All homeowners have been careless at one time or another concerning water or electricity in their homes, but unfortunately negligence is one of the leading causes of damage to homes in the country. You should not fail to take care of your property and do maintenance whenever needed, but you should also make it a point not to take unnecessary risks when concerning water and electricity. While water does not do much immediate damage to a property, fire certainly does and carelessness with electronic items can cause fires much more quickly than anything in the natural world.
Most house fires are caused by either failing to make sure that an appliance used on a daily basis is not in danger of having electrical shorts or due to an electrical device being left unattended when it should not be. Space heaters are particularly dangerous in this regard and should not be left on overnight or used with an extension cord that is not a heavy duty gauge of at least 14. They should also not be left on overnight unless absolutely necessary, since most house fires tend to happen when people are sleeping.
This is also the case when you are cooking with grease or oil of any kind in the kitchen. Houses have caught on fire and burned completely to the ground due to leaving oil or shortening to heat in the kitchen unattended. You should never leave anything you are cooking unattended on the stove, especially if it is grease or solid shortening. It catches on fire much quicker than you would think, so no matter what reason you may find to leave the room, you should either stay in the kitchen or turn the stove off.
Water damage occurs mostly when there are leaks from the outside of the home or the plumbing, but sometimes damage occurs due to carelessness, too. This can happen when you are running a tub of bath water or filling up the kitchen sink to wash dishes, but the fact is that people often become preoccupied with other chores or phone calls and allow them to overflow onto the floor. Whenever you run a large quantity of water into a container, you should always watch it to make sure that it does not overflow, since allowing it to do so on a regular basis can cause damage to the floor, especially if it is not waterproof.
Showing posts with label galveston water damage restoration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label galveston water damage restoration. Show all posts
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, September 28, 2007
How to Waterproof Your Deck
Waterproofing the deck that your family barbecues on or that surrounds the pool is an important thing to do if you want your deck to stand up to the weather for a long time. Warping and cracking will eventually happen to every deck made of wood, but what waterproofing will do is slow this process down quite considerably and the sealant will keep out most of the moisture that is placed upon it, whether it is rain, snow, or pool water.
If you wish to waterproof a new deck, it is best to wait at least 30 days before doing this, since the chemicals that the wood was treated with before installation need time to evaporate. Give the wood time to adjust to the climate. After you have waited this long, it is safe to begin the waterproofing process.
Start with cleaning off the surface of the deck and removing all debris. Also remove all patio furniture and equipment such as barbecue grills. The deck should be completely cleared off. A deck cleaner can be bought at most hardware and home improvement stores. Follow the instructions and you can apply this with a pump sprayer. When it starts to foam, start scrubbing the deck with a stiff bristled brush. This will make sure that the stains on the deck, almost no matter how stubborn they are, will come up. Rinse it off completely with a garden hose, but make sure you have on eye protection to keep anything from spraying into your eyes.
This is the time to apply the sealant. Spray it onto the deck with a pump sprayer or a roller. Sometimes there will be puddles of sealant that will form and these need to be rolled out evenly over the deck. Allow it to dry completely and after two days, you should be able to walk on it without damaging the seal.
When you apply sealant or any chemical to your deck, you should always wear eye and skin protection.
If you want to help keep your deck further waterproofed, you can drill some small holes into the areas of it that retain water on a regular basis. These holes can be as small as 3/16 of an inch to even ¼ of an inch and they will not adversely affect the appearance of the wood very much. They will, however, help keep the water drained.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and other states such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
If you wish to waterproof a new deck, it is best to wait at least 30 days before doing this, since the chemicals that the wood was treated with before installation need time to evaporate. Give the wood time to adjust to the climate. After you have waited this long, it is safe to begin the waterproofing process.
Start with cleaning off the surface of the deck and removing all debris. Also remove all patio furniture and equipment such as barbecue grills. The deck should be completely cleared off. A deck cleaner can be bought at most hardware and home improvement stores. Follow the instructions and you can apply this with a pump sprayer. When it starts to foam, start scrubbing the deck with a stiff bristled brush. This will make sure that the stains on the deck, almost no matter how stubborn they are, will come up. Rinse it off completely with a garden hose, but make sure you have on eye protection to keep anything from spraying into your eyes.
This is the time to apply the sealant. Spray it onto the deck with a pump sprayer or a roller. Sometimes there will be puddles of sealant that will form and these need to be rolled out evenly over the deck. Allow it to dry completely and after two days, you should be able to walk on it without damaging the seal.
When you apply sealant or any chemical to your deck, you should always wear eye and skin protection.
If you want to help keep your deck further waterproofed, you can drill some small holes into the areas of it that retain water on a regular basis. These holes can be as small as 3/16 of an inch to even ¼ of an inch and they will not adversely affect the appearance of the wood very much. They will, however, help keep the water drained.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and other states such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Dealing With Flooded Carpets
If your home is flooded, then odds are pretty good that your carpet is going to need to be taken up. Sewage, chemicals, and other biohazards live in the dirty flood water that took over your home during that time and most of the time, porous materials such as carpet cannot practically be saved. You can go through a lot of trouble trying to save your old carpet when the most efficient thing to do is just to throw it out.
Trying to shampoo the carpet itself may work and remove a lot of the smell and stains, but the carpet padding underneath will need to be completely taken out and replaced. Foam padding like this cannot be cleaned and will usually end up shredding if you try, so whether you choose to clean the carpet or just replace it, it will still need to come up.
Removing your carpet is not a difficult task. You must remove all furniture from the room first and depending on whether you want to save the carpet or just replace it, you can take a utility knife and cut it in areas that may be difficult to take up. You can also use it to cut the old carpet into strips if you do not want to save it. Pull the moldings on the walls around the room off and take the door off its hinges. Removing the door will help you get the old carpet out and the new carpet in. The carpet padding also needs to be removed.
Pulling the old tackless strips up and installing new ones may be a good idea and you need to leave about half an inch of space between the new strips and the wall. The tips of the tacks need to be facing toward the wall.
If the floor has had much mold or sewage damage to it, you will want to clean this up before installing new carpet or re-installing your clean old carpet. Cleaning up mold stains can be done by putting 5 tablespoons of trisodium phosphate in a single gallon of water and scrubbing the floor with something that will not scar it.
If you cannot afford new carpet or to have the old carpet cleaned, refinishing the hardwood floor that may be underneath it may be an option. If you had to take carpet out of the bathroom, laundry room, basement, or kitchen, then you will really want to avoid putting carpet back into these areas, since these rooms of the house tend to stay damp.
water damage Restoration Contractor
Austin Water Damage Restoration
Black Mold Removal From Drywall
Trying to shampoo the carpet itself may work and remove a lot of the smell and stains, but the carpet padding underneath will need to be completely taken out and replaced. Foam padding like this cannot be cleaned and will usually end up shredding if you try, so whether you choose to clean the carpet or just replace it, it will still need to come up.
Removing your carpet is not a difficult task. You must remove all furniture from the room first and depending on whether you want to save the carpet or just replace it, you can take a utility knife and cut it in areas that may be difficult to take up. You can also use it to cut the old carpet into strips if you do not want to save it. Pull the moldings on the walls around the room off and take the door off its hinges. Removing the door will help you get the old carpet out and the new carpet in. The carpet padding also needs to be removed.
Pulling the old tackless strips up and installing new ones may be a good idea and you need to leave about half an inch of space between the new strips and the wall. The tips of the tacks need to be facing toward the wall.
If the floor has had much mold or sewage damage to it, you will want to clean this up before installing new carpet or re-installing your clean old carpet. Cleaning up mold stains can be done by putting 5 tablespoons of trisodium phosphate in a single gallon of water and scrubbing the floor with something that will not scar it.
If you cannot afford new carpet or to have the old carpet cleaned, refinishing the hardwood floor that may be underneath it may be an option. If you had to take carpet out of the bathroom, laundry room, basement, or kitchen, then you will really want to avoid putting carpet back into these areas, since these rooms of the house tend to stay damp.
water damage Restoration Contractor
Austin Water Damage Restoration
Black Mold Removal From Drywall
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