Tag: Home Maintenance

Protecting Your Home While You’re on Vacation

Posted on by Larry & Sons

Are you planning a vacation this summer? As you’re preparing for your trip, it’s important to make sure your home is ready for your vacation as well. You already know it’s important to secure your home against criminals, but it’s just as critical to check on your home’s plumbing and HVAC systems.

Preparing Your Home for VacationGetting Your Home Ready for Vacation

With these pro tips, you can protect your home and conserve energy while you’re away. Keep them in mind anytime you’re getting ready to leave your home for more than a day.

Turn off the Main Water Supply

A water leak can cause major damage over the course of a few days. Before you leave for your trip, turn off your main water supply to ensure that you won’t have any nasty leaks while you’re away.

Check Your Sump Pump

Make sure your sump pump is working properly to ensure that, if a storm blows in while you’re away, you won’t end up with a flooded basement. If the pump isn’t working, have it repaired before you leave.

Clean Your Gutters and Downspouts

Cleaning your gutters and downspouts ensures that rainwater is diverted away from your home. You may want to check floor drains in your basement as well.

Turn Your Water Heater Off

You won’t be using hot water at home while you’re away, so why leave the water heater turned on? Turn your water heater off before you hit the road to save a considerable amount on your energy bill while you’re away.

Other Things to Consider When Going on Vacation

  • Don’t share your vacation plans on social media. Wait until you’re back home to post pictures and let people know you were away.
  • Stop your mail and newspaper deliveries or have a neighbor pick them up daily.
  • Trim your bushes to eliminate hiding spots around doors and windows.

Whether you’re planning a weekend getaway, a journey around the world or anything in between, don’t get so caught up in packing your bags and planning your itinerary that you forget to get your home ready for your time away. If you need help with plumbing or HVAC maintenance before you leave, contact Larry & Sons now.

The Preventative Maintenance That Will Save You the Most in Hancock

Posted on by Larry & Sons

Having a high performance, energy efficient HVAC system will save you a good deal of money in terms of your monthly heating and cooling bills for your Hancock home. But that efficiency will not last unless you also take the necessary steps to keep your equipment in good working order. While regular maintenance visits from a professional HVAC technician are an important part of this, there are also several things you can do on your own to keep your equipment running at peak efficiency.

  1. Keep it Clear – The first thing you should do is to make sure that there is plenty of space cleared around your outdoor unit. Whether it is the condenser and compressor for your air conditioning system or part of your heat pump, that outdoor equipment needs to have plenty of space to vent hot air. Also, the space will mean that debris is less likely to develop inside the unit.
  2. Clean the Condensing Coil – While your technician will do this when they make their annual visit, it is best to clean your coil more than just once a year. Just make sure that the power is turned off to your unit before you begin. This will help the unit cool air more efficiently and can prevent a whole host of other problems from developing.
  3. Check on the Blower – If your blower is not working right or the blade is clogged, your HVAC unit will not work properly. Make sure your blower fan is free of all debris and that is turns freely once you have cleaned it. If you are still having a problem with it, you may have to call a technician for repairs. Cleaning the blower out on a regular basis, however, should keep this from becoming a problem you need a professional for.
  4. Air Filters – You should also make sure you change your air filters regularly. This can help to keep your indoor air clean and healthy and it will also enable your HVAC system to run more efficiently.
  5. Clean it Out – Clean out any debris that you can reach from any part of your system. Just make sure any time you work inside your HVAC system that you have all of the power turned off. Anything from leaves to dust can get in there and cause a problem if it is allowed to build up over time. As long as you are on top of things and keep to a regular schedule of maintenance, none of this should take you very long.