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The Hingmy - Home improvement

Tank style Water Heater Maintenance
by Lorenz Prem on 03-11-2010 9:28 pm

The enemy of all steel tank water heaters isrust. Eventually all of them develop a leak somewhere.

1) Flush the water heater

Debris collects at the bottom of your water heater. Impuritiesin the water, rust from the tank walls, and particles carried infrom the piping system all settle at the bottom.

If left in heater for years, this debris can cause your heaterto fail prematurely. To ensure your heater reaches it's maximumservice life, you have to flush the debris from the water heateronce a year.

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Home Maintenance Checklist
by Lorenz Prem on 03-11-2010 9:05 pm

New homeowners often do not understand how allthe systems in their house work. Most systems need littlemaintenance. Some, however, can cause major damage when they break.This list details the essential items a homeowner should check on ayearly basis. Rather than listing everything that can go wrong orbreak, this list concentrates on high value items.

1) Change your furnace filter regularly:

In rare cases a clogged air filter can lead to a cracked heatexchanger and an expensive furnace repair.

2) Change the

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How to paint your House
by Lorenz Prem on 01-15-2010 8:55 pm

Painting the outside of our homes is somethingwe all dread. Hiring a painter is expensive, and it's a lot ofwork. You can do this yourself for relatively little money. Paintand supplies are not going to add up to the thousands of dollarspainters are charging. The high price tag comes from the amount ofwork required to get the job done. You have to be prepared to spenda couple of weekends painting.

Two story homes make the work much harder to do. An extensionladder is often all you need, but the work becomes a hassle. Makesure all

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Masonary raised Planting Bed
by Lorenz Prem on 01-14-2010 10:06 pm

Raised planting beds made from brick have manyadvantages. They last practically forever and the stone does notreact with the soil. Building one is not hard, but requires a lotof work. The materials involved are heavy.

The exact quantity depends on the size of your planting bed.

1) Begin by digging a trench along thefoundation of the planting bed. The trench needs to be at least 15inches deep and about a shovel width wide (10"). A bit more or lesswon't matter.

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Hot to fix low pressure problems at a single faucet or shower head
by Lorenz Prem on 11-03-2009 6:45 pm

All fresh water pipes in your home eventuallyclog. Deposits and debris in the water build up on the inner wallsof the pipe until the flow of water slows to trickle. This isnormal. All pipes will have to be replaced eventually. You canprolong the life of your pipes using the back pressure trick.Plumbers have used it for ages.

The idea is to make the water in the pipe flow the other way.This generates back pressure. Most often this will dislodge atleast some of the buildup in your pipes. Eventually, however, thistrick will no longer wor

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How to get rid of bees, wasps, and hornets
by Lorenz Prem on 10-24-2009 12:14 am

Getting rid of bee, wasp, and hornet nests iswithin the reach of a careful and smart homeowner. These insectscan be dangerous, but do not have to be. Firstand foremost you have to worry about personal safety. Peopleallergic to venom should not attempt to handle insects. Whenapproaching a nest, always have an escape route. For yourself, andanyone else present. Don't approach the nest from a vulnerableposition, like a ladder or the roof. Make sure you can run. Alwaysprepare for the worst case scenario.

If you h

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Why do gutters need to be cleaned?
by Lorenz Prem on 10-17-2009 5:11 pm

To most home owners it's a surprise that guttersneed to be cleaned. They accumulate all sorts of debris. Most firstfalls on the roof and makes its way from there into the gutters.The downspout clogs, and before you know it the gutter isoverflowing.

Clogged gutters trap water near the foundation

Overflowing gutters a the number one cause for wet basements.Your roof funnels water that would normally fall on the whole areayour roof covers to a limited number of drains. If one of thoseoverflows, the water finds it way int

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How to unclogg a Drain or Toilet
by Lorenz Prem on 10-15-2009 6:17 pm

So you have a clog. Water is backing up intoyour toilet or sink. It's Thanksgiving day. You can't get a hold ofa plumber. The prices the plumber charges are exorbitant. We haveall been there. This post provides step by step instructions forunclogging the drain yourself; or at least do the simple stuffyourself before you call in the heavy guns.

The following steps should be done in order. They start with thesimplest steps. The further you progress the more work you have todo and the messier the process gets.

1) Cle

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Installing a Jackshaft Garage Door Opener
by Lorenz Prem on 10-11-2009 6:56 pm

I decided to install a garage door opener on thenew doors I installed earlier this summer. A conventional garagedoor opener cannot be installed in my garage. A beam sits right inthe path of the track.

Liftmaster 3800

I did some research and found the Liftmaster 3800 jackshaftopener (

  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
  • Chapter 6
  • Chapter 7
  • Chapter 8
  • Chapter 9
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Removing moss from my roof
by Lorenz Prem on 05-13-2009 7:05 pm

I had to work on my roof this spring. Theweather here in the Northwest makes moss grow everywhere. Ineglected my roof for a couple of years. The moss was growingthick.

Removal begins with getting rid the big growths of moss. I havea tar shingle roof like so many homes in America have. This type ofroof cannot be pressure washed. Doing so would blow off thegranules embedded in the tar. This will ruin your roof right thenand there. You can pressure wash a metal roof, but moss does notgrow on metal roofs. Wood shingles can also be pr

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