Home, Auto, & Hobbies Articles

Article / Updated 11-19-2024

Collectively, reptiles and amphibians are referred to as herps. That term comes from the Greek word herpes, which literally means crawling things. The term is applied equally to reptiles and amphibians. From herp comes herpetology, the study of crawling things. A person with formal training in herpetology is a herpetologist. Someone who likes herps, keeps them, and works with them but lacks the formal training is a herper. If you like damp environments (or if you want a pet who likes things wet), then an amphibian is right for you. Because they breathe partially through their skin, amphibians must have moist, clean caging, which requires careful monitoring and frequent cleaning to avoid ammonia buildup or a bacterial bloom. Otherwise, your pet dies a nasty death. The following list explains some factors to consider if you want a pet amphibian: Caging. Amphibians need caging that can hold moisture but also can be easily cleaned. In most cases, this means an aquarium, usually a 15- to 20-gallon size. Moisture is provided through water (the tank itself or a container within it is filled with water), or the substrate in the tank (sphagnum moss or dampened paper towels) is moistened. You can supply additional moisture with a hand-held sprayer or a misting system. You'll want to add a screen top to the terrarium/aquarium, but you don't need to worry about adding lighting or keeping the tank or its inhabitants warm. Amphibians like it cool; the tiger salamanders, for instance, trudge through snow as early as February to reach the ponds where they hope to meet a mate, which says something about amphibians' tolerance of cold temperatures and their sex drive. Because amphibians are quiet creatures, they won't tear up an elaborately planted terrarium the way a lizard or snake might. The smaller amphibians, like the brightly colored dart frogs, look like animated jewels in a fern- and moss-bedecked tank. Cleaning an amphibian tank is an important aspect of keeping these creatures alive. The smaller the amphibian, the less waste it produces, and the less work it is to maintain the tank. You have to tear down and reconstruct a 20-gallon dart frog enclosure maybe twice a year (although the water dish will need to be cleaned daily). In contrast, a bullfrog's enclosure needs daily water changes or filtration and twice-a-week partial water changes, and the moist sphagnum in a tiger salamander's cage needs rinsing at least every other day. Feeding: Amphibians eat insects, small fish, and earthworms. All are readily purchased from bait stores or pet stores; the insects and earthworms can be mail-ordered. Crickets need to be housed in an extra aquarium. You can toss a few into each amphibian's cage as needed. Mealworms come packaged in a plastic container with a snap-on lid; store them in your refrigerator or move them to their own hideaway filled with oat bran and rolled oats — at last there's a way to use up that oatmeal! — with a few slices of apple for moisture. You can buy earthworms in lots of 500 from a hunting/fishing supply firm and store them in a refrigerator. Size: Amphibians that are generally seen in pet stores are usually beautifully colored and fairly small. You can certainly go out and find big amphibians. Some of the aquatic caecilians, for example, will easily reach a 2-foot length, but few people want a retiring pet with the animation and appearance of a gray rubber hose. The pet store amphibians range in size from the fist-sized horned frog to the 3-inch-long red-spotted newt to the thumbnail-sized dart frog. You can certainly find more exotic amphibians. Your store can order them for you, or you may want to see what an expo can offer. Their easy-to-handle sizes mean the animals require less food. Amphibians don't require the amount of food that a larger, more active creature, such as a green iguana, needs. Cost: Amphibians are inexpensive. The dart frogs as a group run about $40 to $60 each, but this is at the high end for all amphibians. The more unusual horned or tomato frogs cost around $50, but the majority of amphibians range from $15 to $20 each. Amphibians breathe, to a lesser or greater degree, through their skin. This is why they need moist, very clean caging, why the cages must be cleaned so frequently, and why you must wash your hands before handling them. Most skin diseases in amphibians are fatal. As a rule, amphibians are retiring and nocturnal, which means they aren't as responsive to a human as is a tortoise. Amphibians tend to lay massive numbers of eggs; if you plan to breed your amphibian, you'll need to plan how you'll raise up to a thousand young, or you'll need to dispose of the excess eggs.

Step by Step / Updated 11-14-2024

Having a flat tire and not knowing how to change it can leave you feeling helpless. With a few simple tools, you can do it yourself. Changing a tire is easy, and everyone should have a general idea of what's involved. Watch this video or follow the steps below:

Cheat Sheet / Updated 11-13-2024

When I was new to my career, there was information I wished I could get my hands on as I was learning more about the craft. (I’m talking about inside-the-industry information — way past what I learned in college). The information in this Cheat Sheet is what I was thrilled to learn (and have often forgotten until I was ready to put it in to practice). Some of this information is stuff I never would have thought of unless someone told me about it. First, there are the sewing machine needle size and fabric charts. Who knew there were so may sizes and varieties? These charts make for a handy reference when you’re starting a fleece throw or putting in an elastic-waistband for a set of pj’s. Next, is “10 Tips for Mixing Prints,” so whether you are putting together an outfit, decorating a room, or a creating a quilt, this information gives valuable guidelines for mixing prints so your result will scream, “I really know what I’m doing!” Finally, you’ll see “Bedroom Redesign Made Easy,” which includes approximate sheet, duvet, and bed pillow sizes. When you want to make a new duvet cover or sham, you’ll have the measurements you need at your fingertips.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 11-13-2024

If you’re interested in consuming more extra-virgin olive oil for its flavor and health benefits, it’s important to be able to distinguish it from other types of olive oil. The olive oil classification is a formal series of definitions established by the International Olive Council (IOC). The IOC is responsible for promoting and regulating olive oil industries worldwide, and its members consists of major olive-producing countries. The organization works toward setting quality standards and ensuring the authenticity of olive products.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 11-13-2024

Whether you’re relocating to an apartment in a new city, a student searching for your first rental, or an experienced renter stepping up your game, you need a few tools to search for a new place to call home confidently. This Cheat Sheet covers a few critical steps for successfully finding a rental quickly.

Article / Updated 10-28-2024

During summer months, about 60,000 or more bees reside in a healthy hive. And while you may think all of those insects look exactly alike, the population actually includes two different female castes (the queen and the workers) and the male bees (drones). Each type has its own characteristics, roles, and responsibilities. Upon closer examination, the three look a little different. If you're a beekeeper, it's important to know one from the other. These are the three types of bees in the hive: worker, drone, and queen. Her majesty, the queen Let there be no mistake about it — the queen bee is the heart and soul of the colony. There is only one queen bee in a colony. She is the reason for nearly everything the rest of the colony does. The queen is the only bee without which the rest of the colony cannot survive. Without her, your hive is sunk. A good-quality queen means a strong and productive hive. And for some real fun, try raising your own queens from your best performing hives. As a beekeeper, on every visit to the hive you need to determine two things: “Do I have a queen?” and “Is she healthy?” The queen is the largest bee in the colony, with a long and graceful body. She is the only female with fully developed ovaries. The queen’s two primary purposes are to produce chemical scents that help regulate the unity of the colony and to lay eggs — and lots of them. She is, in fact, an egg-laying machine, capable of producing more than 1,500 eggs a day at 30-second intervals. That many eggs are more than her body weight! The other bees pay close attention to the queen, tending to her every need. Like a regal celebrity, she’s always surrounded by a flock of attendants as she moves about the hive (see the image below). Yet, she isn’t spoiled. These attendants are vital because the queen is incapable of tending to her own basic needs. She can neither feed nor groom herself. She can’t even leave the hive to relieve herself. And, so, her doting attendants take care of her basic needs while she tirelessly goes from cell to cell doing what she does best: lay eggs. A queen and her attentive attendants The gentle queen bee has a stinger, but it is rare for a beekeeper to be stung by a queen bee. I have handled many queen bees and have never been stung by any of them. In general, queen bees use their stingers only to kill rival queens that may emerge or be introduced into the hive. The queen can live for two or more years, but replacing your queen after a season or two ensures maximum productivity and colony health. Many seasoned beekeepers routinely replace their queens every year after the nectar flow. This practice ensures that the colony has a new, energetic, and fertile young queen each season. You may wonder why you should replace the queen if she’s still alive. That’s an easy one: As a queen ages, her egg-laying capability slows down, which results in less and less brood each season. Less brood means a smaller colony. And a smaller colony means a lackluster honey harvest for you. As a beekeeper, your job is to anticipate problems before they happen. An aging queen — more than a year old — is something that you can deal with by replacing her after checking her egg-laying, before you have a problem resulting from a poorly performing queen. The industrious little worker bee The majority of the hive’s population consists of worker bees. Like the queen, worker bees are all female. Worker bees that are younger than 3 weeks old have working ovaries and can lay eggs, but they are not fertile, as the workers never mate and, therefore, lack sperm to fertilize eggs. Workers also look different than the queen. They are smaller, their abdomens are shorter, and on their hind legs they possess pollen baskets, which are used to tote pollen back from the field. Like the queen, the worker bee has a stinger. But her stinger is not a smooth syringe like the queen’s. The stinger is three-shafted, with each shaft having barbs (resembling a fish hook). The barbs cause the stinger, venom sack, and a large part of the bee’s gut to remain in a human victim — a Kamikaze effort to protect the colony. Only in mammals (such as humans) does the bee’s stinger get stuck. The worker bee can sting other insects again and again while defending its home. The life span of a worker bee is a modest six weeks during the colony’s active season. However, worker bees live longer (four to eight months) during the less-active winter months. These winter workers are loaded with protein and are sometimes referred to as “Fat Bees.” The term “busy as a bee” is well earned. Worker bees do a considerable amount of work, day in and day out. They work as a team. Life in the hive is one of compulsory cooperation. What one worker could never do on her own can be accomplished as a colony. During the busy season, the worker bees literally work themselves to death. The specific jobs and duties they perform during their short lives vary as they age. Understanding their roles will deepen your fascination and appreciation for these remarkable creatures. From the moment a worker bee emerges from her cell, she has many and varied tasks clearly cut out for her. As she ages, she performs more and more complex and demanding tasks. Although these various duties usually follow a set pattern and timeline, they sometimes overlap. A worker bee may change occupations, sometimes within minutes, if there is an urgent need within the colony for a particular task. They represent teamwork and empowerment at their best! Initially, a worker’s responsibilities include various tasks within the hive. At this stage of development, worker bees are referred to as house bees. As they get older, their duties involve work outside of the hive, as field bees. House bees The jobs house bees do (described in the following sections) are dependent on their age. Housekeeping (days 1 to 3) A worker bee is born with the munchies. Immediately after she emerges from the cell and grooms herself, she engorges herself with pollen and honey. Following this binge, one of her first tasks is cleaning out the cell from which she just emerged. This cell and other empty cells are cleaned and polished and left immaculate to receive new eggs or to store nectar and pollen. Undertaking (days 3 to 16) The honey bee hive is one of the cleanest and most sterile environments found in nature. Preventing disease is an important early task for the worker bee. During the first couple weeks of her life, the worker bee removes any bees that have died and disposes of the corpses as far from the hive as possible. Similarly, diseased or dead brood are quickly removed before becoming a health threat to the colony. Should a larger invader (such as a mouse) be stung to death within the hive, the workers utilize propolis to deal with that situation. Obviously, a dead mouse is too big for the bees to carry off. So, the workers completely encase the corpse with propolis (a brown, sticky resin collected from trees and sometimes referred to as bee glue). Propolis has significant antibacterial qualities. In the hot, dry air of the hive, the hermetically sealed corpse becomes mummified and is no longer a source of infection. The bees also use propolis to seal cracks and varnish the inside walls of the hive. Working in the nursery (days 4 to 12) The young worker bees tend to their baby sisters by feeding and caring for the developing larvae. On average, nurse bees check a single larva 1,300 times a day. They feed the larvae a mixture of pollen and honey, and royal jelly — rich in protein and vitamins — produced from the hypopharyngeal gland in the worker bee’s head. The number of days spent tending brood depends on the amount of brood in the hive and the urgency of other competing tasks. Attending royalty (days 7 to 12) Because her royal highness, the queen bee, is unable to tend to her most basic needs herself, some of the workers do these tasks for her. They groom and feed the queen and even remove her excrement from the hive. These royal attendants also coax the queen to continue to lay eggs as she moves about the hive. Stocking the pantry (days 12 to 18) During this stage of their life, young worker bees take nectar from foraging field bees that are returning to the hive. These house bees deposit this nectar into cells earmarked for this purpose. They add an enzyme to the nectar and set about fanning the cells to evaporate the water content and turn the nectar into ripened honey. The workers similarly take pollen from returning field bees and pack the pollen into other cells. Both the ripened honey and the pollen, which is often referred to as bee bread, are food for the colony. Fanning (days 12 to 18) Worker bees also take a turn at controlling the temperature and humidity of the hive. During warm weather and during the honey flow season, you’ll see groups of bees lined up at one side of the beehive entrance, facing the hive. They fan furiously to draw air into the hive. Additional fanners are in position within the hives. This relay of fresh air helps maintain a constant temperature (93 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit [34 to 35 degrees Celsius]) for developing brood. The fanning also hastens the evaporation of excess moisture from the curing honey. The workers also perform another kind of fanning, but it isn’t related to climate control. It has more to do with communication. The bees have a scent gland located at the end of their abdomen called the Nasonov gland. You’ll see worker bees at the beehive entrance with their abdomens arched and the moist pink membrane of this gland exposed. They fan their wings to release this pleasant, sweet odor into the air. You can actually smell it sometimes as you approach the hive. The pheromone is highly attractive and stimulating to other bees and serves as an orientation message to returning foragers, saying: “Come hither, this is your hive and where you belong.” This helps direct other members of the colony back to the hive. Beekeepers can purchase synthetic queen-bee pheromone and use this chemical to lure swarms of bees into a trap. The captured swarm then can be used to populate a new hive. Becoming architects and master builders (days 12 to 35) Worker bees that are about 12 days old are mature enough to begin producing beeswax. These white flakes of wax are secreted from wax glands on the underside of the worker bee’s abdomen. They help with the building of new wax comb and in the capping of ripened honey and brood cells containing developing pupae. Some new beekeepers are alarmed when they first see these wax flakes on the bee. They wrongly think these white chips are an indication of a disease or mite problem. While the bees are working, the wax flakes will fall to the bottom. Nothing to be alarmed about. Guarding the home (days 18 to 21) The last task of a house bee before she ventures out is that of guarding the hive. At this stage of maturity, her sting glands have developed to contain an authoritative amount of venom. You can easily spot the guard bees at the hive’s entrance. They are poised and alert, checking each bee that returns to the hive for a familiar scent. Only family members are allowed to pass. Strange bees, wasps, hornets, and other creatures intent on robbing the hive’s vast stores of honey are bravely driven off. Bees from other hives are occasionally allowed in when they bribe the guards with nectar. These bees simply steal a little honey or pollen and then leave. Field bees When the worker bee is a few weeks old, she ventures outside the hive to perform her last and perhaps most important job — to collect the pollen and nectar that will sustain the colony. With her life half over, she joins the ranks of field bees until she reaches the end of her life. It’s not unusual to see field bees taking their first orientation flights. The bees face the hive and dart up, down, and all around the entrance. They’re imprinting the look and location of their home before beginning to circle the hive and progressively widening those circles, learning landmarks that ultimately will guide them back home. At this point, worker bees are foraging for pollen (see the figure), nectar, water, and propolis (resin collected from trees). Foraging bees visit 5 million flowers to produce a single pint of honey. They forage a 2- to 3-mile radius from the hive in search of food (even more, if necessary, for water), and propolis. That’s the equivalent of several thousand acres! So, don’t think for a moment that you need to provide everything they need on your property. They’re ready and willing to travel. Foraging is the toughest time for the worker bee. It’s difficult and dangerous work, and it takes its toll. They can get chilled as dusk approaches and die before they can return to the hive. Sometimes they become a tasty meal for a bird or other insect. You can spot the old girls returning to the hive. They’ve grown darker in color, and their wings are torn and tattered. This is how the worker bee’s life draws to a close, working diligently right until the end. The woeful drone This brings us to the drone, the male bee in the colony. Drones make up a relatively small percentage of the hive’s total population. At the peak of the season, their numbers may be only in the hundreds. You rarely find more than a thousand. New beekeepers often mistake a drone for the queen, because he is larger and stouter than a worker bee. But his shape is in fact more like a barrel (the queen’s shape is thinner, more delicate, and tapered). The drone’s eyes are huge and seem to cover his entire head. He doesn’t forage for food from flowers — he has no pollen baskets. He doesn’t help with the building of comb — he has no wax-producing glands. Nor can he help defend the hive — he has no stinger. He is not the queen or a worker — merely the drone. The drone gets a bad rap in many bee books. Described as lazy, glutinous, and incapable of caring for himself, you might even begin wondering what he’s good for. He mates! Procreation is the drone’s primary purpose in life. Despite their high maintenance (they must be fed and cared for by the worker bees), drones are tolerated and allowed to remain in the hive because they are needed to mate with a new virgin queen from another colony (when the old queen from that other colony dies or needs to be superseded). Mating occurs outside of the hive in mid-flight, 200 to 300 feet in the air. This location is known as the drone congregation area, and it can be a mile or more away from the hive. The drone’s big eyes come in handy for spotting virgin queens who are taking their nuptial flights. The few drones that do get a chance to mate are in for a sobering surprise. They die after mating. That’s because their sex organ fits something like a key into a lock so they can effectively discharge their sperm into the queen. The queen will mate with several drones during her nuptial flight. After mating with the queen, the drone’s most personal apparatus and a significant part of its internal anatomy is torn away, and it falls to its death, a fact that prompts empathetic groans from the men in my lectures and some unsympathetic cheers from a few women. Once the weather gets cooler and the mating season comes to a close, the workers do not tolerate having drones around. After all, those fellows have big appetites and would consume a tremendous amount of food during the perilous winter months. So, in cooler climates, at the end of the nectar-producing season the worker bees systematically expel the drones from the hive. Drones are literally tossed out the door. For those beekeepers who live in areas that experience cold winters, this is your signal that the beekeeping season is over for the year. Depending on where you live, the calendar of events for you and your bees varies depending on temperature ranges and the time of year.

Article / Updated 10-16-2024

Floor squeaks happen, and when they do, most of us just tolerate them as a part of the “charm” of living in an older house! But as annoying as squeaking floors can be, they have a rather simple cause and solution – and squeaks rarely indicate a structural problem forming under foot. No matter what kind of finish flooring you may have — carpet, vinyl, tile, or hardwood — unless your home is built on a concrete slab, underneath it’s wood. And it’s that wood that causes the squeaks — well, sort of. Usually, the squeak is a loose nail rubbing inside the hole it was originally driven into. Lumber that’s used to build homes contains a certain degree of natural moisture, which makes the wood easy to cut and minimizes splitting when it’s being nailed together. Unfortunately, as the wood dries, it shrinks — a natural process that can take years. When the wood shrinks enough, once tightly seated nails can loosen and rub when the wood flexes below the pitter-patter of foot traffic, creating the familiar irritating sound: a floor squeak. The good news is that floor squeaks aren’t as tough to fix as they are to listen to! They’re not difficult or expensive to repair, and with a little guidance, you can avoid the frustrating part of the task: actually, finding the cause of the squeak. Finding the squeak The first step in repairing a floor squeak is to find the nail that’s rubbing up against the wood floor — a task akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Here’s a trick that I use to pinpoint a floor squeak so that I can make a repair: Use a short length of garden hose as a stethoscope. Hold one end of the hose to your ear and the other end on the floor while someone else walks across the floor to make it squeak. Fixing the squeak If the problem is a loose subfloor (the wood floor beneath the carpet, vinyl, hardwood, and so on), the repair can get sticky depending upon the type of finish flooring you have. However, if access below is available (that is, you can get to the subfloor through the basement or crawlspace), installing a wood shim shingle between the subfloor and the floor joist is a quick and easy means of preventing the subfloor from flexing, and it quiets the squeak. Just squirt some carpenter’s glue on the thin end of the shingle and tap it in with a hammer. Most squeaks can be solved by driving an extra screw through the subfloor to the floor joists directly underneath the squeak. But when the floor is covered with wall-to-wall carpet, that can require taking the carpet up. Here’s a shortcut: take a 12d finish nail (use a galvanized nail — it holds better) and drive it through the carpet into the subfloor and joist below. You’ll find this leaves a divot in the carpet, which will no doubt have you (or your spouse) thinking you’ve just ruined the rug! Ah, but not so fast! Just grab the nap of the carpet above the divot and pull it up until the nail pulls through the carpet backing. Voilà, the divot will have disappeared right along with the squeak! Another means of quieting a squeaking floor by preventing it from flexing is a nifty gadget called a Squeak-Ender. It consists of a metal plate and threaded-rod assembly that’s screwed to the underside of the subfloor and a steel bracket. You slip the bracket beneath the joist and over the threaded rod; then you tighten a nut onto the rod to pull down the floor and close the gap. For more information on the Squeak-Ender, go to www.squeakender.com or call 586-978-3377. If access below is not available, after you locate the culprit nail, the next step is to create a better connection. Don’t use nails to make the repair — use screws. Just follow these steps: Locate the squeak using the method discussed in the preceding section. Locate the nearest floor joist under the squeak. The floor joist is the horizontal floor framing member that the wood subfloor is attached to. If the subfloor is exposed, this is easy — just look at the nails, which will line up over the floor joists. If not, you can locate the joist using a stud finder, an electronic tool used to locate wood studs to joists below walls or floors. Near the existing squeaking nail, drill a small pilot hole through the wood subfloor and into the floor joist. Drilling a small pilot hole in the floor joist makes driving in the screw easier. You can leave the old nail in place, or, if it’s loose, remove it using a nail puller or pry bar. Drive a construction screw into the pilot hole, through the subfloor, and so on. When working on a hardwood floor, countersink (recess) the screw head so that it can be concealed with hardwood putty. Use a putty knife to install hardwood putty. Touch up the floor finish with 400- to 600-grit wet/dry sandpaper. I recommend construction screws because they’re easy to drive and they grip like crazy. You can purchase screws with a finish head (like a finish nail), which makes them a particularly good choice when working on a hardwood floor. You simply countersink them slightly and place putty over them. A construction screw’s coarse threads and really sharp tip make it the perfect fastener for old, dry wood. The sharp tip gets through harder lumber more easily, and the coarse screw threads go in faster and hold better.

Article / Updated 10-16-2024

When basements leak, people panic. The good news about these unplanned indoor pools is this. While wet basements are often thought of as one of life’s biggest home repair headaches, basement water problems are generally easy and inexpensive to fix. Yes, that’s right–easy and inexpensive! The basement is one of the greatest untapped spaces in any home. Think about it — if you have a basement, it’s like having an entire extra floor to do with what you wish. That is, however, unless it’s a swimming pool! Damp, leaking, or flooded basements (or crawlspaces) can severely diminish the value of a house. They can lead to a host of associated problems like mold, rotted floor structures, insect infestations, and more. Worse yet, the cost of fixing a wet basement will generally be in the tens of thousands! Well, let’s stop right there so I can let you in on a few facts about fixing floods: Most wet basements are blamed incorrectly on the home having a rising water table. This is usually not the case. The top cause of a wet basement or crawlspace is a lack of adequate roof and surface drainage. Clogged or misdirected gutters, along with grading that directs rainwater toward the house foundation, cause almost all below-grade water leakage. For years, so-called waterproofing companies have caused panic among homeowners by advising that a failure to install expensive sump pumps and drains will cause foundations to crack, and mold to take over. These high-pressure tactics could not be further from the truth and are simply an attempt to make a high-dollar sale on a system that’s rarely needed. And the best news? Most wet basements can be fixed in a weekend using a few hundred dollars’ worth of materials at most. I’ll show you how. Where basement leaks wait to happen: Start outside In the 20 years I spent as a professional home inspector, it wasn’t unusual for me to be asked to inspect a house that had a below-grade water problem. On one such occasion, a young couple had received five-figure estimates from multiple waterproofing companies along with a heaping helping of fear that the home would disintegrate if they didn’t hire them. They’d called me to help them decide which five-figure-estimating company to hire. With that in mind, I walked up to the house, glanced up, and immediately saw a series of 1- to 3-foot trees growing out of their insanely clogged gutters! Problem solved. Mike drop. Tom out! Designing and cleaning gutters to keep water away The primary reason that basements or crawlspaces leak, flood, or just get damp, is that the home does not have a properly functioning gutter system. There are several common gutter failures that I see. Clogged gutters: The season is called Fall for a reason! Leaves, pine needles, and other tree droppings, along with the occasional tennis ball, regularly clog gutters. When that happens, gutters overflow, dumping all the rain that Mother Nature has to offer right along your foundation wall, where it has nowhere else to go but down and into your basement or crawlspace. (See Figure 4-6.) Too few downspouts: For standard five-inch gutters, a home needs one downspout for every 600 to 800 square feet of roof surface. Stand back and stare up at your roof and try to estimate if your home has this. Be sure to include any gutters on second-floor roofs that drain to first-floor roofs on their way to the downspout. If you are moving more water than that, you’ll need bigger gutters and spouts, or just more spouts. Downspouts discharging too close to the house: Gutter installers have a really bad habit I’d like to break. They typically extend the downspout discharge about a foot, and then into a splash block, which runs it out another foot. If you have any indication that there’s a water problem in your house, these need to be run out more like four to six feet. Improving your gutters and site drainage are the two most effective ways to correct a leaking, damp, or musty basement. But of those two, gutter improvements are far and away much more important than grading improvements. In my 20 years as a professional home inspector diagnosing basement and crawlspace leaks, I’ve found that gutters cause 90 percent of the problem, with grading causing the rest. So, tackle your gutter fixes first. They are more likely to solve the problem (see Figure 4-7) and are actually a lot easier to do than hauling dirt to add around your foundation! Making the grade to keep water away After leaking gutters, the second reason basements flood is when the soil around the house settles and prevents water from draining away from the house. Here’s why that happens: When a home with a basement or crawlspace is built, excavators dig a deep hole to allow the masons to start building a foundation. This hole is wider than the house so that contractors can access all sides to build the foundation. As the home nears completion, the excavators return to backfill the soil around the house and — hopefully — grade it to slope away from the foundation walls. As time marches on, however, that soil starts to settle and compact. The grade that initially was pitched to run away from the house, goes to flat and ultimately reverses to run water toward the house. Once that happens, rainwater soaks into the soil around the foundation, and if it rains hard enough, it shows up in the basement as a leak or full-out flood. Restoring a positive grade is not all that difficult. You’ll need to add soil along the foundation perimeter and grade it to slope downward about 6 inches over the first 4 feet away from the foundation. For this project, you’ll want to use clean fill dirt — not topsoil or mulch, which is too organic and will hold water instead of letting it drain. Aside from maintaining a positive grade, be mindful of anything that traps water along the house, like brick, stone, or wood landscaping. If you are trying to fix a leak, you can’t afford to have anything holding water too close to your house. Paths and patios should slope away from the foundation, too. A path or patio that slopes toward the home discharges water into the basement or crawlspace.

Article / Updated 10-16-2024

When the mercury drops, your water pipes become increasingly vulnerable and may freeze and burst. When water freezes, it expands, and the force of that expansion can split a copper pipe wide open. A burst water line can cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage and forever destroy personal possessions in the path of the raging water. The good news is that you can take steps to help prevent a burst pipe and the chaos that it causes. When the mercury drops, your water pipes become increasingly vulnerable and may freeze and burst. When water freezes, it expands, and the force of that expansion can split a copper pipe wide open. A burst water line can cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage and forever destroy personal possessions in the path of the raging water. The good news is that you can take steps to help prevent a burst pipe and the chaos that it causes. An ounce of prevention If you’ve ever experienced a frozen water line that did not burst wide open, consider yourself lucky! Before that luck wears out, it’s smart to take a few steps to prevent your pipes from freezing and keep water running all winter long. Turn on your faucets just a little. A faucet left dripping at the fixture farthest from the main water inlet allows just enough warm water movement within the pipes to reduce the chance of a freeze. Insulate your above-ground pipes. Pipes in unfinished spaces are most susceptible to freezing. Insulating these pipes prevents them from freezing during most mild-to-medium chills — even when faucets are off. Be sure to focus on insulating pipes in the crawl space, basement, attic, and any pipes that are located along exterior walls, such as a main water line and shut-off valve. Open your cabinets. If the pipes that supply water to your kitchen or bathroom sink faucets are prone to freezing, leave the cabinet doors open at night. The open doors allow warm air to circulate in the cabinet and warm the cold pipes. Install electric pipe heating cable. If you’re in an area where temperatures frequently drop below freezing, think about purchasing pipe heating cable, commonly known as heat tape. Heat tape is an electric appliance that is attached to copper pipe. When temperatures drop, a thermostat activates the heat tape and keeps the pipe warm to prevent it from freezing. Heat tape is also useful for thawing out a pipe that’s frozen. Heat tape must be used cautiously, and strictly according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Throughout my 20 years as a professional home inspector, I frequently observed heat tape being misused more often than being used correctly. It wasn’t unusual for me to find heat tape that got so hot, it singed wood framing or insulation! To prevent a fire, never overlap one section of heat tape on top of another and never add insulation to a pipe where heat tape is being used. Doing so can cause the heat tape to overheat and lead to a fire. Lastly, heat tape is not designed to be plugged in all the time. Once the pipe thaws, unplug the heat tape. If the same pipes in your home freeze over and over again, you are better off replacing that section of copper pipe with PEX, which can be rerouted through warmer areas of the home instead. I did this exact project in my home some years back. The water supply for our kitchen sink ran through the exterior wall and frequently froze in cold weather. To fix the problem, I disconnected the copper pipe, inserted a section of PEX tubing, and ran it inside the kitchen cabinet, where it never froze again!

Cheat Sheet / Updated 10-04-2024

Doodles are very popular dogs, which means there are reputable breeders, committed to producing the healthiest dogs possible, and then there are breeders looking to make a quick buck. You need to know how to spot the difference so you can find the right dog for you. When faced with a lapful of adorable puppies, you may want to take all of them home with you, but doing a simple temperament test will help you find a dog who’ll settle in to your family with ease. Finally, you need to stock up on supplies before you bring home a new dog — knowing what to buy and where to shop will allow you to focus on your puppy, not all the stuff you forgot to buy. Photo by April Walker on Unsplash