Quite a few homes have fireplaces, but not all of them are fit to be used as they are because they have not been cleaned in so long that when you do try to use them, it fills the house with smoke. This can do a lot of damage to the inside of the home, including ruin the paint on your walls, your curtains, and discolor your carpet. It is also a health risk, since breathing this in is not good for anyone, but the elderly, people with allergies, pets, and children are especially affected. Fortunately, though, in most situations you can make a fire that will not smoke up your house without much trouble as long as you follow a few rules.
The damper of your chimney needs to be open before you do anything. Burn some paper or other easily combustible materials in the fireplace, because you want to warm the chimney up. Cold air in the chimney is will push the warm air down and cause the smoke to fill up the room.
Open up the windows in the house and make sure that there is enough air circulating to ignite the fire. A home that is insulated well might not have enough of a draft to allow the wood to catch on fire.
You should also have some fireplace bricks underneath the grill to add some more air circulation to the process. More draft in the fireplace will make it easier for the fire to ignite.
The top of the fireplace also needs to be cleaned out regularly, since anything that gets stuck in it like leaves, sticks, bird nests can keep the smoke from being able to escape and so it floods back into the house, which is exactly where you do not want it.
You should also have the fireplace cleaned by a professional cleaning service if possible, since a layer of creosote is likely built up on the inside of the chimney. This is a tar-like substance that results from burning wood in the fireplace and if your chimney has not been professionally cleaned before and you have lived in your house for many years, then it is time for it to be. Creosote can catch on fire and cause the whole house to burn down, so having it cleaned out is essential.
To keep your fireplace functioning the way that it should, you need to know how to use it and take care of it and by the time winter gets to you, you will be able to enjoy your fireplace once again.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and other states such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Cleansing Molded Fabrics
When we clean out our closets sometimes we run across an old piece of clothing that has a somewhat fuzzy material all over it. Finding something like this in your closet is probably not a good thing and if you picked it up, the thing that you need to do is to put it back down and go wash your hands with some antimicrobial soap. This piece of clothing was probably contaminated with mold and touching mold spores with your bare hands is not advised, since it can cause allergic reactions in some individuals.
Most pieces of clothing that become molded can be cleansed and the mold gotten rid of, but it usually ends up leaving some kind of stain behind. If you are having to clean mold off of white fabric, then you can probably try to use bleach to remove the stain with. Unfortunately, killing the mold with bleach usually does not work very well. Borax laundry detergent should kill the mold effectively after you have removed the majority of the growth with a brush of some kind. An old toothbrush can be used to do this with. Put a pre-wash stain remover on the fabric and let it soak around 45 minutes before you put it in the washer. Wash these items at least twice, but refrain from using an artificial heat source to dry them out. Instead, take them outside and air them out there. Putting the clothes in the dryer can set the stain further into the fabric and you will have a harder time making sure that it comes out completely.
Unfortunately, if you have an item that is made of real leather and it was covered with mold, it can probably not be saved. These things get discolored pretty easily and mold tends to do a number on this kind of organic material, because mold’s job in nature is to decompose it.
Upholstery and curtains that come into contact with mold colonies can be cleaned with the same method used on clothing. You can use a vacuum with a HEPA filter on it to collect all the mold off of your furniture and curtains and this will give you the peace of mind that the mold spores are not being put back into your air after they are collected by the vacuum. Be careful when you are emptying the container in the vacuum, however, and try your best not to stir up the spores. It is best to do this outside.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
North Carolina Sewage Damage Cleanup and other states such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
Most pieces of clothing that become molded can be cleansed and the mold gotten rid of, but it usually ends up leaving some kind of stain behind. If you are having to clean mold off of white fabric, then you can probably try to use bleach to remove the stain with. Unfortunately, killing the mold with bleach usually does not work very well. Borax laundry detergent should kill the mold effectively after you have removed the majority of the growth with a brush of some kind. An old toothbrush can be used to do this with. Put a pre-wash stain remover on the fabric and let it soak around 45 minutes before you put it in the washer. Wash these items at least twice, but refrain from using an artificial heat source to dry them out. Instead, take them outside and air them out there. Putting the clothes in the dryer can set the stain further into the fabric and you will have a harder time making sure that it comes out completely.
Unfortunately, if you have an item that is made of real leather and it was covered with mold, it can probably not be saved. These things get discolored pretty easily and mold tends to do a number on this kind of organic material, because mold’s job in nature is to decompose it.
Upholstery and curtains that come into contact with mold colonies can be cleaned with the same method used on clothing. You can use a vacuum with a HEPA filter on it to collect all the mold off of your furniture and curtains and this will give you the peace of mind that the mold spores are not being put back into your air after they are collected by the vacuum. Be careful when you are emptying the container in the vacuum, however, and try your best not to stir up the spores. It is best to do this outside.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
North Carolina Sewage Damage Cleanup and other states such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
Common Water Damage Prevention Tips
Water damage is a very common problem in most older homes these days, but most of it can be avoided if you simply know what to look for. You should do your best to safeguard the investment that is your home and making sure that the interior does not become water damaged to the point that it cannot be repaired without a large sum of money and quite a lot of work is important. Avoiding the causes of water damage is the best thing that you can do to prevent this.
When your bath tub, toilet, or washing machine overflows, you probably are not thinking about the integrity of the structure of your home. To you, this is probably just a big inconvenience most of the time, but the truth is that if you let it happen over and over, it could do some serious damage to your floor and lower walls. It is alright to be a little forgetful every now and then, but try to pay attention to these things.
The steam in the bathroom and kitchen can cause problems for the ceiling and walls, since steam is composed of water vapor. This adheres to your walls and ceilings and keeps them moist almost constantly, which will eventually discolor them and cause mold to grow. Mold is a problem all by itself, but it seems to go hand in hand with water damage. Purchase a steam vent for the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, and the basement and have those installed either by you or a professional to help keep the humidity in the home down.
Rain gutters need to be cleaned out as often as necessary, although this is usually every fall. These collect rain water and channel them down through downspouts that will carry the water away from the foundation of your house. If they are not cleared out, then the water simply falls to the ground at the base of the house and tends to settle in pockets, which can seep down into your basement and cause cracks in the walls.
Keeping your hot water heater checked on is also a good idea. It should be installed on the lowest floor of your house and sit elevated off the floor in a drain pan connected to the water system of your house. If it starts to leak, the water will be transferred to your home’s plumbing system instead of all over your floor.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and other states such as
New Jersey mold remediation contractor companies across the united states.
When your bath tub, toilet, or washing machine overflows, you probably are not thinking about the integrity of the structure of your home. To you, this is probably just a big inconvenience most of the time, but the truth is that if you let it happen over and over, it could do some serious damage to your floor and lower walls. It is alright to be a little forgetful every now and then, but try to pay attention to these things.
The steam in the bathroom and kitchen can cause problems for the ceiling and walls, since steam is composed of water vapor. This adheres to your walls and ceilings and keeps them moist almost constantly, which will eventually discolor them and cause mold to grow. Mold is a problem all by itself, but it seems to go hand in hand with water damage. Purchase a steam vent for the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, and the basement and have those installed either by you or a professional to help keep the humidity in the home down.
Rain gutters need to be cleaned out as often as necessary, although this is usually every fall. These collect rain water and channel them down through downspouts that will carry the water away from the foundation of your house. If they are not cleared out, then the water simply falls to the ground at the base of the house and tends to settle in pockets, which can seep down into your basement and cause cracks in the walls.
Keeping your hot water heater checked on is also a good idea. It should be installed on the lowest floor of your house and sit elevated off the floor in a drain pan connected to the water system of your house. If it starts to leak, the water will be transferred to your home’s plumbing system instead of all over your floor.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and other states such as
New Jersey mold remediation contractor companies across the united states.
Deducting Mold Remediation And Water Damage Restoration From Your Taxes
Fortunately, if you are a homeowner or a business owner and you need to have mold removed from your property, the fact is that you can probably deduct this from your taxes at the end of the year. The remediation is recognized as a repair that you have to do to safeguard your home, because your home is considered an investment.
Depending on the size of the contamination, the remediation costs can be fairly large, especially if you choose to hire a professional remediation business instead of doing a lot of it yourself. If you know what you are doing and are careful enough, a lot of the mold remediation can be done by you, but hiring a professional is usually the best thing to do.
Sometimes an entire wall or perhaps even more has to be taken out due to a mold infestation on a property and then there is the cost of the professional help that you will probably need to do this on top of the cost of protection equipment and chemicals.
What the IRS has decided is that the cost of the remediation of the mold in your home is a necessary expense. To be counted as a business expense, an expense must be both necessary and ordinary, no matter how great the cost may be.
There are guidelines to this tax deduction, however. If the mold removal and remediation is part of a larger renovation of the household, then you cannot count it as tax deductible at the end of the year; you must capitalize on it. The removal of the mold cannot increase the financial value of the home or property in any way.
Hiring a professional mold remediation company to do the work for you is usually the best thing to do and whatever they bill you at the end of the work is what you will count as deductible. Building materials that you need to buy after the remediation is completed are deductible as well, since you will need these items to finish up the repairs.
Relocation expenses could possibly also be deductible if your family had to relocate while the remediation was taking place, since the relocation is a direct result of the mold removal. Talk to the person who prepares your taxes every year and ask if this is an option.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut water damage restoration contractors and other states such as
North Carolina mold remediation contractor companies across the united states.
Depending on the size of the contamination, the remediation costs can be fairly large, especially if you choose to hire a professional remediation business instead of doing a lot of it yourself. If you know what you are doing and are careful enough, a lot of the mold remediation can be done by you, but hiring a professional is usually the best thing to do.
Sometimes an entire wall or perhaps even more has to be taken out due to a mold infestation on a property and then there is the cost of the professional help that you will probably need to do this on top of the cost of protection equipment and chemicals.
What the IRS has decided is that the cost of the remediation of the mold in your home is a necessary expense. To be counted as a business expense, an expense must be both necessary and ordinary, no matter how great the cost may be.
There are guidelines to this tax deduction, however. If the mold removal and remediation is part of a larger renovation of the household, then you cannot count it as tax deductible at the end of the year; you must capitalize on it. The removal of the mold cannot increase the financial value of the home or property in any way.
Hiring a professional mold remediation company to do the work for you is usually the best thing to do and whatever they bill you at the end of the work is what you will count as deductible. Building materials that you need to buy after the remediation is completed are deductible as well, since you will need these items to finish up the repairs.
Relocation expenses could possibly also be deductible if your family had to relocate while the remediation was taking place, since the relocation is a direct result of the mold removal. Talk to the person who prepares your taxes every year and ask if this is an option.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut water damage restoration contractors and other states such as
North Carolina mold remediation contractor companies across the united states.
Laptop Water Damage
You might not realize this, but the circuit board in your desktop computer and in almost any other consumer electronic device was rinsed in pure water and thoroughly dried before it was put up for sale. An electronic device that comes into contact with water should be dried as soon as possible, but as long as the water is clean and electricity is not running through the object at the time, it should be fine. An electronic device that has been allowed to soak in unclean water, such as flood waters or even in just pool water that has been treated with chemicals, may be a little more difficult to salvage.
If you spill something onto your laptop, the first thing that you need to do is turn off the electricity. Unplug it from the wall and remove the battery immediately. The battery should be set aside for drying after you are done dealing with the laptop unit itself, since the battery is obviously much cheaper to replace. Turn the unit upside down and wait for the liquid to drip back out of it until the drips cease. Wipe off the laptop wherever the liquid was spilled (this is usually the keyboard) and wipe off anything else that was splattered with the liquid. This other object could be an external hard drive or an external CD-ROM.
The insides of the laptop need to dry out for at least a couple of days before you try using it again. If what you spilled onto it was just plain water, then you can be fairly certain that it will be alright, but if you spilled something acidic such as soda or coffee that becomes sticky when it dries, you may have a bigger problem. You have two options at this point: repair the damage yourself or hire a professional. Since most warranties on electronics do not cover water damage, the concern with this is that you damage the laptop irreparably by trying to fix it yourself. If you take it to a professional, he or she may find out that the laptop is damaged beyond repair, anyway, and you will have wasted money.
If you choose to take care of the problem yourself, disassembling the laptop is your first step. Do not clean the circuit board with water. Use rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab or a small cloth and allow the alcohol to dry out before trying to power up the laptop again. Only service the laptop yourself if you are absolutely certain that you know what you are doing. If you run into a problem that you are not sure about how to solve or if you think you have caused more damage, seek a professional.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
North Carolina Mold Remediation and other states such as
New Jersey Sewage Damage Cleanup companies across the united states.
If you spill something onto your laptop, the first thing that you need to do is turn off the electricity. Unplug it from the wall and remove the battery immediately. The battery should be set aside for drying after you are done dealing with the laptop unit itself, since the battery is obviously much cheaper to replace. Turn the unit upside down and wait for the liquid to drip back out of it until the drips cease. Wipe off the laptop wherever the liquid was spilled (this is usually the keyboard) and wipe off anything else that was splattered with the liquid. This other object could be an external hard drive or an external CD-ROM.
The insides of the laptop need to dry out for at least a couple of days before you try using it again. If what you spilled onto it was just plain water, then you can be fairly certain that it will be alright, but if you spilled something acidic such as soda or coffee that becomes sticky when it dries, you may have a bigger problem. You have two options at this point: repair the damage yourself or hire a professional. Since most warranties on electronics do not cover water damage, the concern with this is that you damage the laptop irreparably by trying to fix it yourself. If you take it to a professional, he or she may find out that the laptop is damaged beyond repair, anyway, and you will have wasted money.
If you choose to take care of the problem yourself, disassembling the laptop is your first step. Do not clean the circuit board with water. Use rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab or a small cloth and allow the alcohol to dry out before trying to power up the laptop again. Only service the laptop yourself if you are absolutely certain that you know what you are doing. If you run into a problem that you are not sure about how to solve or if you think you have caused more damage, seek a professional.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
North Carolina Mold Remediation and other states such as
New Jersey Sewage Damage Cleanup companies across the united states.
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