ECLIPSE STAINLESS OUT OF BUSINESS DECEMBER 2017

Our last post talked about some tips to keep your foundation strong during this heat wave (which seems to be slightly waning!). A big part of that was keeping your lawn watered and healthy. Keeping soil packed is crucial to making sure your foundation doesn’t sink and crack. So here are a few tips to keeping your lawn watered properly, so it can stay green and healthy not just for appearances sake, but for the overall well-being of your home.

1) Timing

Wait until the lawn shows signs of stress before watering. You don’t want it to be saturated. An easy way to do this is to insert a screwdriver 3 inches deep into the soil. If the soil is moist at that depth, you don’t need additional watering.

2) Quantity

A typical lawn will require between 1/2 inch and 1 inch of water per week. You can determine the rate of your sprinkler by simply placing a few cans in it’s path and measuring after 15 minutes or so.

3) Dethatching

Excessive thatch (essentially gunky stuff between health grass and the soil) will prevent the water from being absorbed and will simply create a run-off. Aerating your lawn will make your lawn hold moisture much better, and will require less watering. Raking will also be a good solution and will make your lawn a bit cleaner.

4) Scheduling

The best time to water your lawn is earlier in the day when there is still dew. Mid-afternoon watering causes some of the water to evaporate before it has a chance to settle. Watering in the evening doesn’t allow the lawn to dry enough before nighttime, leaving it more prone to disease.

We posted last week about protecting your home from this unprecedented heat wave. Today we bring you another round of short tips for protecting a specific and important part of your home – your foundation. Without care, this can lead to thousands of dollars in repairs. Here just a few quick hints to make sure your foundation stays happy and healthy:

• Fact: In extreme heat, soil breaks down and can crumble the solid base underneath your home.
• Fact: This can cause the foundation to sink, causing cracks in your floors and walls.
• Water your lawn for a couple hours each day, making sure your soil stays solid.
• Also be on the lookout for cracks in your yard. If there are, you may not be watering enough.
• Most homeowner’s insurance does not cover foundation repairs, so it is well worth it to be proactive in keeping your lawn and soil taken care of.
• If you have suspicions about your foundation, bring in a professional to look over your home and give you an honest assessment. There’s no harm in getting it checked out!

We are in the midst of a cruel heat wave – one of the longest and nastiest we can remember! It means that going outside for even just a few minutes is painful and leaves sweat dripping down your forehead. Hopefully, your home is a place where you can stay cool…so here are some tips to make sure that stays true for the whole summer!

• Provide effective shade for your windows – especially on the east and west sides of your home.
• Delay heat-generating activities (laundry, dish-washing) until evening if you can.
• Keep the house tightly closed. Make sure doors are closed all the way, and windows, too. It’s easy for them to open a crack, and when it’s 100 degrees outside, that make a big difference.
• Ventilate at night if needed. When the temp is cooler, open windows for a cross breeze and have fans running in the window sills. This will get that unwanted hot air out of the home.
• For long-term solutions plant shade trees around the house.
• Don’t use a demudifier at the same time as the air conditioner. It will force the air conditioner to work harder, as it increases the cooling load.
• Seal all ducts and other cracks to un-cooled parts of the home.
• Maintain your air conditions to make sure they run properly and effectively.
• Get white curtains and close them during the day…this will still allow some natural light but blocks a good amount of the heat.

What tips do you use to keep the house cool during these intense heat waves?

Most everyone likes saving money! Here are a few simple tips to save you some dough on utility bills that you probably won’t notice on a monthly basis, but definitely on a yearly basis. Do you have any other tips to share? We’d love to hear from you!

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