There was a time when all a person had to do to achieve proper ventilation at home was to open a window or a door. These days, however, proper ventilation the natural way has become some sort of a complicated matter. Opening a window could either mean higher energy costs or letting more pollutants from the outside in. Still, every home needs proper ventilation—open windows or not—because it is critical to home comfort in so many ways.
Stumbling upon a puddle of water on the floor of your basement where your water heater is located usually means only one thing: you have a leaking water heater, and it’s something that you have to deal with immediately to avoid any water damage. In most cases, you will have to replace the water heater itself, especially when the water heater is leaking from the bottom.
However, before you can call on a plumbing professional to replace your water heater, you need to shut your water heater down first before the leak and the flooding gets any worse. Come to think of it, you will also need to shut your water heater down if it starts acting up for any reason. If you don’t have any idea how to shut down a leaking water heater, here are the steps you need to follow to do it safely.
When we move into a new home, it is but natural for the home owner to do a cursory check if everything about it is working. We try the lights, we check the kitchen and bathroom for any issues or just about anything that pops into our concerned heads. One thing that many freshly moved-in home owners forget to check, however, are the locks to the house.
Now we don’t mean you have to check if your keys work, because you wouldn’t have made it into the house if they didn’t. What we mean is you should be concerned that other people might have keys to the property that you don’t know about. After all, you’re probably not the first person to live in that property, and you should always assume that those former residents still have keys of their own to the property that you now own. If anything, re-keying your new home should be a priority for the following reasons:
We can’t stop aging, but we can do something about living a longer life. And no, it doesn’t really involve joining a gym or starting Pilates or whatever fitness craze everyone’s into these days. Well, regular visits to the gym, Pilates and all kinds of exercise programs do help you extend your life, but we’re talking about something a little closer to home here. According to an article by Sabina Read for RealEstate.com.au, we can also live longer through home improvement projects as well as everyday household chores.
Things are certainly heating up on this side of the globe. With the summer season in full swing, Australians are finding themselves right in the middle of scorching hot temperatures that could cause certain health issues if you’re not prepared for them.
You’re fortunate if you work in an air conditioned office during the day because you’ll be spared from 40 degree days without much expense on your part, but what about those who work from home? What about your children, or any other member of your household who has to stay home?
If you’re not willing to keep your home air conditioning system running the entire day, the members of your household will have to find ways to fend off the summer heat. Fortunately, there are a lot of cheaper and easier ways to keep cool at home. Here are some of them.
Apart from aesthetic reasons, does the colour of your roof really matter? It does, if the findings of a recent U.S. study are to be believed. In an article written for RealEstate.com.au, Paul Thornhill says white roofs save money and are much greener too.
In more ways than one, wireless locks offer home owners a lot in the way of convenience. Imagine having the capability to let anyone into your locked house even when you’re miles away. With the advent of wireless locks, the days of leaving a spare key under the rug or some potted plant are long gone.
However, in this day of hackers and cybercriminals, no one can really blame some home owners for not being that sold on the idea of installing wireless locks. However, if an article written by Krissy Rushing for Technology Tell is to be believed, their fears would seem to be unfounded.
As far as the overall maintenance of your bathroom is concerned, proper ventilation is one very important element. By installing a bathroom fan for proper ventilation, you are in effect taking away the stale odours that mark a bathroom that isn’t ventilated well. You can also say goodbye to mildew and mould buildup, both of which could cause problems not only to your home but also your health.
Installing a bathroom fan, however, is not as simple as it sounds. If you thought you can just stick that bathroom fan you bought from the neighbourhood store anywhere inside your bathroom, you are quite mistaken. Picking a location for your bathroom fan can take some time and effort. To get you started on finding a location for your bathroom fan, here are some things you would want to keep in mind.
It’s nice to live in a home with a beautiful lawn, but lawns can be a lot of hard work. Unless the area you’re living in has adequate rainfall all throughout the year, maintaining a lawn and keeping it as green as possible can get really tough, bothersome and eventually, real costly.
If you live in an area with low rainfall or periodic droughts and you still want a lawn, you might want to consider alternative lawns that require minimal maintenance. Here are some of low-maintenance lawn options for you.
Anyone can make their homes more energy efficient. However, those who are building a new home have the upper hand in this regard, since they are bound by the Building Code of Australia to meet a minimum level of energy efficiency.
Granted, the law requirement could mean additions to the total construction budget, but those additions are generally a pittance compared to the savings such energy efficiency measures will give you.
In any case, whether your house is new or old, there are a number of things that you can do to make it more energy efficient and in effect, a little friendlier to the environment. Here are some of them.
