Turn That Gas Off

If your home has natural gas or propane appliances, you should know where the gas valves are located and how to turn them off. All gas appliances are required to have a special valve located on the pipe near the appliance. Look at your gas cooking range – you should see a valve just behind […]

Compact Fluorescents

OK, for many years compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) were a bit of a pain. They provided an eerie color, took a long time to reach full brightness, never worked outdoors in cold weather, and failed early. Most of those problems have been solved in the last 20 years. Now it’s hard to resist these lamps, […]

Fixing a Drip at the Bathroom Fan

So you run the bath exhaust fan to remove moisture – but then you get that drip, drip, drip from the fan on your nice clean rug. Bath exhaust fans should not drip. If yours does, there’s something wrong with it. First, check the exhaust ducting or tubing; it should be insulated, straight, and vented […]

The Rain May Drain, But It’s Not a Pain

When a rain gutter and downspout send their discharge below grade to a pipe, it may appear that rainwater is draining into a sanitary sewer, but it really isn’t. In municipal areas with sewer systems, gutter (rainwater) discharge is normally routed into a storm sewer. This storm piping routes water to rivers and streams and […]

GFCI? What? Why?

You may not know what a GFCI is, but chances are it’s making your home safer. A ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) measures the current flowing through a circuit. It looks simple, but it’s a complex electronic device. Electricity flows like water through a circuit. The GFCI measures this flow; if the device is operating […]

Extension Cord Safety

You should view extension cords as a necessary evil. Avoid using them. If you must use an extension cord, use a heavy duty cord with a sturdy plug and outlet. Make sure the cord is in good condition. Some basic rules: Never run an extension cord through a doorway where it could get damaged. Never […]

Wash Siding – Work Up

All types of siding eventually accumulate dirt and grime, maybe even some mildew. It might make you think you need to paint the siding. But that’s not so. Often, it’s easy to wash dirt from the surface of the underlying finish is in good shape. Some professionals use a pressure washer on siding, but that […]

A Drip at the Darned Valve – Again

Let’s say that every time you turn the small globe valve for the outdoor hose bib, you get that drip-drip-drip from the body of the valve. Or maybe your drip occurs at the small needle valve for the icemaker or the humidifier – turn the valve and the darned thing leaks. Maybe you wire a […]

Caulking the Wide Open Spaces

So you filled that wide gap in the exterior trim with the best caulk you could buy, and the next year it had pulled away from one surface, leaving a large gap. Or you tried to fill a wider gap, and the caulk just fell in the hole. What went wrong? No backer rod. Before […]

Three-Way, Two-Way or One-Way Switch?

Home systems have some strange terminology. Why are the two light switches that control one light fixture called a three-way switch? You know – the kind with a switch at both the top and the bottom of the stairs. Sometimes it’s up/switch off, and sometimes up/switch on. The name relates to switching the power line […]