You work hard to keep yourself and your family safe. However, there may be major safety hazards lurking in your home that you are unaware of. These three common causes of household fires are perfect examples.

1. Cooking

There is nothing like a home-cooked meal to bring the family together. Sadly, cooking-related incidents are also the number one source of housefires. They account for nearly half of all residential fires. Leaving cooking food unattended can increase the chances of an accident happening — and getting out of control.

Grease is a common culprit when it comes to cooking-related fires. It becomes flammable at high temperatures, and a grease fire is often very difficult to extinguish once lit. Avoid pouring water on a grease fire. Instead, you turn off the heat and smother small blazes with a pan lid. This safety sheet from the National Fire Protection Association offers several tips for keeping your cooking routine safe.

2. Clothes Dryers

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, there are around 2,900 fires attributed to clothes dryers in the U.S. each year which result in injuries, deaths, and millions of dollars in property damage. Many of these are preventable. Following electrical codes and performing routine maintenance can go a long way to help keep your laundry routine safer. If you can’t remember the last time you looked inside the dryer vent, now is a great time to schedule professional duct cleaning for a fresh start.

3. Christmas Trees

These seemingly harmless seasonal decorations cause hundreds of house fires in the U.S. each year. Fresh trees dry out quickly and need to be given fresh water daily to keep them from becoming kindling. Add to that overloaded electrical outlets and the heat from lights that are often left unattended, and it is no wonder Christmas trees can be unsafe.

Danger is often hiding in plain sight. Knowing what to look for can go a long way to keeping your family safe. Never leave food unattended when you are cooking, clean your dryer vent, and use safe practices with seasonal decorations for the best results.…

When deciding on the right type of exterior lighting for your home, you need to understand your main objective. Because there are so many kinds of lighting available, it’s important to choose the right one for the job. Here are some of the best reasons people choose to illuminate their home’s exterior.

Added Security

Having adequate lighting on the outside of your house is a great deterrent to theft. If you’ve got heavy landscaping blocking your home or a secluded yard, it’s too easy for someone to go unnoticed. Installing bulbs such as motion sensor floods and spotlights will light up dark corners and keep intruders away.

Showcasing Your Home

Outside lighting also showcases your property giving it excellent curb appeal. First, shop for exterior lighting Overland Park to illuminate your front door with a ceiling-mounted fixture and sconces on either side. Use spotlights pointed either up or down to highlight trees or whatever you’d like to stand out.

Creating Ambiance

The use of lighting can work wonders in creating a cozy ambiance for your home. Installing a lamppost or tucking landscaping lights into your garden makes the front of your home twinkle. Likewise, hanging outdoor lights in your backyard turns it into a perfect spot for dining and entertaining.

Safety Around the Yard

When it comes to personal safety around your property, lighting is a must. Choose fixtures that create a bright path such as landscape lights along a walkway, near staircases and atop posts. Solar lights, as well as hardwired fixtures, both work very well for this purpose.

If you’re looking for lighting solutions for the outside of your home, make sure you know what needs to be accomplished. Whether you want safety, security or just to create some atmosphere, the right type of light will make your house look warm and inviting.…

Getting the right disposal option for your business is important. When you choose the wrong one, you can drastically shorten the container’s life, increasing the amount you spend on disposal. Additionally, it can be hazardous for the environment and people. For instance, hauling acidic waste with a light container can cause the contents to seep through. Therefore, you need to choose the appropriate container. Here are the most common types of containers and when you would use each one.

Roll-Off

A roll-off box is a standard product of your local waste container manufacturer Florida. These come with steel, poly, or canvas lids and can be used for hazardous or non-hazardous materials that are solid or liquid.

They are called roll-offs because they are delivered by being rolled off the truck onto your site. Once you’ve filled your container, you let the company know, and they will come to roll it onto the truck so they can empty it. The truck uses a hook and hydraulic arm mechanism to make this process incredibly easy.

Tub-Style

These tub-like containers have tapered sidewalls, so you can easily dump that waste. They are generally used in industries that produced heavy-duty waste, such as cinder blocks from a demolition company, but they can also handle packaging and other materials.

Sludge and Sealed Styles

The sludge and sealed styles are like roll-off containers, although they tend to be stronger to dense, handle heavy-duty materials. Additionally, they have slider hinges to ensure that all contents remain inside the containers while they are being transported. As a result, they have no chance of leakage, which makes them perfect for hazardous materials.

Some industries produce heavy-duty or hazardous materials. Others produce non-hazardous waste that you can easily remove. Either way, you must choose a waste container that is appropriate for your application.…

With a little lawn fertilizer, the grass doesn’t have to be greener on the other side. Fertilization does more than just improve the color. It can help reduce standing water, deter pests, help control weeds, and more. To get the most out of your application, make sure to follow a few guidelines.

Test Your Soil

Before applying lawn fertilizer Pittsburgh PA, note that all fertilizers are the same. To get the best composition match for your lawn, you should test your soil. Testing is best done in the early spring. For the most accurate results, you should pull about a dozen small samples from around your yard and mix them together. Your soil will be tested for key nutrients like phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium. The test will also tell you the pH level.

Watch the Weather

Several aspects of the weather can affect your fertilizer. Watch the temperature. The ideal time for your application is when the soil temperature is around 55 degrees. Rainfall also plays a factor. A light rain before or after fertilization is not a problem. However, if you are expecting heavy rain, you should wait. High humidity should be avoided as well. Many fertilizers will cake together when there is moisture in the air. That leads to an uneven application.

Apply Correct Amount

There is a lot more to fertilizer application than simply throwing some on your lawn. You may be worried that applying too little fertilizer won’t be effective. Did you know that using too much can also be a problem? Excess fertilizer can burn your lawn and seep into groundwater. Your grass may develop an overly dense root system. There are calculators that can help you determine the amount you need.

A few fertilization blunders can lead to undesirable results. Make sure you are well educated or hire a professional to get the best outcome.…

Living off the grid can sound like a dream.  You’re getting back to the land and living like your forefathers. Maybe you’ll raise your own livestock and plant your own crops. No matter what your goals are for going off-grid, there are important considerations you must plan for before you move into that little cabin in the woods.

1. Establish Your Water and Septic

For undeveloped property, you’ll have to dig your own well and install a septic system for waste. If you buy a property that has already been developed, make sure that you have a well and septic inspection Antioch or wherever you’re located. Make sure the existing system won’t need immediate replacement and that your drinking water doesn’t require special filtration.

2. Consider Your Electric Needs

Going off-grid no longer means you have to rely on a wood stove and candles for heat and light. Installing a solar system can keep you connected to the web, along with more basic necessities like refrigeration and maintaining your well pump. With the advances in solar batteries, you can keep your power on through cloudy days and overnight. Some batteries will even continue to charge as you pull their power.

3. Waste Removal

Living off the grid means you probably don’t have access to garbage pickup. You’ll learn to recycle more, compost and use some items for your fires, but there are always things that have to go to the landfill. Look into how far the landfill is from your location. You can also potentially work with neighbors to centralize garbage and hire pickup from a private company.

When you need to have your Thoreau moment, you can live for some time without an on-site water supply, electricity and even waste removal, but when you decide to make your movement permanent, don’t forget to plan for your own comfort.…

If you operate a brick-and-mortar business and it’s been some time since you last updated your property’s exterior, it could be time to refresh your business’s curb appeal. Having an attractive look can go a long way in terms of attracting new customers and may even help boost your bottom line. To increase overall curb appeal without breaking the bank, try these three easy ideas.

Boost Your Outdoor Landscaping Efforts

When it comes to curb appeal, the right landscaping can make all the difference. You may want to consider looking into a professional service such as commercial landscape services St Louis MO, for instance, to help whip your storefront into shape. You could consider planting flowers, bushes and small trees to create a pleasant atmosphere.

Make Sure Your Property Is Clean and Welcoming

Keeping your storefront clean and ensuring you’ve sanitized your building can help create a welcoming feel at your store and may help draw in more foot traffic. To ensure your property is well-maintained and clean, you may need to:

• Fix cracked concrete and repaint old buildings
• Clean out garbage from the parking lot and tuck away dumpsters
• Mow the lawn and pull out weeds from surrounding grassy areas
• Wash windows and fix outdoor lighting

Swap Out Old Signs for New Designs

If your store has had the same sign up for a few decades, it could be time for a refresh. New signage and eye-grabbing sign designs can help attract customers and give your business a visual update. Consider swapping out your old-fashioned signs for more modern replacements.

If you’ve been struggling to draw customers in through your front doors, you may need to spend some time working on your store’s curb appeal. By boosting landscaping efforts, ensuring the property is clean and putting up new signs, you could help attract more customers and improve your store’s aesthetics.…

You should know that learning how to set up a home security system or a building monitoring system is not that simple. The reason for this is because there are so many things that should be considered and all these things must be carefully analyzed in order for the entire setup to be foolproof.

Cover the Access Points

First off, you need to ensure that all possible access points for the home are well covered by the system. This means that you need to get hold of any wireless communication devices that the home uses, such as cameras or microphones. You also need to get any necessary wiring done, including any electrical wiring from a specific room in the house to another room in the house or even to a distant point. Then, you need to consider all the possible entry points for windows and doors. All these considerations are important since if the wrong people were to gain access to a home security system, you wouldn’t have that valuable security you’re working hard for.

Set Up a Password

The next step on how to set up a home security system is to set up a password system. While you definitely want people to have direct entry into the house, you also don’t want them to be able to simply open all the windows and gain access. You also need to make sure that there is some sort of monitoring that will keep an eye on everything that goes on in the house. Some systems offer live video feeds from the camera mounted in the room where people can view what’s going on at their computer terminal. Then, you need to consider sensors in various locations inside the house.

Following these tips will help keep you, your belongings, and most importantly, your family safe and give you more peace of mind.…