The GutterBrush Blog

Have you already decided to move rather than remodel but you still find yourself thinking abut remodeling anyway to make your house more appealing to would-be buyers, cut the time it takes to sell it and maybe even get more cash in hand when you sell? Well while you’re expanding, why not tuck in a new master bedroom suite above the addition? You’ll get all of your money back when you eventually sell your house, right?

Not so fast. While many home-remodeling projects are a great way to add value to your home, not all of them are ironclad cash-back guarantees. Before you invest a significant amount of your precious home equity into remodeling projects, it’s wise to do a little homework on what kind of payback you can expect for various home projects in your area. A good place to start is the Cost vs. Value report published annually by the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, and Remodeling magazine. The report provides a synopsis of the top projects, the average costs of the projects and their average rate of investment return at resale. It also gives you a city-by-city guide on what various home projects will pay back at resale. Real estate experts caution that these numbers can differ significantly depending on your state, city or even neighborhood. So use these numbers as a starting point, but consider getting the advice of a Realtor and/or remodeling contractor before you commit to a big home project. These experts can familiarize you with remodeling payback figures tailored to your state, city, or town.

Our first suggestion in the list of the top five projects to boost your home’s value for resale is to do an upscale siding (new fiber cement) replacement. Here is what you can expect this project to cost and yield:

Estimated job cost: $10,393 for 1,250 square feet
Average payback: 103.6 percent of cost
National average resale value: $10,771

Siding makes a huge difference in a house’s resale value, because it’s one of the first things you see. It really defines the condition of the home.  If other houses around you have old aluminum or vinyl siding and your siding is nicer and newer, buyers will notice you. With this project, you make your house more attractive — you’re not just improving your insulation value.

Next up on out list is a mid-range bathroom remodel but that will have to wait until the next time we meet here.

There are many materials available for asphalt driveway maintenance including emulsified liquids, plastic fillers and solid cold-patches. For a complete driveway rejuvenation, you may need all three. Before tackling any maintenance or repair, check your driveway for these conditions:

• Impressions left by car tires after the car has been parked on the drive overnight. This is an indication of poor construction.
• Heaving or tilting during cold weather, or buckling or cracking with the spring thaw. These are signs of poor drainage.

To repair these troubles, you’ll need a new driveway. Fortunately, such problems are not common. More likely problems are minor cracks, crumbling and chuckholes, which are relatively easy to repair. The procedure and materials used depends on whether you’re repairing cracks, filling low spots, patching or seal-coating your driveway. Your local retailer can help you select the products you need for making repairs.

REPAIRING CRACKS

• You should fill any cracks in a blacktop drive as soon as possible to keep water from getting under the slab and causing more serious problems. Cracks that are 1/2″ and wider are filled with asphalt cold-patch, sold in bags and cans. Narrow cracks are treated with crack-filler, which is available in cans, plastic pour bottles and handy caulking cartridges.
• Use a masonry chisel, wire brush or similar tool to dig away chunks of loose and broken material from the crack.
• Sweep out the crack with a stiff-bristled broom. Your shop vacuum will also work well.
• Use a garden hose with a pressure nozzle to clean off all dust. If the area is badly soiled or covered with oil or grease drippings, scrub it with a strong commercial driveway cleaning agent. For a patch to adhere, the crack must be free of all such things. After using a cleaner, rinse the area with water.
• For a deep crack, fill it to within 1/4″ of the top with closed-cell plastic backer rod or sand before applying a patching compound.
• Apply the crack-filler.

FILLING DEPRESSED AREAS

• Depressed areas, sometimes called “birdbaths,” cause water puddles on the driveway. If not too deep–less than an inch–these areas can be filled so they’re even with the surrounding surface. Sweep away all dirt, hose down the area and remove any oil or grease by washing with a detergent or cleaner.
• The surface may be slightly damp when applying the patching material, but make sure there is no standing water.
• To help the new material adhere to the old, prime the area with emulsified liquid asphalt, which is often simply called “driveway coating.”
• Then, use a trowel to spread asphalt cold-patching material into the depression, filling it level with the surrounding surface. Smooth the patch, then tamp it with a metal tamper or a 5′ to 6′ length of 2×8 or 4×4 lumber. Used vertically, the lumber has the surface area and weight for successful tamping.
• Allow your blacktop patch to dry for 24 hours before seal-coating the entire driveway.

PATCHING POTHOLES

• For potholes, first dig out any loose material and dirt down to a solid base. It’s best to undercut the edges slightly to provide a “key” for the patching material (Fig. 6). Make sure the edges of the asphalt around the hole are firm.
• Clean all dust and debris from the hole and surrounding areas.
• If the hole is very deep, fill it to within 4″ of the top with gravel. Tamp this down firmly.
• You don’t have to work with hot-mix patchers as professionals do–cold-mix patching products do an excellent job of repairing driveways. Fluid cold-patches that come in cans may need to be stirred before use. Use a strong stick or a stirring attachment chucked into your electric drill.
• You can prime the repair area by painting it with emulsified asphalt liquid. Priming helps the new material bond to the old. Then apply the cold-patch material, patting it down occasionally with a shovel or trowel to help compact it and prevent air pockets from forming (Fig. 7).
• Put in a 2″ depth of cold-patch and tamp it firmly or roll it with a garden roller. Add more material in 2″ lifts, tamping each lift. The next-to-last lift should fill the hole to within an inch of the top. Tamp it as shown in Fig. 8.
• Now add more patching material, filling the hole and mounding it slightly above the surrounding surface. Tamp it down as firmly as you can. You can tamp it by hand or by repeatedly running your car’s tire over it (Fig. 9).
• Fill in any low areas with more cold-patch mix. Compact it until it’s even with the driveway surface.
• Allow the repaired area to cure for 12 to 36 hours before driving on it, and give it two to five days to cure before seal-coating the entire driveway.

All of this rain gives you an opportunity to give your garden a nice hearty drink without chipping away at your efforts to conserve water and save money. Maybe it is time you consider a rain barrel and begin collecting the runoff from your gutters that would otherwise go to waste and even hurt your landscaping and cause leaking around foundations?

Although any old 55-gallon drum or keg will do, there’s no reason to litter your yard with these unsightly relics. Instead, give your local water department a call because many towns and municipalities now offer water barrels free of charge to local residents in an effort to increase sustainability and decrease public water supply usage. Those that don’t often hold workshops on other ways to conserve water, or offer incentives to citizens willing to secure barrels on their own.

If you are into DIY projects you can even make your own rain collection system  for very short money. Just be sure you correctly position them underneath your gutters’ downspouts to maximize the collection of runoff during the next rainfall. But remember, even if you filter it first, the water you collect is better suited for drenching thirsty garden than satisfying a thirsty throat.

If you’d rather just buy a rain barrel, there are some really neat ones available online at www.aquabarrel.com

Good luck!

Collecting water from the sky to be used on the ground.

We have seen a significant increase in finished basements being used as living rooms and bedrooms especially as families become more extended due in part to the current financial situation. Therefore, using this usually reserved storage space for living areas can result in problems that can be both annoying and uncomfortable humidity, but can also cause significant health problems for those who live and spend time in them. Mildew and mold can easily occur and flourish in damp areas as well as in carpets and upholstery. Completing a basement before taking the actual water issues, if any, present can easily lead to the creation of health problems and/or substantial damage to the building itself. Well then, where does the water come from?

If the area near the foundation is not level or slopes toward the house, it is most likely that the water will be directed towards the foundation and into the basement. Often the earthen floor next to the house’s foundation is filled without proper compaction and/or drainage plans. To correct this one needs to grade the earth around the house away from the foundation wall, not less than one inch per foot for at least six feet.

Gutters and downspouts are also very important to keeping water out of the basement living space. These systems keep the water from running down the side of the house and pooling around the foundation followed by seeping into the basement. It is important to keep the downspouts emptying far enough away from the home so that this water penetration is less likely to occur.  There are other components to keeping the basement dry but they fall outside of the scope of this author’s technical and practical skillset. However, you can find this information quite easily on the world wide web.  Stay dry this spring and keep your property protected as well!

Oil prices surged to the highest level in a year and a half recently, after data showed the United States added the most jobs in three years, boosting prospects for economic recovery in the top oil consumer. However, The GutterBrush Guys, LLC. are able to hold their prices steady for the very important and active gutter protection Spring and Fall months.

No matter the size of your  business the costs involved in the preparation of estimates for prospective clients are significant. They can also take up a considerable amount of time and effort adding even more to your cost of doing business. While charging for an estimate as a means of getting back some of the initial outlay in resources is not a best practice, eliminating the inefficiencies and waste by utilizing available technology can result in less expenditures of finite resources.

This is where utilizing Google Street View may be very beneficial. How so? That is an excellent question.

First,  you can usually see what the street was like and if parking was available. This allows for proper planing to assure an on time arrival which is a great way to start off the relationship with the potential client. Second, it often allows visibility into the type of property where the estimate is going to be made. This also allows for some strategic planning prior to arrival on scene. Third, if you are in the roofing industry this technology often allows you to see exactly which type of roof is present on the property as well as other important roofing variables needed to make a sound estimate. This information can allow you to be prepared to offer a customized estimate to the potential client without having to take unnecessary time to do so due to already having knowledge of the roof type. Fourth,  you can often determine obvious structural defects from the photos available. Again, this type of due diligence saves you time on site but also helps you to project a very professional image. Fifth, using this technology allows you to be completely prepared in terms of what equipment you will need to make the best estimate possible. For example, Google Street View may allow you to determine what size ladder(s) may be needed to make an inspection/estmate. Finally, this technology allows you to capture an image of the property for any client files you may be keeping for the estimate and any subsequent work.

I suggest you give this technology a look to see if you can implement it to make a very positive impression on your prospective clients.

According to recent survey results gleaned from the National Governors Association the already fragile conditions of states’ economies are set to further weaken. Vermont Governor Jim Douglas suggests that,“The situation is fairly poor for a lot of states around the country. In fact, most states. What we’re finding out from a fiscal standpoint is that the worst is yet to come”. “Economists have declared the national recession over. But for those who are still unemployed, for those who have lost their homes, it’s clear that as a nation we have a long way to go.”

This recent survey suggests that the states have $18.8 billion of budget gaps yet to be closed in fiscal 2010. This comes after they have already imposed measures to eliminate budget imbalances totaling $87 billion in the fiscal year, which for most started during the summer of 2009. All the while the budgets currently being drafted for fiscal 2011, states foresee shortfalls of $53.6 billion and for fiscal 2012 $61.6 billion while at the same time states’ revenues have plummeted for four quarters in a row.

What is most interesting in these in these most challenging times is that all states except for one, Vermont, are required to balance their budgets, so during the recession they have drastically cut spending on basic programs, laid off workers and boosted revenue through raising taxes and fees.

Airport body scanning raises radiation exposure while using gutterbrush simple gutter guards does not. Because safety is always a priority in our pursuits and because we travel a bit we wanted to share the risks associated with airport body screening.

An inter-agency report (Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety report, which is restricted to the agencies concerned and not meant for public circulation) stated that  governments must explain any decision to expose the public to higher levels of cancer-causing radiation while also suggesting that pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, even though the radiation dose from body scanners is “extremely small”. The group putting this report forward includes the European Commission, International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Energy Agency and the World Health Organization.

Please keep in mind that an accurate assessment about the health risks of the screening won’t be possible until governments decide whether all passengers will be systematically scanned or randomly selected, the report said. Governments must justify the additional risk posed to passengers, and should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.” However, President Obama has suggested using upwards of $734 million to implement airport scanners that use x-rays and other technology to detect explosives, guns and other contraband.

“There is little doubt that the doses from the backscatter x-ray systems being proposed for airport security purposes are very low,” Health Protection Agency doctor Michael Clark said by phone from Didcot, England. “The issue raised by the report is that even though doses from the systems are very low, they feel there is still a need for countries to justify exposures.” So what is the risk?

Most of the scanners deliver less radiation than a passenger is likely to receive from cosmic rays while airborne, the report said. Scanned passengers may absorb from 0.1 to 5 microsieverts of radiation compared with 5 microsieverts on a flight from Dublin to Paris and 30 microsieverts between Frankfurt and Bangkok, the report said. A sievert is a unit of measure for radiation.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has said that it ordered 150 scanners from OSI Systems Inc.’s Rapiscan unit and will buy an additional 300 imaging devices this year. The agency currently uses 40 machines, which cost $130,000 to $170,000 each, produced by L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. at 19 airports including San Francisco, Atlanta and Washington D.C. Oddly enough the U.S. TSA has not ordered a single linear foot of gutter protection such as gutterbrush to protect their gutters at airports across the United States.

This will never happen with gutterbrush simple gutter guards