Home Services

You rely on your air conditioner to keep your home cool and comfortable when it’s hot and steamy outside. But what happens when your house is humid with the AC on, leading to excess moisture in the air? Isn’t your AC supposed to take care of that?

Adding some warmth to your home through the winter can keep your space cozy and comfortable. Many people opt for a furnace blower to help push the hot air through the house effectively. While this is a great solution to heat a home, sometimes the furnace blower can become quite loud. Fixing a furnace blower yourself is possible for the technical and savvy DIY homeowner.

Back when I lived in a different apartment (erm, warehouse), there was a short period of time when my water ran yellow. A call to my landlord fixed it. Afterward, I heard about the Flint water crisis and realized that contaminated water isn’t always an easy fix. Who should tenants blame when water is unfit to drink?

If you’re getting rid of your 50-gallon old-fashioned water heater and choosing to go with a tankless heater instead, congratulations! You’ll be saving a lot of space.

Apartment buildings have taken over much of the United States and currently house millions of people across the country. What many people don’t think about is that every single apartment has to get their plumbing and electricity from somewhere. So, how does the plumbing work in an apartment building, and where does it come from?

Furnaces are designed not only to warm your house and make it comfortable, but also to be as safe as possible. One of the safety functions every furnace has is a flame rollout switch, which will trip and stop the furnace when something is wrong. You must reset the flame rollout switch to make the furnace work again, but some homeowners wonder if they can bypass it.

Your furnace is a complicated piece of equipment. There are various components working in unison at all times and when one of them goes bad, it is imperative to identify the problem in short order. The last thing that you want is for your furnace to continue failing, leading to bigger and more expensive repairs.

When you install a furnace in your home, you expect it to run for long periods of time. This is especially true when you’re still working on making your home warm. This includes the furnace blower as well. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

It is quite exciting when you and your partner decide to take your relationship to the next level and move in with each other. When two people in a relationship decide to move in together there are many logistics to cover. The most important thing to consider, perhaps, is where you two will live.

As millions of people in the U.S. and worldwide have found, rats are a big problem. They eat human food, destroy their belongings, and act as all-around pests to people everywhere. Many people resort to rat poison in an attempt to get rid of their rat problem.

Proper planning is critical when installing appliances. If you rush the initial planning, you risk creating more problems in the future. Especially when it comes to propane furnaces, your initial blueprint is essential. There are many reasons to chooses a propane furnace. Some people don’t live close enough to town for natural gas. Others might be looking to replace an old propane furnace. Regardless, if you wonder which areas of the house are appropriate for installation, you’ve come to the right place.

When you receive a letter from your landlord certified mail you may automatically think the worst. Certified mail can mean the start of the eviction process, sure. However, there are a variety of reasons a landlord may want to use this USPS service to send you information.

If there were a battle between a bed bug vs. tick, there would be no true winner.  With either of these in your life, you would be the sore loser. They both have unique qualities but prove to be more of pests than helpful, even in the bug world.

Do you want to own a home, but are you frustrated by high real estate prices? Maybe you’ve considered buying a mobile home. These economical houses are quick to make but take a little longer to get set up before they’re move-in ready.

House hunting very well could be one of the most exciting yet stressful times of your life. You’re making a huge decision, spending a lot of money, and in many cases, you’re taking a lot on faith. This sliver of uncertainty is why it’s so important to look for red flags when buying a home.

Whether you’re getting older or helping aging parents consider their next steps, selling a home could be on the horizon. Sometimes, where you live doesn’t fit as well with your lifestyle as it once did, so it makes sense to move. Before posting a for sale sign, consider the reasons that signal it’s time for seniors to sell their homes.

The continued boom of home security options has made it easier and easier to keep a home safe, and the owner informed. Smart technology allows you to see who is ringing your doorbell with a video on your cell phone.

Many people live in a dry climate (hello, desert) or experience dry seasons (I’m looking at you, winter). To mitigate the effects of this dry air, many people often use humidifiers in their homes. Instead of having one for each room that requires daily refilling, what if you had one for the whole house?

It is normal for a furnace or air conditioner to make noises, but it can be disconcerting. Banging sounds that come from your furnace are common, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a good thing. So, why is it that your furnace makes a banging noise when it shuts off?

Being evicted for calling the police may sound unlikely, but unfortunately, it’s something that happens somewhat frequently. You might wonder whether these evictions can only happen if the police are called without a legitimate reason. In reality, it depends on your local laws and whether a nuisance ordinance is in place.

Bed bugs can turn every moment in your house into a waking nightmare, and that’s no exaggeration. Not only are their bites uncomfortable, but you cannot eradicate them easily, and they reproduce quickly. It’s even worse to deal with bed bugs when you are about to move. So, will bed bugs follow you if you move?

Unfortunately, it is often more challenging to get a bee out of your house than it is for them to get in. Bees can infiltrate your home by crawling into spaces that are less than half their entire size. Having a bee in your house can be a major cause for concern, especially if you have small children pets, or inhabitants that are allergic to bees.

For the uninitiated, knowing the difference between propane and natural gas may be confusing. There are different units that can use different types of gas and mixing the two needs to be understood before implementation.

Your home’s water pressure is not something you typically notice until it’s off. It’s only when you get into the shower and see that you’re barely getting water that you realize there’s a problem. In some cases, the issue may also be excessively high water pressure.

Whether you’re buying or selling a house, it’s essential to have it appraised. The appraisal process is one wherein an appraiser checks certain aspects of your home to find its value. You may need an appraisal to buy a house, sell a house, or refinance it. No matter the reasoning, you need to understand how much it will cost to have your home appraised.

Homeowners are always looking for ways to add value to their properties. With nearly  140 million housing units in the U.S., the home industry is booming, including construction and electrical services.

Honeywell makes some of the most dependable and popular options for thermostats on the market. Ranging from basic models to smart thermostats, Honeywell has a plethora of offerings that their customers have been using for years.

If you ask many cultures of the world, bleach is the wonder cleaner. It’s super popular in Eastern Europe, and it also happens to be a Midwestern mainstay. It’s not just for cleaning tile, either. Many people use bleach to kill vermin, too. Fleas are one of the many pests alleged to be killable by bleach. Does it work?

Air conditioners are incredibly complex machines, which is why most people will immediately throw their hands up in the air and give up when they suddenly stop working. However, it’s not a smart thing to do. In many cases, your AC unit probably has a fairly fixable cause. If it’s a blown fuse, you can fix it in minutes. But, how can you tell if it’s actually a blown fuse?

Talking about plumbing and drains, in particular, involves a host of letter designations. Figuring out what these letter designations mean and how to use them in drain and water plumbing can get confusing? Exactly what are J-Traps and P-Traps?

Depending on where you live, a functioning air conditioner can either be a convenient feature or an absolute necessity. Whatever the case, it’s important to know what to look for when buying one for your home.

Utility bills are a fact of life for most adults. They vary in price and frequency but it can sometimes feel like bills roll in nonstop. It may come as a shock then, when your landlord does not send you any utility bills. 

When people think about mobile homes, they don’t ever really assume they’ll see them traveling or that they’ll be mobile. To a point, it’s easy to see why. It usually costs a lot of money to move a mobile home to another lot—especially since mobile home lots will ask you to pay for their right to move there.

If your toilet is leaking, it can quickly create a disaster in a bathroom. Not only can a leaky toilet create a problematic situation in your bathroom, leading to mold and mildew, but it can be costly to waste water, which can cause sky-high utility bills. Luckily, most toilet leaks are easy to identify and simple to repair, requiring just a few standard tools that most DIY homeowners have.

It’s hard to miss the smell of sulfur; the scent is quite distinct and unpleasant. The smell is even more unpleasant when it’s in your neighborhood and even your home. So, why does my neighborhood smell like sulfur?

Moving in to a new place is very exciting. It is an opportunity to decorate a new space and reorganize your life. Once you pass the application process and get the keys to your new place you may think you have everything you need. 

Air conditioning, also referred to as cooling, is more intricate than heating. With heating, energy is used to create heat, whereas, air conditioning systems use energy to remove heat. While you may know how to turn on your air conditioning, do you know which type that you have? Although conventional air conditioning systems are what first comes to mind when you think of cooling, there are other alternatives that use less energy.

You may notice that the AC in your home is not cooling as well as you think it should. The filters are new, the evaporator coil is clean, and the blower fan is working as well as ever. Inspecting the condensing unit outside leads you to a question. Which way should the fan on the condensing unit spin?

Moths are among the most unique and fascinating insects, but it’s not fun when you find them in your home. They fly around erratically and often look like colorless butterflies to the uninitiated, and that can frighten any homeowner. There are over 160,000 species of moths, but 10 of them are specifically none to live around households.

Involving a third party in any sort of deal can seem overwhelming and almost like it’s an unnecessary step. While some people prefer to have an agent, some would love to forgo that whole process. So, if you decide to forgo an agent, are you able to contact the seller of a house directly?

Back when I used to have to get up early for school, I’d pour hot water on my car’s glass to get the ice off. It didn’t take too long for a crack to develop. I still occasionally use hot water on frozen items as a way to speed-defrost, even if it’s not a good idea. I’ve even done it with heat pumps. But, should anyone really try this on something as delicate as a heat pump?

Termite fumigation uses chemicals that penetrate walls to kill unreachable termites, so will termite fumigation kill rats in the walls too? The fumigation process is an effective option, but it can be disruptive to your everyday life as it is lethal for mammals. It requires you to make preparations inside your home and stay out of it for a certain amount of time.

When it’s summer, there are few parts of your home that will be as cherished as your AC unit. Unfortunately, this is one of the most common times when you’ll face a blown air conditioner capacitor. While it’s a quick fix (all you have to do is replace the capacitor), you still need to find the supplies to make it happen. But where on earth do you find an air conditioner capacitor?

Heating and cooling are two of the most vital aspects of a home. While it may seem like the obvious answer is to go with central, ductless heating and cooling, that isn’t necessarily an option for everyone.

When you face replacing the major components of your HVAC system, new technologies can offer some interesting options. Heat pumps have been around for years. With the introduction of the residential geothermal system, a lot of confusion has resulted. Many homeowners wonder about the differences between a geothermal and an air-to-air heat pump.

A major plumbing issue can come out of nowhere and completely derail your day. It’s often bad enough that the issue even exists. If you are renting your apartment and a plumbing issue happens, you may have an even larger headache. You might be confused about what you are supposed to do when you are not the owner. Some might even wonder who exactly is responsible for the plumbing repairs in your rental?

HVAC systems have become indispensable. After all, an HVAC system will provide cool air indoors when it’s hot outside, and then make a room warm and toasty when the temperature outside drops.

Of all the components within your furnace, there are a couple that are vastly more important than the others. When one of those components gets worn down or stops working, it can mean the difference between a comfortable home and having to be huddled up in blankets in your own home.

The tenant-landlord relationship has many working parts. That also means in many cases, issues of clarity, responsibility, and terms are involved. One of those areas of concern becoming more prevalent today is the issue of power, namely electric versus solar power. For homes and landlords who use solar energy, that inevitably results in billing questions. One of the most common questions is does a tenant have to pay the solar bill if the home uses solar panels?

Your new HVAC system is installed and running smoothly. However, you notice when the AC runs, there is a trickle of water from a pipe into a floor drain in the HVAC closet. Your HVAC technician explained the drain collects the condensate from the coils when the AC runs. Shouldn’t the drain have a vent like the other drains in the house?

Do you have a mice problem? If not addressed quickly, a mice infestation in the home can become a serious nuisance.  Fortunately, you don’t have to rush to a local retailer and buy mice traps that could be harmful to your young children or pets. Instead, there are a number of natural ways to rid your home of these pesky rodents. Aluminum foil is frequently featured online as an anti-rodent “life hack.”

Laws, traditions, and common sense act as the guideposts that dictate and clarify many areas of the tenant-landlord relationship. Unfortunately, however, many areas of the tenant-landlord relationship aren’t so clearly defined.

You know that buying a home is likely the biggest purchase you’ll make in your lifetime. But the cost extends far beyond the purchase price of your new house. Before you jump into home ownership, understand the hidden costs to make sure you’re not biting off more than you can chew.

Your air conditioner, whether it is a small window unit or a large central unit, is a complicated piece of equipment. There are many components within it that, should they stop working, can derail the entire unit from working properly.

When I was about 20, I lived in a gutted warehouse in Newark for a while. I had no furniture and slept on an airbed. The place was so grimy, we still had bed bugs, rats, centipedes, mice, and roaches. When I told my landlord, he gave us bed bug powder. Did it work? Well…Let me tell you my experience and advice.

Your home is comprised of many different components, all of which play an essential role in how it functions. One of the most critical parts of your home that often goes unnoticed is the plumbing system. The pipes that make up a plumbing system go bad and need to be repiped from time to time.

Your air conditioner is a real savior in the hottest months. One AC unit can turn a completely unbearable sunrise into a pleasant morning in bed under the covers. There is so much to be thankful for when it comes to having the modern convenience of temperature and humidity control. But sometimes air conditioners are very loud. In fact, an AC unit can get so loud, it is hard to concentrate on anything else. But how do you quiet a noisy air conditioner?

Wasps are lean, mean, and ready to sting you and ruin your time in the garden. They wreak havoc on countless homeowners during the spring and summer. The average homeowner would do anything to keep wasps away. Understandably, many people struggle with how to get rid of wasps.

Running toilets are toilets that continuously cycle through water, and they’re a pest. A typical running toilet can waste as much as 200 gallons of water per day. When you hear that running noise echoing from your bathroom, you might be wondering if it can cause a flood. You might be surprised at the answer.

Trying to obtain a permit can be tricky for homeowners, especially when you don’t know if you need one or not. While you often need permits for large construction projects, what about smaller jobs, like replacing certain components? It can be hard to determine if you need a permit to replace a furnace?