The GutterBrush Blog

International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

For more information about World Water Day visit http://www.worldwaterday2011.org/

We’ve heard back from quite a few GutterBrush customers that incorporate GutterBrush into their water re-use system. These customer use rain barrels to collect water their roof to be re-used in gardening and etc. It turns out that GutterBrush makes the process much easier by keeps leaves and debris out of the gutter and therefore out of their rain barrels.

We thank those customers for letting us know about their efforts to make a difference in our world and how our product assisted them in doing it.

Please enter your comments here on how you conserve or reuse water.

This is the time of year when a cold snap can come in anytime and catch you by surprise if your home is not yet prepped for winter.  Here are nine things to check in preparing your home for the coming winter season.

1. Heating System: Your home’s heating system is the front line of defense in keeping your home warm. You need to make sure the furnace or boiler is working before you need it.
2. Air Conditioner: Your window air conditioner or central air conditioner condensing unit needs a little prepping too in order to make it through the winter. You need to prepare the condensing unit for storage including cleaning our leaves and covering the condenser.
3. Chimney and Fireplace: A wood burning fireplace and chimney can be a major source of cold air leaks and other issues in winter. Make sure to check and inspect your fireplace, including making sure the flue operates properly and checking your firebrick.
4. Plumbing: Burst pipes from freezing can cause some of the most expensive repairs in the home. Make sure you protect your plumbing from freezing with techniques such as heating and insulating your pipes. It is also critically important to remove your hoses from any outside faucets.
5. Insulation: The simple process of insulating can reduce energy costs. this includes getting an insulating blanket for your water heater, foam sealing gaskets for outlets and blocking fireplace drafts with a piece of fiberglass insulation.
6. Weather-stripping: An easy way to reduce you heating bill from infiltration is to reduce these drafts of doors and windows with simple weather-stripping.
7. Roof and Gutters: Check your roof and gutters for leaves and debris. Frozen wet leaves in gutters are major source of damage. Protect your gutters with a gutter protection system like GutterBrush.
   
8. Sprinkler System: Another key element of your home winterization plan is winterizing your sprinkler system to prevent your lines from bursting.
9. Landscape: Lastly comes preparing your landscape and equipment for the winter including outdoor deck, furniture and lawn equipment preparation.

By taking a few hours and preparing your home for winter you can get closer to a trouble free winter and just sit back and enjoy the scenery!

In Los Angeles, CA all new homes, larger developments and some redevelopments will be required by law to capture and reuse water runoff generated by any rain producing storms. This ordinance will require such projects to capture, reuse or infiltrate 100% of runoff generated in a .75″ rainstorm or to pay a storm water pollution fine that would offset the cost of funding  low-impact public developments. This is an interesting and novel approach to offsetting the negative effects of large scale urbanization by minimizing runoff at its source with small, cost-effective natural systems instead of large and very costly treatment facilities. The process of reducing runoff improves water quality and recharges groundwater while in Los Angeles it will prevent 104 million gallons of polluted urban runoff from ending up in the ocean. The quality of the runoff water can be greatly increased by utilizing gutter protection systems that also act as filtration systems such as GutterBrush simple gutter guards. Clean runoff water can be used in ways that greatly reduce the usage of fresh water. Will the splash in LA be enough to carry over to other states, cities, and towns?

It may be hard to believe but it will take a team of 36 window cleaners carrying electrolyte packs and wearing specialized clothing resembling moon suits three months to wash the new 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The building, which was initially to be named the Burj Dubai, stands at 206 stories tall, reaching half a mile into the sky. While most visitors will look out from the skyscraper to admire the view of the Arabian desert below, the window cleaning crews will be looking back in. A team of 36 cleaners, mostly made up of migrant workers, have been employed to man 12 state-of-the-art machines that travel along tracks fixed to the exterior of the building while its windows are washed. It is a daunting task, but someone has to do it. I wonder if it had gutters (not much need for gutters in the desert and more than 2000 feet above the ground) who would clean them and install gutter protection?