How to Keep Pests Out of Your Attic

If you have been lying in bed and hearing thumps, bumps, and scratches above your head, there’s a good chance that you have a special guest living in your attic. Given that an attic is an enclosed, safe, and often warm area; our furry friends find them to be a very inviting place to spend some time. As much as some of us would like to accommodate these creatures with a comfortable living, the fact is that their presence is not good for your home or your family. They can leave droppings everywhere, particles of which you might end up breathing or eating, and chew through important wires causing expensive electrical damage and even creating a fire hazard.

The most common way people discover they have pests in their attic is by hearing them. Whether it is a squeaking noise made by smaller rodents, or loud thumps made by possums or raccoons, these noises are most commonly observed at night when pests are most active. If you have an alert dog, you will notice his behavior to be erratic or agitated when the pests are moving around. I actually learned this first hand, as one of my dogs would become very upset and pace around my bathroom barking at the ceiling in the middle of the night; when I got up to investigate, I observed faint scratching and thumping above my shower.

One method of discovering that you have unwanted houseguests is by finding their droppings. If you enter your attic and observe droppings, it is very important that you take care of your pest problem immediately, as these droppings can harbor dangerous diseases, many of which can be spread throughout your house’s ventilation system. One such disease is Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), which can cause a lot of very nasty symptoms and is contracted just by inhaling particles from infected droppings. Health issues aside, having poop lying around any part of your house is just plain gross and unsanitary, so the problem should be addressed immediately. Also, be sure to clean up any sort of droppings in the proper manner to prevent the spread of germs.

Another way to determine if you have pests is by finding holes in any sort of screens that are between your exterior and attic. Raccoons and squirrels will jimmy their way into your screens by prying them open or gnawing at them to gain access into your attic. Here is an excellent video on how to repair damaged screens to prevent them from regaining entry to your attic. Thoroughly check all of your siding and where your exterior meets your ceiling for any holes and use caulk, steel, and wire mesh as demonstrated in this video to seal them. Some rodents can gain access to your house through holes that are as small as a quarter, so be sure to be thorough while checking your siding and roof. After you have sealed the holes in your exterior, you need to find a good means to remove the pests from your attic.

When it comes to removing the pests, there are many approaches. If you decide you want to be lethal, which I do not recommend for bigger rodents, you can use poisons and larger snap traps. The reasons I do not recommend these methods for bigger rodents is that if you cannot reach the corpse of the dead animal, it will start to stink. Also, poisons run the risk of hurting your pets and possibly your family if accidentally ingested. For nonlethal removal of pests, use small baited cages and check them on a daily basis. Some local municipal animal control centers will rent these out to you for free, and even come pick up the cages for you if you catch anything. Mothballs can be used to deter larger rodents from your attic, as can fox urine (gross!). The most important thing about using live-catch methods is that you check the traps daily, so you don’t end up torturing an animal by starving or dehydrating it. Once your pests have been removed, periodically check the areas that you have sealed off and look for droppings or other evidence that they have returned. If they have, double check for more holes, or to make sure the seals you have put in place are still intact.

Making a Home Insurance Claim

Owning a home requires a lot of attention and periodic maintenance to keep everything in proper working order. Even if you are on top of all that needs to be done to keep your house in good shape like changing your AC filters, painting, sealing your deck, etc., there will inevitably be something that goes wrong. Anything from a severe weather storm to a burglar can cause damage to your home or the possessions within, leaving you with the need to contact your homeowner’s insurance company to file a claim. Here are a few things that you should keep in mind when filing a claim to help things run smoothly and ensure the best possible outcome.

File You Claim ASAP

By waiting around to file a claim after property is damaged or stolen, you are risking having your claim being denied by adjuster. Most insurance companies have a window of around 14 days to file a claim after damage occurs. Also, if you’re dealing with an issue such as a water leak, more damage could be caused by not being proactive such as mold or damage to wood from moisture. As soon as you notice damaged or stolen property, call your agent and discuss your best course of action.

Take Pictures

As soon as you notice that your property has been damaged, get out your phone and start taking pictures immediately. In most cases, the insurance company will send out an adjuster to take pictures, but it is a good idea to take some immediately, just in case. You never know when an adjuster will try to minimize the extent that your property is damaged to avoid paying out on a claim or reducing the claim payout. Also, these pictures can help you get proper estimates on repairs so you can decide if a claim is worth making or if you would be better off paying out of pocket instead.

Is It Worth It?

It is a good idea to get some estimates before filing a claim if the damage to your home does not look significant. Filing claims on your policy causes your premium to go up, and some insurance companies will even drop your coverage if you file what they consider to be an excessive amount of claims (in my case, I have three claims in the past three years and I am having trouble finding new coverage!). If you can afford to pay out of pocket for a repair that will not break the bank, go ahead and do it. While it is still always a good idea to discuss things with your insurance agent, repairs that cost just over the amount of your deductible are almost never worth filing.

Protect Yourself From Having to Make Claims

A lot of property damage is preventable. Trimming branches that hang over you or your neighbor’s house, installing smoke detectors, and putting in a security system are just a few of the things that can help protect your from being in a situation where you might have to make a claim on your policy.

Look Out For Yourself

During the claims process, you need to pay attention to everything that is going on. Make sure you look over all of the paperwork. Don’t let the extent of the damage or amount you’re being paid for it be minimized by the insurance company or claims adjuster. Often times, the insurance company will try to offer you a settlement or agreement that will let them get out of paying for the full claim. Don’t let them do that. Also, when reporting your claim, don’t add in what you think happened or what you think should be done about it- only report the FACTS of the situation. Mentioning that you think that there might be mold or some other thing going on with your property is always a bad idea. Also, never lie or be dishonest about what is going on- it will immediately have your claim denied and could land you in jail!

If you feel like you are being mistreated by your insurance company, don’t hesitate to let them know- but do so in a civil manner. Never except a check from your insurance company unless you are sure that it will cover the full extent of your damages. As a side note, some people would advise hiring a lawyer during this process. If there is a lot of money involved and you have a bad feeling about the way your claim is being handled, it might be worth doing so. Patience is a virtue, and it also happens to be something that you’ll need a lot of when dealing with an insurance company during your claims process. If you run out of patience, you could end up accepting an offer that won’t cover your repairs!

Replacing Windows

Windows are not often the first things that come to mind when you are considering updates to your house. Typically, you may feel a need to update something that you interact with more often, such as a kitchen or bathroom sink, oven, or shower. Windows, however, play a large role in the value and energy efficiency of your home and should never be overlooked when considering updates or remodels to your house. Windows, much like your roof or siding, sometimes need repairs or replacing to maintain their function and efficiency.

There are some obvious warning signs that you are in need of replacement windows. The first, and most important, is a difficulty in opening or closing a window all the way. A window that does not close all the way will leak energy and may fail to lock, leaving your house open to break-ins. Windows that are difficult to open can end up being a fire hazard in rooms that don’t contain a door leading to the home’s exterior. Make sure all of the windows in your house can open and close smoothly, and can be locked tightly.

Perhaps one of the most obvious signs that you need a window repair or replacement is a draft blowing through your home. Not only does a draft indicate a major energy leak, but also a severely damaged or inefficient window. A draft in your house can signal a need for both replacement windows and replacement doors, so be sure to check both if your house is feeling windy. The draft can be caused by gaps in the window’s fixture or a damaged seal.  One of the main purposes of owning a house is to protect us from the elements, and inefficient or broken windows diminish our home’s ability to do so.

If you have multi-pane windows and you notice condensation forming between them, you should consider replacement windows. The condensation occurs when the seals of your windows are failing. Because the seal is no long doing its job, moisture may enter and form condensation, indicating that the window is no longer effectively keeping out cold air. Often times you will notice a white film left behind by calcium deposits from condensation, another sign that the seal has failed. If you notice any of these signs, you should immediately replace the window as it is no longer effective at keeping out cold air.

If you feel that one or more of your windows is ugly, or doesn’t fit with how you want your house to look, that is a perfectly acceptable reason to go about looking into replacement windows. Sometimes people will replace their windows just because they don’t like the way that they open, or want a different style. There is nothing wrong with changing a component of your house just because you don’t like the way it looks or operates.

Replacing windows can be a big commitment in both time and money, but it is almost always a worthwhile investment. Windows that are drafty, not functional, or just plain ugly are not doing their job. Not only can bad windows cost you money, but they can also be a hazard; so be sure you take action immediately if you find yours are showing some of the aforementioned signals that they need to be repaired or replaced.

January Home Maintenance Checklist

Every year our houses degrade a little bit more. Rain, snow, hail, wind, and direct sunlight continually pummel our houses’ exteriors, while children, pets, and even the adults wear out their interiors. The only way to keep yourself from being overwhelmed by needed repairs is to stay on top of them throughout the year. By starting the New Year off by taking an inventory of what needs, or soon will need, some attention, you can make a list and check off the needed repairs as the year goes on. Taking inventory of your house’s condition can also prepare you for things that might pop up as the year goes on. If you find anything damaged, take note of it on a piece of paper or on your smartphone.

Begin with the interior of your house and go room-by-room checking for loose electrical outlets, damage to the walls, floor boards, and door jams. Make sure all of your windows can lock tightly and that you don’t feel a draft when they’re closed. If you have tile floor in your house, check for chips or holes in the grout. Make note of any damaged drawers or cabinets in your house that need new hinges or any other sort of repairs. Check to make sure that you can close all the doors in your house and have them latch properly. If you have a screen door, make sure that it closes properly and is in good working order.

Your bathrooms and kitchen should be given an extra attentive look when inspecting your house for needed repairs. First, you should check under the sinks for leaks and moisture. Bathroom and kitchen cabinets can be hotbeds for mold due to the added moisture in these environments. If you have leaky or faulty faucets, now is the time to take inventory of them so you can make repairs or replace them. Check for mold or grime on the caulk around the tiles in your shower or bath and rust around the drains. Run all of the faucets to make sure that your water pressure is good, and observe whether or not your drains are slow or stopped up.

Once you are finished with inspecting the rooms of your house, head outside to give the exterior a look. Check your siding for holes that could cause energy leaks or open your house up for pest infestation. There should not be any gaps along your upper exterior where your siding meets the roof of your house. Be sure to check around all of your windows for damages in the screens. Take a look at your A/C unit’s coils to see if they need to be cleaned. If you have a deck, determine whether or not it needs a treatment. Walk around the perimeter of your yard, looking for damaged panels of your fence and take note of how many there are. Any other sort of blemishes on your exterior should be accounted for, so you can come back to them later.

Obviously, this list is just a basic outline of what you should look out for, so don’t ONLY look for what is listed; by all means, you should take note of everything that needs attention. Don’t overwhelm yourself by tackling everything at once. The point of making this list in January is so you can fix things throughout the year and use the list as a guide in how you can spend your free time to improve your house. Also, remember any major repairs you come across should be left to a professional! 

Storing Christmas Decorations

The holidays have come and gone, but the reminders they leave behind are all over your house… literally. Christmas lights are still clinging to your roof and tied around your hedges. The cardboard candy-cane still greets the mailman, weeks after Christmas morning, and Lucy wearing a Santa hat is still tricking Charlie Brown on your front lawn. It is time to pull the decorations down and store them until Black Friday rolls around later on in the year. Here are a few tips that can help you feel less stress with the pulling down and storage of your decorations.

Sometimes you can find yourself in a hurry while putting away your Christmas decorations, and damage them in the process. Whether you decide to just yank the lights down off of their staples or holders, or drag the big wooden cut outs up the driveway because you don’t want to wait for someone to help you bring them back into the garage, always take your time when pulling down your decorations to prevent them from being damaged. Having to buy new decorations during the holidays is the last thing you want to add to your budget when you are already worried about buying presents for everyone.

When taking down lights, do it in an organized fashion. Unhook each bulb from its plastic hook, if that’s what you used to hang the lights with. If you stapled the lights to your house (which I don’t recommend doing), be careful not to tear the wire when pulling it free of each staple. Go ahead and wrap the string of lights around your elbow and palm as you take it down to prevent it from knotting and to keep it organized. As far as storing lights goes, the boxes they come in are often times difficult to fit the strands back into, so I recommend using a Rubbermaid storage tub with a lid. Be sure to label your tubs before you stack them into your garage or attic. This will save you an abundance of time when looking for your lights next year. If any of your Christmas lights went out during the holiday season, don’t put them away broken. You will forget the strand needs to be replaced and waste a lot of time troubleshooting next year. Go ahead and fix your lights as they go out to save yourself a lot of time.

As far as the bigger decorations go, don’t toss them into your garage uncovered. I recommend using thick plastic covering to wrap them in before you store, as this will prevent the paint from being scratched out and help keep spiders and other nasties from making nests in them. Go ahead and place the bigger decorations out of the way in your garage or attic, otherwise you’ll be tripping on them all year. Don’t let your decorations eat up space that’s better suited for commonly used items, such as bicycle or tools. If you have kids, you’ll definitely want them put up out of the way, because let’s face it: kids break things.

Smaller, indoor decorations should be wrapped in an organized fashion that will prevent them from being broken. I always recommend keeping the boxes to Christmas ornaments, as they are well-suited for storing them during the off-seasons. Stackable Rubbermaid tubs come in handy here, as well. If you put away your Christmas decorations in an organized fashion, you should be able to fit everything into just a couple tubs. If you have an artificial tree, keep its box for storage. Typically, it’s not too difficult to fit a Christmas tree back into its box, but if you have trouble, use two thick trash bags to store it in. Be gentle when placing it into storage, especially if it’s a pre-lit tree.

The holidays can be a stressful time, so being organized with your decorations can alleviate some of the stress. Remember to take your time when storing your decorations so you will not feel overburdened during the next holiday season, nor will you have the added financial stress of replacing broken decorations that were stepped on or broken due to poor storage.

Termites!

You do your best to keep your house in good shape. It has been painted, you’ve updated your windows, and even the small holes in the exterior have been fixed. Yes, your house looks amazing and you are proud of it. How would you feel, then, if you found out that your house was rotting from the inside? What if there are thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions!) of termites feeding off of your house and slowly decaying it while you have no idea whatsoever? Unless you live in Alaska, there’s a good chance that your home could get infested very easily by termites, which cause approximately $5 billion in damages annually. Not even the White House or the Statue of Liberty are safe from termites, as both have undergone treatment to rid themselves of these wood-chewing insects.

While you might have heard about termites your entire life, there’s a good chance that you may have ever actually seen one. Termites are small insects that measure anywhere between a few millimeters to a few centimeters in length. There are over 3,000 different species of termite worldwide. A termite colony can consist of a few hundred or up to millions of termites. A home that is within a half-acre of a termite colony can be at risk of infestation, so it is easy to have an infestation travel from one home to the next throughout a neighborhood. Subterranean termites often tunnel underground and produce swarms of winged reproducing termites that emerge once a colony has matured for a few years. Dampwood termites are attracted to, as their name indicates, wood that is damp. They are attracted to moisture and are typically found in more coastal areas. They, unlike the subterranean termites, never live in the soil, but stay in wood where they feed and lay their eggs. Drywood termites live along the southern border of the United States, as well as in the coastal areas of Florida and California. They, much like the dampwood termites, prefer living within a wooden structure and are not found in the ground.

Termites ruin your house by feeding off of its wood and some other building materials. They can be especially dangerous if you have a pier-and-beam foundation, as it is easily accessible via the soil and a good portion of it is hidden from your day-to-day view, often times leaving damage undetected. Interior walls can be infested for years before a homeowner finds out, causing extensive damage. Termites have even been known to ruin furniture, ranging from book cases to antique dressers. It is for these reasons, that you should do everything you can to ensure that your home is not infested and take immediate action if it is.

As the damage that termites can do to your property can be very serious and expensive to repair, you should periodically check around your house for signs of infestation. During the spring is when most termites swarm to look for new colonies. Swarming is when winged termites fly away from their colonies to establish new ones. You can often find discarded wings or dead insects near your house when swarming has occurred. Winged termites look a bit like winged ants, so they can sometimes be difficult to identify. Hallow or rotted wood is often a spot-on indicator that there is a termite infestation. Often times it will appear that only water damage has occurred near where termites have infested, but given that they are attracted to damp areas, be sure not to right off the possibility that termites are present, as well. Drywood termites often leave pellets that one might mistake for mouse droppings. Look for these pellets along window sills and other wooden areas in your home. If you find hallowed wood or wood that has specs of dirt in it, that is another sign of a termite infestation. Sometimes subterranean termites build tubes out of mud and dirt on exposed areas of your house to travel in. The tubes are about the size of a pencil and made out of mud. If you find any of these indicators, contact a termite specialist immediately, before any additional damage is done to your home.

Protecting Your Pipes During the Winter

While it might be “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” for your family, especially the children, the pipes in your house are singing a different tune: “Don’t Let Us Freeze!” Freezing pipes can be inconvenient, dangerous, and very expensive. You see, not only does water stop moving when it’s frozen, it can actually lead to the pipes in your house bursting. Burst pipes will not only take away your hot showers during the cold season, but they will also cripple your holiday shopping budget, as it can be very costly to have them fixed. Obviously, the best way to deal with pipes bursting is to prevent it from happening ahead of time.

Pipes typically burst when there are exposed or uninsulated lengths of pipe on the exterior of your house. While water does expand when frozen, causing bottles or cans of soda to burst in the freezer, this is not what typically causes pipes to burst. Pipes burst due to ice blocking water pressure between the ice and a faucet, typically bursting at a spot where there is little ice to be found! Opening your faucets slightly to allow movement can greatly decrease the chances of pipes freezing or bursting. The cost of increased water usage are dwarfed by the cost of having your pipes replaced. Placing insulation over all over your exposed pipes outdoors is a necessity during the winter, especially if you plan on leaving town.

If you plan on being away from your home for extended periods of time during the winter, there are other things you can do to prevent returning from a trip to a house full of burst pipes. Definitely have a friend or family member on alert to swing by your place and run some faucets during a winter storm. Perhaps the most effective thing you can do is to shut off your main water valve and then turn all your faucets on until no more water comes out. That will empty your pipes of any water that could potentially freeze and cause serious problems while you are out of town. Obviously, this might only be necessary if you live in a climate that freezes for extended periods of time.

Typically pipes freeze when temperatures reach 20°F or below, but it is still wise to have insulation on hand for any time you expect the temperature to fall below freezing. Insulation should be taped around any exposed pipes and you should use an insulated cover over any exposed faucets around your exterior. Unfortunately, some pipes in your outer walls may not be properly insulated, leaving them vulnerable to cold weather. In these cases your best defense is to run water through your faucets to keep it from freezing. You don’t need to open the faucets all the way to have water blast through them to keep them from freezing, just a small amount of flow should suffice.

If you suspect that one of your pipes has burst, contact a plumber immediately! Many more problems will crop up if you have a water leak on your hands, so go ahead and shut off your main water valve, as well. And once again, call a plumber right away.