{"id":301,"date":"2013-10-04T15:27:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T15:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/?p=301"},"modified":"2013-10-04T15:27:55","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T15:27:55","slug":"water-water-everywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/04\/water-water-everywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Water, Water Everywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s like clockwork:\u00a0 The weather changes to cool and wet and a flood of calls ensues.\u00a0 Furnaces are on the fritz, drains are clogged and the drip drip drip of a mystery leak threatens to push an otherwise calm and collected homeowner to the brink.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely autumn, so it\u2019s time to arm yourself against the onslaught.\u00a0 Consider these steps that you may want to tackle over the next few weeks:<\/p>\n

Schedule a tune-up of your furnace or boiler.\u00a0 You need a whole season\u2019s worth of action out of them, so make sure they\u2019re running well and have new filters as needed.<\/p>\n

Check weatherstripping around all your doors.\u00a0 If you can see daylight from the inside, you either need to adjust or replace the weatherstripping.<\/p>\n

Take a nice walk all the way around the outside of your home, and look carefully at every last inch of siding, windows and wood trim.\u00a0 We\u2019ve visited several homes in the last month where a quick walk outside revealed dry-rotted window trim and sills, delaminating window sashes and a lack of flashing at critical places in the building envelope.\u00a0 These are the places that water considers an invitation to come inside, and once water makes it past your building envelope, it can cause dry rot, dampen insulation and fuel mold growth. \u00a0If you\u2019re not sure how bad it is, take a photo and email us so that we can take a look.<\/p>\n

Find all your hose bibbs.\u00a0 If they\u2019re not frost-free, this is a good time to cover them so that they don\u2019t freeze.\u00a0 If you\u2019d like a long-term maintenance solution for this, you can replace the old-school hose bibbs with frost-free ones for a relatively small investment.<\/p>\n

Look under your deck and at visible post bases for signs of rot.\u00a0 Deteriorating posts can cause your deck to sink, sometimes dangerously.\u00a0 Railing posts can pose a problem too, particularly if they are installed on an impervious surface, like a roof over living space.\u00a0\u00a0 Make repairs before you find a leak inside your home.\"rotten<\/a><\/p>\n

Check for wood-dirt contact.\u00a0 The rule of thumb is that there should be 6\u201d of vertical space between wood on your home and the dirt below.\u00a0 If you have buried siding or framing, dig down at least until the wood is no longer touching dirt.\u00a0 Any non-pressure-treated wood that has continuous contact with dirt will eventually rot because of water wicking from dirt into the wood.\u00a0 The same thing can happen at connections between dormers and roof where siding touches the roofing below.<\/p>\n

Snake those drains.\u00a0 Finally, make sure all exterior drains are working well.\u00a0 In many homes, gutters drain into downspouts and tightlines which drain to the sewer or the street.\u00a0 If the tightlines are clogged, that can cause water to pool and drain alongside your foundation, which can lead to water problems in your basement.\u00a0 Gutters and exterior drains, like ones at the entrance to a garage, can also become blocked by silt and debris, causing a backup.\u00a0 Best bet is to have the drains snaked and gutters completely cleared before there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t forget your flashlight.\u00a0 Keeping a stock of batteries just in case is good practice, since you never know when the power might go out.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s like clockwork:\u00a0 The weather changes to cool and wet and a flood of calls ensues.\u00a0 Furnaces are on the fritz, drains are clogged and the drip drip drip of a mystery leak threatens to push an otherwise calm and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ventanabuilds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}