Worthington Ohio real estate

If you are a new home buyer, I'd like remind you that it's time to call your HVAC professional to have your furnace checked and serviced.

Preventative maintenance can help prolong the life of your furnace.

You should change the furnace filter yourself every 30 days as well.

Before you turn your furnace on for the first time this fall, have a professional company come out to service and clean your furnace. A qualified technician can safely remove the cover of the furnace and check the interior of your furnace.

In the spring, have the same company service and check your central air conditioning unit.

If you need a personal referral to a HVAC company, please send me an email and I would be happy to help you out.

Jim Starwalt

Thinking of making a move? Log onto my website at www.StarHomeFinders.com and search the Multiple Listing Service from over 150,000 homes for sale. Registering is quick and easy!

Jim Starwalt, Broker Associate RE/MAX Center, Phone: 847-548-2625 Jim@StarHomeFinders.com

I tell my neighbors.  I tell my clients.  I tell everybody who will listen.  NEVER pressure wash a deck!  When the pressure-wash companies send their college kids to knock on my door to "wash" my deck, I tell them why they should not be doing that to decks!  When I see their trucks*, they advertise cleaning decks, patios, siding, roofs - you name it!  Don't do it!

The older the deck, the worse the wood reacts to pressure washing.  The big mistake is that companies and homeowners have a tendency to set the pressure way too high.  But even at low pressures the deck can become damaged.

What does pressure washing do?

• It removes loose material and leaves a gafillion dangerous splinters and gaps.  Those gaps open up further letting in more damaging sun and water.
  
• It removes the natural oils in the wood that are not replaced with sealants.
• It causes wood to dry quickly causing cupping and warping.
• It causes damage.
• It loosens nails as the wood expands.
• It can cause water to enter the house.

So what to do instead?

There are various, excellent, gentle cleansers out there.  Be sure to select cleansers that do not have caustic lye or acid, or say not to use around children, pets or water features.  A company called Dekswood makes an excellent cleanser that can be followed with sealants.  And the so-called "oxygen" cleansers, with the active ingredient of sodium percarbonate, are great and don't damage the wood, the kids or pets, the house or the yard.

You MUST seal your deck after cleaning.  The sun does more damage to your deck than rain and snow.  BE SURE TO USE A SEALANT THAT HAS UV INHIBITORS IN ADDITION TO WATER PROTECTION.  Read the label.  It will tell you what the contents are.  Water proofing alone is not enough.

My recommendation:  Keep your deck gently cleaned and protected and it will last many decades.  Not doing so makes it unsafe and age much faster.

* I once gave my spiel to a guy sitting in his company truck in a parking lot (with a smile on my face) and he told me he would NEVER pressure-wash his deck.  He said he sees what damage it can do later!

 

These days, when you buy a brick house, it is not built the same way as was a brick house 40 years ago, or so.

In "the olden days" the brick work was structural.  The wood framing inside the house was attached into the brick walls.

In today's construction the structure of the house is the wood framing, with a brick facade on the outside.  And this brick is separated from the wood framing by an inch or two of space to allow for moisture removal.  It is attached to the house with small straps which are nailed onto the studs and anchored between the courses of bricks.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Often these brick facades begin on top of wood forms.  And sometimes, when they back fill around the house, they leave these forms in place.

How do I know this?  Because one or two years later, after the poorly compacted and back filled soil has settled, these forms are revealed.  And not being of pressure-treated wood, they are termite invitations!  Right to the edge of the house!

On this new construction many forms were still in place.  Wanting to make sure they were removed I pointed this potential problem out to my clients.  Of course the supervisors always say that they remove these forms.  And maybe they intend to.  But sometimes not!

A termite does not need much of a crack to get into a house.  Depending on the termite specie, a gap of 1/32" to 1/64" is enough to get them inside!

My recommendation:  It sounds like a little thing, but probably it is not.  If you are building a new house, or have a client that is, check for wood left attached to the house, or even lying around, and make sure it is removed.

Today I would like to discuss furnace filters with you. As a home inspector that services Cedar Rapids IA and Waterloo/Cedar Falls IA, I see a lot of furnaces on a weekly basis.I think a basic description of the method in which a furnace works is a good place to start.

 A furnace heats our home by moving air over a heat exchanger via fan and through a series of supply and return ducts. So, what we have is a circuit that starts at the air handler which pushes air over the heat exchanger, into the supply/distribution ducts. Air then returns to the furnace via the cold air return ducts and ends up at the filter located just before the air handler. It should be noted here that a severly clogged filter will cause a rise in temperature inside the heat exchanger. This shortens the life of the unit and may lead to a crack in the heat exchanger. Bad News!

There are several different types of furnace filters. Some of the types are; electro-static, 1" fiberglass disposable, 1" cotton pleated disposable, 4"-6" pleated, and last but not least, electronic.

Generally speaking the things that are constant in the heating or cooling process are fan speed and temperature of the heat exchanger or evaporator coils. (Some of the newer furnaces have variable speed ECM's [electronically controlled motors] which vary fan speed based on perceived demand.) 

So when we are talking about efficiency what does that leave? You Guessed it, the filter which can have quite an impact on the amount of air moving through the system. In order to heat or cool the air we must move it over the heat exchanger or evaporator coils respectively. The more air we can move the less time the unit needs to run in order to satisfy the thermostat. This helps our efficiency.

Now that we understand a little about the workings of our forced air furnace, let's talk about how we can get the most out of them with the part we can control, the filter.

Most of the furnaces I see have a 1" filter. If this describes your furnace you have a typical installation which is just fine. In this case I recommend a pleated cotton filter, if you must, in the winter because of the increased time spent indoors, and a less inexpensive fiberglass filter for the summer. Most folks find this combination agreeable to their lifestyles.

Without getting into MERV ratings and other details, what you should know is that the 1" cotton filter will trade some of the ability to move air for the ability to trap smaller particles. With this in mind, you should check this type monthly and if they look dirty, change them. The manufacturers usually give a three month rating on this type of filter, but, that is entirely dependent on the conditions of the home! So, check them monthly until you feel comfortable going longer.

In the summer months I recommend the less expensive fiberglass filters. These also should be checked monthly and replaced if needed. They allow the maximum amount of air to pass through the system while trapping large particles and protecting the unit. Remember the more air we move, the better or closer to maximum efficiency we get.

The 4"-6" pleated filters give the best of both worlds because they trap small particles while at the same time allowing lots of air to pass through them. This is due to the amount of surface area of the filter. If you were to take one of these and open up the pleats you would see a very large area of filter media. Conversly, the 1" is not much larger then the area you see when you look at it.

Electronic filters are the best at "cleaning the air". They trap the most amount of particles. Their down side is that they become less effective as they get dirty. They should be checked monthly as well. These are usually cleaned in the dishwasher.

As far as "cleaning the air" goes, we need to be realistic in our expectations when it comes to the little air handler in our furnace. Generally speaking, unless the fan switch is set to the on position instead of auto, the air handler is only running for a small portion of the day. Even if the fan is left on continuously the amount of air changes per hour accomplished is not sufficient to label our furnace as an air filtration system. It might be wise to keep this in mind when you are looking at those $15.00 1" pleated filters at the local box store.

I hope this information is helpful to you. This is just some of the many things I pass along during home inspections to those that utilize my services.

Best regards,

Mike

Stop Your Money Going Out the Window!

Conduct a Home Energy Audit - It could save you hundreds of dollars per year in energy costs.

A home energy audit allows you to assess how much energy you use at home so you can take steps to make your house more energy efficient. Professional energy audits generally go into great detail. The energy auditor should do a room-by-room examination of the residence, as well as a thorough examination of past utility bills.

You can also perform an energy audit yourself with tips from the U.S. Department of Energy at www.energysavers.gov. The Daily Green has a downloadable home energy audit checklist you can use to keep track of the areas you have examined and prioritize your energy saving upgrades.

There are many things you can do to improve the energy efficiency of your home without spending lots of money. Now that you know how easy it is - go stop those air leaks, insulate your pipes, and start saving money!

Kathie Burby, REALTOR®, SFR

Your Guide to Tuolumne County Real Estate

Real Living Sugar Pine Realty

19520 Hillsdale Dr, Sonora CA 95370

Office:(209)533-4242 Cell: (209)728-5554

DRE Lic. # 01466398

www.sugarpinerealty.com/kburby