It’s my nature to surf the world of online home improvement blogs. There’s great information out there, including home improvement ideas if you’re rebuilding or going green. But I’ve yet to see a blog give any bandwidth to a discussion about home safety and security. Are we just numb to the same old ideas of [...]
The most-famous motto for all contractors and DIY handymen/women is “measure twice, cut once”. I’d prefer to move the phrase, “work safe, work smart” to the top of the slogan list. A report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) cites 37,000 emergency room visits a year to treat catastrophic injuries caused by nail [...]
This week The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released their annual plea for homeowners to inspect their residences for fire risks, make necessary safety improvements and prepare a family escape plan in the event of a fire. If you think this is a Pollyanna warning, you’re not [...]
Slowly, it seems, homeowners and contractors are paying closer attention to the side effects of chemicals and building materials. The main culprits being addressed today are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that “off-gas” into the living area of homes. As more builders create air-tight, energy efficient homes, the effect of VOCs is compounded in that they [...]
The difference between completing a home improvement project with pride or ending up in an emergency room with a severed hand can be the variance of a single millimeter and a half-second of time. Motorized saws cut extremely well, and most don’t distinguish sheet metal from a forearm. Nail guns shoot right where they’re aimed, [...]
You can find some of the most interesting home improvement ideas by looking at the designs for children’s play houses. If we could consider safety when we improve the big house with the same concern for our little ones, imagine how few shortcuts we’d take or details we’d omit.
Look around the Web. There are prefab [...]
The overall drop in 2010 home invasions and burglaries indicate that home security and alarm systems may be having a deterrent on criminal behavior. It’s too early in the year to tell whether the results reflect the impact of security tools and monitoring services. But with the deepening economic pain in the country, subsequent job layoffs [...]
I write on this subject every fall, but at least one person reading this blog either knows someone–or is that someone–who neglected to prepare their pipes for winter and ended up with much more than a simple repair project on their hands. Burst pipes can create more than flooding or loss of winter water supply, [...]
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