Daylight Savings Time Change

I always dread Daylight Saving Time changes just because it seems to take my body clock three weeks to self correct. This bi-annual event is a great reminder though, to complete a few tasks around the house that should not be overlooked.

Here are tasks that we recommend you perform each changing of the clock.



Daylight Saving Time Home Maintenance Checklist

The experts, the news channels and newspapers have been telling us about this one for many years. Replace the batteries in all of your smoke detectors. I suggest taking it one step further, buy some compressed air (as used to blow off your keyboard) and blow-out the dust accumulated in the smoke detector and the carbon monoxide detectors in your house. Test each to make sure that they are working properly. Every home that has an attached garage, gas stove, furnace or water heater should have a carbon monoxide detector!

Add a couple of drops of light weight oil (preferred: puffs of graphite powder, available at any locksmith or Ace Hardware) to all of your key locks, especially those exposed to the weather. Turn the cylinder a few times to ensure complete coverage in the throat of the lock. It's a good idea to do this to your car locks as well.

If you have an emergency escape window in the basement or an emergency escape ladder from a second story window, open them up and try them out to be sure there are no obstructions and the unit is operating properly. Make good use of the task with the family and practice your escape drill. Follow your escape plan and muster at your meeting place for the full drill.

Check your dryer vent duct work and make sure that it is clean and that there is no lint caught up in it. A laundry room fire is the #2 cause of house fires in this country. It only takes a few minutes to inspect the dryer vent duct work and about 20 minutes to clean it all out.
Performing these four quick homeowner maintenance tasks with each time change will help to keep your house in order and help keep your family safe.

Got bed bugs? Don't panic

Mr. Handyman has received several calls requesting more information about bed bugs from the information presented last week.


It has not become such a wide-spread problem that you should be terribly concerned. There are "pockets" of infestations at UNL and now at UNK.

If you currently do not have bed bugs do not panic. Take these precautions to help keep from getting them.

Purchase some DE (Diatomaceous Earth) and lightly sprinkle the powder along the cracks and crevices on your bedroom floor and along the piping of your mattress.

If you have a student returning from school or from travel abroad empty the contents of their suitcase (or dirty laundry bag if a student) in the garage and place the contents directly in the dryer on a high heat setting.

Let the dryer run for 1/2 hour on high setting.

If you get bed bugs the DE can be effective for a DIY treatment.  Tractor Supply claims a product they sell, Tempo, is very effective as well.

If you get to a complete infestation call in the experts and seek the heat treatment.

You can also purchase bed bug insurance which covers the costs of eradicating the little buggers.

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

They are real, they are a nuisance, they DO BITE, and they are a bugger to get rid of.

There has been some recent news about bed bugs being a problem at the UNL campus in Lincoln.  Students returning for the holidays and spring break could bring these pests into the family home if some precautions are not followed. 

Most folks will revert to the professionals, an exterminator or try to DIY with some chemicals from one of the big-box stores. I have another solution that is very effective and very safe. The ONLY precaution is breathing of the dust when applying. It is Diatomaceous Earth, or DE. It can be purchased at any local health food store and is fairly inexpensive. There is no chemical smell and it is an all-natural "green" product.

Wear a dust mask and apply a ring around your bedposts, in any wall or floor cracks near your bed and dust along the decorative piping at the edges of your mattress. The DE will cut these little critters each time they crawl through the fine powder and they will eventually dry-up and die. You can put it down even with no known bed bug problem.  There are no side effects or safety concerns.

If you have visitors or students returning from Lincoln I would dust all areas where they could unknowingly bring these awful critters into your home. There were huge outbreaks in the Manhattan, Chicago, Denver and Detroit areas as well as other cities recently so any traveler should be cautious.  

When you travel and stay in a hotel I would take some precautions to ensure you do not pick up a hitchhiker. Inspect the bed you will lay your head down on. Keep your suitcase on the countertop or table top and vacuum it when you return. I would put out the DE just to be safe.

 

Water Trees in Winter

We’ve enjoyed a mild, warmer winter thus far in the Omaha area but it has been very dry with very little snow and rain. There is one very glaring precaution while we have been enjoying such a mild winter….your landscape. Trees and shrubs need water to survive and the climate just has not produced.

To keep your trees and shrubs healthy this winter you will need to supplement the moisture they are not getting naturally. Break out that garden hose and allow a slow stream of water to saturate the ground for several hours in and around your trees and shrubs. The ground is frozen so it will take a long time to soak in. 4-5 hours of a mild trickle to the edges of the drip line should save the trees from winter kill. Maybe try to water 2 trees a day ensuring the whole drip line is saturated.

DO NOT forget to remove the hose from the spigot each night prior to the nightly freeze.

Most of us don’t think about the fact that trees need water during the winter. They drop their leaves and go into an apparent dormant state, so we tend to forget about them. What we don’t realize is that beneath the ground there is still plenty of activity going on. The roots continue to grow throughout the winter and need adequate water to survive.

There are few outward signs of drought stress on deciduous trees during the winter. During months when they have leaves, drought is noticeable because of leaf yellowing, wilting, curling at edges, brown tips, and dropping leaves. During the winter though, there are no leaves to act as drought indicators. Evergreens on the other hand, may turn yellow, red or purple. They also may turn brown at the tips of the needles and the browning may progress through the needle towards the twig.

Often times, drought stress may not kill a tree outright but it will set it up for more serious secondary disease and insect infestations in following years. To insure a good growing season, care must be taken to supplement the water needs of the trees throughout the year.

Trees should be watered to a depth of about twelve inches below the soil surface. The soil should be saturated within the drip line which is the area out to the outer edges of the trees branches. This will ensure that water is dispersed to all of the roots. On evergreens, water should be distributed 3 to 5 feet beyond the drip line on all sides of the tree.

Preventing Home Fires

Dryers: If you have to run the dryer a second or even third time to get clothes fully dry, your dryer vents may need cleaning. While most homeowners clean their lint traps between every load, dryer vents must also be cleaned regularly. It is recommended that dryer vents be cleaned every 1-2 years, depending on the frequency of dryer use and the distance from the back of the dryer to where the vent exits the home. Lint buildup in vents increases the risk of fire and reduces the efficiency of the dryer.

It’s a fact: Thirteen thousand fires start in laundry rooms in the U.S. each year, causing 10 deaths and $97 million in property damage. One-third of these fires arise from lint buildup.

Besides reducing the risk of fire, clean vents allow for efficient drying. Savings estimates range from $.50 to $3.00 a load, depending on the size of the load, the energy efficiency of your dryer and the severity of obstruction in your vents. Reduced wear on the dryer will also extend its life.

In Bennington a dryer caught fire causing a lot of smoke damage to one couples home.  See the related KETV account of their story:
http://www.ketv.com/news/29354435/detail.html

Looking to Sell your home?

National syndicated columnist Liz Pullman Weston's article titled "Speed your home sale with these fast fix-ups" is a must read. Spending limited funds in the right way will make your home selling experience more enjoyable.



Read the article here:

CONTROLLING HOME MAINTENANE COSTS

Home repairs can break your bank. Keeping your home maintained is a less-costly way to keep ahead of the repair costs.

Experts in the home repair industry typically recommend spending 1-3 percent (per year) of the home's value on maintenance tasks alone, not considering repairs. Repair cost estimates could be 5-10 times that amount. The trick is to spend as little as possible in home repairs while you live there so you end up in a positive cash situation if/when you sell your home. The only way I know to keep repair costs down is to spend properly and efficiently on your home's seasonal maintenance tasks. As stated many times before "Spend hundred$ now in maintenance or spend thou$and$ later in repairs." It is generally about a 10:1 ratio. Spending that $100 keeping it maintained will save you thousands in future repairs.

A new year is upon us, plan to put up some of your tax return for home maintenance and add to the kitty with each paycheck. If you do not have cash on hand for some of the smaller maintenance tasks you certainly will not be able to afford the future repair costs.

If you follow Mr. Handyman’s seasonal maintenance tips on our blog site your monthly maintenance and repairs costs will go down. If the maintenance involves tasks that you cannot complete yourself or if it requires a professional (replacing wood trim around the windows, HVAC maintenance, or properly caulking around the tub, kitchen sink or around windows) then give Mr. Handyman a call. We have the expertise and knowledge to accomplish most home maintenance tasks.

With the tightening of the money belt in today's economy and the possibility of inflation causing your hard-earned dollar to buy less in the future, saving where you can just makes great financial sense. We have offered several tips to save with energy-efficiency items on our blog site as well. Just look for a related article on the right side of the main page.