Rodents: Do Not Enter

When the weather gets colder in metropolitan Chicago and the surrounding neighborhoods, it would seem like there’s nothing more welcoming than a warm home. Unfortunately, to mice, rats, squirrels, and other rodents, your house will also look like a refuge of warmth. As temperatures go down, how do you keep them away? After all, you as a homeowner wouldn’t want to turn your house into a zoo, especially since possums and raccoons may also be crashing your shelter.

The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) reveals that 21 million homes are invaded by rodents every winter. Upon entering through the smallest cracks or openings, they chew wallboards, wood, electric wires, and cause possibly unimaginable damage to your house. There’s even a potential fire hazard once they start to take on wires as part of their diet. Of course, this is not to mention allergies and rodent-related disease.

How do you keep them out? Sure, they may go away once the weather starts to get better, but smart homeowners will not want to wait for the end of winter before they take action.

The most obvious signs of rodent invasion are the droppings and the food debris that these creatures will leave in parts of the house like the basement, attic, garage, the food storage, and the prep areas. You can also conduct a home inspection near the ground level of your house, and at the edges and eaves of your roof.

Since wood is one of the main targets of these pests, watch out for gnawed metal and wall materials. Softened wood is also prone to damage, as are roof edges, fascia, and soffits. So be on the lookout for holes and gnaw marks, which may all indicate rodent activity.

Other precautionary measures include sealing all holes, cracks, and voids on the structures of your house, and ensuring proper drainage at the foundation of your home. If you haven’t installed gutters yet, it’s recommended that you do. Furthermore, maintain plants and tree branches properly and keep them cut back from the house.

These are great prevention tips for letting rodents know that they cannot enter. If, however, you see signs that they’ve already invaded your home, you can call pest professionals and qualified specialists to help you with the problem.

7 Green Tips for Chemical-free Pest Control

Slugs on your porch? Snake in your swimming pool? Ants in your dishwasher and cockroaches in your closet? Pests: we surely can live without them. Whether they find their way into our households or invade the outdoor yards we’ve all tried to tend handsomely, pests are – above all – annoying. They’re also kind of creepy – especially those kinds that crawl and fly.

Yes, there are pesticides for controlling them, but most of these aren’t compatible with our eco-friendly practices and green lifestyles. The chemicals contained in pesticides are typically toxic and harmful to the environment (including desirable wildlife), and may even pose hazards to the health of our families.

So what gives?

The answer: nothing. There’s no need to compromise the environment for the sake of pest control and management. And there’s no need to keep getting annoyed, bitten, and irritated for the sake of living in a pesticide-free home. Here below are some great eco-friendly pest control tips – so you can enjoy the seasons and live in peace.

1. No more leaks, no more pests

The mice, rats, and squirrels that make their way into our homes usually do through openings or leaks that have been left unsealed. Block off their entry point by sealing those leaks and covering those holes. Inspect other gaps by checking the wires and pipes of your house. Sealing can be done by way of low-VOC caulks; better yet, stuff the openings with steel wool then cover it up with wire mesh. Even if the rodents eat the steel wool, they won’t last that much longer, since the material causes them internal bleeding.

2. Use natural insect repellents

There are plenty of natural, non-toxic insect repellents available in the market today. Some are made of lemongrass, cedar, or eucalyptus and other similar essential oils. These ought to protect you and your family from mosquitoes, ants, and fleas. You’ll be glad to wake up in the morning without looking like a missionary. Of course, don’t forget to read and follow manufacturers’ labels.

3. Try companion planting and really green gardening

Having problems with pests outdoors? Mix things up by introducing healthy plants and beneficial vegetables into your garden. Enrich the soil by using organic fertilizers and compost. Use mulch to reduce water loss. After a day’s work, make sure you take care of standing water, as this can easily become to breeding ground of pesky mosquitoes.

4. Fight insects with insects

The war is on! If you find yourself unable to do anything about the bugs that destroy your garden, don’t resort to pesticides just yet. Bring in the insects that will prey on them. Ladybugs, for example, can kill aphids, spider mites, and other similar suckers. Beetles prey on maggots, grubs, and insect eggs. Bees and butterflies, meanwhile, come in handy with their natural abilities in pollination. If you’re not sure which kinds of native plants will attract the good guys, just buy live specimens or eggs.

5. Soap and water to the rescue

Sometimes all it takes to control those bad bugs and parasites is a blast of water mixed with soap. Neem oil also works – just spray it directly on the plant and on the homes of those annoying insects. These are certainly better, greener alternatives to chemicals-laden pesticides.

6. Open a can of beer

Or more. Not for drinking, mind you, but for a unique but effective kind of pest control. Do you know that snails and slugs love their booze? Set up a dish of beer among the plants in your garden, so that when they come in at night to destroy your plants they’d smell the alcohol and drink up instead. And then fall in and drown. You can do the same at home and use that stale Budweiser to banish those fruit flies in the kitchen.

7. Show some grit

If your problem is ants, your solution is grits. Here’s the battle plan: wait for a rainy day and when it comes, sprinkle grits onto the anthill. The ants will carry these to their queen. Once she drinks it with rainwater, the effect will be like something from a lab-experiment-gone-wrong sci-fi movie. Her stomach will explode. And when you say goodbye to the queen? You say goodbye to the ants.

Tackling the Issue of Foundation Settlement

Foundation settlement is an issue common in houses after a few years of their construction. It happens when the underlying soil shifts or compacts as a result of construction on previously disturbed (non-virgin) soil, or of backfills, changes in soil conditions, and moisture. While this movement doesn’t typically have a significant effect on the structuring of a house, it may lead to bigger operational and structural problems.

After settlement, there may be signs of cracks developing in the foundation, ceilings, or walls of the house – small, hairline-sized cracks, typically, which are a result of minor settlement, expansion and contraction, or possibly even movement in a season or cycle. Major settlement, however, is a result of significant or even severe foundation movement, which causes problems with a homeowner’s windows, doors, plumbing lines, or mechanical equipment. Professional home inspections can help identify these settlement-related cracks, which are usually more than a quarter of an inch wide. This is not to say that smaller cracks should be ignored; these may lead to multiple cracks, which can enlarge and present more serious issues with a house’s structure.

Perhaps one of the most telling signs of settlement-related problems in a house is when the property has a full concrete slab foundation or masonry veneer construction. To address this, homeowners may consider reinforcing the actual slab construction – to limit movement of the slab and prevent damage.

Apart from natural conditions, the causes of foundation movement and settlement may be attributed to improper construction and deficiencies in design. Things like building on soil with lots of voids or constructing on fill soil that’s not compacted properly can cause movement in the foundation. There are even cases when excessive excavation for the foundation footing – coupled with careless backfilling – accounts for foundation movement.

Settlement occurs when the compacted soil reaches a point of stability. If, for example, the soil of the house contains organic or man-made materials, which might contain voids and deteriorate quickly, then settlement is likely to occur – until such point that full (stable) soil compaction is reached.

Sometimes, mining operations, collapsing limestone caverns, frost heaves, and other natural phenomena can cause settlement of soil over a large area – this is called subsidence. It’s typically attributed to the compaction of sand or clay soil layers on the subsurface, brought about by the withdrawal of water, oil, or gas from underground. Owing to the sheer size and the slow rate of this settlement, its effect can be experienced long-term.

Expansive clay soils in particular present major concerns with foundation movement. That’s because it can shrink and swell depending on the season and on levels of moisture in the soil. With this cyclical movement comes potentially greater risk of damage, as it can affect the foundations and other parts of the home.

Houses in areas of Chicago neighborhoods – as well as of other cities and states – with expansive clays must be inspected, monitored, and maintained at all times. It’s also important to ensure that the moisture levels of the soil around the house are relatively balanced. Things that can lead to the drying of the soil include irregular and uneven lawn watering and changes in the level of subsurface water, both of which can lead to the occurrence of settlement. Meanwhile, if the soil becomes too moist. and therefore swells, something as dramatic as foundation upheaval may occur.

It’s always smarter to be on the safe side and call for an evaluation of your house’s foundation occurs. This can be done by professional home inspectors, engineers, and other qualified specialists.

Hooray for Cycling, But Let’s Be Honest…

Credit to The Bike Tube

Yes, cycling is great- we love it so much at Greenwerks we even added to the many blogposts about it! But here the thing: cycling for all commuting purposes is not practical for the typical woman.  I can’t speak for men, but even if you aren’t wearing a skirt or heels, you’re likely to sweat your face off in addition to through your dress shirt, not to mention gain a not-so-functional wind-blown or helmet-hair style.  The point of this post isn’t to hate on bicycling, but not once in the innumerable posts I have read, ever, have I seen this said, even in the positive and negative-posts about bicycles. I think that it needs to be said because it is the most problematic factor I have experienced in trying to incorporate bicycling into my daily regimine.

During my first spring in Chicago it rained nearly everyday, and although my guy friends were gungho about riding in the rain, it didn’t work out so well for me even after trying. Not only is it somewhat dangerous, if you feel like being presentable at all, riding in the rain is not a possibility.  Come summer I was psyched for the nimbus cloud-free skies, ready to ride.  I loved the idea of saving $80 a month (at the time this was the CTA card fee, doesn’t sound too bad now), getting regular exercise without having to pay for or make time for gym visits or outside runs, and keeping my carbon footprint on the DL.  I was interning and attending classes everyday during the week and always made good time riding to my necessary locations.  I also looked like I just hopped off after an hour on an elliptical upon arrival.  All I could think about was showering and how my sweat-soaked clothes were going to stay stuck while drying against my skin.  I tried to deal, thinking that I didn’t need to feel clean all the time, or that I was just being high-maintenance.  It was only after a ride over to meet some friends for lunch a few neighborhoods over, a brief 4-mile ride, when a friend had to pull me aside to tell me that I had little dead bugs stuck all over my sweaty forehead (the ones you typically clean the windshield), did I reconsider my cycle-based transit routine.

I still love to bicycle and do so somewhat regularly, but I reserve it for times when dead bugs on foreheads won’t be a problem.  While you can still be earth-friendly by taking public transit or carpooling, there is no need to compromise your cleanliness comfort level by bicycling.  Some of the times that are still great for bicycling are going out on those low-key nights, like to a neighborhood bar or hanging out at a friends house- summer nights are cooler and there is less traffic, lessening the chances of your face being stuck behind a car’s tail pipe.  If you’re going to be beach, the park, a festival, etc. and going to be sweating it up anyway (and probably not wearing a full face of makeup), go ahead and bicycle.

There is also a lot of hype about the health benefits of people who bicycle vs. non-bicyclers, and though while not denying them, general exercise or cycling for exercise (not commuting- i.e., treating it as a work out), offers those benefits of good health as well.

So, for those of you who have no qualms with cycling as commute, continue forth! For the rest of us, no pressure- we’ll seek earth-friendly transit and exercise in its other great forms.

Keeping Your Garage Door Safe

Garage doors are sometimes the most neglected parts of the house – but homeowners beware: they can also pose potentially hazardous risks. A lot of home inspectors will tell you that. That’s because these garage doors are often the single largest moving object in a home. For their sheer weight and size, one must take the necessary steps to maintain garage doors and keep things safe with and around them.

Here are a number of helpful tips to properly maintaining operations of a garage door:

1. Mounting: Always be sure to position mounting tracks and hardware properly. Otherwise, the door might come off the track and fall – an unimaginable hazard.
2. Bracketing: Corner brackets typically are attacked to the cables that help lift the garage door. Make sure, then, that these brackets are installed properly and tightly; if they’ve been left loose, they may fly off at any instant at a very dangerous speed.
3. Panel section: In between the door sections, one would usually find joints. To avoid danger, never let yourself or anyone else try to open or close the garage door by putting fingers near or in these joints and their small openings. You can add finger-protection features to these joints to further minimize the risks.
4. Entrapment: Newer garage doors come with modern safety devices and features such as electronic eyes and pressure-sensitive controls. If your door is older and does not have any of these, consider getting one: apart from detecting objects that obstruct the door, they minimize the other risks that garage doors may pose.

Garage doors shouldn’t be the most neglected part of the house. Ensure maximum safety and maintenance by paying garage doors much-needed attention.

Practical and Ready-to-Use Green Technology

Stuff like wearable, data-logging and other nanotechnology clothing or solar celled balloons seem cool and savvy but are hard to support because of their impracticality (so far) and lack of popularity (again, so far), both qualities which make them hard to find to buy in the first place.  Recently, though, Apartment Therapy Marketplace offers up 10 sources for Green Tech which actually seem practical and if not yet popular, at least easy to find and buy.

10 Sources for Green Tech [below is taken from this Apartment Therapy Marketplace post]

Tech is an area where sustainability remains the exception rather than the rule, but a few companies are working to provide green options for consumers. From air filters to energy-efficient computers to solar-powered chargers, here’s our list of good sources for green tech.

Indoor Air and Water Quality

• Allergy Buyer’s Club: This online store sells a big range of high-efficiency air purifiers, as well as vacuums, allergen-proof bedding, dehumidifiers, humidifiers, and other home health products like full-spectrum lights and water filters.

• Gaiam: This online and catalog retailer is a comprehensive source for “wellness” products: air purifiers, water filters, energy-efficient climate control devices, etc. They carry a range of HEPA air filters, as well as humidifiers, heaters, and fans.

Energy Savers

• iGo: Based out of Scottsdale, AZ, online store iGo sells travel chargers and energy-saving devices that plug into an outlet and automatically power down your electronics when they’re not in use.

• Green Depot: Like HomeDepot, but greener, these stores are a comprehensive resource for hardware, lighting, power strips, chargers, etc. Their energy monitors and smart power strips can help you conserve the amount of juice you’re using for your electronics.

Solar Powered Chargers and Laptop Bags

• Solio Portable Solar Chargers: These smart chargers contain tiny solar cells that convert sunlight into power for your iPhone, BlackBerry, or any of the 3200-plus devices that Solio says their chargers are compatible with.

• The Ultimate Green Store: This store bills itself as a “one stop green shopping destination,” and they have a whole solar section with laptop bags and chargers, as well as a good office supply department with green furniture, recycled paper, and recycling bins.

Recycled and Energy-Efficient Computers

• Verdant Computing: They clearly list the green criteria for each product on their site. For instance, Lenovo’s ThinkVision L1700P monitor is EPEAT Gold and GREENGUARD certified, ENERGY STAR 4.1 compliant, and made from 30 percent post-consumer recycled plastic content.

• RePC: RePC (Recycled Computers and Peripherals) has two locations in the Seattle area and online. They’re a progressive example of a store that revamps, reuses and recycles old gadgets.

Energy-Saving Lighting

• Lampa: Based in Aquebogue, New York, Lampa’s lighting is compatible with compact fluorescent bulbs and they have a product take-back policy for recycling fixtures. Many of their drum shades and lamp bases are crafted from FSC-certified woods and veneers.

• 1000Bulbs.com: This online store sell a wide range of dimmable CFLs, LEDs, and rope lights. They also list color temperature and lumen output for each of their bulbs, so you can get a good idea of how much light the bulb will put off, and how warm or cool it will be.

Photo: Solio Portable Charger by Flickr member cogdogblog used under Creative Commons license

Go Green, Ride a Bike

Are you serious about going green and living a more environment-friendly lifestyle? Take that bike out of the basement and start pedaling away. The two-wheeled, human-driven, single-track vehicle is one of today’s most excellent solutions for being able to get around – without harming the environment. There’s also no better place for cyclists than the Greater Chicago area, which features 315 miles (and growing) of bikeways spanning it.

Let’s look at a number of the green benefits of bicycling:

• There’s no fuel necessary – just your pair of legs and you’re good to go. Instead of having to take the car out of the garage for a quick trip to the grocery, the bank, or the post office, why not unchain that bike and take it for a ride? It burns no fuel – just unwanted calories – and thus emits no carbon dioxide.

• It saves you energy and money. A bike makes perfect economic sense. Think of how much cash you have to shell out just using a motorized vehicle: gasoline, car insurance, parking tickets, car repairs, and even towing fines. With a bike, you can generate savings you’d otherwise have squandered on the above-mentioned transportation expenses. It’s pretty low-maintenance, too.

• A bike does not contribute to air pollution. Again, it’s because there’s no fuel burning or smoke belching involved. It even helps reduce the risks of respiratory illnesses that are associated with poor air quality. Even if you use a hybrid bicycle – a bike with batteries installed on it – you’re using a vehicle that has far less pollutants and impact on the environment. It is easy on the earth and a quick, easy, and clean method of transportation.

• Biking keeps you fit and improves your health. The physical and mental benefits of riding a bike are tremendous and widely acknowledged. It’s a great cardiovascular exercise that helps lower your risk of heart disease, tone your muscles, lower your stress levels, and elevate your mood. Just being able to see the local city or town views while biking is relaxing.

• It also reduces noise pollution. And traffic congestion. Come to think of it, biking is a quiet exercise that can spare us the ill effects of the noisy, stressful, jam-packed roads. Viewed from a wider perspective, it can enhance the livability of communities and neighborhoods and make them all socially healthier.

• Bikes save land space. They’re much smaller than cars, and thus require far less land for use. Imagine if there were fewer motorized vehicles and much more bicycles: there’d be far less need for highway development and road construction, two of the things that irk motorists in the first place.

Home Inspections Can Expose Real Estate Deal-Breakers

Is sub prime lending the cause of the housing slump? Many news articles and reports on the housing market will be quick to point this out as responsible for low house sales, but it is also true that potential homebuyers with good credit are becoming more and more cautious.

“It’s a buyer’s market, so people are getting smarter, even pickier, about making decisions,” says Kathleen Kuhn, President and CEO of HouseMaster, one of America’s biggest home inspection organizations and a leading provider in Chicago. “Buyers these days realize that they can negotiate and renegotiate based on the results of professional home inspections.”

If sellers are unwilling to make repairs or sell for a lower price, Kuhn adds, buyers – already aware of the growing number of properties on sale – may not hesitate to consider other options and start looking elsewhere.

Through its franchises, HouseMaster has performed an estimate of two million professional home inspections for clients. This is how Kuhn knows about many of the conditions that put off homebuyers and break deals. Sellers, however, don’t necessarily think that securing a sale fairly is out of their control. “We’ve encountered an increasing number of home sellers who are actually getting home inspections before placing their properties on the listings,” Kuhn notes. “It’s their way of fixing problems and addressing the issues beforehand, so that when the time comes when they have to face the buyers, they will worry less about these prospects walking away.
Kuhn goes on to identify four concerns that buyers and sellers alike consider as potential real estate deal-breakers:

1. Problems with roofing: Homebuyers and new homeowners do not want to close a deal and then find out that they would have to shoulder the cost of repairing – or even replacing – a defective or leaking roof.
2. Electrical concerns: Defects related to electricity turn off lots of homebuyers, especially if they find old panels that are undersized, and which may cause potential fire hazards.
3. Issues with the structure of the house: It’s not a common problem, but it’s a major one. Buyers will not want to shoulder the cost of restructuring a house; that’s why presale inspections would sometimes require calling in a structural engineer, a repair professional, and other qualified specialists.
4. Synthetic Stucco or Exterior Insulation Finish Systems (EIFS): In general, EIFS is a viable and cost-effective alternative to traditional stucco. In some cases, however, moisture gets trapped behind the sidings as a result of improper installation. The structural damage this can inflict can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

According to Kuhn, sellers can leverage home inspections so as not to be caught off-guard by issues. “In today’s market, every edge counts. Because buyers have more choices now, they’ll only be really open to dealing with conscientious, responsible sellers who have taken all the steps to sell fairly and competitively.”

Urban Harvest: Grow Your Own Window Farm

Want to grow your own greens but don’t have an outdoor space? The Window Farms Project started in 2009 by Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray for an artists’ residency at NYC’s Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology and has grown from PDF directions of how to build an entire farm yourself to available kits, assembled by The Mid-Hudson Workshop for the Disabled, for purchase from the website. You can grow up to 25 different vegetable plants including lettuce, herbs, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, peppers, kale, small squash, edible flowers, etc. in your regular window.  Depending on whether you buy all the materials and build it from scratch or if you invest in a kit installation time varies from about 10 to 3 hours. This is a great way to keep your veggie and fruit eating local as well as add some plant-love to your apartment. You can go here to get directions for the different versions (from two to four+ rows).  Rock that fall harvest!

Credit to WindowFarms

Credit to Calfinder.com

Credit to Flavorpill

8 Great Tips on Green Kitchen Remodeling

Remodeling a kitchen makes perfect sense – particularly if you haven’t yet taken the next step to make this part of your home green and environment-friendly. A conventional kitchen can account for most of a homeowner’s energy use, and – according to the U.S. Department of Energy – kitchen lights, refrigerators, and cooking appliances alone are responsible for 41.5 percent of energy consumption at home. That’s not including dishwashers, fans, water systems, and other related equipment.

Going green in the kitchen therefore represents a huge opportunity not only to increase the value of your Chicago home, but also to improve the environmental sustainability of the place where you live. It’s certainly a smart investment. Not only does a green kitchen remodel help you save up on energy and utility bills; it also minimizes your risks of exposure to toxic materials, making your Chicago home and kitchen a safer, brighter, and greener place, one in which you can live, work, wine, and dine without causing serious harm to the environment.

Not quite sure how to start the process of greening your kitchen? Here are eight great tips:

1. Resize

We don’t mean having to crop the floor area of your kitchen. Rather, we talk of getting rid of super-sized, energy-guzzling kitchen appliances like the bulky refrigerator, the huge microwave oven that you only use to heat up the take-out Chinese, the supposedly state-of-the-art dishwasher that’s taking up so much kitchen space since it’s been installed. Ask yourself: which of these huge appliances do you really need? Perhaps it will be more worth your while to replace these oversized energy guzzlers with compact, energy-efficient kitchen appliances that can save you extra money, extra working space, and extra energy.

2. Install energy efficient windows

Going green isn’t just about electrical appliances and kitchen equipment. It’s also about eco-friendly design. Your green kitchen remodeling project will therefore benefit greatly from the installation of energy-efficient windows that promote natural daylight (instead of artificial) and free ventilation (instead of mechanical). By “energy-efficient windows” we mean nothing too revolutionary: operable windows and skylights – which can help clear away vapors and air toxins indoors – are simple and perfect for the green kitchen. With these, you may not even have to use the exhaust fan as much as you used to.

3. Use eco-friendly fans

Ceiling fans or high-efficiency exhaust fans with adjustable speed are great for improving the natural ventilation in your kitchen. These also operate quietly and help you reduce your energy consumption while evacuating cooking fumes, strong kitchen odors, and indoor air toxins.

4. Switch to CFLs

Make the switch when you decide to remodel your kitchen in your Chicago home. Well, you know what? You don’t even have to wait for that kitchen remodel project to happen. Go ahead and replace those incandescent light bulbs now with compact fluorescent lights, which have been designed to use so much less electricity and save so much more energy. The average lifespan of a CFL is also between 8 to 15 times longer than that of incandescents, saving you the time, money, energy, and gasoline from frequent trips to the hardware store.

5. Replace the ten-year-old fridge

If you’re serious about remodeling your kitchen into a greener one, make sure you get yourself a newer, more energy-efficient refrigerator. The conventional fridge is second among home appliances in energy consumption – next only to air-conditioners – so if your model is at least a decade old, it’s about time for a replacement. Opt for refrigerator models with Energy Star logos, as these can maximize your energy and dollar savings without compromising refrigeration features or the freshness of those fruits and vegetables.

6. Separate, recycle, and compost

The rewards of active waste management are most evident in the kitchen, where one might produce lots of food scraps and garbage. As you undertake your green kitchen remodeling, be on the lookout for models of kitchen cabinets that are conveniently designed to help you segregate and take your garbage easily out of sight.

7. Get a purifier

The recommended water purifier is the kind you install under the kitchen counter – as opposed to the one that is simply mounted or attached to the faucet. Not only does this under-the-counter purifier help you conserve water; it also packs in better filtering capabilities, getting rid of metals, bacteria, pesticides, and other similar elements before running water emerges from out of your kitchen tap.

8. Go for eco-friendly flooring and counters

A major green kitchen remodel project wouldn’t be complete without environment-friendly flooring and countertops. Classic linoleum and cork are great materials for your kitchen floor since they’re made with renewable resources. For the hardest-working surface in your kitchen, meanwhile, a butcher block or tile countertop are only some of the eco-friendly options. Or you may work together with Chicago’s green contractors to replace, repair, renew, re-grout, refinish, or install your kitchen countertop. This will really depend on the material with which the surface is made, but the key is to make this part of the kitchen as durable, easy-to-clean, and safe as possible.