Tag Archives: health

Apr 11

3 Springtime Resolutions You Can Make to Improve Your Home

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When winter’s frigid temperatures begin to thaw and make way for warmer weather, many people start trying to make improvements to their health and fitness. But this year, why not try setting some goals to improve your home, too? Not sure where to start? Our suggestions will help.

1. Clean Your Dryer Vent to Safeguard Your Home

While you likely know the importance of cleaning your dryer’s lint trap to increase its efficiency, you may not know that you need to clean your dryer vent to prevent a fire. According to Consumer Reports, nearly 7,000 fires, 200 injuries, and 10 deaths each year are due to dryer fires. Failing to clean the dryer is the leading cause of these blazes.

Cleaning the lint screen is important to prevent lint buildup and helping your dryer
work efficiently. But, cleaning the lint trap consistently does not prevent fibers from getting into your dryer vent. When these vents are neglected, lint builds, and a spark can lead to a fire within your vent that can quickly spread to the rest of your home. Clean the dryer vent at least every few months.

If you can pull the dryer away from the wall and access the vent, you can clean your vent yourself. If you can’t, contact a professional. Disconnect the dryer from the power source, disconnect the vent from the dryer, and vacuum both ends using the appropriate attachment on your vacuum.

2. Get Organized

A cluttered home is more difficult to clean, but that’s just one reason to get organized. The other is that clutter contributes to stress and prevents your home from being a sanctuary. In fact, clutter causes confusion and chaos for your family. Organized homes, on the other hand, help you make healthier choices, enhance your relationships, and improve your mental and physical health.

One of the first steps to a home organization plan should be making “keep,” “trash,” and “donate” piles. Set aside time to go through your home, one room at a time, to sort your items and then find places for those that you decide to keep. Make your rooms functional and keep items that you use in the rooms where you will use them. Soon, you’ll find that you are organized and have an easier time cleaning and maintaining a routine.

3. Conduct a DIY Energy Audit

If you want to save money and reduce your energy bills, conduct an energy audit. You can hire a professional to perform this service for as little as $100, or you can do a DIY version. Begin by checking for air leaks around windows, doors, chimneys, and electrical outlets. If you can’t feel drafts, use a lit candle to detect them.

Some easy DIY solutions are to add caulk around windows, install weatherstripping on your door or add a sweep seal to it, and place foam-insulated pads behind outlet covers. You also can wrap insulation around your pipes and place an insulating cover around your water heater.

To make more complex repairs, contact a professional. Contractors can inspect your doors, windows, and chimneys for drafts and make repairs such as replacing windows or exterior doors with energy-efficient models. While replacement windows can be expensive, you will benefit from the improvement by saving energy costs and getting a return on your investment. Many homeowners recoup 80 percent of the project cost in added home value.

A contractor also can replace your front door with a steel door that will improve energy efficiency and drastically update the look of your home. Better yet, steel entry doors have the potential to return about 101.8 percent of your initial home investment upon resale. When you improve the exterior of your home, you benefit by enhancing your curb appeal in addition to saving money on energy bills.

This year, make some of your springtime improvement goals focused on updating your home. Clean your dryer vent to prevent fires. Then, get organized. Finally, conduct a DIY energy audit and tackle simple solutions before calling a contractor to improve the exterior of your home to increase your curb appeal and lower your energy bills.

Article by Rob Woods shared with permission
Image via Pixabay by AllanW

Jun 13

LI Boiler & Smoke Detector Recalls for CO Poisoning

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There are certain issues that you don’t want to take lightly, and domestic carbon monoxide poisoning is one of them. CO is odorless and deadly. I once inspected an occupied basement apartment that had a boiler room covered with soot that was venting directly into the apartment. Not good. On Long Island, unfortunately, it seems that there is almost annual news of people dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. See here and here for two examples.

Recall of LI New Yorker Boilers

In 2014, there was a published recall of New Yorker boilers that had been installed on Long Island. “Plumbing Consultant Robert Gramman said thousands of the recalled boilers were installed as part of the KeySpan National Grid incentive program from 2005 to 2013.” – The New Yorker boilers, AKA Utica boilers, have, “an air-pressure switch that can fail, resulting in carbon monoxide poisoning.” I recently inspected a home with a New Yorker boiler, but it was manufactured in 1997. The following 2 websites help to identify the age of a New Yorker (Utica) boiler using the serial number:

http://www.buildingcenter.org/content/hvac-production-dateage

http://inspectbeforebuying.com/hrc/serialnumbers.asp

Recall of Kidde Smoke / CO Alarms

According to a published report, 1.2 million Kidde CO / smoke alarms manufactured between the dates of Dec. 18, 2013 and May 13, 2014 are being recalled. The defective alarms “may fail to sound during a fire or a CO incident.” If you have Kidde alarms that had been replaced beginning from December 2013, please check the manufacturing date and return them if the manufacturing date falls within the noted window of time. 

Remember that just having smoke detectors in your home is not enough. And because each CO detector manufacturer has different installation instructions based on the specific design of the CO alarm unit, its important to read the instructions for the placement of your CO detectors.InterNACHI describes important facts on this subject in more detail. In New York State, the installation of CO detectors is also a code issue, as quoted from a law published in 2010:

“Specific reasons underlying the finding of necessity: Adoption of this rule on an emergency basis is required to preserve public safety by requir ing the installation of carbon monoxide alarms in all one- and two-family dwellings, townhouse dwellings, dwelling accommodations in buildings owned as condominiums or cooperatives, and multiple dwellings, without regard to the date of construction or sale of such buildings, as required by Amanda’s Law (Chapter 367 of the Laws of 2009), which will reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by carbon monoxide poisoning and, in the words of the sponsor of the bill that became Amanda’s Law, “create safer homes for New Yorkers;”

Tags: preventing carbon monoxide poisoning, carbon monoxide poisoning on Long Island, Consumer Product Safety Commission, placement of CO detectors and alarms, locations of CO alarms, recalls of hazardous boilers, recalls of hazardous CO alarms, Amanda’s Law CO alarms NY

Mar 17

The Montauk Man Who Died From Mouse Bacteria

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It’s almost spring again. Whether you are getting ready for some spring cleaning or preparing for a serious home inspection, be careful. Basements and crawl spaces can be deadly. Cancer-causing asbestos crumbs are sometimes found falling off of old heating pipes. Rare and malicious killer molds may be found slowly meandering throughout crawl spaces in the moist ocean air. And, last but not least, fatal fumes from deadly mouse microbes may be lingering in the air unnoticeable by the human eye. The following video clip outlines some tragic stories of Long Islander’s who lost their jobs. Dr. David Hartstein’s case is particularly sad because he also lost his life after he lost his job and his house.

It wasn’t very long ago, June 2011, that Dr. Hartstein was infected with a rare but deadly virus that was disseminated from infected mouse waste that was inhaled in a home crawl space in Montauk, NY. A CBS report of the incident states that the virus is deadly, but rare. ” NYC Health notes, “There have been two cases in New York State residents, both due to exposures on Long Island.”

“The disease is fatal in 38 percent of all cases, but it’s so rare there have been only four in New York in the past 17 years. Health officials said the virus was first identified in the Southwest in 1993. Nationwide, there have been only 568 cases.”

The symptoms aren’t particularly unique, and could apply to a lot of possible viruses:

“Symptoms of hantavirus include high fever, muscle aches, coughing and headache — which may appear between one and five weeks after exposure to the virus.”

If you have business to do in a basement or crawl space, the following advice is offered:

“Health officials said the best way to prevent exposure to hantavirus is to avoid contact with rodent droppings or urine, prevent infestation in the home and set traps inside empty containers to prevent contact with possibly contaminated materials… Wear gloves and a mask and aerate where you are,”

What’s particularly tragic and heart-wrenching about David Hartstein’s situation is the context. He was a 35-year-old husband and father of three who had been unemployed, was cleaning out his house due to foreclosure, and then to top it off he became infected with a deadly virus. When interviewed about her husband’s death and how it became a part of an HBO-televised documentary film, “Hard Times: Lost on Long Island”, David’s widow Heather emphasized the importance of optimism in life: “I want people to take away from our story [and the film] the realization that when you think you’ve hit rock bottom, you make a conscious decision to be joyful and not get swallowed by a sense of helplessness. . . .” The trailer to the film is at this link:

Tags: Montauk killer disease, Montauk mouse virus killed man, home safety, Long Island Hantavirus, David Hartstein, documentary of hard life on Long Island, basement & crawl space hazards