House Hacks to Keep Cold Air at Bay

As summer slowly shifts to autumn, cooler days and chilly nights are just around the corner. While this can be a relief after the summer heat, it won’t be as much of a relief when your heating costs start stacking up. Fortunately, it’s possible to prepare in advance to avoid some of the extra costs of winter while still keeping your home comfortable throughout the season. Though there are countless ways to do so and the right options for you will largely depend on your specific home, here are some little things you can do now that will have a big impact on how well your home keeps out the cold air this winter.

Prep for the Cold

The first thing that you should do when trying to get ready for the coming cold is to make sure you’ve blocked off many of the ways that cold air enters the house. There are a lot of potential fixes and preparations you can make, so here are a few suggestions to give you an idea of the sort of things you should do:

• Check the caulking and weatherstripping on your doors and windows, making repairs as needed
• Check the insulation in your attic, replacing any that’s tattered or upgrading all of it to insulation with a higher R value
• Inspect your roof for signs of damage and repair any leaks or damaged shingles
• Look for cracks or other damage in both your windowpanes and the frames of the windows
• Store any window air conditioners or close their vents and cover them with an insulated air conditioner cover
• Cover windows with a layer of thermal plastic on the inside, using a heat gun or hair dryer to shrink the plastic once it’s in place to create the strongest barrier to heat transfer
• Place covers or sheets of wall insulation over crawl space doors and other areas where cold air might get under your house

These preparations should be done alongside any other winter prep that you do, such as applying insulating pipe covers and covering outdoor faucets to prevent possible pipe freezes.

Make Sure Everything Works

Alongside your checks to prevent drafts and leaks during the winter, it’s important to spend a little time to make sure that your home’s heat source will run safely once temperatures drop. Here are a few considerations when it comes to testing your home heating:

• Clean your chimney and have it inspected if you have a fireplace that you plan to use for primary or secondary heating
• Test your heating system to make sure that it functions properly
• Replace the batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and ensure that fire extinguishers are charged and within their effective dates
• Make sure that external vents for fuel-burning furnaces or heaters function properly so that they won’t stick or stay closed while in use

This is also a good time to make sure that all of your emergency supplies are in date, all your flashlights work, and that you have at least two ways to receive weather alerts in case there’s a harsh winter.

Get Ready for Winter

There are a few inspections that you should really get done around this time of year as well, before temperatures start to drop significantly. The big ones are your roof and your heating system, though having someone look at limbs that hang over your home or that could present a falling hazard during the winter is a good idea as well.

What’s a Plant Ledge?

Sometimes, the purpose of features in your home isn’t quite apparent. This can lead to you having an “a-ha!” moment later when the purpose of a seemingly quirky home feature becomes apparent. With some features, though, that moment can take a while to arrive. One feature that might not seem to have a real purpose, if you aren’t already aware of what it’s for, is a plant ledge.

Plant ledges were pretty popular in the mid 90s and early 2000s, so homes built or remodeled around this time are likely to have these random high ledges in rooms that may not seem that practical at first glance. You can probably guess to at least some of the purpose from their names, but plant ledges can be used for a number of things. Given that plant shelves and similar storage options are coming back into style, here’s a bit more information on plant ledges and how they can beautify your home.

Plant Ledges

As the name implies, plant ledges were ledges built into the wall that were typically intended to hold potted plants of some variety. These ledges were placed high on the wall, usually within a foot or so of the ceiling in that space that isn’t often used for shelving and other storage. Some plant ledges had built-in lighting to better illuminate their contents, though this wasn’t the case with all of them. Many homeowners would put silk plants on their plant ledges to reduce the amount of maintenance required to keep them in good shape, but live plants were also used, especially those that don’t require a ton of water or direct sunlight.

Depending on where the ledges were installed, they might appear only on a single wall, or could surround a room. In some cases, they even worked their way around fixtures in the room, such as ledges that connected with the tops of cabinets and made their way around the kitchen area. While the plant ledges in a home were placed in areas where they would be seen, most of the ledges themselves were fairly simple in design so as not to take away from the beauty of their contents.

Not Just for Plants

Though they are known as plant ledges, these high ledges can be used for a wide range of decorative items. Some feature grooves cut into the top ledge surface, allowing decorative plates or similar items to be displayed without a fear of them shifting and falling off the ledge. Vases, awards, and other decorative items can also be placed on the ledges to accent various rooms. Often, people use these ledges to hold a mix of items, including both plants and other pieces, to create a more diverse space.

The size, width, and location of the ledges can differ depending on what they’re intended to hold as well. In addition to grooves, spacers and other cutouts can be placed in the ledge to help them hold specific items more safely. Wider ledges also come in handy when it comes to holding bigger items, while thinner ledges are ideal for smaller or thinner pieces that you intend to display.

Considering Plant Ledges?

With shelves and storage pieces becoming popular as ways to hold plants and other display items, a plant ledge might sound great for some of the rooms in your home. They tend to take a bit more work to install than just a simple shelf, but the look that they create is typically worth the extra effort. You can talk with a contractor or remodeling expert to see how best to incorporate plant ledges into your home.

Landscaping for Curb Appeal

First impressions go a long way. This is applicable to not only when you meet someone new, but also when somebody sees your house for the first time. Regardless of whether it’s a friend or colleague coming over to visit or a prospective buyer looking at a property you’re trying to sell, the importance of curb appeal shouldn’t be underestimated.

You might think that it takes a lot of work and money to update the curb appeal of your home, but that doesn’t have to be the case. It’s possible to significantly increase the curb appeal of your home and your property just by changing your landscaping. Here are a few ways that your landscaping can change up the look of your property and give your overall curb appeal a significant boost.

Adjusting Existing Landscaping

It doesn’t take a lot to turn around your existing landscaping and dramatically increase your curb appeal. Depending on the state that your trees, shrubs, and other plants are in, it may just be a matter of trimming everything back and taking the time to shape some of the more unruly growth you’ve got going on. Trim down bushes and create a more uniform texture, cut back overgrown limbs, get vining plants under control, and otherwise reign in your existing growth so that it looks much more manicured.

Once you’ve got your current growth under control, consider adding some accents to your landscaping. This can come in the form of colored mulch or gravel beds to add more definition to some of your flowers or plants, fountains or other features to provide a bit of contrast, and possibly even removing a few plants or moving potted plants to a new area to ease up on crowding and create a bit more symmetry in your yard. Even if you don’t make major changes, these little accents and changes can still make a big difference.

New Landscaping Additions

If you want to make bigger changes, consider adding more plants to your yard that will accentuate what you’ve already got there. Put in additional bushes or shrubs of similar types to what you’ve already got on your property to help fill out areas that seem a bit thin in coverage. Add sod to create more uniform ground coverage so that the various clovers, creepers, and other plants don’t distract from the look of your home. Put in some flowering annuals if most of your landscaping contains plants that don’t really flower to add splashes of color to break up all the green. Just look at what you’ve already got and think about how you might improve it.

Of course, it’s important to remember that sometimes a bit of contrast can really help your landscaping as well. Don’t be afraid to add flowers or other plants that don’t seem to go with everything else if you find something that you really want to stand out. If you take the time to come up with a landscaping plan that will be visually striking, it will really get people’s attention the first time they see your home.

Give Your Landscaping a Boost

Depending on what you have in mind, there are a number of ways that you can change up your landscaping through DIY projects. In some cases, though, you may need to bring in a landscaping pro to make more significant changes to your home’s landscaping. Not only will a professional be able to tackle larger projects more quickly, but they may also be able to offer suggestions on the specific shrubs, plants, and other landscaping choices that you add to your property.

How Does a Radiator System Work?

Keeping the climate in your home under control is important throughout the year. Not only do you need to have a reliable way to keep the heat of the summer sun at bay, but you’ll also want some method of keeping toasty and warm on cool autumn evenings and throughout the frigid winter. For many homeowners, this means a forced-air heat pump, usually as part of a combined central heating and cooling system. This isn’t the only option that’s available, however.

Though you might think radiator heating is a product of a bygone era, radiator heating systems are actually the second most popular home heating option out there. Depending on where you live and the type of system you use, they can actually be more comfortable than forced-air heating and may even use less electricity to keep running. If you’re considering upgrading your home heating system, here’s what you need to know about radiator heating to help you decide if it’s right for you.

Radiator Basics

The function of a radiator system is pretty simple: heat travels through the system, warming up the radiator. The heat then radiates out into the open air, creating natural circulation of the air in the room. As more heat enters the air, the warmer air rises toward the ceiling and cooler air drops down closer to the floor. This air is in turn heated up by the radiator, causing it to rise, cycling heat throughout the room. After a little time has passed, the entire room will be warmed up without the noise and dust or allergen circulation that forced-air units often cause.

Though radiators come in a variety of forms, the actual radiator units typically have a lot of bends, folds, and fins in their design. This is to maximize the surface area of the radiator unit, giving it more contact with the surrounding air. The more surface area there is, the more heat can be transferred at once, and the faster the radiator will heat the surrounding area.

Radiator Types

The old type of radiator that you’re likely most familiar with are steam radiators, which function by pumping in steam that’s heated elsewhere in a boiler. The steam heats up the radiator, and as it cools it condenses into water which drains and returns to the boiler. While this was a functional system, the pressure created by the steam could sometimes cause radiator units to rupture or create other hazards. That’s part of the reason that these radiators have kind of fallen out of favor in modern times.

More modern radiator systems use hot water instead of steam to transfer heat, as this can be done without creating potentially dangerous pressure build-ups. Heated water enters the radiator, cycles through the loops to transfer its heat, and then cooler water leaves through another valve. The water is then reheated and cycles back through the radiator so that it can continue to heat the room. What pressure might build up in the form of air within the water lines is released through bleed valves that are mounted on the radiator units themselves.

Is Radiator Heat Right for Your Home?

While radiators aren’t right for everyone, they do provide quality heat without the added noise of forced-air systems. Many homeowners consider radiator heat to be less dry overall than forced-air heating, and the heat that radiators provide can last for a while even when the radiator isn’t operating due to the more gradual heat release that they use. They do take a while to get going, however, so they aren’t ideal for those who want to be able to turn on the heat and immediately see the mercury start to rise.

More Places to Store Odds and Ends

Having enough storage space is a struggle that many homeowners face. Even when you have plenty of closets and cabinets, there are often additional odds and ends that don’t really seem to belong anywhere. The resulting clutter can be frustrating, and often results in things like unorganized junk drawers or a desk that becomes something of a cluttered catch-all for things that don’t have anywhere else to go in the house.

There are ways to get around some of this clutter, though. You’re likely already familiar with some spaces where you can store some of your odds and ends, but there may be options that you haven’t considered yet. Here are a few more areas that you might consider to help declutter your home and find a place for everything.

Under, Over, and Behind

When you look in your cabinets or closets and see the clutter there, you might actually be missing one possible solution to your problem. There’s usually some empty space around the clutter that you can take advantage of with relatively little effort, provided you recognize it for what it is. Instead of focusing on what’s on the shelves or in your existing storage areas, start looking under, over, and behind those areas. Options include:

• Hang a shoe holder on the back of a closet door and place various small items into its pockets to better organize the space
• Install under-cabinet hardware to mount can openers, paper towels, sliding drawers, or even things like your microwave to free up counter space
• Place hooks on the backs of cabinet doors or on cabinet walls to hold measuring cups or other small items, organizing them for easy access
• Add shelves or an over-the-toilet organizer to your bathroom to hold towels, soaps, makeup, and other items that might otherwise sit around your sink or crowd your bath area
• Install hooks near entrances, in bathrooms, in the laundry room, and in other locations where you might need to hang up coats, towels, or other items

There are a lot of other options available as well, and you can find a wide range of racks, storage solutions, and modular shelving kits that will help you to take advantage of this otherwise unused space.

Making More Storage

If you need a bit more storage than a shoe rack or a bin can provide, there are a few slightly larger projects that can give you a lot more space for your odds and ends. While some of these require a bit of construction, others focus on replacing some furniture pieces to make them more functional. Just a few of these projects include:

• Make better use of the space under beds by adding bed frames with built-in drawers that slide out for easy access
• Install a shelving system in your attic or garage and use it to hold storage bins, organizing the contents of each bin and labeling them for easy reference
• Add a small set of shelves to your broom closet, laundry room, or other out-of-the-way area, cutting out an area between studs so that you can add recessed shelving if necessary
• Replace ottomans, nightstands, coffee tables, or other furniture pieces that are purely decorative and opt for versions that contain more storage

Depending on the layout of your home, there may be other options available to you as well. If you do a lot outdoors, you might also consider adding a shed or other outdoor storage solution to get the items you regularly use out of the house and where you actually need them.

Choosing New Shingles

Modern shingles have been in use on homes for over 100 years, and it’s no wonder that they have become more or less a default for roofing choices. Shingles tend to be more budget-friendly than some other options such as metal roofing and tile, and they’re also available in a wide range of colors and styles. The main downside to shingles is that they can suffer wear over time or be damaged during inclement weather, necessitating repairs and occasional replacements. While you might not have to replace your shingles right away, the longer you put off these needed repairs then the more likely it is that your roof will develop some problems.

When the time comes to install a new shingle roof, you may find yourself facing kind of a big decision as you consider your options. If you aren’t sure what type of shingles to get, you’re not alone; many homeowners struggle with this same decision. Here are a few things to consider to make the decision easier and to help you find the perfect shingles for your home.

Choosing the Right Look

Obviously, there are a lot of color options available when it comes to shingles. This isn’t the only way that shingle manufacturers can customize the look of shingles, however. Different shingles may feature different shapes, creating a unique look that sets your home apart from other properties in your area. Granule shading can also play a big part in the look of shingles, creating an intentional emphasis on the cuts and overlaps of the shingles to really play up their 3D look. Some shingles may take this even farther, creating an alternating design of light and dark shingles that really makes your roof pop.

Depending on your budget, other shingle options may appeal to you as well. Some shingles are highly reflective, giving them a sheen while also helping to reduce your heating and cooling costs. Shingle patterns may also alter between larger and smaller tabs, creating a patterned effect on your roof that will really catch the eye. Other options may be available as well, allowing you to create a look that few other homes will be able to replicate.

Types of Shingles Available

In addition to a wide range of looks, there are also different types of shingles that offer their own unique benefits. These shingles may offer increased algae and mildew resistance, increased stain resistance, and even increased flexibility to make them more resilient against things like hail and other harsh storms. Shingles designed for use in high-wind zones are also available, significantly decreasing the likelihood of shingle damage during wind storms.
Other types of shingles may be available as well, helping you to both achieve a desired level of roof protection and creating some unique aesthetics. You can even choose from a few types of wooden shingles to complement your home’s aesthetic or so-called “solar shingles” that are made up of interlocking solar panels which provide roof coverage instead of a standard shingle roof. Depending on your unique needs, there may be other types of shingles available to you as well.

Getting Some Help

While installing shingles can be a DIY project, many homeowners choose to call in a pro to make sure that the shingles are installed correctly. If you’re considering bringing in a roofer anyway, feel free to ask for their recommendations if you’re unsure of what type of shingles you want or which shingle features would best benefit your home. These pros have plenty of experience and can help you find the shingles that are the best fit for your home.

What is an Electrostatic Filter?

Air filters serve a wide range of purposes in your home. They remove dust and dander from the air, eliminate other allergens, keep some odors under control, and even reduce the wear and tear that your HVAC system experiences throughout the year. Depending on the filters you use, you may even be able to remove some viruses and bacteria from the air to keep the people in your house healthier. With all of the benefits that good air filters provide, the only real downside is that you have to replace them every few months to keep your home’s filtration system filtering at its best.

There are a few other options available when it comes to filter types, however. One air filter that’s increasingly popular with homeowners is the electrostatic filter, which not only provides excellent filtration but is also cleanable and reusable. If you’re not familiar with electrostatic filters or how they differ from the disposable filters that you’re used to, here’s the basics of what you need to know.

How Electrostatic Filters Work

Traditional air filters work by putting pleated material that’s made of a lot of material fibers in the way of air moving through your system, allowing the air itself to pass through but catching dust and other unwanted material on those fibers. It’s fairly effective, but if there aren’t any fibers in the way of any given particle then the particle will pass through without resistance. Electrostatic filters work differently, actually attracting those particles even if they would otherwise be able to pass through the filter unimpeded.

This attraction is caused by static electricity, which is the same thing that causes socks to stick to your clothes in the dryer and can make balloons stick to the wall if you rub them in your hair. These filters carry a slight static charge, allowing them to attract even microscopic particles that would normally be too small for a filter to stop. Particles passing through the filter become ionized, meaning that they pick up a charge themselves which causes them to have a natural attraction that pulls them toward a collecting layer in the filter. Once the particles are attracted to the filter, they become stuck, just like that proverbial sock or balloon.

Cleaning and Maintenance

One positive of traditional pleated filters is that they become more efficient as they build up more dust and other particles; because the stuff filtered out of the air clogs up holes that small particles could pass through in the filter, it becomes less likely that additional particles will pass through. Unfortunately, this isn’t an advantage that electrostatic filters share. As electrostatic filters attract dirt and other particles out of the air, the available attractive material becomes covered up and they actually become less efficient. The good news is that this can be taken care of simply by cleaning the filter.

Cleaning an electrostatic filter is a pretty straightforward process. After turning off the HVAC system and removing the filter, simply take it outdoors and spray it with a hose in the opposite direction that the air would normally flow. Keep rinsing until the water comes out clean, then allow the filter to air dry. Once it’s dried, simply reinstall the filter and it’s ready to start filtering fine particles out of the air again. Repeat this process once a month or whenever the filter appears dirty.

 

Considering Seamless Gutters?

Gutters play a very important role on your home, and it’s one that not everyone realizes. Sure, they divert water so that you’re not flooded with runoff every time it rains, but that isn’t what makes them so important. Because gutters divert rainwater as it flows down the roof, they also help to prevent that water from seeping into the eaves and causing leaks or other damage. A good set of gutters can improve the life of your roof and home exterior while also adding to the look of your home and keeping the worst of the runoff at bay.

One problem with gutters is that they can start to wear out over time. This is especially evident around gutter seams, where rust, debris, and just the weight of water over time can cause damage. This damage can result in leaks, letting water get out of the gutter right at the roofline and potentially causing the very sort of damage that the gutters are supposed to prevent. This is big part of the reason that so many homeowners are turning to seamless gutters; if there aren’t any seams, then the seams can’t leak.

Understanding Gutter Seams

Gutter seams aren’t inherently a bad thing; by producing gutter in sections and joining them at seams, installers can better fit the gutter to the unique size and shape of your home while still preparing gutter sections beforehand. Most gutter seams aren’t overly obvious, so it seems like an understandable concession to make in order to get the best fit for premanufactured gutters.

The problem with gutter seams is that gutters end up being under a lot of stress throughout the year. Water is heavy, leaves and other debris can get wedged in seams, and pods or seeds can actually end up in backed-up gutters and start putting down roots. This stress adds up over time, and the seams become one of the most likely points of damage aside from mounting points. Gutter screens and regular cleaning can help, but this won’t eliminate gutter stress entirely.

How Seamless Gutters Work

Unlike traditional gutters that are made as smaller pieces and then assembled to match the sides of your home, seamless gutters are custom-built to match your home exactly. Roll-forming machines are brought to the jobsite and are fed sheet metal from a coiled roll, bending the metal to the exact shape of the gutters until the seamless gutter section matches the length of one of your roof sections. This single piece of gutter is capped on the ends and has supports attached as it comes out of the machine, ensuring that the final gutter section is a single piece of strong and structurally-sound gutter. It can then be mounted to your home with no seams that could rust or otherwise become damaged.

Installers take precise measurements to make sure that gutter sections match your home exactly, and mark the location of downspouts and supports precisely to make sure that everything is right where it needs to be for the most efficient gutter you can have on your home. The gutters are sealed and mounted securely to help ensure the longest possible life without leaks, though they will still need periodic cleaning and maintenance to make sure that they remain in good working condition. With that said, the lack of seams for leaves and other debris to snag on results in some seamless gutters clogging less often than their seamed counterparts.