Do It Yourself Books

Today’s homeowners can have a much easier time doing those repairs that used to require calling a plumber, a carpenter, or electrician. Basic tips and instructions from minor to major undertakings can be found in a wide variety of do it yourself books. Every home should have at least one good one that deals with a range of subjects. They can help you learn to do the small things that can go wrong in the home before they can turn into bigger problems.

For example, a small leak from a bathroom pipe. Usually they start out small and progressively worsen. A drip around a toilet valve can eventually cause enough water damage to rot the flooring around the entire toilet. It will cause it to become unstable and slowly sink into the floor. This can be avoided if you know how to fix the problem immediately. Sometimes tightening a loose fitting or replacing a deteriorated washer will do the trick, but if not, even replacing an entire toilet is really not that difficult if you know how.

Do it yourself books tell you exactly what you will be getting yourself into before you start a repair. They will show in detail how difficult it will be and the tools you will need to do the job right. This will help you decide if it is something you are brave enough to take on yourself or if you would be better off to hire a professional.

Other than just small home repairs, these books can show you how to make improvements that will add to the value of your home. Things like adding exhaust fans to help prevent mold and moisture damage in your bathrooms. You can add sprinklers and soaker hoses to your lawn and plant beds. A deck or patio are very beneficial things that will allow you to enjoy them now while you live there and get additional pay offs if you sell your home later.

All in all you can not go wrong when you buy one or more of these great books. Whether for small repairs or some creative projects, they can be a small investment that can save you time and money in the long run, add beauty and value to your home and give your ego a little boost from just knowing that you really did it yourself!


Jim Corkern is a writer and respected contributor to the Water damage restoration and mold remediation Industry. Visit his sites for more information.
http://www.waterbasementct.info and
http://www.moldrestorationusa.com

What You Need When Removing Mold

Nobody wants to have to remove the mold from their home, but if you live in an older house, then you may have to go through this eventually. Even newly built homes can have mold growing in them in certain areas if bad techniques were used or just poor quality materials. As long as the building codes in your area were followed by the contractor of your new house, there is nothing that you can do, even if the poor quality materials are the reason that mold exists. If the job was done “by the book”, then you cannot obtain any legal compensation. When having a home built for you, make sure you know that the contractor you hired to do it will do the job with good quality building materials and get references before even letting them start.

But, what do you do if you already have mold in the house? Well, you can probably clean up a lot of it yourself if you have a smaller mold problem. If you have experience in interior remodeling work, then you can tackle even a larger scale mold removal project on your own. Your insurance may even cover it, if it is due to another kind of damage that your homeowner’s insurance covers, like water leaks.

There is a certain amount of equipment that you will need if you are going to do this job on your own, though. Having a respirator is something that you will really need, especially if you are going to open up any walls. You can get a basic respirator from a hardware store, but if you are going to open up any walls, you will probably want a respirator that has a HEPA filter attached to it.

You will also want a few heavy duty trash bags to toss the debris in.

As far as some protective equipment that you can wear, heavy duty rubber gloves might also be helpful depending on what you are handling. If you are just scrubbing floors or walls, then you could probably get away with some lighter latex gloves. Some plastic disposable coveralls and covers for your shoes will help keep mold spores from getting on your clothes. Safety glasses might also be necessary.

As with your respirator, the cleanup job after all the debris is gone should be done with a vacuum that has a HEPA filter on it. This will release clean, filtered air back into your home instead of releasing the dust and mold spores like a normal vacuum would.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Florida water damage restoration companies and
Miami Water Damage Restoration. contractors

Water Loves Your Deck, Too

Barbequing and swimming in the pool in the backyard is a staple at many private homes across the country that are lucky enough to have both and anyone who has both those items is likely to want a hardwood deck built onto the back of the house for just this purpose. They look very nice and most homeowners will brag for weeks or even years about how much they love their deck and for good reason. Taking care of the deck either on the front of the house or the back is not too difficult, but if you neglect to do this, then you could be dealing with some serious damage later on down the road.

Waterproofing the deck attached to your home is very important if you do not want to have to replace parts of it later. Water does much more damage to wooden items left out in the elements than we might realize and it is important to make sure that as soon as possible after your deck is built (wait at least 30 days after construction), it gets waterproofed. You can do this or you can hire someone else to do it for you, depending on whether time or money is the most important factor. You may not have the time to do it or you may not have the money, but if you want to keep your deck looking good, you will have to sacrifice one or the other.

Applying a stain to the deck should be done before waterproofing, because the sealant that you put on it will not only repel rain, but also other liquids. Allow the stain to set the appropriate amount of time before applying the sealant.

Sealants for decks can be purchased at most hardware, home improvement, or department stores and applying them is a cinch. You do need to make sure that the whole deck gets cleaned first with a deck cleaner that you can also purchase at one of these places. This will be applied with a pump sprayer and allowed to foam up before you scrub it with a stiff bristled brush. Rinse it with a hose when you are done.

All furniture should be removed before you put the sealant on. For safety, you may want to sand down any sharp edges or splinters that may be sticking up, if you are doing this to an older deck that already shows signs of wear.

The sealant should be applied with a sprayer or a roller, depending on what the instructions call for. After you apply it to the deck, you need to wait at least a few days before walking on it so the seal is not damaged.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Orlando water Damage companies.

Taking Care of Your Water Pipes

Living in your first home can be an exhilarating experience, but when the winter gets to your area, you may forget about some things that you can do to keep your water pipes from bursting. In fact, you may not think of this at all, since you are probably not used to maintaining a home that belongs to you. Your home is an investment and you should take care of it as much as you can, since you may want to sell it later in exchange for another. Your parents probably insulated the pipes in your home when you were younger, but you probably did not really get the significance of this at the time.

When it gets colder than 20 degrees outside, the water pipes that are exposed to these temperatures are likely to freeze and burst. If you are not home at the time, like off on vacation for Christmas or another holiday, this can wreak havoc on your water bill if you do not get home and fix the problem soon and it can also cause a significant amount of water damage to your home in the process.

Any pipes that will be exposed to this weather that you can get to should be insulated in some way. You can do this by wrapping them in cloth or preferably a construction grade of insulation. A good amount of cloth will help in a pinch, though.

Inside your home, the pipes underneath the different sinks in the house can be kept warm by opening the cabinets so the heat in the house can get to them. Keeping a space heater near exposed pipes in your basement could also be a good idea, but use extreme caution when using space heaters, since they can catch on fire. You can use an extension cord with a space heater, but it needs to be a pretty heavy duty one and most homes do not keep extension cords as heavy duty as the kind needed around often. Place space heaters in your home very carefully and if possible, do not use them on carpeted surfaces.

You can also leave a trickle of water running out of the faucets when the temperatures outside get this low. It might add a little bit to the water bill, but it is only necessary to do this when the temperature gets below freezing, especially at night.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
mold removal in Atlanta Georgia and
Water Damage Restoration companies.

Taking Care of Your Sewage Damaged Home

One of the nastiest things you may ever have to do to your home is clean up the sewage left behind by a flood. You can have a professional cleaning service do this for you, but you should really be able to do this on your own unless for some reason you are physically unable or you get sick very easily. The money that you will save by doing it yourself will be substantial and this is money that you can use to purchase new clothing, furniture, or anything else you may need in the days, weeks, and months following the flood. Having the right information to help you with this is crucial, though.

The worst thing about this is that flood waters are usually contaminated with bacteria, viruses, hazardous chemicals, and sometimes even decaying bodies. Wearing protective equipment while you are in this process is essential to keep yourself from getting sick, so purchase whatever you need to. Latex gloves, disposable coveralls, and disposable foot covers are necessary. You do not want to wear porous clothing while you are doing this, because it will soak right through to your skin. A roll of duct tape should also be bought to seal up the gaps around your ankles and wrists.

Depending on whether you have someone else helping you take care of the other sewage damaged areas of the house, you will need two or more buckets. You need to keep this at an even number, because one will be used as a rinse bucket and the other will have the cleaning solution in it.

Unfortunately, you will probably not be able to save most of the upholstered furniture in your home because the padding will soak up so much of the soil, sewage, and bacteria. You can save items with small amounts of padding that can be replaced, like dining room chairs, and even take this as an opportunity to put a new pattern of fabric on them. Carpets will also probably need to be thrown away and the padding underneath them certainly will be.

Once the padding and carpet has been taken up if it was necessary in the area you are in, you should have a mop or some other cleaning utensil to use. Dip it into the cleaning solution and begin scrubbing the floor with it. Rinse it in the other bucket thoroughly before putting it back into the cleaning bucket. Do not contaminate your bucket filled with cleaner. After you get done scrubbing the whole room, you should go back over it with a disinfectant for a little extra assurance.



Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Water Damage Miami and
water damage restoration in atlanta companies.

Keeping a Clean Fridge

The refrigerator is an appliance that most people make use of at least once a day, whether it is for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or just a snack. It is in the central room of the house, since the kitchen is the room that the family tends to gather in the most and we tend to realize that this is the room that needs to be kept clean the most. The food that is prepared here is meant to make and keep us healthy and a dirty refrigerator contaminated with mold and bacteria is definitely something that is unwanted.

Keeping an eye on the condition of your food in the refrigerator is important to make sure that your family stays healthy and while most of us lead fairly full and busy lives these days, it still needs to be done by someone. Take the time to clean out your refrigerator at least once every few months and take an inventory of what you need to replace often. Outdated items like jams and jellies, even if they have not started showing mold yet, should be thrown away if they have had the seal broken. Most items will be fine even if they are outdated as long as the seals on the jars have not been broken.

Fruits and vegetables that have become molded need to be thrown away before they can contaminate anything other fruits or vegetables nearby. Removing them from the plastic bags that you put them in then you purchased them at the store is also a good idea, since condensation from the bags can actually help mold start to grow.

Dense items that have little moisture in them are not good candidates for mold growth and if mold does grow on these items, like blocks of cheese or hard salami, you can cut around the molded areas and throw them away instead of throwing away the whole item. This cannot be done with slices of cheese, tubs of sour cream, jellies, jams, mayonnaise, and other heavily moist foods.

Cleaning out the inside of the refrigerator with the cleaning solution of your choosing is something you need to do regularly. Spills of liquid and food happen in it all the time and bacteria will feed on this. Take everything out and throw away everything outdated and those items that you no longer need. Clean off the bottoms of anything that you want to put back if they have anything on them, as well. You should also remove all the racks and shelves that you can and clean them in the sink before you put them back.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Los Angeles water damage and restoration services and Denver water damage restoration companies.

Mold PPE Stands For Mold Personal Protective Equipment And What It Is

If you are conducting a mold remediation job in your home or in your business, then the mold spores will become airborne and the risk of breathing these spores in becomes a much higher. Anything that can stir up the mold spores is something that should be avoided unless you are wearing a respirator, which you should be wearing, anyway. What can stir up mold spores? Breaking up any porous material that is contaminated with mold, peeling or stripping wallpaper to remove it, using any invasive procedure to look for mold inside a wall, and using household fans or air conditioners to dry wet items can stir up these spores. If you are planning on doing anything like this and not hiring a professional, please wear a respirator.

The minimum amount of PPE that should be used when you are cleaning up after mold is an N-95 respirator. This device will cover your mouse and nose and will keep out about 95 percent of any particles in the air around you. These are available in most general hardware stores.

If you are looking for something a little stronger, then a full or half-face APR (air purifying respirator) that has a HEPA filter on it is something you might want to consider. Make sure that the respirator you purchase is approved for use by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. It should be noted that these do not protect your eyes.

If you are in a situation where there is a large amount of mold growth and you will need a long amount of time to remove it, then you will want and need a powered air purifying respirator. These are full-face and use a blower to force the air through a HEPA filter that will collect any mold spores that are in the air. You must be trained to use this kind of respirator and the usage of it must be in compliance with the regulations of OSHA.

Some disposable clothing will be needed while you are cleaning up mold. If you are on a serious budget and it is not that much mold to deal with, you can use some disposable paper towels. If you are not on a budget, then some disposable foot and head coverings and a body suit made of something breathable, like TYVEK should be used. There will be gaps around the wrists and ankles and these need to be sealed up with something such as duct tape.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New Jersey mold inspections and other states and cities such as
north carolina mold inspections companies across the united states.

Mold Cleanup Techniques

There are a variety of different methods that can be used to clean up mold in a household or a business, but depending on the kind of material that is affected, you might want to use one over the other. Some professional mold removers might use techniques that they have developed on their own and if it is not listed here, it does not mean that it is not an effective technique for mold removal.

Using a wet vacuum is one method that can be used. These are vacuum cleaners that are specially designed to collect liquids from a hardwood floor, concrete, carpet, and etcetera. Any surface where water has started to accumulate and simply stand is where these vacuums can be used. They should not be used on porous materials, however, like gypsum boards. Use them only when the area is still wet, because it might spread mold spores if it is not sufficient. Clean and dry the equipment after each use, since mold and its spores can stick to these surfaces.

Using a damp cloth to wipe mold away from nonporous surfaces such as a countertop or a vinyl floor can be effective in getting rid of mold, but using mold killing chemicals is essential. Dry these surfaces as quickly as you can after you finish so that mold does not re-start growing in the area that you just finished cleaning. The instructions for any mold and fungus killing chemicals should be followed completely and if you have any porous materials that have become contaminated with mold, you will want to throw these away. Mold can usually not be completely removed from these items.

A vacuum cleaner with a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter is something that you should invest in whether you are a homeowner or someone who rents a building. Even if you do not suspect mold contamination, this will help keep the air in your home cleaner. When used after cleaning up mold, it will collect the mold spores and will not redistribute them into the air. After being used to clean up after a mold removal, the filter and the contents of the vacuum need to be disposed of in some well-sealed plastic bags. Always wear a respirator and gloves when handling this material and do not let it get on your skin. Avoid stirring up the contents of the vacuum.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Chicago Water and Sewage Extraction and other states and cities such as
North Carolina Water and Sewage Extraction companies across the united states.

Bleach Is No Mold Murderer, Bleach Does Not Always kill Mold

In my minds eye I can still see the little spots of mold on the ceiling above the shower of my childhood home.

I can still smell the bleach that my father sprayed on the mold. And I can still see the mold reappear soon after.

We all dry our hair before going out in the cold so we dont get pneumonia. We all wear clean underwear in case we are in a car accident. We all attack mold growth with bleach to kill it.

Well, wet hair does not cause pneumonia. The police, paramedics and doctors wont really look at your underwear, and chlorine bleach is ineffective in killing mold.

Bleach may help with temporary mold removal, but it will win no awards for mold remediation. Due to its dilution, bleach is too weak to eradicate mold permanently, especially if the surface is anything other that a hard, non-porous one.

Surprisingly, bleach will become more and more dilute even in an unopened container. There is an approximate 50% dilution in only 3 months as it sits on the store shelf or in the cabinet beneath your kitchen sink.

Chlorine cannot penetrate porous materials due to its ionic structure. So, if bleach is sprayed on wood for instance, only the water in the solution soaks in, as the chlorine remains on the surface. This only accomplishes further mold growth.

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) does not list bleach as a disinfectant of mold. Other agencies have referred to bleach as a poor cleaning agent.

So bleach is out. What is in? The fancy terms relating to getting rid of mold include mold removal, mold remediation, mold mitigation and mold abatement. They all sound wonderful, but how are they actually accomplished?

Current recommendations include containing the mold, killing it, removing it, and finally, protecting against future infestation.

First off, any sources of water (molds lifeline) must be located and discontinued. This may necessitate water extraction or possibly water damage restoration.

Fungicide should then be used to kill any mold and to prevent its recurrence. The next step is to clean and remove as much of the mold as possible. Even dead, mold can trigger an allergic response in some people.

Finally, protection against further infestation can be accomplished by cleaning, maintenance, and regular inspection of the common sources of mold growth.

Many people choose to remediate their mold problem on their own. It is important to remember the dangerous health risks associated with exposure to mold. It is not overkill to wear protective gear including gloves, mask and bodysuit.

Goggles have even been recommended. So as you suit up and get ready to get rid of that mold, leave your spray bottle of chlorine bleach behind. It has been acquitted on all.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and
mold remediation companies across the united states.