You know the normal sounds your home makes.
The air conditioner kicking on as the dog days of summer begin. The heating system starting up on a cold, winter evening. The creak of a loose floorboard as someone rises early in the morning.
Toilet Tragedies
There’s not much that can cause a panic and loud screaming than when the handle of the toilet is pushed and “” instead of everything swirling down into the sewer line “” it all comes rushing back out.
You know what the “everything” is… and you surely do not wish to be the offending flusher who must clean it up. But someone needs to do the dirty work.
3 Ways to Avoid Water Damage
What is a water damage? It’s anything that happens in your home that causes problems for you and your family.
It can be a simple over-flowing of a sink onto the kitchen floor. Or perhaps a toilet didn’t flush properly and it sloshed out a bit onto the bathroom floor. Then again it can be a little more serious such as from a broken pipe that spewed water everywhere in the basement when it was time for spring watering of the flowers.
No matter what, a water damage in your home is bad news. Even the tiniest bit of water can cause all kinds of problems, from the worse (mold damage) to the least (pesky odors).
There are three things you can do to help prevent water damage in your home:
It can be a simple over-flowing of a sink onto the kitchen floor. Or perhaps a toilet didn’t flush properly and it sloshed out a bit onto the bathroom floor. Then again it can be a little more serious such as from a broken pipe that spewed water everywhere in the basement when it was time for spring watering of the flowers.
No matter what, a water damage in your home is bad news. Even the tiniest bit of water can cause all kinds of problems, from the worse (mold damage) to the least (pesky odors).
There are three things you can do to help prevent water damage in your home:
Floodplain Zones: What you need to know
Have you ever walked or drove down a road and came across a sign that declared, “Floodplain Zone!”
If it was near your home, you might have panicked. But if it was somewhere far from your home, you felt safe.
A floodplain can be dangerous because any home in or near one is subject to flooding. If you have a basement, you have more to worry about.
But did you know that even if you live outside a floodplain, there are flooding issues that you must be aware of? Continue reading “Floodplain Zones: What you need to know”
Protecting Important Documents
It’s natural. It’s human nature. You don’t really think about this very often.
What are we talking about? Water, fire and smoke damage.
When you do think about what may happen to your home, and then take action to prepare, what you do is usually minor and easy to do… such as turning off your outside water supply when winter approaches and testing smoke alarms and replacing fire extinguishers on a regular basis.
Yet there is one very important action you should take right now in preparation for the unthinkable. That’s right, protecting your important documents, such as your birth certificates, marriage license, financial papers, insurance policies and social security cards.
Most homeowners keep all their important papers and documents in what they consider a safe place, such as in an organized folder in a home office or secure location where they know exactly where everything is. Unfortunately, that’s not really very safe when there is flooding or fire and
smoke. Others might utilize a water and fire proof safe, which is a great idea.
Yet there is something additional you can do to 100% guarantee your important documents are safe no matter what happens.
Scan them and put them on the “cloud.”
You may already do this, and if so, congratulations. No matter what happens to your home, your documents are safe and can be accessed from any device connected to the internet.
But if you don’t, get a cloud-based storage account that has plenty of storage space for your needs and start scanning those documents. Keep them organized in online folders, and make sure those in your family who should have access to them have username and passwords they can use in an emergency. You should still keep the originals as safe as you can, of course.
And when the unthinkable happens, when you do have a fire, flood or mold damage, don’t forget there is professional assistance for you: Call your disaster restoration pro for help.
How To Prevent A Home Fire
While a water damage occurring in your home from a rain or windstorm, a broken pipe or perhaps an overflowing sink or toilet is a terrible event to experience, virtually nothing is as devastating as a fire.
And while statistics indicate a downward trend in house fires, mainly because of better, modern safety protocols, it is still a huge issue that must be addressed. For example, in 2013 there were more than 1,200,000 home fires, nearly 3,500 deaths and 16,000 injuries reported by the National Fire Protection Association.
More than half of home fires start in one of your favorite places: The kitchen. That’s right. Cooking is an everyday occurrence and it is the number one cause of fires. Usually on the stove. Other causes include candles, Christmas trees, overburdened electrical cords/outlets, appliance malfunctions and cigarettes or cigars, to name just a few.
What can you do to make things safe in your home and protect your family?
Three Methods for Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water
After a water pipe leakage, flood or hurricane, the supply of clean drinking water could be interrupted. Therefore, you may have to use disinfected, boiled or bottled water until the water supply is restored. In this article, we are going to share with you a few methods that will help you disinfect drinking water from the comfort of your home.
Continue reading “Three Methods for Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water”
Protect Yourself: Insurance
You turn to your insurance company and your agent you have been paying faithfully for many years. All you want is for your valuable items lost in the disaster to be replaced.
There aren’t many events that are more disturbing or more tragic than a flood or fire in your home.
Your home is a place to raise your family. It’s a place to feel safe and secure. So, when an event occurs that takes it all away from you “” even temporarily “” it’s normal for a feeling of helplessness to overwhelm those in the family.
You need help. You need reassurance. You want everything to be back to normal and you can’t do it alone.
That’s what insurance is for, right? Continue reading “Protect Yourself: Insurance”
So Your Carpet Is Smelly”¦
There are many reasons why a carpet can become smelly, from pet odors to heavy soiling and other causes. However, what some don’t realize is a little water intrusion can cause a big problem with the condition of their carpet, even after it seems the carpet has dried.
Three Steps for Drying Out
There are many causes of water damage to homes and buildings, ranging from heavy rains, leaky roofs, broken pipes, failure hot water heaters, sewage back-ups and more.