Taking Care of Your Fireplace

A fireplace can be one of the most arresting and comfortable parts of any house, and this is why it needs proper attention, care, and maintenance. Home inspections can be done to make sure your fireplace is in good condition, and free of potentially hazardous damages and defects. Homeowners also should take the steps necessary to keep fireplaces clean and safe, as well as to avoid unexpected accidents and hazards that could say goodbye to pleasant evenings around a fireplace.

Here are some general tips, advice, and precautionary measures on how to take proper care of your fireplace.

• Have your fireplace cleaned at least once a year. It’s best to get a certified chimney sweep to do this.
• For fireplaces that operate by burning wood, make sure you always use safety screens and doors.
• Before lighting the fire, always make sure that the flue damper is open.
• Don’t burn green or wet wood. Use only dry, seasoned wood, so that you avoid increasing the rate of creosote buildup in your fireplace.
• Avoid burning wrapping papers, evergreens, and other materials that may suddenly ignite. Keep your fireplace safe by avoiding increasing risks of a flash fire.
• Take extra care with the use of fire salts, which are designed to produce colored flames when thrown on wood fires. Keep these away from children, or any hypersensitive individuals, and avoid inhaling smoke that comes from your fireplace.
• Never leave fire unattended, and never go to bed without putting out the fire in your fireplace. If possible, install a working smoke/fire detector in your house.

Could Cleaning Air Ducts Be Worth It?

In keeping with the (NADCA), or the National Air Duct Cleaners Association, a professional organization located in Washington, D.C., air duct cleaning is a buyer-beware service. A number of businesses advertising and marketing duct cleaning might be either bait and change procedures, or agencies that carry out substandard jobs with less than professional service and supplies.

Any kind of specialized cleaner might doubt a company which employs solely shop-vac sized machines with a single 2-inch hose. To carry out a quality job, powerful machines secured in specially set up vehicles along with many different types of hoses and attachments will probably be required in most cases to effectively deal with all duct areas.

However, even when the technician is prepared, the above information begs the question: “Is air duct cleaning seriously necessary?” You can check a number of your own ducts using a mirror and a flashlight. Unscrew some your own walls or floor vents and, with your mirror, check out the ducts.

If there aren’t any huge deposits of dust, dirt or mildew, or if no one in your home is afflicted with allergic reactions or asthma, getting air ducts cleaned might be pointless, according to advice provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, just because you may have unclean return registers doesn’t mean your ducts are too dirty to have any value. It’s actually typical for dust-laden air flow to become pulled through the grates, leaving telltale dark streaks which really can be quickly vacuumed or cleaned. NADCA advises that ducts ought to be cleaned under these situations:

• The house is remodeled.

• Water has affected the property.

• There are four-legged domestic pets.

• Someone smokes.

• Your carpeting is old.

According to industry professionals and home inspectors, if there are truly dirty ducts within a 2,000-square foot house, duct cleaners may well occupy about three grocery store bags with dirt and debris. Expect to have to pay $250-500 for a standard house’s duct cleaning by a certified professional. Bigger homes with a more wide-ranging duct system will cost proportionately more.

If duct cleaning is performed incorrectly, or needlessly, the end result can do much more deterioration than good. Disturbing a basically intact and inert dust layer and then not removing the deposits creates air borne contaminants that might not really otherwise have been a problem. Home owners should try to get the recommendation and information on the advantages and disadvantages of duct cleaning before working with a service provider.
The EPA advises that a specialized cleaning should include:

• Opening access ports or doors to permit the entire system to be inspected as well as cleaned.

• Use of high-efficiency particle (HEPA) air vacuuming tools.

• Protection of the carpeting and household furnishings during cleaning.

• Use of well-controlled brushing equipment with efficient vacuum cleaners to dislodge dust and other particles.

• Taking care to protect ductwork such as sealing and re-insulating any access openings.
For more information on duct cleaning, visit the EPA website.

Home Insulation 101

Insulation is the process of reducing the rate of heat transfer from high-temperature areas to areas with lower temperatures. Homeowners everywhere will know how important insulation is; it keeps homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

An understanding of how insulation works starts with understanding the concept of thermal resistance value, or thermal R-value, which basically refers to the ability of a material to slow the movement of heat. Insulation materials with high R-values are labelled as such for helping retain heat within the house in cold weather, and reducing the rate (in warm weather) at which outdoor heat moves into the house.

There are several types of products for insulation, each of which have adequate resistance values and require proper installations. Building codes usually specify the minimum insulation required, while manufacturers make recommendations on ways insulation should be installed. Building and energy codes would usually address issues on heat loss and gain, as well as establish minimum installation requirements for maximum energy efficiency.

Homeowners, meanwhile, can consult home inspectors , local building departments, electric and gas utility companies, and other qualified professionals in order to determine the best residential insulation programs and products for their houses.

The 1970s saw the emergence of a standard practice: the full insulation of new homes. Prior to that, insulation of houses had been minimal. It took major retrofit jobs to complete the work of fully insulating older homes, but now more than ever, people understand that a well-insulated home actually increases overall comfort, and may even add to a home’s resale value.

Insulation, in general, should be installed in all areas or cavities of the house structure that serves as a barrier between heated, cooled, and conditioned living areas and the unconditioned spaces or outdoors. The amount of insulation required would also usually depend on the geographic location of the house. In more extreme temperatures, higher R-values for insulation are recommended.

The attic or roof stands as the most important part of the house to insulate. While good insulation can be achieved with the first three to six inches, an R-19 insulation value is generally the minimum required for ceilings in houses across all regions, and not just in Chicago. A minimum of R-11, meanwhile, is ideal for exterior walls.

Because compaction actually leads to quicker heat transfer, compressing, say, six inches of insulation into a three-inch space does not actually improve thermal resistance. That’s why homeowners should take the necessary steps to ensure that insulation isn’t compacted, and that the whole area of the attic floor is covered.

It’s also important to take note of manufacturer instructions when installing insulation materials. While the actual makeup of any installation can only be verified and analyzed accurately in a laboratory, professional home inspections can help represent observed insulation materials to avoid mix or contamination. These inspections educate homeowners about the possible risks and hazards of certain elements in insulation materials – like asbestos, urea formaldehyde, vermiculite, and fiberglass – so that installation and operation are as safe as possible. Once installed, insulation should regularly be checked to ensure that conditions remain the same, and that there aren’t any defects, damages, or breakages. During these checks, safety gear and clothing like masks and gloves must be worn at all times.

The risks of hazardous insulation materials can be minimized with the help of qualified specialists. Because people have different reactions to insulation materials, it’s best to keep safe and, if possible, avoid any insulation contact.

To minimize the flow of potentially damaging water vapor into and through the insulation, it’s recommended that vapor retarders are installed with insulation. Why? Because the moisture trapped in insulation might contact a cold surface and condense, thus reducing the effectiveness of the insulation. Only one vapor retarder layer is necessary for installation in an assembly; more might lead to the entrapment of moisture, and defeat the purpose of preventing consequential damage.

Furthermore, chimneys and light fixtures that produce a lot of heat must not be surrounded tightly by insulation. Same goes with cathedral ceilings, finished attics, and attics with insufficient ventilation. That’s why it’s important to provide a two- to six-inch clearance as a general rule, and to ensure proper ventilation around installation unit.

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Taking Care of Hot Water Heaters

Living in Chicago? Living in any of the suburban neighborhoods or somewhere in the metropolitan part of the city?

Whatever the case may be, you may be familiar with how cold it can get in Chicagoland. And you may be one of the many people who see having a reliable supply of hot water as an essential part of comfortable living. After all, winters in Chicago are cold, snowy, and windy with temperatures below freezing. Thank goodness, then, for hot water heaters.

In winter as well as on other occasions, hot water heaters can be man’s best friend. You just have to realize that these heaters need to be taken care of, too, and maintained. With proper maintenance, hot water heaters can last for as long as twelve years – possibly even more.

Most types of water heaters are run by electricity, oil, or gas, and they are subject to few mechanical failures, such as rusting, scaling, and leakage. Any of these defects adversely affect the way hot water heaters work; they may lose efficiency and possibly even reduce the number of years in their lifespan.

However, if you check it regularly, or have home inspectors and qualified professionals inspect it often enough, you can save your hot water heater from considerable damage and lost efficiency. Look at the base of your unit for any indications of corrosion or leakage; if you find any, consult the professionals to determine the best way to maintain, repair, or replace it.

For more information on home safety, home maintenance, and home inspections, visit HouseMaster.com.

Basic Knowledge on Forced Air Heat

Metropolitan Chicago can get cold, no matter which suburb you’re in, and that’s why it is so important to keep those heating systems working properly. A little knowledge will certainly help, and that’s why HouseMaster – the first and one of the largest home inspection organizations in North America – presents these quick facts about forced air heat.

Forced warm air heating is perhaps the most popular kind of heating system available for homes today. It provides heat with temperatures in the range of 120-140 degrees F.

The basic components of forced air heating system are all found in an air-handling unit called the furnace.

How it all works

The furnace features a thermostat as well as automatic controls, helping keep the house at an even temperature. The thermostat will determine if heat is needed, in which case an oil or gas burner will be activated. (Sometimes, it would be a set of electric coils that directly provides the heat energy.) Through a chamber called the heat exchanger, hot gas rises from the burner, all while a fan or blower draws air from the rooms of the house and leads it to the furnace cabinet. To clean the circulating air, airborne dirt is trapped in a filter or electronic air cleaner before the air reaches the furnace.

A blower would then force filtered air through the heat exchanger. This is where the heat is transferred to the cool air from the room. After the transfer, the warm air is then circulated throughout the house, via a duct system, and with a fan-limit control that regulates the operation of the blower.

Contrary to what some homeowners think, adjusting the thermostat to higher temperatures does not do anything to increase the temperature of the air provided by the furnace. It does let the thermostat pump air for a longer period of time – or at least until the desired temperature is reached. As a homeowner, you want to be more energy-efficient and at the same time improve the level of comfort within your house. One way to do this is by avoiding constant adjustment of the thermostat. It’s always better to set it at a level you’re comfortable with then leave it alone to do its work.

Meanwhile, if your forced warm air system has proper air returns and a high-volume blower fan, the installed ductwork can actually serve for a central air conditioning system. Before you set it up for the double duty, make sure you consult your local air conditioning contractor, or maybe even professional home inspectors. A heat distribution system ideally features the ducts on outside walls, complete with both high and low adjustable supply registers and a return register in each room. If, however, you only have a central return register, it’s recommended that you run the blower fan instead on continuous air circulation – or CAC – to improve the circulation of air.

Another aspect worth paying attention to is the position of your thermostat relative to the heating requirements of your house. To efficiently balance the heat throughout the whole house, avoid placing your thermostats in cold hallways or hot kitchens. It’s also advisable to program your thermostat for automatic set-backs – that way, you’re able to conserve fuel. Flue dampers can also significantly improve energy efficiency, as can a simple cleanup of your air filters.

Most furnaces are built to last about 15 years to two decades, but that depends on how you take care of it. Furnace maintenance tips include:

• Cleaning the burner and the heating surfaces
• Adjusting the belts
• Keeping the filter from clogging up dirt/ Checking the filters at least once a month
• Replacing dirt-clogged disposable filters
• Calling in gas utilities and service companies for service contracts, home inspections, and regular maintenance of your unit

Older furnaces will have gas burners that feature safety devices that turn off the gas flow whenever the flame goes out, while new furnaces make use of electronic or hot-surface igniters. To ensure safety at all times, it’s important to keep the blower access door in place whenever the furnace is running.

Humidifiers and condensate drains should also be maintained properly, so that they continue to prevent overflow and leakages onto the heat exchanger. If left untended, these can easily rust, leading to premature failure or defects on your unit.

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Keeping Basement Walls in Top Condition

It’s pretty exciting to be decorating and beautifying the walls of our homes; unfortunately, we don’t usually pay a lot of attention to our basement walls. Left neglected, basement walls can suffer from damages like leaks and moulds, reducing the value of our own houses as well as the level of safety within them.

Fixing basement walls, however, isn’t as complicated as it sounds. Here are a few simple tips to keep them strong and sturdy, not damp and decrepit.

Check the source of moisture. We all know what the weather in Chicago Metropolitan Area is like. The best way to cope with unpredictability is to be prepared. So check your rain gutters. Are they functioning properly? Are the downspouts clear and open? To carry or direct water away from the foundation, make sure you use long leaders or downspout extensions. If it’s possible, slope the ground around the wall.

Seal. Damp walls can be fixed with something as simple as a seal on a crack or a gap. There are lots of sealing materials you can use – the ones with a caulking compound are recommended – which can fix masonry types of basement walls. If, however, problems persist, consult qualified professionals and home inspectors, as they’ll be more equipped to determine if you need more extensive waterproofing work.

Prevention is better than patchwork. Waterproofing contractors will have lots of advice and recommendations for you to be able to remove the water that seeps in basement walls. But you can get ahead by focusing on prevention efforts, and by keeping the water from infiltrating your walls in the first place. As mentioned above, carry or direct the water away from the foundation. That way, you won’t have to do a significant amount of patchwork.

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