Tips for Prepping Your House To Go Away During The Holidays

The Holiday Season is upon us. Many of us will be traveling to visit family and friends. Below is a checklist of items to take care of your home while head out of town. Some of the suggestions are done ahead of time and some on the day of departure. Happy Holidays!

Items to do at least a week ahead of time:

• Suspend newspaper delivery.

• Have the Post Office hold your mail delivery.

• Contact your neighbors and give them your contact info on how to reach you and look after your house. For an extended period, consider having someone check your house each week. Have contact info for all the people that you have work on your home available for the person watching your house (handyman, plumber, electrician, hvac etc.)

Items to do the day you leave:

• Turn off the water supply within your house.

•  Turn down the hotwater heater thermostat.

• Adjust your thermostats.

• Unplug un-needed electrical gadgets.

• Set timers on lights for safety.

• Clear out refrigerator for items that will spoil.

• Run the disposal.

• Take out your trash and recycling.

Happy Holidays!

Winterizing exterior hose faucets can help save money by preventing freezing and avoiding the plumbers bill to replace a damaged faucet!

This video displays how to install an insulation cover for a hose bib. A simple task any home handyman or DIYer can do to help get their home ready for the winter months.  Insulating you exterior spigots and hose faucets helps to insure they don’t get damaged if they freeze during the winter.

See video tip below.

I recently contributed a home improvement ‘how-to’ article to ehow.com on how-to replace washing machine hoses.

This is a home maintenance tip that may save your house from getting flooded and all the damage that can cause. Every few years, replace the water supply lines on your washing machine. It will cost about $6 per hose and take a few minutes of your time and may save you thousands of dollars should your water supply break or leak.

Why should I bother? The fact is these hoses are under pressure all the time, even when the washer is not being used. Plus if you are on a city water supply like most of us, the chlorinated water helps to degrade the rubber material the hose is made from overtime.

Learn how to replace washing machine hoses at eHow.com.

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A recent article published in the NY Times polls construction industry professionals on some common tools every homeowner DIYer  should have.  See NY Times for full article.  Some other tools I’d suggest include:  combo square, putty knife,  a smaller tape measure, and yard stick.  Also, Wd 40 & duct tape are always good supplies to have!

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Learn more and register here.

Details from site:

Expert Panel (Larry Zarker and Bill Asdal)
Moderated by Patrick O’Toole of Qualified Remodeler magazine and Tim Musch of Marketsharp
Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010
2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central, 12:00 p.m. Mountain and 11 a.m. Pacific
60 minutes

The Obama Administration is proposing a massive jobs creation bill that will inject billions into the home improvement industry – on top of the $1,500 tax credits that were part of the 09 Stimulus Bill.  This fast-moving legislation is changing every day and your team will need to be able to quickly turn on a dime once it passes into law. This session will give the latest news on the bill, which, in its present form would create $18 billion in homeowner incentives, $4 billion in retailer incentives and $2 billion for home energy audits.

Takeaways include:
1. An update on the status of the legislation
2. An update on any changes to the proposed program
3. Tips for preparing – where to get energy audit training.
4. And much more.

See more at CBS

Learn how to organize and start a handyman business.

If you are doing any work yourself as a do it yourself project, there is some good information on lead paint hazards at www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm

Other details from the Environment Protection Agency:
Federal law requires that individuals receive certain information before renovating six square feet or more of painted surfaces in a room for interior projects or more than twenty square feet of painted surfaces for exterior projects in housing, child care facilities and schools built before 1978.
-Homeowners and tenants: renovators must give you this pamphlet
before starting work.
-Child care facilities, including preschools and kindergarten classrooms,
and the families of children under the age of six that attend those facilities: renovators must provide a copy of this pamphlet to child-care facilities and general renovation information to families whose children attend those facilities.

Also, beginning April 2010, federal law will require contractors that disturb
lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities and schools, built before 1978
to be certified and follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination. Therefore beginning in April 2010, ask to see your contractor’s certification.

For more tips, please visit www.HouseFixer.Info

Up to $1,500 in Tax Credits for Energy Efficient Home Improvements

The Stimulus bill signed last week improves the tax credits you may receive for energy efficient home improvements you make to your primary residence. On February 17, 2009, President Barak Obama signed the stimulus bill (American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009) that made some significant improvements to the energy efficiency tax credits available to US homeowners. You don’t have to install solar panels to your roof to still benefit from the tax credit. Less costly improvements such as installing a storm door, new exterior door and windows and upgraded insulation also qualify.

For further details, please see the EPA’s Energy Star website

The highlights of the plan include:

• The tax credits that were previously effective for 2009, have been extended to 2010.
• The tax credit has been increased from 10% to 30%.
• The maximum credit has been raised from $500 to $1500 for the two years (2009–2010). However, some higher ticket improvements now have higher maximums.
• The $200 cap on windows has been removed.

For installation of a storm door, exterior door, windows or insulation in the Triangle area, please visit www.CarolinaHandyman.com or in the Triad please visit www.GreensboroRemodelandHandymanSolutions.com

(The Triangle includes the North Carolina cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. The Triad includes the NC cities of Burlington, High Point, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem).

For discounts on home improvement products and services throughout the US, please visit our Special Offer page.

Additional home improvement tips can be found at www.HouseFixer.Info.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Attribution must read “Infomation provided by www.HouseFixer.info” and link is live whenever possible.

Home Depot has discount promotions posted on their website and these change week to week.

I observe a lot of homes each and every year for estimates and doing actual home improvement projects. One thing I notice is how few homeowners take advantage of a small investment that saves both energy and money. I am talking about insulating your hot water heater by installing a hot water heater insulation blanket. Many hot water heaters are located in unconditioned spaces (attics, garages, basements, crawlspaces) and only have a existing insulation R-value of 3. Installing an insulation blanket around your hot water heater will help keep you in hot water! These blankets are available at most home stores for ~ $20. The task of installing it takes perhaps 15-20 minutes and can be done by many home Do It Yourselfers. Be sure to follow the manufacturers’ directions when installing.

Some estimates I have read state that a hot water heater can lose 15-40 percent of its heat energy through it’s walls while in standby mode for most households (Saturn Resource Management). An insulation blanket will help to slow that heat loss and according to the US Department of Energy will save you 4%-9% on the cost to heat your hot water. You may also want to consider adding foam pipe insulation to insulate the hot water line exiting the hot water. Again, use caution especially with gas water heaters and follow manufacturers’ directions when installing.

Another way to save on your hot water bill is to turn down the water heaters thermostat. Both gas and electric hot water heater tanks have an adjustable thermostat on the front of it. Even turning down the thermostat to it’s lower setting when you go away for an extended period of time will save. Just remember to turn it up when you return!

For more home tips please visit us at www.HouseFixer.info.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Attribution must read “Infomation provided by www.HouseFixer.info” and link is live whenever possible.