Author: MaintenX

Summer, it’s the perfect time to revamp your outdoor spaces. Here are some simple and cheap tips to make the best of your patio, yard, or garden.

Have a Seat!

Recreate your patio by creating a comfy place to relax. Got some old furniture in the garage? Sand, refinish or paint it to create a shabby chic space in which to entertain or just lounge around in on a beautiful day.

Sweep Season

Whenever you go through your regular indoor cleaning checklist, add outdoor areas to the list. Sweeping your outdoor patios, porches, and entranceways will not only make your outdoor spaces look great, it’ll keep your indoor spaces cleaner reducing the amount of debris and dirt you track in from outside.

Fire it Up!

Everyone loves a fire pit, and you can set one up without spending a ton of money. There are lots of ready-made options available at furniture and/or hardware stores. If you’re more of a DIY-er, you can create a fire pit from old bricks, cinder blocks, or stones.

Repair Old Concrete

Older homes often have patios and walkways made of concrete slabs. Bringing new life to old concrete surfaces is the perfect way to spruce up your outdoor spaces. Fill in cracks, repair minor problems and seal the concrete.  Then you can choose your colors and paint the walkways and outdoor spaces to give them new life.

As the weather gets warmer and the days get longer, Spring is a great time to get yourself some fresh air while tackling some routine home maintenance projects. Here are some useful things to attend to this spring.

The Lawn

Now is a great time to plant your perennials. Later on in the spring, when your grass starts to really grow, you can fertilize your lawn as needed.

Windows and Screen Doors

Window screens keep bugs outside while letting the cool breeze in. Make sure to inspect each screen thoroughly, fixing any cracks or tears you notice.

You can find screen repair kits at your local hardware store.

Inspect the Roof

Winter weather and snow storms can really do a number on your roof. Do a quick visual inspection. You don’t have to have a ladder, or even go on the roof to do your inspection. In fact, we don’t recommend getting on your roof yourself. It could be quite dangerous! You can inspect it from the safety of your lawn with the help of a pair of binoculars.

If anything looks suspect, call a licensed roofer to inspect it.

Ground Inspection

Make sure all your walkways and the driveway are in good condition, and fix any small problems you see. Patching the asphalt and filling cracks in the concrete can save you a lot of hassle—and money—later.

As a homeowner, you want to take care of small issues as they arise. Sensible precautionary maintenance will save you a lot of money long-term!

Spring is a great time to get outdoors and take care of some of your home projects. Now that winter storms are no longer a threat, you can make any needed repairs. Below are some tips on what to look out for this spring.

Walkthrough

A lot goes on in the months between winter and spring, and visual inspections are your best bet for taking care of small problems before they become big ones.

The first go-around, look for things like siding damage, cracked or chipped paint, holes, cracks, missing roof shingles, and places where water is pooling.

Crawl Space

Yeah, you’re probably not going to like this one. But here’s the truth: just because it’s not fun to investigate, doesn’t mean problems can’t develop there during the winter. Pests can infiltrate your foundation, pipes can freeze or burst, and moisture can lead to mold.

Inspect the Roof

Winter storms can really do some damage up there. When spring rolls around, it’s time to visually inspect your roof. You don’t even need a ladder. Use binoculars if you have some lying around. Look for things like missing shingles, damaged pipes—anything that looks “off”. If you notice a problem, call a licensed roofer.

Schedule Air-Conditioning Service.

Home inspectors often find air-conditioning systems that aren’t very well taken care of. To get the longest possible life out of your HVAC system, make sure you always change the filters at least once a season (and sometimes once a month, depending on your home’s specific needs) and make certain you hire a licensed HVAC professional like MaintenX to service your air conditioning system.

 

These steps aren’t just a matter of routine; they will measurably improve the lifespan of your house as well as its appearance.

Owning a home is more than just a one-time expense, it’s a continuing financial commitment. Just like regular oil changes for your car keep it running well for years, routine home maintenance will keep you from wasting money and time later down the road.

It can be frightening to consider all the tasks associated with home maintenance. It’s a long list, after all. The silver lining, though, is that you don’t need to be a professional to do most of it.

Moisture

One vital component of preemptive home maintenance is keeping moisture at bay.

• Install rain gutters to direct water away from your home
• Clear leaves from your gutters twice a year
• If your gutter drains are stopped up, flush out debris with a hose
• Fine-tune lawn sprinklers to not oversaturate your lawn
• Clean your refrigerator coils with a coil cleaning brush at least twice a year

Inspect your Fire Extinguisher

Every home should have at least one fire extinguisher. Don’t have one? Get one. Fire emergencies can happen to anyone. It’s crucial to have an extinguisher on hand in case there’s a grease or electrical fire—or if an unattended candle sets something aflame.

Inspecting your fire extinguisher doesn’t require much work:

• Make sure it’s easily accessible
• Check that the gauge shows adequate pressure
• Monitor for signs of wear and tear
• Replace before expiration date

Inspect and Change HVAC Filters

A lot of experts recommend changing the filters monthly, but that isn’t always necessary. For smaller homes without pets, you’ll probably be fine changing them every 2 to 3 months. If the filter is dirty, change it out. If you have to change them monthly, you can usually go with less expensive filters. This will save money in the long run.

Have questions about HVAC service or maintenance? Contact the experts at MaintenX!

Better Safe than Sorry

It may seem like a lot of work, but keeping up with regular maintenance on your home will save you money and headaches down the road.

 

We all know it’s essential to protect our homes against risks like burglary, arson, and fire. Having a state-of-the-art security monitoring system can help mitigate these dangers, but certain techniques can make your home even safer.

Below are four home safety tips to help strengthen your home’s defenses.

1.Strategic Placement

Install your security keypad in a location not visible from outside the house. That way, potential burglars won’t be able to easily see if your alarm system is set or not.

2.Knowledge is Power

Your home alarm system is one of the main tools in your theft prevention toolbox. That’s why you should make sure your family knows how to turn the system on. But it’s usually a good idea to NOT tell children the alarm code if they’re not old enough to stay by themselves.

3.Make it Look like Someone’s Home

If you know you’re going to be away from home for a few days or a few weeks, there are some tricks you can use to make potential burglars think someone’s there. Leave a TV or radio on in a room near the front door. Use things like timer-controlled lighting and motion detectors to keep up the illusion.

4.Sometimes it’s good to be a Nosy Neighbor!

Leaving your house unattended is a stressful thing, to put it mildly. Whether it’s two weeks or two days, simply ask your neighbor to check in daily on the house. Call your local post office and tell them to hold your mail while you’re gone; you won’t give unwanted clues that no one’s there.

You almost certainly know that sitting too much is terrible for our health and minds.  Using a stand up desk at work can provide a lot of benefits to our overall health and our mental health and the quality of our work.

Here’s how:

Inhibits Neck Strain

Sitting for a long time often means craning your neck toward your computer screen. Standing up at work tends to lengthen your spine and restores the natural shape to your spine. Using a laptop stand can improve your posture over time.

Decreases Shoulder Pain

In the same way, constantly sitting with poor posture hunches our shoulders over time, which can be pretty painful. Standing at an ergonomic desk makes your shoulders go back to a natural, more-balanced position.

Energy Boost

Standing at your desk rather than sitting can feel like a giant cup of coffee.  Standing means more blood flow and more oxygen to your muscles, giving you a natural energy boost.

Increases Productivity

Since using a standing desk increases blood flow (AND increasing your energy levels), you can get more done in less time!

Lowers Cholesterol

Anything that keeps our bodies from going “offline” means a healthier life and workplace. Standing for just two hours when you would normally sit puts your cholesterol at a healthier level.

Brain Power

Better circulation makes more oxygen available to your brain. This means you may stay sharper and be able to focus on tasks for longer periods of time.  One big advantage of standing is that it can help you evade ordinary mental fatigue.

Adding video or audio surveillance to your home or office security plan is a useful method to keep the things and people you care about safe. Nevertheless, the quantity of available options can get bewildering, and not every home or office is identical when it comes to security needs.

We’ve made this guide to help you assess your needs and choose the surveillance system that’s right for you.

Location, Location, Location!

Knowing where to install your security system’s components is vital. The better your security camera placement, the more effective the system. Catching crooks and vandals is most likely if your equipment is placed to monitor the widest field possible. Outdoors, try to find high, nondescript locations to mount cameras. Indoors, focus cameras on major access points and on objects most likely to be the target of theft.

Make a Plan

It’s overkill to monitor every inch of your property. Prioritize the most important areas. Sketch a rough map of your property, and circle the places you want to monitor. Afterwards, physically check out each place and the best place to mount a camera. Some places to consider:

• Front and Back Doors
• Back Windows
• Kitchen
• Living Room
• Driveway
• Porches
• Stairs

Think about bottlenecks, places through which people cannot avoid passing.

Do your Homework

Buy the system that best meets your needs. If you prefer, you can buy each component separately, but it’s usually more cost-effective to purchase a bundled security system. A basic system needs to have one to three cameras, a digital video recorder, wiring equipment and cables, and one or more power cords. If you aren’t monitoring a huge area, wireless cameras are sufficient.

Now that the world as become more conscious of humanity’s negative impact on the environment, methods to alleviate the need for fossil fuels are being researched and adopted. One of the biggest, yet often overlooked, energy alternatives is wind energy.

Wind energy has been kind of under the radar in recent years, which has aided in the decline of cost associated with it. That has slowly started to change, and as with any cycle it operates on a bell curve. The cost of wind energy just cannot bottom out any further, and will eventually begin to rise on the other side of the curve. Now is a great time to adopt this technology if you are in the market for an energy alternative.

Another factor lowering wind energy costs is recent developments in turbine technologies. With the new technology working in tandem with the fact that wind technology requires zero fuel costs, companies can sign long-term contracts to establish and lock in a wonderful fossil fuel alternative. These contracts, known as power purchase agreements, usually run 20-30 years. This is great news for  consumer looking for a consistent great rate and the ability to allocate finances into different business areas. Another added benefit to wind energy is that systems with power derived from wind generally last 20 years longer than traditional systems.

For more questions about wind energy as a viable alternative to your existing power source, engage an expert at MaintenX. MaintenX has the expertise to assess your situation and determine a plan of action.

As every small business owner knows, small businesses don’t have the same resources and abilities that major industry players do. This is evident when it comes to building or retrofitting your business for energy efficiency and eco-friendliness. The good news is the Department of Energy knows the struggles of small businesses and has created a voucher program to ease some of their pains in going green.

The Small Business Vouchers (SBV) pilot program is administered by the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Technology to Market program to give small businesses access to technical assistance from national labs. This assistance helps companies overcome critical technology and commercialization challenges to bring the next generation of clean energy technologies to market. The SunShot Initiative funds vouchers for solar projects under the SBV pilot, which are valued at between $50,000 and $300,000 each.

The SBV Pilot will allow small business to overcome challenges including prototyping, materials characterization, high-performance computations, modeling and simulations, and validation of technology performance. Vouchers are awarded on a competitive basis. Small businesses operating in the clean energy sector can request assistance from a national lab, and if accepted, a voucher is issued. The voucher acts as a coupon and allows the applicant to access a unique skill or facility at a lab to bring clean energy technologies to market. Assistance from labs varies depending on lab capabilities and the small business’ needs.

More information on this program can be found on the DOE website. For a more detailed explanation, contact MaintenX, an industry leader in Facilities Maintenance with the knowledge and experience to walk you through any scenario, including the SBV Pilot Program.

As technology changes, businesses have more tools at their fingertips to become more efficient and reduce their carbon footprint. It was only a matter of time before facility managers started to use new technology, gaining insight like never before. This is especially valuable for companies that have large fleets or teams of service people out on the road.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has launched a free, web-based application that gives you an inside look at your energy consumption. By inputting some basic data, you can get a real-life view of what you could reduce in the areas of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide with only a little power reduction. The software also works with electric vehicles and considers charging and battery storage.

“Users can quickly and easily screen different scenarios by varying the type of smart grid technology and other variables to best characterize their circumstances and location,” explains Karen Studarus, Power Systems Engineer at the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which developed the tool. “The modules we’ve assembled are being used right now to explore the impacts of proposed projects and understand the sometimes-counterintuitive tradeoffs.”

The software will provide metrics on greenhouse gases emitted and benchmark emissions reports. Facility or fleet managers can review the metrics, compare the benchmarks in their area, and plan how to reduce usage.

There is a lot to understand about reducing your carbon footprint. The online DOE software only scratches the surface of how to go about becoming more environmentally friendly. For more information, or to receive a tailored approach to your needs, call MaintenX and speak to our experts.