Maintaining Free Flowing Drains

Plugged up or backed up drains can lead to serious water damage issues in your home.

Here are some simple tips to keep drains throughout your home flowing freely:

• Use strainers in all your sinks.
• Kitchen clogs are generally a buildup of vegetable scraps and congealed fats.  Avoid pouring grease down a kitchen sink.
• Bathroom drains tend to clog with soap scum and hair.  Use a hair trap (available in hardware stores) in bathtub sinks and drains.  These simple devices also capture soap, skin, oils and other residues that buildup in the drain.
• Periodically clean or replace the drain/plug mechanism in your bathtub and sinks.
• Once a week, pour a gallon of boiling water down the kitchen drain- half at a time to break up the grease.

Just a few quick tips to prevent water damage

A study done by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety showed  that more than half of claims in their study were linked to washing machine rubber hose failures.  Life expectancy for rubber hoses is 3-5 years.

Easy Solution: Inspect  hoses annually and replace every 5 years.

Additional tips:

* Avoid overloading washing machine

* If property will be unoccupied for a long period of time, turn off water supply to the machine.

* Keep 4 inches between the water connection & the back of the washer.

Also make sure everyone at home knows where the water shut off valve is and how to use it.  In a water damage emergency this can save lots of damage and expense to the homeowner.

Home Fire Safety Tips for the Kitchen

How to clean Wicker Furniture

Spring Cleaning time…just had an email from a client wondering how to clean her wicker furniture.  Thought I’d share how to clean wicker in a blog post.  It’s very easy and something you can do right at home.

Untreated wicker should be kept inside during inclement weather.  For routine cleaning use the upholstery attachment of your vacuum cleaner or a feather duster.  In the winter, dryness may cause it to crack, so wipe a damp sponge occasionally or give it a light coating of lemon oil.    Once a year, if a piece has no wooden parts, scrub it with warm water and detergent, spray it with a garden hose, or put it under a shower.  Dry it as quick as possible by putting it in the sun or drying it with a hair dryer or floor fan.  Don’t sit on it until it is thoroughly dry.

Of course if you are in our service area and would like us to help you clean your wicker or help with your spring deep cleaning we can come out and give you a free estimate and take care of all your cleaning needs.   We can do everything from cleaning your carpet, upholstery, area rugs, ducts or tile & grout.

Water Damage Tips- What to do and What NOT to do

If you have a water damage in your home safety should be your primary focus.

• Is it safe to stay in the house?
• Electrical and anything that could cause you to slip & fall should be a concern.
• Wet materials can be very heavy!  Ceilings can collapse with excess water weight so no one should be standing under them.

What to do after a Water Damage

• Remove excess water by mopping
• Wipe excess water from wood furniture and table tops
• Remove wet furniture & prop couch and chair cushions to dry
• Place wood blocks between wood furniture legs and wet carpeting
• Remove any colored rugs from wet carpeting.  (Some can bleed color and permanently stain carpet)
• Remove any art work or pictures from walls to a safe dry place.  Humidity in the room can cause unnecessary damage.
• Gather loose items from floor
• Call a water damage professional.  We are on call for any emergency 24/7.  If you live in the Anchorage or Mat-Su Valley we can help you out anytime of day.

What NOT to do after a Water Damage

• Don’t leave wet fabrics in place.  Hang furs & any leather items.
• Don’t leave any magazines, newspapers, books or colored items onto wet floor or carpet.
• DO NOT use your vacuum to remove excess water
• DO NOT turn on TV or any other electrical item
• DO NOT turn on lights or ceiling fan if ceiling is wet.   (Keep out of rooms if ceiling is sagging!  Very dangerous!!)

Mold Warning Signs

Discovering that you have mold within your home can cause you to feel many things.  You might initially feel disgust, frustration or even a sense of being overwhelmed.  Placing the home up for sale might be the first thing that pops into your mind, but that should be a last resort.

Many people actually live in a home with mold and never realize it’s there.  They ignore the warning signs until the problem reaches a point where the mold is taking over and affecting their health.

Warning Signs of Mold :  It’s  important to be aware of what the signs and that you may be sharing your home with more than just your family.  Signs that you may have mold include:

• A strange odor: Mold has a pungent smell.  When it is confined to one area of your home,      you may notice an unpleasant odor when you are in that area. Mold can sometimes live within the walls or behind wallpaper, and so you might not immediately associate the smell with mold.  If you do notice an unusual persistent odor in your home, the culprit may be mold.

   

• The appearance of mold:  In your shower stall or bathtub, it’s easy to distinguish normal soap scum from mold.However, in the basement or cellar you may have to investigate a little further to find the mold.  Mold will take hold of damp areas, so if  you have a wall or floor where dampness collects, mold could very well be there as well. 

Health symptoms:  Because mold is not always visible, it can be difficult realizing that you do indeed have a mold problem.  If you feel listless, congested and experience watering eyes while in your home, these can all be signs of the presence of mold.

It’s not uncommon for a person who lives in a home that has mold to feel better while at work or out shopping. Their health problems begin the moment they step through their front door.  Mold can often be the cause of this.

Do You Have a Mold Problem?

If you do think that you may have a mold problem, you’ll need to put on your investigator hat and get to work.  Check all moist areas of your home first.  If that doesn’t turn up any mold consider calling in a professional.

It can be difficult to stay in a home where the mold is causing an odor or is visible.  You may feel very uncomfortable; however, for most people a small amount of mold will NOT cause serious health problems.

If you do suffer from allergies and find it’s causing breathing problems it might be wise to find a temporary place to stay until the mold problem is addressed.

Ignoring the warning signs that you may have mold only prolongs the problems you’ll experience.  Be aggressive in locating the source of the mold and addressing it.  After all, nothing is more important than your health.

Wouldn’t it be great if our pets did this?!!

Unfortunately they don’t…How we love our pets but often they can cause damage and messes in our homes.

The best way to protect and prevent unsightly stains and horrific smells is to properly train your pets.  Here is great post on housetraining I wrote a few years ago that has some great tips you might want to check out.

Now if you happen to be reading this and have stains and damage to your carpet right now you most likely need a professional carpet cleaner to come out and clean your carpet for you.  If you are in our service area of Anchorage, Eagle River or the MatSu Valley give us a call.  We give free inspections and estimates.  We are always happy to answer any of your questions or concerns over the phone as well.  Don’t let man’s best friend be your carpet’s worst enemy.

Carpet Cleaning Challenges

If you are in the market to purchase new carpet for your home you should be aware that not all carpet is the same before making such a huge investment.

Did you know the kind of carpeting you choose can affect how easy it is to clean?  Here are some things to keep in mind when you make your next carpet purchase.

Pile:  The deeper and thicker the pile in your carpet, the more likely it is to retain dirt once the dirt sinks below the surface.  Threads and lint, however can stay on top of the carpet wher they can be very visible.

Level loop:  Short, densely spaced loops, with both ends attached to the backing, create a surface that is fairly easy to vacuum because there aren’t crevices for dirt to sink into.

Berber:  This is a type of level loop carpet made with thick yarn, which creates harder to vacuum “hills and valleys.”

Multilevel loop:  The varying long and short loops of these carpets can make them difficult to clean.  The low loops create pockets that break vacuum-cleaner suction and can make it harder to remove dirt that has accumulated.

Whatever type of carpet you choose it should be professionally cleaned every 6 months to 1 year.  This is depending on the number of people in your home, pets and if shoes are worn in your home.  Regular cleaning will keep your carpet clean & healthy and protect your investment to your home.

Fall Is The Time To Insulate Pipes

Now is the time of year when Alaskans start preparing for winter. Snowmachines, studded tires and winter gear are usually the top items on that list. But your home should also be top priority too! Those who do not have the foresight to prepare their home for the coming cold months, often end up regretting that they did not. It can be twice as bad to deal with plumbing problems in the winter because pipes in or under the home have frozen and busted. Not to mention the water damage that can quickly happen inside the home.

During warm weather it is so much more comfortable to do maintenance on the home. People get so busy in the spring and summer with gardening and lawn mowing that they probably do not give much thought to the inconvenience that frozen and busted plumbing causes in the cold months. It is a good idea to schedule your plumbing inspections during the warm months. Going underneath your home into the crawl space, if you have one, is essential to be able to inspect your outside pipes for leaks and deterioration.

If the pipes in your crawl space are not insulated, you can do this simple job yourself by wrapping them with pipe insulation or heat tape made specifically for that purpose. It can be terrible to have to get under there and make pipe repairs when there is a foot of snow on the ground and it is only 10 degrees (or many times MUCH colder) outside. Why not do it now when the weather is nicer?

Outside water faucets are also prone to more damage in the winter months. If you are using your spigots right now and notice that they have leaks anywhere, do the repairs now and save trouble later. These spigots can also be insulated for the wintertime. When you have spigot leaks, it can cause you to lose a lot of water over time. This is not good for the planet to waste water and it will not be good for your home either if you get water damage inside your home because of it. Your local hardware or department store should have the supplies that you need to insulate your outside and inside water sources and pipes to help you get your home winterized.

How to Remove Red Wine Stains Out of Carpet

 Red wine stains are very common and the typical response is to use products that contain bleach to try to remove the red stain from your carpet.  That’s a big NO-NO as it will also discolor the carpet as well.

Instead, try to blot as much of the wine stain with a white towel.  If your have a wet/dry vacuum, such as a shop vac, try to extract as much as you can as well.  If you have club soda, take a clean (dry) white towel and pour some club soda on the towel and go over the stain again.  This step will help get more of the stain out. 

If the carpet is still stained, there is only one more thing you can do.  Take a bottle and combine amonia with peroxide (50/50 mixture) and spray this solution into the stain.  Saturated the area well.  This solution will work on acid dyes when they are still fresh.  Simply COVER the affected  with a piece of plastic wrap and place a phone book above it so it dries very slowly.  Check it the next day and the stain should be GONE!

If a red stain or shadow still exists, contact a professional carpet cleaner as soon as possible.  They can work the stain further and in most cases get it out completely using advanced red stain removal techniques.