Healthy Homes of Rochester

Carmen Santora, Executive Director of the Better Contractors Bureau is warning consumers contemplating having their driveway sealed that there are contractors presently in our area from out of state using unscrupulous tactics when sealing driveways. Santora says, “The usual rule of thumb when sealer is mixed is, for every 100 gallons of sealer 30-40 gallons of water should be added. The scam artists are doing it the opposite and in some cases we have been told that some are mixing as little as 10 gallons of sealer to 100 gallons of water.” In reality all you’re getting is black, colored water that will wash off with a rain. In one such case a caller complained (wouldn’t give his name) and said that the contractor he went with practically was chasing the sealer down the drive way, that’s how much water was in the mix. He said he went strictly on price and he should have known better when he paid $39.00 after getting two other estimates for $89.00 and $99.00. He also forgot that when he did his driveway himself a few years back that it took 4 five gallons pails at approximately $15.00 each and along with having to buy a broom/squeegee the cost to do it then was $65.00 for materials only. Consumers should watch out for special so called deals and especially watch for out of state license plates and don’t fall for the line, “I’ve got some sealer left over and can give you a really good price”. Remember, a good driveway sealer contractor will blow off the entire driveway, use a weed eater on the edges, cover the sidewalk between the truck and driveway to prevent accidental spillage from a storage tank and barricade the entrance when finished. Contractors should also carry liability insurance in case of damage to your property, such as over splash on your overhead garage door or siding. Remember, the old saying “you get what you pay for” really applies with driveway sealing. For a recommendation of BCB driveway sealers you can call the office at 585-338-3600 or go to the BCB website at www.the-bcb.net. Carmen Santora is the Executive Director for the Better Contractors Bureau. The BCB is a non-profit consumer protection agency established in 1974 to be of assistance to the homeowner. Its goals are to “protect & inform” the consumer, eliminate unscrupulous contractors, and upgrade the image of the home improvement industry.

Greener Living = Healthier Indoor Air

If you want to live a more sustainable life and protect your family from cancer, you may want to learn more about one of the home’s most dangerous pollutants—radon. Radon is a cancercausing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste. It’s the leading cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers and claims about 20,000 lives every year.

Although lung cancer can be treated, the survival rate is one of the lowest for those with cancer. Fortunately, many of the causes of lung cancer can be prevented—and this is especially true for radon.

The Office of the Surgeon General has issued a health advisory warning Americans about the risk from breathing radon in indoor air. Americans are urged to test their homes to find out how much radon they might be breathing.

Radon comes from the natural (radioactive) breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water and gets into the air you breathe. Radon can be found all over the U.S. It can get into any type of building—homes, offices and schools—and can climb to high levels if it’s trapped indoors.

For most Americans, the greatest exposure to radon is in their homes, whether those homes are old or new. Any home, any type, any location can have a radon problem. All homes need to be tested unless the building is a high-rise above the third floor. If your home has not been tested, now is a good time to take the test. This will help protect your family’s health and it’s easy to do.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends homes be fixed if the radon level is 4 picocuries per liter of air (4pCi/L) or above. While testing can be easy and inexpensive, millions of Americans still need to have their first home radon test to protect their family.

You can test your home yourself or hire a professional. Reliable testing devices are available by phone or mail order and can be purchased in hardware and home improvement stores.

Fixing a radon problem is easy too—and doesn’t have to be costly. Radon reduction systems can lower radon to an acceptable level. Even very high levels can be reduced to a safer level.

“It’s inexpensive to build a new home with radon-resistant features. A better home will be both greeener for the planet and healthier for your family,” said Fuad Reveiz, a member of the National Association of Home Builders.

For help in identifying radon companies, call your state radon office or visit www.epa.gov/iaq/whereyoulive.html. For more information, call 1-800-SOS-RADON (1-800-767-7236) or visit www.epa.gov/radon.
If you would like to test your home on your own, I would suggest purchasing a radon test kit below.

Water is amazing. It would take a thick chemistry book to describe all the possible elements and compounds that can combine with it. Over time it will dissolve nearly anything but glass and a few specialty materials. Fortunately, there is a small subset of them that are found in most typical water supplies. Knowing a little bit about those can help the homeowner keep his or her plumbing system in top shape.

One of the most well-known water contaminants is the all-too familiar hard, chalky compound that we are perpetually wiping off: calcium carbonate. It coats the surfaces of sinks and shower tubs. It lines the interior of shower spouts and drains. It builds up inside handles and makes its way into every other small crevice.

Wherever water is found, you’ll usually find calcium carbonate. It’s the mineral that makes ‘hard’ water hard. Though it’s not corrosive or even harmful, it can cause problems. Just as arteries don’t work as well when they build up fatty tissues, so pipes are less efficient when they clog. The culprit is usually calcium carbonate, at least in part.

Fortunately, it’s easy to dissolve with baking soda and vinegar, or any of a thousand commercial products. Sometimes, just a good scrub sponge is enough. Keeping as much of it at bay as possible helps keep your seals from suffering an early demise. Removing it keeps things sparkling.

Another common contaminant is actually a class of compounds: oxides. Whether it’s red rust (iron oxide), green (copper oxide) or white (aluminum oxide) any of them will cause more than just a degraded appearance.

Oxides form by corroding part of the metal of which a part is made. Corrode enough of it and sooner or later its function is reduced or even compromised. The oxygen that combines with the metal comes from the ever-present atoms in water (H2O). Some are free floating in the water (as ions), some are easily torn loose to combine with the metal in a simple chemical reaction. When that reaction occurs, the trouble starts.

Rusty water isn’t harmful in small quantities, but it’s distasteful. Copper oxide makes a smooth surface crusty and reduces the diameter of pipes. Aluminum oxide produces pits in smooth surfaces when the metal from the part is oxidized, then washed or scrubbed away.

Some amount of oxidation is inevitable. Even areas outside the kitchen and bath are exposed to air which almost always contains some water vapor. But the difference can be dramatic. That’s one reason that things in dryer climates tend to suffer much less from the problem. Keeping surfaces cleaned off of water can radically slow the process. It will keep your plumbing attractive and fully functional years longer.
Thanks for reading, the Fixie Chick

Dimmer switches are a great convenience. They help save electricity and allow you to adjust the atmosphere of a room. Sometimes you just don’t want to be blasted in a pool of light. But many people are intimidated away from installing one where a standard switch already resides. Others have fluorescents and worry the dimmer won’t operate properly. All those problems are easily solved.

Dimmer switches today come in a variety of styles, but two are still the most common: round and slide. They both work essentially the same way. They change the resistance of the circuit, altering the amount of current applied to the bulb.

That fact introduces the first possible problem. If the switch controls a fixture with a fluorescent bulb, ensure it’s the type that can be dimmed. In years past, no fluorescent was capable, but the situation has changed in recent years. Many CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights), often used to replace incandescents today, can be dimmed within 80-20% of their normal output.

Once you’re ready to go, the process is usually simple.

First, TURN OFF THE CIRCUIT BREAKER that controls the electrical supply that includes that switch. Never rely only on using gloves or ‘being careful’ to change a switch, though those are both good habits. Make sure you have the right one. Then make doubly sure by using a volt-amp meter to test that there really is no current at the switch.

It only takes 2/10ths of an amp to kill or do serious harm. Moist or salty hands can easily lower the body’s resistance so that it takes only a few dozen volts to push it through you. Amps measure the amount of current, voltage is a measure of how ‘hard’ that current is pushed through the circuit. Watts = Volts x Amps.

From there on, the task is usually simplicity itself. Just unscrew the screws holding the faceplate on. Remove it and, with gloves on, pull the switch gently out of the hole. It will be attached by thick, difficult to move wires. Avoid yanking anything loose.

Then, unscrew the large wires from the old switch. Sometimes it’s possible to just unscrew a plastic cap holding two thick wires together. More often, the thick copper wire will be attached to the switch by being looped around a screw post. Loosen the screw and slide the loop off the post.

Be sure to keep straight which wire was attached to which post. In many homes, the color coding is non-standard. It may differ from house to house. Though red and green or white and black are common colors for ‘hot’ and ‘ground’ the scheme is not universally respected.

Examine your dimmer switch or the directions it came with. Put the appropriate wires onto the appropriate terminals on the back. Wiring the switch backwards may allow it to still work, but it generates confusion. Down is typically lower, or less current. Ditto counter-clockwise is usually off. Getting them backwards is inconvenient, even when it still works.

Ensure that the wires are well separated, then turn the circuit breaker back on to test the switch. Make sure to keep your hands away from the wires. When the test is successful, turn off the circuit breaker and replace the whole assembly. Make sure no bare piece of wire touches another.

Done!

I have the following dimmer switches in my home and love them! Try one.
Thanks for reading, the Fixie Chick

Each time I venture out to my garden bench, I inadvertently pass my dryer vent exhaust.

The cracked hood surrounded by moss and mold covered caulk and rusted screws never fails to catch my attention.  Knowing that hot and cold air must be escaping through that hole has put this home repair on the top of my fall to-do list.

 What originally began as an aesthetic and energy saving fifteen-dollar-fix, has turned into a little research and a lot of shocking statistics! The USFA (United States Fire Administration), released a report regarding residential building clothes dryer fires. Between the years 2002-2004, an annual average of 12,700 clothes dryer fires occurred in residential buildings. These fires were responsible for an estimated 15 civilian fire deaths, 300 civilian fire injuries, and $88 million in property loss each year.

 According to this report:

Clothes dryer fires account for about 15,600 structure fires, 15 deaths, and 400 injuries annually.

Eighty percent of clothes dryer fires in structures occur in residential buildings.

Annually, 12,700 clothes dryer fires occur in residential buildings resulting in 15 deaths and 300 injuries.

“Failure to clean” is the leading factor contributing to clothes dryer fires in residential buildings.

New home construction trends place clothes dryers and washing machines in more hazardous locations away from outside walls such as bedrooms, second-floor hallways, bathrooms, and kitchens.

A clothes dryer works by forcing hot air through a turning drum. Wet clothes dried by the moving hot air. Lint is created from the clothes as the water is removed and the clothes dry. While much of the lint is trapped by the dryer’s filter, it is also carried through the venting system, with the moist air.  The accumulation of lint, both in the dryer and in the dryer vent, reduces the airflow and cre­ates a highly flammable fuel source.

In addition to the accumulation of lint, blockage in dryer exhaust vents also occurs from the nests of small birds and animals or from bends in the venting system itself. A compromised vent will not exhaust properly to the outside and overheating is a common result; when enough heat is produced to ignite the lint or nearby items, a fire can occur.

 Proper maintenance for clothes dryers involves removing the lint from the traps, vents, and surrounding areas of the dryer. Not unexpectedly, the leading factor contribut­ing to ignition for dryer fires is operation deficiencies, specifically “failure to clean.”

 Though dryer fire prevention is important no matter where you do your laundry, here’s an even more important reason to pay attention to this report:

New construction trends now situate wash­ers and dryers in nontraditional areas of the house, such as upstairs bedrooms, hallways, bathrooms, kitchens, and closets. These new sites generally require longer dryer vents in order to reach an outside wall. These routes contain sharp turns and bends that navigate through the structure of the home.  When lint has to pass through an exhaust that is under a floor or through walls and is more than 6-feet long, it is almost impossible to propel all the lint out of the vent. As a result, lint can accu­mulate in pockets along the vent where they are harder to reach and clean. Thus, it is crucial for homeowners to also regularly inspect and clean out the dryer vent.

All manufacturers now state in their manuals not to use plastic flexible dryer ducts between the vent and the clothes dryer.  The plastic itself can provide additional fuel for a fire.

If you notice heavy clothes such as blue jeans or towels taking a long time to dry, or clothes feel hotter than usual at the end of the cycle, then a clogged dryer vent exhaust is likely the problem.

Keep fire extinguishers and working smoke alarms near the clothes dryer.

 As a good fire safety practice, combustibles such as clothing, boxes, and other items should not be placed near or around the clothes dryer.

 If you do not feel comfortable cleaning or inspecting the dryer vent yourself, you can call a duct cleaning service. The Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA), a nonprofit educational organization, also provides information on clothes dryer fires and can provide a list of CSIA-certified dryer exhaust duct technicians.

Exhaust should vent directly outside the house.