday morning will approach zero and could slip below zero in our area, according to the National Weather Service.

“The combination of wind and cold will make for dangerous conditions for the homeless and those not properly dressed this weekend,” according to AccuWeather.

Dressing for cold weather is both an art and a science. Think layers and choose the right fabrics.

Recognizing the warning signs of cold exposure — hypothermia — could save your life.

Here are some tips on what to do to keep pipes from freezing — and what to do if it happens anyway.

How to prepare:

• Know what areas of your home, such as basements, crawl spaces, unheated rooms and outside walls, are most vulnerable to freezing.
• Eliminate sources of cold air near water lines by repairing broken windows, insulating walls, closing off crawl spaces and eliminating drafts near doors.
• Know the location of your main water shut-off valve. If a pipe freezes or bursts, shut the water off immediately.
• Protect your pipes and water meter. Wrap exposed pipes with insulation or use electrical heat tracing wire; newspaper or fabric might also work. For outside meters, keep the lid to the meter pit closed tightly and let any snow that falls cover it. Snow acts as insulation, so don’t disturb it.

When temperatures are consistently at or below freezing:

• If you have pipes that are vulnerable to freezing, allow a small trickle of water to run overnight to keep pipes from freezing. The cost of the extra water is low compared to the cost to repair a broken pipe.
• Open cabinet doors to expose pipes to warmer room temperatures to help keep them from freezing.

If your pipes freeze:

• Shut off the water immediately. Don’t attempt to thaw frozen pipes unless the water is shut off. Freezing can often cause unseen cracks in pipes or joints.
• Apply heat to the frozen pipe by warming the air around it, or by applying heat directly to a pipe. You can use a hair dryer, space heater or hot water. Be sure not to leave space heaters unattended, and avoid the use of kerosene heaters or open flames.
• Once the pipes have thawed, turn the water back on slowly and check for cracks and leaks.

Who to call for help:

• If pipes inside the home are frozen, call us at (973) 943-0927.
• If there is no water or low pressure, and neighbors are experiencing the same situation, it could be a water main break, and customers should call the 24-hour customer service line at 1-800-652-6987.

When you are away:

• Have a friend, relative or neighbor regularly check your property to ensure that the heat is working and the pipes have not frozen.
• A freeze alarm can be purchased for less than $100 and will call a user-selected phone number if the inside temperature drops below 45 degrees.
• Residents are also reminded to clear snow from hydrants. Substantial snow accumulations combined with the after-effects of plowing roads and parking lots can leave fire hydrants partially or completely buried in snow.In these conditions, extra precautions should be taken to protect against carbon monoxide poisoning. Pennsylvania has one of the highest rates of carbon monoxide-related deaths in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Plan budget with repairs in mind

Being a home owner is a very rewarding experience. Owning property and not having to pay a landlord is very freeing. However, it is also a huge responsibility and comes at a cost in the form of repairs. Rather than calling a landlord, it is on the home owner to take care of any issues and they can add up fast! It is best to budget and save money to cover these small disasters when they occur.

Plumbing

One thing someone does not want to live without is plumbing. If something were to go awry, a home owner would want to fix it immediately so it is good to have money saved to handle these repairs. Toilets, sinks, and laundry lines can all experience issues that will alter day-to-day life. Clogged lines, leaky faucets and valves and blocked toilets can all require a few hours of labor from a plumber in addition to materials. These repairs can cost hundreds of dollars depending on the severity of the issue.

Two plumbing issues that may prove to be quite costly are water heater and well replacements. Paying for repairs like this puts stress on finances, but that burden may be eased with the help of savings. Without savings, home owners may need to take out a loan or borrow money from family to cover costs.

Replacing a water heater starts at a few hundred dollars and planning ahead to cover this cost is the best way to stay in hot water.

Even more painful is a well pump replacement or a full well replacement. Replacing an old well can cost several thousand dollars which most people cannot pay out of pocket.

Electrical

Electrical fixes may seem small, but it is best to hire a professional and not try any do-it-yourself repairs when it comes to anything with electricity because of the high risk of injury.

Small issues can occur requiring an electrician such as replacing a ceiling fan, fixing a faulty switch or broken outlets. Most electricians charge by the hour and while these repairs should not take long, it is better to have the costs covered with money from a savings account rather than cut into the monthly budget.

An expensive electrical repair is replacing the breaker box on a home, which can run a few thousand dollars. Older breaker boxes can be faulty and may not trip correctly resulting in a fire. A general contractor or electrician can determine if a breaker box needs to be replaced to decrease risk. Another reason to replace the breaker box is with a big renovation. Adding central air to a home may require breaker box replacement in order to power the new feature. Also, when selling a home, if the box does not comply with local codes, a replacement could be necessary before a sale can happen.

Furnace

The last thing a Michigander wants during the winter is a broken furnace. The furnace is a complex unit and should be regularly maintained to prevent many repairs. However, even regular check-ups can not prevent everything. The ignition or pilot light could break and need to be replaced or a mechanical problem may arise. Hopefully a full replacement is not necessary but if it is, savings will be crucial as it is several thousand dollars to replace a furnace.

Remember, it is always better to overestimate a cost than underestimate and not have enough funds. Visit www.lansing-realestate.com and click on the buyers/sellers tab to find a service provider or ask a REALTOR® for a recommendation for any home repairs.

Plumbing Resolutions For The New Year

13 Hacks to Winterize Your Home – and Trim Your Heating Bill

It’s officially fall, which means winter is not far behind. The good news is that winter weather in much of the country is expected to be milder than last year’s frigid conditions, and heating costs are also projected to be lower, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But the cost of heating one’s home should still be a considerable expense in most parts of the country.

Heating is expensive enough already, so you don’t want to pay for heat that escapes out windows, doors and cracks rather than staying inside and keeping you warm.

“A lot of time we’re generating energy that we’re sending out into the air,” says Marianne Cusato, the housing advisor for HomeAdvisor.com and an associate professional specialist at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture.

Fall is an ideal time to make repairs that will make your home more energy efficient, both saving you money and keeping you warmer. Even if you can’t afford major repairs, such as a new furnace or new windows, there are small things you can do to save big bucks on heating costs – and you can handle most of them yourself.

“Homes can lose heat in a lot of different areas,” says Anne Reagan, editor-in-chief of Porch.com. “I think that there’s a lot of things that can be fixed in someone’s home.”

Here are 13 hacks to winterize your home while also trimming your heating bill.

Caulk around windows. Warm air can escape and cold air can enter your house if the area around your windows has cracks. Caulking needs to be replaced periodically, and you should check every fall for holes that need to be patched, as well as holes anywhere outside your house. “You want to make sure your [home’s] envelope is secure,” Cusato says.

Replace weatherstripping around doors. If you can see light around the edges of your doors, you need new weatherstripping. “A small weatherstripping costs you five or six dollars, and it will save you hundreds of dollars in electrical bills,” says J.B. Sassano, president of the Mr. Handyman franchise company.

Close up your fireplace. Make sure your flue closes all the way, and check whether you can feel air coming in when it’s closed. Glass doors around your fireplace opening are another way to keep warm air in and cold air out of your house.

Put up storm windows and doors. If you have older windows and doors, adding storm windows and doors can help considerably. Window insulation film is another option to provide a layer of protection. “It really insulates the window,” Sassano says.

Add heavy drapes and rugs. Changing light summer drapes for heavy winter drapes was common in earlier times, and it’s still helpful, Reagan says. Drapes can keep the room warmer, while putting down rugs provides a layer of insulation above the floor.

Improve your insulation. Insulation deteriorates over time, so you may want to add more material in your attic. Other places to add insulation are in crawl spaces and exposed areas of decks. Sassano also recommends creating a false ceiling in unfinished basements and insulating between that ceiling and the living area. An insulating cover over your attic opening also helps trap in the heat.

Cover your water heater. You can buy a water heater blanket for around $20 at the hardware store that will keep the tank from losing heat as quickly, saving you money on your heating bill.

Get an energy audit. Many utility companies will provide a free energy audit and give you suggestions on improvements you can make to your home. You can also pay for a more extensive energy audit. “They’ll look at all the places you’re losing energy,” Cusato says.

Change your furnace filters. If the filters are dirty, your furnace has to work harder. In most homes, filters should be changed monthly in the heating season. You should also have your furnace serviced periodically to make sure it is working properly. “It’s easy to overlook but it can mean your system isn’t working efficiently,” Cusato says.

Get a programmable thermostat. The newest thermostats can learn your family’s habits and set themselves to keep the house cooler when no one is there and warmer when the home is occupied. You can also purchase a more basic programmable thermostat. Prices vary considerably, depending on how sophisticated you want your thermostat to be.

Lower your water heater temperature. You can lower it from 140 degrees to 120 with no ill effect, Cusato says. And 120 degrees is the temperature recommended by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Replace less efficient windows and doors. Adding double- or triple-pane windows, insulated doors and insulated garage doors will significantly improve the energy efficiency of your home.

Lower the thermostat. It’s actually more comfortable to sleep in a colder home, and you can always add more blankets. When you’re awake, wear a sweater or sweatshirt to stay comfortable with a lower thermostat setting.

Deadly Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: How You Can Protect Yourself

The deaths of eight family members in Maryland has brought attention to the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Every year 400 Americans die from exposure to carbon monoxide, according to the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 4,000 hospitalized and 20,000 ending up in the emergency room as a result of exposure to the colorless, odorless gas. Winter can be an especially dangerous time since space heaters, generators and other portable heating devices can leak carbon monoxide.

The signs and symptoms of exposure can be subtle, leading people to try and sleep it off instead of heading straight for the emergency room. So here’s the information you need to know to stay safe from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Sign and Symptoms

Carbon monoxide can be deadly but its initial symptoms can be mild, starting off as just a headache and sleepiness.

Dr. Jerri Rose, a program director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, said early symptoms, including fatigue, headache, nausea and short of breath, can often appear to be an early flu.

In severe cases, a person can become confused or faint due to the effects. In rare cases, death is possible.

Doctor may also notice a slight redness in the face or lips of a person with CO poisoning in rare cases, Rose said.

“In actual reality, few physicians ever see that,” Rose said of the red face symptoms. “Generally there’s not really anything you can look at by telling someone.”

Carbon Monoxide Safeguards

The CDC recommends that everyone have a carbon monoxide detector in their home. Rose suggests that people who live in a multilevel home have detectors for every floor of their home, similar to their smoke detector.

Common sources of carbon monoxide are internal combustion engines or heating sources. Every year, doctors hear stories of people killed by carbon dioxide as they tried to heat their homes, Rose said.

To protect against carbon monoxide poisoning, the CDC recommends that heating systems that have chimneys be checked by a technician every year. Make sure gas appliances are vented properly and never use a generator, camp stove or oven as a heater indoors.

The Maryland family killed on Monday from carbon monoxide poisoning were using a generator to heat their home, according to authorities.

A full list of advice from the CDC can be found here.

How Does Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Work?

When the body absorbs carbon monoxide, hemoglobin cells can start to attach to those molecules instead of oxygen molecules. As a result, the blood cannot deliver vital oxygen to organs and muscles.

There is no “safe” level of exposure to carbon monoxide, Rose said, and acute symptoms can occur in minutes or days depending on the level of CO exposure.

Treatment

Doctors usually treat carbon monoxide by giving the affected person oxygen through a mask, according to Rose.

In extreme cases, doctors can rush a patient to a hyperbaric chamber, which can help raise blood oxygen levels more quickly since the oxygen is pressurized, Rose said.

Early treatment is critical, according to Rose, who said patients shouldn’t be afraid to get help for symptoms that may appear minor.

“It’s important for people to be aware if they have any symptoms at all, they should come in and get checked out,” she said. “If they suspect that they could be [exposed] it could be very life-threatening to not seek medical attention, especially in winter time.”