by Shawn Chesney | May 9, 2017 | Shawn Chesney Home Inspections Blog
Garage Door Maintenance Tips – Make Doors Last Longer Garage Door Maintenance Tips – Make Doors Last Longer Follow the following simple tips to help prolong and keep your garage door safe and worry free. Lube Your Garage Door Springs or Replace Them Sooner Rather Than Later Shawn Chesney Home Inspections recommends that you or a qualified door specialist coat the overhead torsion springs mounted above roller tracks with a garage door lubricant. All springs will eventually break because of metal fatigue and/or corrosion, but lubing them at least once a year will make them last longer. Spraying can be messy; it’s smart to protect the wall behind the spring with a piece of cardboard. Garage door lubricant is available at home centers. Lube the rollers, hinges and track while you’re at it Check Garage Door Balance or Wreck Your Opener A properly balanced door is less likely to injure someone or something and keeps the door opener from working too hard, which will shorten its life. To check the balance on a door, close the door and then disengage the opener by pulling the opener release handle. Manually pull up the door about halfway and let go. A properly balanced door will stay in the halfway position by itself. If it falls, the tension needs to be increased. If the door rises, the door spring has too much tension, which means it’s working harder than it needs to. Shawn Chesney Home Inspections recommends to check the door a couple times a year. Adjusting the spring tension is tricky and dangerous. Call a garage door professional to perform the...
by Shawn Chesney | Apr 17, 2017 | Shawn Chesney Home Inspections Blog
Check Mice Nests – Risk Damaged Equipment Check Mice Nests – Risk Damaged Equipment Birds are not the only ones that like to build nests as well as spring time is not the only season animals will build nests. Mice love to winter in enclosed places like engine compartments, window A/C units and lawn tractor nooks and crannies. Shawn Chesney Home Inspections recommends if a vehicle or piece of equipment has been sitting unused for a while, or some seasonal equipment will be put in service or used soon, to go over thoroughly and to check for mice nests before you start it up. Items like wiring, fuel lines as an example of things to inspect. The last thing you want to do is take out your boat and discover that you have little furry stowaways that have chewed through half the wires causing significant damage or possibly creating a dangerous situation. Mice like to chew on wires which can cause short circuits or worse and have even been known to chew through fuel lines which can lead to fire or explosions in some cases. Mice nests can also cause electronics to overheat and can get sucked into and clog carburetors. For this and more helpful tips and tricks, visit our blog regularly. If you need a Home Inspection or To book an appointment – Click...
by Shawn Chesney | Apr 10, 2017 | Shawn Chesney Home Inspections Blog
Keep Window Wells Clean – Wet Basement Keep Window Wells Clean – Risk Broken Windows – Wet Basement With April showers comes May flowers is the old adage. Shawn Chesney Home Inspections would like to remind you that what also can shower is melting snow, ice or rain water into your basement through your basement windows and window wells. If you’ve never had a problem with water in a window well, you may never think to clean it out. Here’s what happened to one homeowner who neglected his window wells. After an average rainfall, not even a heavy downpour, a clogged gutter dumped a lot of water next to his house and into his window well. The leaves in the well acted like a pool liner, preventing drainage, and the water level rose higher and higher until the pressure broke the basement windows. Gallons and gallons of water poured into the basement, ruining everything in sight. Unfortunately, he had no insurance coverage for that type of flood. Don’t let this happen to you. Keep window wells clean with a cover, available at home centers. Below is one example of a properly built window well. It is important to understand your local rules and Municipal By-laws as well as minimum requirements, especially if the window well is also to be used as a basement window method of egress. Many more rules will apply. The concept for construction will still be the same however. Dig your pit so that you can add the proper amount of gravel making sure the window ledge/sill and grading is at least six inches below, have a...
by Shawn Chesney | Apr 7, 2017 | Shawn Chesney Home Inspections Blog
Clean Dryer Vents – Avoid Wasting Energy – Avoid Risking Fire Clean Dryer Vents – Avoid Wasting Energy – Avoid Risking Fire Shawn Chesney Home Inspections would like to remind you to regularly check your dryer vent. Clogged Dryer Vents have been listed as the number one cause of devastating home fires and can very easily become a deadly oversight. Dryers that are centrally located in houses are most prone to plugging because of the longer ducts. Excess lint is only one reason ducts get clogged; nesting pests and stuck exhaust hood flappers can also cause backups. House fires are not the only effect of clogged dryer vents. A plugged dryer vent will cause your dryer to run inefficiently, use more electricity and at today’s prices, costs extra money. Plugged dryer vents will also cause the dryer to take much longer to dry the clothes properly. Stronger odors and longer dry times are two signs your vent is plugged. You’ll have to remove the vent from the back of the dryer to clean it. Suck debris from the ducts with a wet/dry vac, or ream them out with a cleaning kit that includes a brush on a long flexible rod that attaches to a power drill. The kits are available at home centers. If your ducts need replacing, get smooth metal ducts, which will stay cleaner longer than the rough corrugated surface of flexible ducts. Avoid plastic ducting altogether; it can be a fire hazard. CO, smoke and fire alarms are always important to place in your laundry area as well. All efforts to help insure the safety...
by Shawn Chesney | Apr 4, 2017 | Shawn Chesney Home Inspections Blog
Clean Window Weep Holes or Invite Rainwater Into Your House Clean Window Weep Holes or Invite Rainwater Into Your House Many sliding windows and vinyl replacement windows have weep holes on the exterior bottom of the frame. These holes are designed to drain away rainwater that can collect in the frame’s bottom channel. Weep holes can get plugged with bugs and debris, and if that happens, water could fill up the channel and spill over into your house. Shawn Chesney Home Inspections recommends to include weep hole monitoring and maintenance as part of your regular routine. This will help prevent moisture intrusion causing significant damage and costing hundreds if not thousands to repair. To see if your weep system is working properly, simply pour a glass of water into the track or spray the outside of the window with a garden hose. If you don’t see a steady stream of clean water exiting the weep hole, carefully poke a wire hanger or other blunt object small enough to fit into the hole, or spray it out with compressed air, cautious not to force or cause any damage then you can wet it down again. If the little flapper (designed to keep out driving wind) is stuck shut, it can be removed with a putty knife and replaced. A few simple maintenance routines such as this will prolong the life of your windows and help maintain a good building envelope thereby saving you money and repairs. To learn more or to book an appointment click...
Recent Comments