Care and Feeding of Brick Siding

Having brick siding installed on your house gives it a classic look. Unfortunately, a lot of people view brick as an install-it-and-forget-it option and allow that look to deteriorate over time. Brick homes require basic maintenance and care just like vinyl and wood siding do, though the specifics of maintenance may be a little bit different. It’s just like with anything: If you want the look, you have to put in the work to keep it up.

Fortunately, maintaining your brick isn’t that difficult. Even better, the maintenance you do now can help prevent your brick siding needing major repairs in the future. So long as you’re willing to put forth a little effort, you should be able to keep your home looking great for years to come.

Cleaning Your Brick

The brick on your home is exposed to the elements on a 24/7 basis, and the rough surface of most bricks make them ideal for picking up dust and dirt. This can lead to damage over time, so once or twice a year you should take the time to clean your bricks. Most of the time this is as simple as spraying them down with a garden hose to remove any dirt and grime that’s built up on your home, though particularly tough spots and areas may need a scrub brush with soapy water as well. Avoid the temptation to use a power washer as the high water pressure can damage the brick.

Vegetation and Mildew Removal

While some plants such as ivy provide what some consider a dignified look, any vegetation that grows on your brick will damage it. Remove any vines, moss or other plants that you notice growing up your brick wall, making sure to wear gloves in case the plant is something that you don’t want to touch like poison ivy. You should also periodically check your brick for signs of mildew or mold, both of which can damage the brick surface as they grow. Scrub the area where you notice these growing, spraying them with a diluted solution of bleach and water to kill off any remaining remnants or spores. It’s a good idea to wet down the brick before you spray it, though, as this will prevent bleach from collecting in deeper contours of the brick and causing discoloration.

Checking for Damage

There are two types of damage you should check for at least once per year when you have a brick home. The first is impact damage, resulting from something hitting the brick and causing cracks, chips or other damage to it. This can come from a variety of sources, including things as ordinary as a lawnmower throwing a rock. The second type of damage to look for is water damage, which occurs when rain or splashing water repeatedly hits an area of the brick and starts to wear it away. Both of these can damage not only the bricks but the surrounding mortar as well. When damage is found, scrub the area to remove any loose material and keep an eye on the area to see if the damage gets worse over time. If the damage is caused by splashing water or other environmental issues, you might also adjust your landscaping or install additional drainage to redirect water and prevent further damage.

Repointing and Repair

As brick and mortar become damaged, you may need to make repairs from time to time. If the damage is just to the mortar, scrape and chisel away any damaged portions and apply new mortar to the entire area where wear and damage is present; this is typically known as repointing. If there are bricks that are damaged to the point that they need to be replaced, chisel away the mortar surrounding those bricks until they can be removed. Apply fresh mortar and new bricks to fill the damaged area.

Decoding Your New Windows

New windows can make a huge impact on your home. Not only can installing new windows make your place look better, but those windows can also make it a lot easier to heat and cool as well. Sure, replacing old windows can eliminate drafts, but that’s only a small part of how installing new windows can increase your home’s energy efficiency.

Information about the efficiency of new windows is printed on a sticker that’s attached right to the glass. Unfortunately, if you don’t know what you’re looking at then these stickers may raise more questions than anything. If you need a little help understanding exactly what you’re looking at on your window sticker, here’s a rundown of everything you need to know.

What’s the U-Factor?

When looking at window stickers, two values are listed as “Energy Performance Ratings.” The first of these is the U-Factor, which provides information about the insulating ability of the window. This is similar to the R-Value that you find on insulation, and the U-Factor value will usually be somewhere between 0.20 and 1.20 on new windows. The lower this value is, the better the window is at insulating your home and preventing heat transfer between the inside and outside. If you want to think about this in terms of R-Value instead, simply divide 1 by your U-Factor value and you’ll end up with the corresponding R-Value (so a U-Factor of 0.20 would correspond to an R-Value of 1 ÷ 0.20 = 5, while a U-Factor of 1.20 would correspond to an R-Value of 1 ÷ 1.20 = 0.83.)

What About Solar Heat Gain Coefficient?

The other value listed under “Energy Performance Ratings” is the Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC). This measures how much heat is transferred through the window from sunlight (as opposed to the air heat transfer that is indicated by U-Factor.) The SHGC scales between 0 and 1, with lower values indicating a greater ability to block heat transfer from sunlight.

What Is the Visible Transmittance?

Beyond the “Energy Performance Ratings” entries on a window sticker, three other values are also provided to help you choose the window that best fits your needs. One important listing among these additional performance ratings is Visible Transmittance (VT). As with SHGC, the VT of a window scales between 0 and 1. In most cases you will want a high VT, however, as it indicates how much light passes through the window glass to provide daylight for your home.

What’s the Condensation Resistance Rating?

As the name suggests, the Condensation Resistance (CR) rating of a window indicates how well it can resist the formation of condensation on its surface. This not only indicates how likely you are to experience “fogging” and liquid condensation but can also indicate the likelihood of frost formation in the winter as well. This rating ranges from 1 to 100, with higher CR numbers indicating a greater resistance to condensation.

What Does Air Leakage Mean?

Another important performance rating is Air Leakage (AL). As the name implies, this measures how much air can leak through the window and affect the internal climate of your house. These values typically scale between 0.1 and 0.3, with lower values indicating a smaller amount of air leakage. One thing to keep in mind is that this is considered an optional rating, meaning that not all manufacturers will provide AL data; as a result, some window stickers might only have ratings for the other four values.

Are There Benefits to Prepaying Your Mortgage?

A mortgage is one of the biggest single debts you’re likely to willingly take on. As such, being able to properly manage your mortgage is very important. With so many options when it comes to loans, repayment and refinancing, it can all get a bit confusing. One point in particular that you might hear a lot of talk about is prepaying your mortgage.

Should you prepay your mortgage? Should you focus on other things first? Before rushing into prepayment, make sure you have all of the information first. We’ll start by looking at exactly what mortgage prepayment is and how it works.

What Is Mortgage Prepayment?

As the name suggests, mortgage prepayment is the act of paying some or all of your mortgage principal before it’s actually due. This can take a number of forms, from paying a higher amount than the actual payment that’s due each month to making additional payments in months where you have money to spare. Some homeowners even make a single large additional payment every year after getting a tax return. Regardless of the specific form that prepayment takes, the end result is the same: More of your outstanding mortgage balance gets paid off, resulting in a decrease in both the amount that you still owe and the amount that interest can be applied to.

What Are the Benefits of Prepaying?

There are several benefits to prepaying your mortgage, regardless of how often the payments are made. Consider the following and how they might apply to your mortgage situation:

• Faster repayment of the mortgage loan
• Decreased cost of the mortgage over time
• Equity is accrued at a faster rate
• Prepayment reduces principal, making it easier to qualify for refinancing

Essentially, prepayment gives you more control over your loan and helps you to save money, build equity and pay off the loan faster. Because you’re paying it down at a faster rate, you’ll likely have an easier time refinancing for a better interest rate and loan terms down the road as well. And since the prepayment is optional, you can always skip prepayments and simply pay the monthly payment due if money is tight. Because of this, many people choose to incorporate prepayment plans into their overall preparations for retirement.

Are There Any Downsides?

While there are definitely benefits to prepaying your mortgage, there are potential downsides as well. Some mortgages, especially those with adjustable rates, are designed to not allow prepayments; if you attempt to prepay on the mortgage, this can trigger a penalty fee. Additionally, some lenders only accept prepayments in certain forms and will apply any other money received as simply an early payment against the next month (which means that the money will go toward interest and principal and not just your principal loan balance.) Attempting to prepay when you have significant debt elsewhere or don’t have a safety net built up for yourself isn’t a good idea, either; your mortgage likely has a lower interest rate than most if not all of your other debts, so you may be better off paying them off and building up savings and retirement funds first before you start worrying about prepaying a mortgage.

Should You Prepay Your Mortgage?

Whether or not you should prepay your mortgage depends on a number of factors. You should consider the type of mortgage you have, how much your monthly mortgage payments are and what your interest rate looks like. You should also take a look at your overall finances and how well prepared you are for emergencies and retirement; it’s possible that your money would be better off going elsewhere at the moment. Even if prepayments seem feasible and affordable, make sure that your lender accepts prepayments without penalty and that you know how they prefer to receive prepayments. Those extra payments won’t do much good if your lender simply applies them against interest or charges you a penalty fee because prepayments aren’t allowed by your loan.

5 Tips for DIY Paint Disposal

A lot of DIY projects involve paint. Unfortunately, the majority of them don’t use the exact amount of paint that comes in the cans you buy. This leaves you with extra paint that you don’t have anything to do with, and over time you might even build up quite a collection of excess paint cans. Don’t just dump them out or throw them away, though… doing so is illegal in most areas. If you’re not sure what to do with all of the paint you’ve got left over, here are a few things to think about.

Know What You’re Dealing With

The very first thing you should do when getting ready to dispose of the paint you’ve used for a project is to identify the type of paint you have. You should have either oil-based paint or latex paint, and if you aren’t sure then you need to check the label. There are typically more options available to dispose of latex paints than oil-based paints, so taking the time to figure out which type of paint you have is essential to make sure you don’t dispose of your paint in a way that could get you in trouble.

Let It Dry

If you have latex paint to dispose of, you should be able to throw it out once it has dried. If there is only a little bit of paint left in the can, you can accomplish this by simply leaving the lid off of the can for a few days until it dries out. If you have a larger amount of paint, you’ll need to get at least some of it out of the can first. Consider pouring at least some of the paint into a cardboard box that you’ve lined with a plastic bag or otherwise sealed to prevent leaks. You can also apply the paint over cardboard, wood or paper with a brush or roller to create thick coats that you then allow to dry. If you still have unwanted paint, commercial hardening agents are also available that you simply mix into the paint and wait while the paint hardens.

Soak It Up

As latex paints are soluble in water before they dry, you can take advantage of this by diluting the paint with additional water. Once the paint is suitably watery, pour it over absorbent materials such as paper or foam. Allow these to dry and then dispose of the materials that will have the remaining paint soaked into them. If drying seems to be taking a long time, try setting the wet items outside and spreading them out as much as possible. The heat, sunlight and increased surface area will increase evaporation speeds, resulting in a faster overall drying time.

Upcycle the Paint

Before you get rid of your latex or oil-based paint, think about whether you have any upcoming projects that could benefit from it. Using the paint for other projects will help you to use up whatever’s left of the paint and will also save you from having to buy additional paint when those projects come around. It could even be that you have a project planned that you hadn’t originally considered painting at all but that might benefit from a coat of paint. Even if you don’t have any future painting projects coming up, others might; ask any DIYers that you know if they need paint or check online for DIY groups in your area that trade paint and other supplies.

Safe Disposal Services

Knowing where to recycle or otherwise dispose of liquid paint is important, especially if you have oil-based paints that can’t simply be thrown away. Recycling centers, environmental groups and hazardous waste disposals often have paint recycling and disposal services that accept both latex and oil-based paint. If you aren’t sure where to look, check online or ask around at local hardware and paint supply stores to get recommendations.

Can I Sell My Home Using a Gift of Equity?

Real estate can be a tricky business. You put your home on the market, people make offers and there’s a lot of back-and-forth to make sure that everyone gets what they believe is the best deal. There are a lot of gray areas that make things more confusing, too. What if you’re selling your home to one of your own children or another relative and don’t want them to have to pay a bunch of fees and down payments? Maybe you don’t even want to profit off the sale at all… you just want them to be able to cover the remainder of the mortgage. Depending on the situation, using a gift of equity may be a better option to help make the sale happen.

What Is a Gift of Equity?

As you make payments against your mortgage, the amount that’s owed against your home decreases while the value of the property remains the same. The higher the value is, in comparison to what’s still owed against it, the more equity the home is said to have. You’ve likely heard about equity-based loans or other ways to use equity as a form of security, and they all come down to the concept that your home is worth more than what’s actually owed to pay off the remainder of its mortgage.

If you’re selling your home to a member of your family, in many cases you can use this equity to their advantage. A “gift of equity” is the practice of using the property’s own equity as a down payment for someone wanting to buy the property. This not only saves your family member money but may also qualify them for a better loan or lower mortgage payments if they’re borrowing to pay the remaining difference.

Selling Your Home

Before you can sell your house using a gift of equity, you have to determine the actual value of the property. This has to be a fair market appraisal, and if there’s a lender involved, then they may wish to choose the appraiser. You will also need to document any details relevant to the gift of equity, such as establishing a relationship, providing proof of residency (as well as any rental terms, if they apply) if the buyer already lives on the property and any additional details that are relevant to proving that both of you have a qualifying relationship and that you wish to make the gift of equity.

There are also issues such as closing costs and escrow fees that may have to be taken into account. In most cases, though, these can be covered by seller concessions (where you agree to absorb the costs by taking less of the sale price for yourself) as you are allowed concessions of up to 6 percent of the sale value in most cases. You will also need to draft a gift letter for use by both the lender and the IRS, which as you might guess, means you also have to pay taxes on the value of the gift.

Is It Actually Allowed?

In most cases, there is nothing preventing you from selling your home using a gift of equity so long as the buyer is a spouse, child. dependent or other individual with an established blood or legal relation to the seller. This includes both blood relatives and those who are adopted or placed under legal guardianship of the seller. Fiancés and domestic partners can typically qualify as well, so long as it’s allowed by the jurisdiction in which you live. Friends, non-related roommates and other unrelated buyers do not qualify.

The big thing to remember when it comes to selling your home using a gift of equity is that the rules for doing so will vary depending on where you live and the equity gifting program you use. There can actually be some pretty significant differences from one program to the next, so you definitely shouldn’t rush into selling with a gift of equity until you’ve done some research to see what the best way to do it in your state is. With that said, if you do your due diligence, this can be a good way to pass on property to a loved one, provided you avoid the potential pitfalls.

Weeds, Wildflowers or Invasive Plants?

If you have plants popping up in your yard that you didn’t plant, your first instinct may be that it’s a weed. You very well might be right; after all, what are weeds except for unwanted plants? At the same time, it’s possible that you’ve got wildflowers growing on your property. Depending on your view of wildflowers, that could change things significantly.

Wildflowers can do a lot of good for bees and other local pollinators, giving a boost to your local ecosystem and adding some beauty to boot. If the flower is from an invasive species, though, even something useful can cause a lot of harm over time. How are you supposed to keep all of this straight, so you’ll know what to pull and what to leave alone?

All About Weeds

So what is a weed? It’s an unwanted plant, sure, but it is also a plant that will compete with your existing flowers and other plant life for resources. A good example of this is clover in your lawn. As time goes by, the clover out-competes the grass and largely takes over your yard. You’ll face similar problems with any weed if it manages to become established.

One of the things that makes weeds so competitive is that most of the time you can’t just pull them up and be done with them. Dandelions are typically considered a weed, and even if you pull up a dandelion early you’ll still see more in your yard. This is because they have deep root systems that continue growing even if the flower is pulled free. Really getting rid of weeds means figuring out what the weeds are and what the proper way to eliminate them is.

Weeds vs. Wildflowers

Some weeds (including the dandelions and clovers mentioned above) produce flowers and are usually frequented by bees and other pollinators. Despite this, they’re still considered weeds instead of wildflowers. So what’s the difference between the two?

The primary difference between weeds and wildflowers is how they grow. Weeds tend to spread once established, growing to consume as many additional resources as they can and spreading their seeds as far as possible. Wildflowers are not as aggressive with their growth, instead growing densely in an area and spreading out from that area at a slower pace. This is why wildflowers are not generally considered competitive with existing plants; they aren’t likely to overrun an area in a short period of time and are much easier to contain to a single area.

Invasive Plant Species

One thing to keep in mind is that both weeds and wildflowers can be considered invasive. For that matter, even some of the plants you buy at nurseries are considered invasive in some regions! An invasive plant species is one that is not native to the area, so other species aren’t able to compete with it as effectively as they would with plants that are native to the area.

This can be very problematic. Invasive species typically have different resource requirements than native species, so as they grow and spread, they may use resources in a way that shifts the balance of the local ecosystem. This shift can be very bad for local species, giving the invader a much stronger competitive advantage for those resources. In some cases, invasive species can actually eradicate native strains from the local area!

Identifying Unexpected Plants

If you want to promote the growth of wildflowers while getting rid of weeds and invasive plants, you need to learn to identify them. Search online to find out which weeds and invasive plants are common in your area, taking the time to search for images online so you can identify them even with slight variations in their appearances. There are also smartphone apps available that identify plants with a high degree of accuracy which you can use to identify weeds and invasive plants.

Another option is to take photos or clippings of the plants in question to your local agricultural extension office. They should be able to identify the plant for you and can also tell you whether it’s a weed or an invasive plant. If it needs to be removed, they can also provide suggestions for the most effective removal techniques.

Foundation Cracks Don’t Have to Spell Disaster

Cracks in the foundation of your house can be signs of a problem. This doesn’t mean that you should automatically worry if you see a few small cracks, however. Believe it or not, there are a few perfectly normal reasons why cracks can appear in your foundation. It’s important to look into the issue if you notice cracks – but hold off on assuming the worst until you determine whether there’s a problem worth worrying about.

What Causes Foundation Cracks?

There are a few different things that can cause cracks in your foundation. In some cases, the cracks are simply caused by the settling of your home over time or soil expansion if your home is built on land with a lot of clay in the soil. Other potential causes of foundation cracks include:

• Drainage issues around the home
• Insufficient reinforcement to support the weight of the house
• Major home renovations or add-ons such as adding a second story
• Tree roots under the soil
• Earthquakes, sinkholes or landslides that have affected the area
• Deep soil freezing during the winter

As you can see, there are a lot of potential reasons why cracks might appear in your foundation. This isn’t even an all-inclusive list! Despite the wide range of possible causes, it’s important to not get ahead of yourself and worry over the cracks until you’ve figured out whether they actually indicate a serious problem.

Examining Foundation Cracks

The first thing you should do when you notice cracks in your foundation is get a good look at them and where they appear. Taking photos may help with this since they’ll give you an easy-to-access reference later on. If possible, include an object of known size in the pictures to give you a sense of scale; coins, ink pens or other common objects are easy to use in this regard.

When looking at the cracks in your foundation, take note of the direction of the crack, how wide the crack is and whether it has a uniform width. If there is an obvious point of origin (such as a crack that starts at the corner of a basement window or foundation vent) then you should take note of this as well. If you have a crawlspace or basement under your home, go in and examine the foundation wall from the other side to see if the crack is visible there was well. The more information you have about the crack, the easier it will be to determine whether there’s a problem.

Is the Crack a Problem?

Small, thin cracks in the foundation usually aren’t much to be concerned about; they typically form as the house and the soil beneath it settle into place. Likewise, small cracks that appear after a particularly harsh winter shouldn’t be a major concern since they are easy to seal before the next bout of cold weather comes around. There are some cracks that you need to watch out for, though.

Horizontal cracks, straight vertical cracks and cracks that are wider at one end than the other are all signs of potential problems. These can indicate that the foundation is cracking due to a much larger problem than just settling or bad weather. Check the depth of the crack, especially if you have a crawlspace or basement; a crack that goes all the way through the foundation wall can be very bad indeed. You should also see if there are multiple cracks forming around the same area or if any of the cracked areas correspond with cracks or other issues inside the house.

If the cracks seem recent, clean up the area and place marks on the wall beside the cracks. This will let you look for new debris or changes to the crack length over the next several days. Large cracks or cracks that seem to still be growing need to be repaired before they can cause significant issues.