Oven baked turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, rice, ham, cranberry sauce, biscuits, bread rolls, and the endless possibilities to choose from Christmas dinner deserts can often become the stuffing that clogs the plumbing in most households. Greasy items and food waste can build up and slow down kitchen drains and disposals. Here at Bay Area Fix It, we have noticed a 20% increase in plumbing calls during the holiday season in the Bay Area. In order to reduce plumbing issues we recommend the following:

Although it seems easy enough to just pour fats or cooking oils down the drain, we suggest, instead, wiping cookware with paper towels and disposing of the tissue in your trash can. This will lessen congestion of greasy clogged pipes. Regarding items such as poultry skins, celery, fruit and potato peels, do not put these items in your garbage disposal. They may not be sufficiently dissolved and cause clogging. Be sure to run cold water down the disposer for 15 seconds before and after using the garbage disposal as a means to wash any possible waste build up. As Christmas approaches, an easy prevention to clogged pipes is to purchase retail drain cleaning products and pour them down your kitchen and bathroom pipes. This should help clean out any debris that might be building up before you start adding Christmas leftovers down the drain.

From all of us here at Bay Area Fix It, Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday’s!!!

]]> http://www.bayareafixit.com/home-repair/christmas-stuffing-and-plumbing/feed 0 http://www.bayareafixit.com/home-repair/could-an-hvac-contractor-be-santa-claus-this-year http://www.bayareafixit.com/home-repair/could-an-hvac-contractor-be-santa-claus-this-year#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:54:14 +0000 bayareafixit http://www.bayareafixit.com/?p=554

Now that the holidays have started, as well as the cold season, we are all gearing up to enjoy the festive Christmas spirit. Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner. As a home owner or if you are a lucky tenant of an apartment suite that has a fire place, we encourage you to do a quick check of the functionality of your home’s heating unit. Nothing can bring a “Bah humbug” mood than having a heating system that’s not working.

Most city apartments now have electrical fireplaces eliminating problematic issues that come with the older wood burning fireplaces. But, electrical issues may arise. As for those with radiator heating systems, clogged air vents may stop the radiator from heating up or water blockage may cause banging noises as the radiator heats up. Regardless of the many problems that may arise, which may keep you from being toasty with your friends and family, calling an HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) contractor may just be the best gift you give yourself this year. These technicians can provide free estimates to diagnose heating problems within your home. Having your heating systems checked once a year should be sufficient in having a reliable source of heating during cold weather or for the holidays.

The best and most logical answer to this question should be to call an electrician if you yourself are not an electrician or are unsure of how to safely deal with any electrical problem you encounter in your home or office. The cost of hiring an electrician for a job, big or small, may save you from being sent to the hospital or worse.

But, at times, there are occurrences where people dare to be a self-certified electrician to handle a job such as changing a screw-in light bulb. In those cases, where the bulb is not shattered inside the socket or something more severe, and the bulb can easily be replaced, an electrician may not be needed. It is certainly advisable to consult an experienced electrician, and avoid all safety risks, for jobs that require circuit breakers to be repaired or replaced, installing new wiring for a lighting fixture upgrade, or to simply have a visual survey and inspection of your electrical panel.

As the holiday season gets closer, we tend to use more electricity than normal. This is a good reason to have an electrician diagnose any electrical issues you are concerned about that affected your Holiday spirit last year. It’s likely that you didn’t address those issues before because you were too busy shopping for gifts or cooking up a feast! Give yourself and your family a bright and colorful San Francisco Holiday this year by hiring a local Bay Area electrician to handle all your electrical needs. You never know, the electrician you hire might just be the team that wired the Christmas tree in downtown SF’s Union Square. A job well done!

We never take notice of the transition veterans endure going from combat gear back to a civilian life. For most veterans, it’s a transformation that comes with much pride as they re-enter the work force with well established training and skills.

For most people, a construction worker is perhaps considered as a trade’s man who has acquired quality skills over the years with little or no formal education. Although there are many well educated contractors out in the field, we tend to overlook or are ignorant of the portion of contractors who have had modern training from our various military branches (Army, Marines, and Navy). With each branch having a rigorous three + months of hands-on training ranging from construction management, planning, surveying to simple carpentry, architectural design, welding, and budgeting, our veteran service members are not lacking the knowledge or schooling to be fully licensed contractors. These troops are trained to work in teams as well as function as key individual personnel on any project site they have been assigned. With most military enlistment tours lasting four years or more, it is guaranteed that each service member has beyond adequate experience in being on a construction site.

So on this Veterans Day, and as you seek out a carpenter or specialty contractor to work on your project, ask if they are a military construction veteran. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see the honor in their response as they say, “Yes, Mam/Sir. I am!”

Whether or not you are a big fan of Halloween, your kids and the neighborhood thrill of dressing up as ghosts and goblins, or trick or treating itself, might just get you in the mood to try out a few fun ideas. To join in the fun do something different this year. For starters, you can explore these lighting ideas to give your place a San Franciscan haunting effect.

Black lights
Most costumes today have some type of glow-in-the-dark feature. Adding a black light to your porch or outside/inside area, will light up those on-coming zombies in a purplish glow. This in also puts an extra lighting effect on the glow-in-the-dark costumes.

Dimmer Switches
Changing your dimmable bulbs to a green or blue color will definitely give your room a spooky effect. By changing your bulbs to darker colors and dimming down the lights, you’ll get that gloomy-scary look inside or outside your home.

Glow sticks and Jack-O-Lanterns
Carve your Jack-O-Lantern into a terrifying man-eating beast. Inside the cavity of the pumpkin, place two similar colored glow stick lights to give the eyes of the Jack-O-Lantern a mystifying evil eye that’s almost life like!!

Try these simple, inexpensive lighting effects around the house this Halloween. Who knows it may just bring out the possessed Halloweener in you!

Words of caution, homes built before 1980 that have popcorn ceiling may contain asbestos. You should first consent your local building department and verify coding procedures concerning asbestos removal.

Dealing with popcorn ceiling can be a messy task. Clear the room of its contents and cover walls and floors as needed. The popcorn ceiling material will be scraped away and falling all over your furniture and floor if not covered or removed properly.

Use a pressure washer to apply water (mixed with a tea spoon of liquid detergent per gallon of water). This mix will soften the popcorn material and allow for easy removal. The material should now be moist enough to simply scrape away. Reapply detergent-water mixture to areas that are a bit more stubborn to scrape off.

Let us know if this post was useful in your project, and send us your questions or photos of your popcorn ceiling removal project.

Clean away any hanging or loose wallboard from the affected area. You can do this by pulling the drywall debris with your hands (be sure to wear protective gloves) or lightly sanding the edges in order to create a clean edge. Use joint tape or self-adhesive mesh tape in a crisscross section to cover the hole. Use a utility knife with an all-purpose joint compound and spread over the mesh tape. Apply a second coat of compound, allow it to dry and sand lightly. Place a third coat and re-sand making sure to level the compound to match the surrounding wall. Do not sand forcefully where mesh tape is exposed. If so, reapply mesh tape and compound, let it dry, and attempt to re-sand.

Once the hole and the mesh tape are not visible, and the compound is leveled to the surrounding drywall, prime and paint the affected area. Let us know if this post was helpful to you!

Tired of painting over old trim molding? Lying to yourself that fresh paint over old trim will make it look like new? Give your place a stylish look by installing new Victorian trim molding (or another trim molding design of your choice).

Replacing trim molding can be a delicate do-it-yourself task. You may first need to remove the base shoe, followed by the cap, then the base board. To remove the base shoe, use a flat pry bar. Do not apply heavy pressure but instead use leverage to push the base shoe from the base board. As each nail pops loose, move further along the molding until the shoe is free from the base. Be as gentle as possible to avoid scratching the floor surface that is immediately under the wood molding.

Do the same for the cap board, while being gentle and cautious so as not to damage the wallboard or plaster behind and around the cap molding.

Finally, using the same procedure, remove the loose board. REMINDER, do not forcefully move the board as it may damage the dry wall and cause bigger problems in patching those holes. Depending on the size and style of the trim molding you have chosen, you may need to do some light sanding and painting of the wall where the trims were placed. Your new molding maybe smaller in size; in which case you will need to repaint the exposed area.

Trim molding can be bought at hardware stores and cut to a specific size and measurement of your choice. Installing trim molding should not be as much of a problem as it is removing it. We’ll take a quick look at trim molding installation in the next few blogs to come….stay tuned!

Here is an easy do-it-yourself home repair trick. Ever wonder why your garage door squeaks or why it moves slowly when opening or closing?  It might be that it just needs a simple tune-up.

Lubricating the tracks, pulleys, and/or rollers can make a significant change to the way the garage door functions.  The lubricating oil can combat against rust or grinding dry metals.  Do not use grease as a lubricator as it may cause dust, dirt, and other debris to accumulate and cause further maintenance work.

This simple solution of adding lubricants can give extended life to your garage door.  It also prevents from having to replace the unit which can be very expensive and time consuming.

Whether you’re a home owner or a landlord, at some point or another you will be replacing the floor covering.  Naturally because they sustain more wear and tear than say your kitchen countertop.  The initial damage to your floor can lead to further problems in the near future.  For example, cracks in tiles can cause moisture to develop in the subfloor of the room. Or, you may be faced with hardwood floors becoming discolored and beginning to squeak.

Four common tell-tale signs that your flooring should be repaired are buckling wooden floors, loose tiles, air bubbles under tiles, and cracks in grout joints.  San Francisco is known for its Victorian style homes which are mostly constructed with hardwood floors.  Over time, hardwood floors become uneven and discolored.  The uneven planks maybe caused due to it becoming loose from the subfloors.  This causes the uneven, squeaky noise, or buckling  of woods floors.

Cracks in grout joints are problematic for ceramic tiles because the problems usually lie in the subfloor or slab where the tiles are set.  If there is a continuous crack running from one tile to the next, through the grout joint, the problem is most often in the subsurface-under the tiles.  Each tile with this problem must be replaced and a new tile installed.

Assuming the affected flooring area is small, you may be able to replace the floor on your own.  If not, do not hesitate to call a licensed, bonded, and insured tiling or wood flooring expert.