Month: February 2020

From the Ashes: How to Recover from a House Fire

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How to Recover from a House Fire

Preparing for some of the worst things in life can throw at you is always a good idea, and little can be more frightening or devastating than a house fire. Beyond the initial incident, trying to get back to normal after the fact is a daunting experience all its own. Here we’ll discuss some fundamental things to do in order to save yourself as much headache as possible (under the circumstances). Here’s how to recover from a house fire:

Emergency Steps

It sounds like common sense, but even the most obvious things can go missed when we’re under pressure. Obviously get the fire under control, contact emergency help and make sure everyone gets out of the house. Things can be repaired and replaced, people not so much!

Once the immediate risks are resolved, it’s time for acknowledgement and acceptance. It’s okay to grieve, and it’s okay to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and lost. This is an incredibly disruptive event, and the aftermath is no short process. Much like making sure everyone is okay physically, make sure you’re okay mentally before worrying about what furnished your living room.

Secure Living Arrangements

Depending on the severity of the fire, it may not be possible to go back home for some time. It may be at least a few days and even small fires must be inspected and cleaned before the property is suitable for living in once again. It may be as simple as staying with family or friends, if that isn’t possible seeking out local disaster relief can assist in temporary housing, and finally it may be something your insurance company offers you, depending on your coverage.

Call Your Insurance Company

Speaking of insurance, once you’ve had a chance to catch your breath and take stock, it’s time to take that step forward on restoring what was lost. Give the claims department of your insurance company a call and set up a claim with them. The fire itself, the resulting smoke, the water used to extinguish it, and the damage caused by firefighters all create potential opportunities for further damage, either by the natural or criminal elements. Alleviating security concerns and mitigating water damage can drastically improve the turnaround time on fire restoration and help you get as much covered under insurance as possible.

Where RestoPros Comes In

After your insurance company authorizes you to contact a restoration company a call. Preventing and mitigating further damage from water and elements is the single most important component of restoring your home. A response team will prevent mold, mildew, secure openings, pump or dry water out of the property and help ventilate the home. All this will help remove and prevent toxic fumes and dangerous conditions along with negating further damage to your residence. If the unthinkable has happened, trust emergency responders to handle the fire, then call the experts at RestoPros to get started on restoring your home today!

How to Read Your Water Meter: Water Damage Restoration Tips

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How to Read Your Water Meter: Water Damage Restoration Tips

Attempting to read your water meter can be a bit intimidating. You have to know where the physical meter actually is on the property, then discern the ambiguous measurements on any number of various interfaces ranging from analog to digital, determine what type of measurement the water company is using and THEN you can do all the math to determine your water usage. Sounds like quite the chore, right? Luckily, we can demystify this process here while discussing the potential benefits of doing so!

The Benefits of Accurate Measurements

Understanding your water intake is great for several reasons. First and foremost, you know what exactly you’re expected to pay and why. If you’re interested in making your home more eco-friendly, you can now accurately track the reduction of water usage in the home as well as see updates monthly to continue this trend. Finally, being able to detect money wasting leaks is useful, not just to save on your bill or be eco-friendly, but to save on a very serious, very expensive headache at some point in the future.

Water Meter Access

So, we know what the meter is, and we know why we need it, but where is it? Well you’ve probably seen their housing many times. Water meters usually sit in concrete housing near the curb or street of your home. An apartment or condo will usually have them located within a utility room at or lower than ground level. It’s worth noting you might want, and even need, to gain permission from your water provider before accessing this box.

Assuming all is well, take a flat head screwdriver and lift the cover off. It might be secured in some way with screws or clips, whatever the case just be a good steward and leave it better than you found it. Try not to fish around a lot with your hands, small animals can make a home in and around these boxes and we don’t want a bite or sting to be the result of trying to be a responsible homeowner.

Reading the Water Meter

The first hurdle is determining the interface of the meter. We need to know if it’s analog or digital. Analog will appear like a watch face, speedometer, pressure gauge, etc. A thin needle will designate a number or notch on the outer rim of the circular meter. A triangle, star, or gear may indicate low flow. A complete rotation starting from 0 represents either 10 gallons or 10 cubic feet, depending on the unit measured.

Alternatively on a digital meter, you may need a flashlight or some button for activation. Your provider may even have more info on the type of meter to aid you. The display will likely alternate between the meter and flow rate (again either being gallons or cubic feet). Some even have historical use for tracking trends.

Detecting Water Leaks

On an analog display, recording these numbers and watching for changes you can detect continuous or slow leaks. If your low-flow indicator is moving, you have a continuous leak.

On a digital display, things are simpler. Watch the “flow rate” screen for 10 flashes. If the number is greater than 0, you’ve got a continuous leak. With either of these methods a slow leak may be imperceptible. Measuring a first read and waiting about a half hour, you can record the results again. If subtracting the second reading by the first shows anything more than 0 gallons used, you have a continuous leak.

What to Do If You Have Water Damage in Your Home

This may sound like a little too much trouble, or perhaps even daunting. If the instructions here are a little off-putting, remember you can always call in the cavalry. RestoPros has licensed, highly trained professionals and they even provide 24/7 emergency service. Set up an appointment before it becomes an emergency and have an expert come out to check your meter!

What to Do During a Grease Fire

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what to do during a grease fire

Having a hot, home-cooked meal is great, but calling the fire department to stop your house from burning down? Not so much. It’s easy to get distracted in the kitchen with so many things going on, and sometimes accidents happen. If you’ve ever had a grease fire (or wondered what to do in the event of one), you’ve come to the right place. The experts at RestoPros are about to run down the list of best practices of prevention, mitigation, and restoration! Here’s what to do during a grease fire:

How to PREVENT a Grease Fire

The best way to handle a crisis is to avoid it entirely. Having something that creates intense heat, like a stovetop in a kitchen, is a recipe for disaster if left unattended or handled without due caution. If you’re ever cooking with oil, try and adhere to the following simple precautions:

  • Don’t leave things unattended. The leading culprit of fires in the kitchen is unattended cooking.
  • Clear flammable items from the stovetop area. Cloth and paper towels, oily items, containers filled with oil, etc. do not react well to a glowing hot metal coil or flame burner.
  • Try to avoid placing overly moist foods into hot oil. Water and oil don’t mix well. Wet, oily foods can at least cause an unpleasant splashing in the immediate area, and at most cause a type of spillover of steam vapor and oil. In that case, they may come into direct contact with heating elements, causing an almost instant fireball.
  • Heat oil slowly, and add food slowly. This will easily prevent oil from overheating and splashing out onto unintended areas.
  • If you see smoke or smell an acrid odor, turn the burner off. Smoke means oil is burning. Every type of oil can burn, and the temperature at which oil ignites is called its flash point. You can check the flash point of the oil if you’d like, but smoking oil or an acrid scent is a helpful warning. Carefully remove the pot or pan and wait for it to cool before continuing.

Being present in the kitchen and having awareness of heating elements is 90% of the battle!

What to Do During a Grease Fire

If you’re ever in the unfortunate situation of handling a grease fire, it’s okay! There’s still plenty that can be done to keep it contained.

First, let’s talk about the things that should NOT be done:

What Not to Do During a Grease Fire

  • DO NOT put water on a grease fire! It’s a rather intuitive response. Everyone knows fire doesn’t like water. The fastest way to kill a flame is to douse it in water, but grease fires would be an extreme exception to that rule. Dropping water onto a grease fire will cause a massive fireball of flaming oil that has the potential to ignite everything in the vicinity.
  • DO NOT swat a grease fire with a towel or cloth. This action will fan the flame and spread the fire at best, and at worst catch the towel on fire.
  • DO NOT try and move an item that has a grease fire in/on it. Tossing a pan or pot into a sink might seem like a good idea. A sink won’t catch fire after all, and the fire can burn itself out in the comfort of its new stainless-steel home. The problem is all the things between you and the sink—like rugs, carpet, curtains, towels, cabinets, countertops and what you’re wearing—might not be. Trying to quickly but calmly carry a hot, sudden fireball at arm’s length, without splashing droplets of flammable oil, isn’t impossible … but it certainly isn’t easy.

Now, let’s cover what SHOULD be done:

What You Should Do During a Grease Fire

  • Turn the burner off, so no more heat can add to the problem.
  • Place a metal lid on the item to starve the fire of oxygen. If you can’t find the lid, a baking sheet or another pot or pan can snuff it out.
  • Use baking soda or salt to smother the fire. Do not use flour or baking powder, as they will have dangerously worse effects.
  • Have a chemical extinguisher handy.
  • Get everyone out of the building if the fire becomes too much to handle and call 9-1-1. Things can be replaced. People can’t. Let the professionals handle putting out the fire!

How to Restore a Home After Fire Damage

Speaking of professionals, if you’re ever in the unfortunate position of dealing with the consequences of a fire, you should give RestoPros a call. They’ve got the training and track record to handle the unique problem of restoring a home damaged by smoke and fire. You don’t have to deal with the sights and smells, and you definitely don’t have to go it alone. Give RestoPros a call today!

How to Avoid Mold in Your Humidifier

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How to Avoid Mold in Your Humidifier

Humidifiers can provide a plethora of health benefits for your household. They can potentially alleviate dry skin, irritated eyes, allergies, sinus headaches, snoring and even prevent or alleviate serious medical illnesses! As great as all this sounds, there are some potential downsides to be aware of as well. Regular cleaning and maintenance of a humidifier is a must, as their very design can breed harmful mold if left unchecked. Here we’ll discuss how to avoid mold in your humidifier.

Basic Humidifier Maintenance

In general, it’s better to use distilled water to remove any potentially harmful elements from entering a humidifier. Hard water from the tap and all its lingering mineral deposits will be sprayed into the air for you to breath in!

Whatever water you opt for should be replaced daily to decrease the chances of developing mold or having mineral-deposit related issues down the road.

How to Clean a Humidifier

Draining and cleaning of the humidifier should be done once a month at the very least, and honestly two times a month is probably wise. Do this by disassembling the humidifier and soaking it in hot water mixed with vinegar, diluted chlorine bleach, or soap. (This has the added benefit of washing away any hard water deposits that may have built up inside the storage tank as well.)

Additionally, make sure and individually clean the belt mechanism that cycles the water, as its texture may allow unwanted bacteria to grow.

Depending on soaking time and your patience level, you can opt for anything from a sponge or old toothbrush to a scrub brush or wash cloth to remove residue. Once cleaned, rinse the parts and allow them to dry before reassembling.

Tea tree oil, hydrogen peroxide, and even specially designed cleaning tablets can be used as well. If you go with chlorine, make sure it doesn’t sit too long as it may cause damage to hoses and belts, depending on the materials used in these parts.

How to Store a Humidifier

Typically, humidifiers aren’t used year-round. If this is the case for you, that means you’d likely pack it up and keep it somewhere out of sight, right? It’s nice to declutter and get it off the counter or night stand and into the closet, but is it stored properly?

A warm, dark, moist container is the perfect place for bacterial growth, and bringing out the humidifier the next time you need it might set you up for a hassle at best and trigger some unpleasant symptoms at worst.

Make sure to properly clean and dry it before stowing it away, so you don’t have a headache later on in the year.

How to Avoid Mold in Your Humidifier

So, if you’re thinking of getting a humidifier and checking on what commitments you’d be in for, or if you’re simply looking at how to properly maintain the one you’ve got, look no further!

Humidifiers are fantastic at helping keep your home comfortable and alleviate the discomforts of a dry environment, and with just a little care you can make sure they don’t cause any unwanted problems.

How to Get Rid of Mold in Your Home: Call RestoPros

Humidifiers aren’t the only source of mold in your home. If you believe you have mold, it’s important not to try to remediate it yourself. Mold remediation specialists are uniquely trained to remove mold without exacerbating any possible health risks. Call RestoPros to get rid of mold in your home today!