Posted by Kevin McKee on Wed, Jan 06, 2010 @ 12:16 PM
With freezing weather our daily routine gets a little shaken up. Now with some preparation, we can avoid costly damage to our property or even dangerous mistakes that can compromise our health as we move indoors to wait out the cold.
1. Protect Yourself.
With cold, freezing weather we will almost do anything to stay warm. Just make sure it doesn't harm your indoor air quality. Don’t bring in your grill or use your gas stove to warm up your house. These can release deadly amounts of carbon monoxide into the home. Using a space heater or electrical appliances may work, but never leave them unattended or close to any combustible materials. Always turn them off before going to sleep.
If you happen to build a fire, be aware that smoke releases fine particulate into the air that you are breathing. The safer, healthier, and greener alternative is to use one of those fake, man-made fire logs. A 2006 EPA study comparing real logs to these fake logs, shows that fake logs produce 75% less carbon monoxide, 80% less particulate, and 90% less hazardous air pollutants.
3. Protect your Home.
With freezing weather always comes the chance of freezing pipes that can cause serious damage to your property. Take the necessary precautions like covering outdoor faucets, not setting the temperature below 55˚ F indoors (even when away from the home), keep cabinets underneath sinks open to the warmed air, and keep a faucet dripping. A little expense now could save hundreds or even thousands later. Read the Texas Department of Insurance’s press release from yesterday on more tips to protect your home or property. http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/news/2010/news2010.html
3. Protect your Pets.
If you can, bring your pets indoors. They probably aren’t use to the freezing weather either. If they must stay outdoors provide them with an enclosed shelter and provide an entrance facing away from any wind. Make sure to give them some extra blankets or hay to bundle up with. Their health will greatly appreciate it.
4. Protect your Plants.
With drastic changes like freezing you can lose or greatly damage some of your landscaping plants. The best way to protect them is with a burlap bag or some type of fabric. Plastic doesn’t breathe and can do more damage. Make sure to cover them before the sun goes down and then uncover them when the sun comes up.
What else do we need to protect ourselves from the freeze? Let us know.
Photo Courtesy of jlcwalker.
Posted by Kevin McKee on Sat, Oct 17, 2009 @ 01:38 PM
|   | The world is a changing environment and the economy has caused many families and individuals to hold back on frivolous spending. Times have been tough and at Zerorez® we want to help as much as possible. We know that carpet cleaning can be an investment and so here we hope to give candid advice on how to lower the price of your carpet cleaning. |
Secret #1 Vacuum Traffic Patterns DailyMost of the soil that is in your carpet is actually just dry particulate. Dust, dirt, soil, or any other particulate can be pulled out by just vacuuming. Carpet mills today recognize this and now demand that traffic patterns are vacuumed daily to maintain your carpet warranty. The benefits are great savings because you greatly increase the life of the carpet and diminish the need for any carpet cleaning. If you don’t have a good vacuum already, check out the CRI or Consumer Reports. It may surprise you how you can get a decent vacuum for less than $200. Make sure it has a HEPA filter so that it does not just put the dust back in the air while vacuuming. Secret #2 Doing it Yourself can be Quite ExpensiveCleaning carpet yourself can actually be quite an expensive undertaking once you consider everything that goes into it. You have to rent a small carpet extractor, haul it home, buy some soap or chemicals to clean with, read a bunch of instructions, spot treat problem areas, pre-treat traffic areas, and run the machine and try to figure out if everything is working or make sure you don’t put too much soap down. Now you have the issues of over-wetting the carpet, a bunch of chemical residues, your carpet is wet for a long time, and your water wasn’t even hot enough to kill dust mites that are living in the carpet. Not to mention all the time, energy, and back breaking work you put into it. Then all the spots begin reappearing a week later because there is too much soap residue left in your carpet. Now your only option is to do it all over again or hire someone with some knowledge on how to do it right. Secret #3 Soaps, or Detergents Cost More Over TimeYou have probably always heard that you need to wait as long as possible before cleaning your carpet. In most cases that is true, because cleaning and leaving any soap or detergent residue means that you will need to carpet cleaning again. Most likely it will be sooner than later, and you have now started a vicious cycle of carpet cleaning. Not exactly a good way to keep cleaning costs under control. Plus if you try to extend the time between these cleanings with dirt or soil trapped in the carpet, the carpet will wear more rapidly and destroy the beauty that it once had. So you are probably reading this and wondering what do I do. The answer is in our name. No residue. Our carpet cleaning technology leaves no residue behind, and gives you more life out of your carpet. In many instances when someone is cleaning their carpet on a normal basis, like every 3 to 6 months, after our first cleaning, they go almost twice as long between cleanings, like 6 to 12 months, and their carpet doesn’t get nearly as dirty as before. That is a huge savings when you start looking at it year after year. Plus your initial carpet investment can really give you the many years of beauty as it was engineered and designed to give. |