HVAC Maintenance

air conditioner

air conditioner

HVAC systems can operate 24/7 and that means they need routine maintenance. It is critical to ensure that you are doing regular HVAC maintenance, since every part of the air conditioner and heater needs to be maintained in order to be efficient and to save you money.

Air Filters & Indoor Coil
The system needs to remain clean, in order to maintain proper air flow and to reduce the risk of mold building in the AC unit. When dirt becomes packed in the area, it could become clogged and that means it will need to work harder to cool off the house, increasing the cost of cooling each day that it runs.

Condenser Coils
Usually found on the outside of a building, this is where the transfer of heat will take place. Here, the pressure of the refrigerant is kept low and the compressor is then protected in this area. That ensures that the air conditioner unit runs more effectively and with greater efficiency. As the coil does become exposed, you do need to do routine cleaning.

Unit Lubrication
All the moving parts in the air conditioner should be properly lubricated. A trained HVAC system technician will know which of the parts need to be lubricated and how to handle this, even between regular maintenance schedules.

Electrical Connections
As they age, electrical connections can loosen and this can cause heat to build up. Often, this will lead to the failure of a unit. If this is going to happen, ti will occur during the hottest part of the summer, or the coldest point of winter. It is important to ensure that the electrical connections in the system are looked over and tightened as part of your routine maintenance.

Refrigerant
Your heating and cooling pump system require refrigerant to operate properly. It is critical to ensure that you maintain the right levels of coolant within the system. Having too little can cause damage to the compressor. Having too much can actually cause just as much damage.

Every part of your heating and cooling system needs a quick once over each year. Our company can help you to ensure that your system continues to operate at peak performance. Take a moment to call use today before the winter is upon us again.

Unique Way to Wallpaper a Wall

woman holding wallpaper

Some walls just seem to cry out for something different. This is especially true with walls that may be the only wall in a room with wainscot or a narrow bit of wall at the end of a hallway or entryway. You might want to consider using wallpaper in a uniquely different manner.

Instead of hanging panels of wallpaper, get scraps, samples, short rolls, etc. and tear them into small pieces of a couple of inches square to create a mottled look on your wall. It does take some time but is simple to do and can be a fun, creative way to add color to a small part of your home.

The first thing to do is prepare the wall. If it has old wallpaper on it, you will want to remove that wallpaper. To do this, you can use a wallpaper remover to loosen it and then scrape it off. If the wall is painted with a smooth surface, just clean it well and put primer on it. If the wall is textured, you can use a joint compound to fill in the low areas, let it dry, sand it lightly and then cover with primer.

Finding wallpaper for this is fairly simple. Most stores that carry wallpaper have sample books and may have some old ones they will either give you or sell cheaply. Also check the bargain wallpaper for rolls of discontinued wallpaper, short rolls and scraps. It is best to have an idea of what colors you want before you start buying so you don’t end up with wallpaper you end up not being able to use. For example, you may want to use blue as the basic color so you look for various shades of blue. If you want to create some sort of pattern in another color or two, such as a night sky, also watch for whites and shades of yellow.

If possible, get prepasted wallpaper that only has to be wetted to put up. Since it may not be possible to get all of it in prepasted, get wallpaper paste too. Even the prepasted will stick better with a little more paste on it. The paste won’t be mixed as thick as it would if you were hanging full panels so you won’t need to buy as much.

Once you have most if not all of the wallpaper you will need, start tearing it into small pieces of two to three inches square. In a medium bowl or bucket (an ice cream bucket works well for this), mix the wallpaper paste so it is soupy. This would be about three parts water to one to one and a half parts wallpaper paste. Drop a couple of handfuls of the torn wallpaper pieces into the paste mixture and start sticking them to the wall, overlapping them slightly as you go. One nice thing about this method is that it is forgiving and there is no such thing as a mistake.

Once you have the entire wall covered with no bare wall showing, you can add a complimentary wallpaper border at the top and bottom for a finished look. Once it is completely dry, you can give it a couple of coats of spray or roller polyurethane to seal it.

Though it takes time, it can be fun to do and your wall will be unique. If you have more walls that are similarly crying out for something different, you might use the same technique and try different colors and effects for each one so each can make its own statement.

Vinyl Flooring Installing-Measure Twice and Cut Once

When faced with such flooring choices as carpet, tile, natural stone, and hardwood, vinyl flooring may seem a bit mundane. The first thing to do is clear your mind of the vision of the unflattering, discolored, and bubbling vinyl flooring that you remember from your grandmother’s kitchen. Vinyl flooring has undergone many improvements and is one of the most popular types of flooring in America today. Not only can you buy vinyl that closely resembles those other flooring materials, but with a minimal amount of maintenance, a vinyl floor can last a lifetime.

Vinyl has many qualities that make it so desirable. The vinyl of today is stylish, easy to clean, durable, doesn’t need waxing, and it is friendly to the budget, but one of the biggest reasons that so many people choose vinyl is the ease in which it can be installed. Vinyl is an easy DIY project for even the most inexperienced of handymen and it can be done in under a day.

Installing Vinyl Flooring

The first thing to do is prepare the room by clearing your workspace.

Remove all furniture and appliances (including toilet if you are working in the bathroom)
If there is a door that opens into the room, remove it from the hinges.
Remove the baseboards from around the floor with a pry bar. Gently ease the pry bar in between the baseboard and the wall and insert a small block of wood behind the bar. This gives you leverage to pry the trim away without damaging the wall.
Remove any nails from the wall and trim. If are reusing the same trim, remove the nails gently to prevent splitting the wood.

Cutting Your Vinyl Floor to Fit

Vinyl flooring is generally sold in both 6 and 12 foot widths making a seamless floor in smaller rooms, such as a hallway, kitchen, or bathroom, possible. There are two methods of installing your vinyl flooring depending on the room you are fitting.

  • For rooms that don’t have many obstacles or angles, you can cut the vinyl to the measurement of the room and allow 3 inches of excess on each side and then trim it after it is in place.
  • Once your flooring has been cut to fit the room (remember to leave 3 inches extra all the way around), place it in the room and allow the edges to curl upward onto the wall.
  • Trim around any outside corners or other objects that protrude by cutting a vertical slice down the vinyl. Be sure to cut from the top of the flooring down to where it meets the floor.
  • For fitting the vinyl to inside corners, press it into the corner and make v-shaped incisions where it overlaps. Cut only a small amount at a time and carefully work downward until the flooring rests flat.
  • Press a 2×4 along the walls to create a crease where the floor meets the wall. After the crease is made, use a straight edge and a good utility knife to cut the flooring. As it rests, the floor will expand a bit so leave around 1/8th inch of space between the flooring and the wall.
  • Once you’ve made sure that the vinyl is laying completely flat, you can put your baseboards back in place and your new floor is complete.

The alternative, for rooms with recesses, angles, or are hard to fit for other reasons, you can purchase an installation kit. These kits come complete with paper for creating a template of your floor plan, a marker, a cutting blade, tape, and precise instructions for making a pattern of your floor. With these kits you simply make the template, transfer it to the flooring, and then cut the vinyl to fit before installing it.

With so many beautiful styles and colors available, combined with the ease of installation, it is little wonder that so many people are choosing vinyl flooring for their homes and offices.

A Case for Carpet Tile

With so much to choose from in carpet tiles, there’s absolutely no reason that you can’t redo your entire home’s carpeting using tiles and have it look exactly as you’ve always wanted. In fact, they’re becoming increasingly commonly used by interior designers for exactly this reason.

Why use carpet tiles

Best Carpet Value gave us some great reasons to use carpet tile.

Conventional wall to wall carpeting can get rather expensive, especially if you’d like to have more than one room done. However, carpet tiles are a good fit for virtually any budget: they’re often as little as a fourth of the price of standard carpeting. Carpet tiles allow you to beautify your home at a low cost without looking cheap.

Essentially, you can carpet your entire home for the cost of having wall to wall carpet put in just one or two rooms – it’s just one more reason that you’ll find more and more homeowners reading carpet tile reviews to learn more about this affordable, flexible and attractive flooring option.

One thing you’ll read about a lot in carpet tile reviews is that these are remarkably durable compared to traditional carpeting. They’re built to stand up to a lot of wear and tear – and if there’s a stain, you can simply replace the area at a very low cost rather than replacing the carpeting in the entire room.

Flooring is an important decision. Before you make your choice, it’s a good idea to read some customer reviews of carpet tiles on the websites of manufacturers and retailers to find out what other people think as well as learning more about what kind of options are out there for your home.

Termite Control – The Organic Way

Guest post from Sam Tidwell.

The infestation of termites, in American homes, is a real and serious matter. According to the US Forest Service, the heaviest regions for termite burrowing occurs in the lower southeastern part of the country, and in the state of California. This does not mean that the remaining regions are free from termite damage, only more moderate, in vulnerability. It is estimated that each year, over $5 billion is spent in the damage and prevention of these eusocial insects.

Understanding What Termites Need for Survival

The termite has recently been reclassified as part of the cockroach family. This fact alone, could help scientists further their studies in the way that these insects survive and breed. Termites need moisture in order to sustain life. Thought of to be a natural born insect of Africa and Australia, termites have adapted well in the United States by locating sources of cellulose. Today’s cellulose is a popular by-product of wood building materials, paper and glue. When they smell the organic aroma of cellulose in the frame of a house, it is attracts them like bees to honey.

Natural Products that Halt the Spread of Termites

Because termites are attracted to the properties of wood, it can seem an impossible task to prevent the infestation of these insects. However, there are proven methods to use, without applying poisonous chemicals.

Place a border around the perimeter of a foundation, using sheet metal. This idea is simple and can safeguard your foundation against any type of insect that uses burrowing as a method of entry. However, if there is the smallest gap or crack, termites will find it.

Cardboard can be used as bait around the exterior of your home. Since cellulose is used in the production of cardboard, the termites will stop and set up house on the cardboard, instead of continuing on to the home’s wood supply. The trick behind this method, though, is to keep the cardboard from drying out. Once the cardboard becomes dry, these insects will move on to another source of food.

Boric Acid has been found to be a good deterrent for protecting wood. The application of Boric acid on wood, helps to destroy dry and wet rot. It further has a poisonous effect on termites, roaches and ants, when ingested. This method is best used before building a home to insure that all wood fiber has been successfully treated.

The most popular, and beneficial, organic method of stopping termites, is with orange oil. Orange oil is a byproduct of orange peel and contains an active ingredient called D-Limonene. When wood is injected with orange oil, termites can no longer feed on the wood’s moisture supply. By ingesting the orange oil, termites die from the drying up of cell membranes. Without water and a source of nutrition, the colony is soon eliminated. The residue left by orange oil acts as a warning to any new termites searching for a home.

The study of orange oil is ongoing as an effective natural treatment against termites. Together, with the research of further understanding the life habits of termites, orange oil is emerging as the number one deterrent in organic termite treatment. It has been discovered that a colony of termites can be burrowed in new wood, and remain undetected, for up to 5 years. Using a method that guarantees the extermination of termites in wood, from the inside out, has given new hope to the extensive termite problem. Many termite and pest management companies now carry orange oil as an alternative method for treating homes. Ask your pest specialist about organic products available. Chances are, orange oil will be among the options.

This site does not endorse orange oil treatment as we don’t have enough information. There have been both many positive and negative reviews on the product. Most negative reviews are about the need for multiple applications.