Archive for January, 2017

Reading Worn-out Tire Treads

Reading Worn out Tire TreadsReading Worn out Tire Treads can be critical to your safety while driving your car. A worn-out tire can blow at any time, especially at high speeds. The tire will heat up causing the pressure to increase and pop goes the tire. A flat tire at high speeds can be quite dangerous and cause loss of control. If it leads to an accident, your life may be in danger. Take a look at all of your tires and take the appropriate action as needed before you have a catastrophic accident. Each check may cost some money but your tires will last longer and you just may avoid an accident.

Reading Worn out Tire Treads

Here are a few of the items that you should consider when reading worn-out tire treads.

Alignment – if your tire is wearing on one side or the other it usually means that your alignment is out and needs to be adjusted.

Overinflation – is indicated if the tire is wearing in the middle of the tire. Check your tires for over inflation especially during hot weather. High-speed travel also heats up your tires and can lead to over inflation.

Under Inflation – causes the tire to wear on both sides of the tire. Check your tires every week to ensure that they are not too low in cold weather. Tires lose pressure in cold weather.

Chopped or uneven wear – may indicate that your suspension needs to be adjusted or even have the shocks replaced. Poor shocks will allow the car to bounce and also the tire.

For much more information about tires and tire maintenance, click here.


Common Sense Car Tips for Your Car in Winter

Common Sense Car Tips for Your Car in WinterIt is the middle of winter as this post is being composed. It is very cold where we live and there is lots of snow. Fortunately our car starts easily every day because we have taken care of it. Good maintenance and common sense use can make a huge difference regarding how your car runs. Here are some Common Sense Car Tips for Your Car in Winter. Getting it started is one of the first items of concern on a really cold day. That’s why we focus on the battery to begin with.

Common Sense Car Tips for Your Car in Winter

Batteries – lose power as it gets colder and they get older. If your battery is approaching 3 years or more or it is really cold there are a couple of steps you can take to help it start your car. A battery warmer in extreme cold weather is a great investment. Storing your car indoors also helps. Although it is expensive, replacing your battery after 4 years will probably save you a great deal of frustration. A well-tuned car also helps.

Let it warm up – once it is started allows the engine to heat the oil in the engine and the transmission. It will flow better and lubricate all of the important areas before you place the engine under load. It will also be warmer in the car when you do get in.

Remove frozen junks from wheel wells – it builds up with all of the slush on the road. If you allow it to fall off on its own, there is a good chance it will damage the wheel wells or the underside of the car.

Tire Pressure drops – during cold weather. You will lose control and traction with low-pressure tires. Check them on a regular basis and top up as needed.

Windshield wipers break – during freezing rain situations or water dripping down the windshield as it melts from the heater.  When you park your car, lift them up so that they will not freeze to the windshield.

Be careful with windshield washer bibs – as you are scraping the ice off the windshield. They become brittle during cold weather and easily broken as you are scraping ice and slush from the windshield.

For more ways to save money along with car maintenance ideas, click here.


Removing Popcorn Ceilings

removing popcorn ceilingsThe traditional method of removing popcorn ceilings is the one shown in the picture. Basically the ceiling is sprayed with water, allowed to soak for awhile and then you scrape it off the ceiling. You end up with a large mess on the floor. It gets into everything and takes time to clean up afterword. There are several other approaches that we have come across which will save you both time and money if you hire someone to do this work for you.

Removing Popcorn Ceilings – Shop Vac

One method is to spray the ceiling lightly with water as before, but then use a shop vac while you are scraping the ceiling. Take a 6 inch scraper or spackle knife and tape it to your shop vac as shown in the picture. As you scrape the ceiling everything is sucked into the shop vac. Clean up is much removing popcorn ceilingseasier and all you need to do is empty the contents of the shop vac into a garbage bag.

Make sure that the scraper width is narrower than the width of the shop vac wand. This will avoid any of the popcorn material going onto the floor. Your removal and cleanup time will be shorter by hours and there will be no mess on the floor to clean up! Well at least there will be less mess to clean up after you are done.

These jobs can be completed by professionals in much less time than you will take, but is it worth it. You can save hundreds of dollars doing lots of jobs like this one yourself.

For more posts about remodeling jobs in your home, click here.

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Handyman Hiring Guide

Whether you are hiring a contractor or a handyman to complete some type of work around your home, a handyman hiring guide is a useful tool to prevent frustration and increased expenses. We have called this post a handyman hiring guide, but you can apply this to any situation where you hire someone to do some work for you. It is short and just makes common sense. It could save you a lot of time, frustration and money if you hire someone following these common sense rules.

Handyman Hiring Guide

Write down on paper exactly what you want to have completed.

Select all materials or at lease as many as you can in advance to reduce or eliminate assumptions and overhead costs that might be added later.

Verify that the contractor knows what he is doing and has the experience. Ask for references and talk to those references as well.

Do not pay in advance for any work or materials unless it is special order. Materials should always be in your name and delivered to your address rather than the contractors.

All agreements should be in writing, clearly specified and initialed by both parties. Changes should be discussed in advance, costed and agreed to in advance. No surprises.

For more repair information and posts about maintaining your home, click here.


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