Why You Need a Mold Removal Professional

What if we told you that from the twenty-one million reported asthma cases in the United States, 4.6 million are said to be associated with mold and dampness? Furthermore, a whopping 90 percent of chronic sinus cases are associated with mold. 

Moving from the health issues that mold exposure causes, these little guys can wreak devastating damages to the buildings they grow in. Visit Superior Home Restoration and learn more about molds and the damages they can cause. They spread super-fast and can become colonies before you even have the chance to get rid of them. 

Removing molds from your home could be a real problem. You may be contemplating DIY, believe us when we say this is not a good idea in any way. There are so many risks involved, you could inhale it, unsettle the spores, and cause more trouble since they would spread more, and so on. 

Therefore, when you have a mold issue in your home, the ideal thing to do would be to get a professional for the job. In this article, we will be discussing the reasons you need a mold removal professional rather than doing the removal by yourself. 

1. It Is Not an Easy Job

You must have considered doing the job yourself a couple of times. Therefore, you may have even gone through the stress of checking Google for tricks and tips that will help you get rid of your trouble. 

While some of these remedies you may have learned can do the trick, you have to believe us when we say getting rid of these guys isn’t an easy task at all. You can try; after all, you simply need cleaning products, protective gloves, and determination, right? Well, we hate to break it to you but after you think you have handled the problem, the molds may simply grow back or move to a new location. 

This is because the growth you think you handled was in visible areas whereas they are still growing in hidden corners. Therefore, it will only take some time before they come back to the areas you can see them. 

But with an expert, proper remediation will be done. They often have equipment that lets them detect where molds are growing, therefore, they will be able to take care of every growth in the home. 

2. You Will Save Your Money and Time

When you try to tackle this problem by yourself, you risk making the mold spread even faster. With further spread, you will eventually have to call in a professional. At which point, you must have already spent a lot of time tackling the issue yourself and money on special cleaning products. 

You will be surprised at the places these guys can grow in your home then read this article to learn some of these hiding spots of molds in the home. So, instead of going about this whole thing blindly and risk further spread and reoccurrence; get a pro that will do the removal once and for all. 

3. A Professional Has the Proper Knowledge 

This is perhaps the most important reason you need a professional to handle the issue. While all you know about tackling this serious issue are tips you got off the internet, a professional has gone through proper training to handle the situation. 

Chances are you may not even know that molds are of different types. You would be going about the whole process blindly, whereas a pro would know what exactly has to be done. 

They can also determine how much damage has been done, and regardless of how severe the issue is, they will look for ways to handle it. The efficacy with which an expert will remove the molds is something you cannot achieve unless you have been trained to. 

4. Potential Spread Will Be Controlled and Reduced

During the removal process, the spores may spread throughout the house. Now, if the process is not done properly, the spores may settle in other places in the home and begin to grow there. This is a major reason DIY for mold removal is not recommended at all as it could cause an even bigger problem. 

If you mistakenly get the spores in your HVAC system, the spread will be very rampant as the AC moisture would create a perfect breeding environment for the spores. 

So, you want to leave the job to a pro that is better equipped with expertise and the necessary tools to mitigate the spread as well as eliminate the spores. 

5. You Will Save Yourself Future Problems

We hope we don’t sound like a broken record at this point when we say molds are very hard to remove from a home. They’ll grow back yet again so long as spores are left behind, they are quite relentless. This is made especially true when your home has areas that are prone to moisture. 

If you tackle a mold problem by yourself, chances are you would do this repeatedly. You would not just cause further spread, but you would cause further damage to your home. Therefore, the wise thing to do would be to get an expert that will ensure reoccurrence is prevented in the long run. 

6. You Will Not Put Your Health at Risk

At the beginning of this read, we spoke about how mold exposure can cause certain health issues. You can visit https://realtimelab.com/mold-statistics/ to see the statistics of health issues associated with mold exposure. 

When you want to take care of this problem yourself, we bet you would know to take precautions. You would know to put on protective clothes and so on. But, despite all these, you may end up being too exposed to these little guys and this can put your health at risk. 

Rather than doing this, why don’t you hire someone trained for the process to properly take care of the situation? 

Conclusion

You may think you have all it takes to get rid of your little mold issue by yourself. However, this may not be the case. In this article, we have discussed some major reasons why a professional is a better person for the job and not you. 

Growing food in a balcony garden or other small spaces

Photo by Sandie Clarke on Unsplash

Growing vegetable plants doesn't require more than decent soil, lots of sunlight and paying attention. Notice that "a lot of room" isn't on that list. It's entirely possible to grow vegetables in pots for a balcony garden if all you have is a balcony.

When I lived in Florida, I grew things like tomatoes and herbs on my balcony. The growing seasons work differently in warmer climates but with some experimenting, I was able to grow and harvest things from there and it was incredibly satisfying.

But now that I live in Pennsylvania I have an actual yard and six years ago I built myself a real kitchen garden.

My kitchen garden with beans, okra, cabbage, lettuce and arugula. This is how it looks in the spring. I grow an autumn garden of different veg after I harvest all the spring stuff

My early gardening education consisted of figuring out how to grow things in small spaces and that early training is hard to shake. My kitchen garden (actually gardens because I've built two more in recent years) is small. However because I work with the soil so much and study everything there is to study about companion planting, I get a lot out of my small spaces.

I like vegetable gardening for many of the same reasons I like other things like photography or baking. As with any of those pursuits, I will always be improving and learning and I will never fully master any of it. My goal is always to improve my proficiency.

With that said, I experiment a lot. Sometimes those experiments work and sometimes they fail spectacularly. This year's bold experiment was growing corn and the less said about that the better.

In the photo above you can see that there's a raised bed garden directly behind what I call my kitchen garden. That's a dedicated tomato garden. I figured out a couple of years ago that tomatoes have such specific needs that are different from say, cabbage, that it's easier to grow them in their own garden.

What I mean by that is that tomatoes need slightly acidic soil but they need calcium at the same time. Calcium raises the Ph of soil so I have to be able to counteract that alkalinity with sulphur and magnesium. Acidic soils and many other vegetables don't play well together, hence the separate bed for tomatoes.

While you'll never fully feed yourself from vegetables you grow yourself (unless you have about 50 acres to dedicate to veg farming), what you can do is supplement your diet. Preparing food I grew myself is on of my great pleasures.

Growing some of my own food has also got me hooked on home canning and that came about as a necessity. Until I learned how to stagger my planting so I could stagger my harvest, everything would be ready to harvest at the same time. There are only two of us and as much as we like cabbage, we can't possibly eat 12 heads of cabbage when 12 heads are ready to pick.

But what we can and do eat is sauerkraut and fermenting my own kraut was my entry to the world of home canning and food preservation.

Growing vegetables has opened up a world to me and I know stuff about biology, soil ecology, hydrology, chemistry and so many more things it makes my head spin sometimes. I accumulate knowledge over time and get better and better at the task at hand. And frankly isn't that the whole point of being alive? I think so anyway.

So start small and play around with gardening. If you're anything like me, you'll end up with a new obsession.

Why Quality Deck Materials Matter

Photo by JuniperPhoton on Unsplash

A beautiful home requires a beautiful and durable deck. And a durable deck will only last longer and look good if you use suitable materials. Using cheap materials for your deck and completing it under a low budget can cost you a lot in the future. 

The importance of using quality material while making or planning to make your deck is very crucial. The deck is something that is going to face all the harsh weather and has to stand beautiful. And only quality deck materials can help it achieve it. 

Using low-quality deck materials or not focusing on them is not a good idea. In this article, we will discuss some of the deck material options that you can choose from and the importance of selecting the suitable deck material for your deck. So let's begin. 

Types of Deck Materials

You can make a deck of many materials. Some of them are expensive, cheap, durable, or more beautiful. It all matters what you want and how you want it. Some of the most commonly used deck materials are:

1. Cedar Material

If you plan to give your house a very natural and woody look by making a deck, then Cedar would be the right option. The beautiful light wood color is very attractive and has been used very commonly for creating decks.

It is also a very durable material because it does not rot quickly. It absorbs moisture and prevents insect attacks as well. Cedar material is definitely recommended

2. Redwood Material

Redwood is a little darker than cedar material but looks breathtaking as well. It is also commonly used for making decks and definitely looks very attractive. Redwood's deck designs are widely famous. 

Another reason why Redwood is commonly used is because of its stability and durability. It is a solid type of wood and does not rot quickly. 

3. Composite Material

Composite material is the most beautiful material you can use to make your decks. The deck looks ten times more attractive if it is made of composite material. You may have seen composite decking nowadays a lot. 

But the major drawback of composite decking is that the color fades away due to direct sunlight. So if you live in a place where you get a lot of the sun, composite material might not be the best choice for you. 

Why Quality Material Matters?

Quality material is what you should look for the most. Deckbuilding is not an easy task, and you do not want to get it done repeatedly. If you still have doubts about why you should choose and make quality your priority, let's explain a few benefits of choosing quality materials for decking. 

• Less Maintenance

We do not have much time in our busy lives that we keep maintaining and spending on our decks. Low-quality deck material will require a lot of maintenance, whereas, on the contrary, you can relax for a long time if you choose the suitable material for your deck. 

• Durability

High-quality materials are more durable. Deckbuilding is not an easy task and requires a lot of manpower and money to be built. If you choose durable materials, it will be like one-time investing. You invest a little more and choose suitable material, and then you can relax and enjoy your deck for a long time. 

• Safety

A low-quality deck will be very dangerous. If you have children who enjoy playing outside, you should always use the proper methods to keep them safe. And using quality material for your deck is essential for your and your family's safety. To prevent any deck accidents, use quality materials. 

• Appearance

A quality and durable deck will not only save you from daily maintenance but will look very beautiful as well. You can quickly tell the difference between good quality and cheap material. It will affect the overall appearance of your house. So make sure to choose quality materials for the deck so that your home will look perfect!

Amba Products' heated towel racks come in two new finishes

Photo by Mike Kotsch on Unsplash

My bathroom has two things in it that get me through a Pennsylvania winter. The first is the heated floors and the second is my Radiant heated Towel rack from Amba Products. I cannot imagine facing a walk in shower on a 20-degree morning in February without either of them.

I fell in love with both of those features while staying in hotels in Germany. Winter mornings in Köln are a lot like winter mornings here and when we re-did the master bath a few years ago a heated towel rack was high on my list of mandatories. I'm the proud owner of a Radiant Curved in chrome and I picked chrome because that's what all of my metal finishes are. If it were up to me, all metal fixtures everywhere would be chrome but that's just me. I know there are people out there who want something other than chrome finishes.

Well, those people are in luck because Amba Products' heated towel racks come in two new finishes. Their Solo, a free-standing model, is now available in matte black. 

The Radiant Hardwired Straight and the Radiant Small are now available in polished gold.

Here are some closer shots of those two finishes:

Amba Products is the country’s premier distributor of heated towel rack systems and these two new finishes expand the company's offerings to nine stocked finishes.

Peter Manidis, marketing manager for Amba, stated, “For many years, polished and brushed finishes dominated interior design. However, over the last few years, there has been a shift within the industry, paving the way for less conventional finishes like matte black and polished gold.”

Previously, polished and brushed stainless steel were the only finish options offered within the Solo collection. After the success of the matte black color in other collections Amba decided to introduce the finish to the Solo collection, one of its bestselling product lines.

The polished gold finish is only available in select models within the Radiant Collection. It is an entirely new finish offering for Amba Products, and the company will use its launch to determine whether to expand the option to other collections.

Amba Products, headquartered in Atlanta, distributes more than 150 affordable heated towel rack models in both mounted and free-standing profiles. Each corrosion-resistant high-grade 304 steel rack is 100-percent recyclable and packaged with fully recyclable materials. Heated towel racks are stylish and functional additions to any bathroom, laundry room, or mudroom. They are energy-efficient and keep towels fresh while decreasing trips to the laundry and reducing airborne mold.

Amba Products was established in 2004 with a clear goal in mind – to make the heated towel rack a must-have item for every bathroom in North America. Amba now proudly boasts the largest variety of products and serves more than 1,200 retailers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Visit their website to learn more.

Dealing with a leaky faucet

Photo by Jos Speetjens on Unsplash

When you turn your faucet off and it doesn't actually shut off completely, panic usually sets it. After you’re done getting angry, you usually need to call a plumber  or head to the hardware store to try to fix the problem. But, what should you purchase? A lot of DIY solutions just aren't right, and they can actually leave you worse off than when you started. Plumbing is a profession for a reason and it's important to know when to defer to the professionals. 

If you don't understand how plumbing works, the time to learn us not during a plumbing emergency. So after you've called for help with your Pittsburgh plumbing, here's a quick primer on faucets to study while you wait. 

Determine where the leak is coming from

If you don’t know where the leak is coming from, you can’t fix it - period. So, try to determine if it’s leaking just from the faucet itself or if the water is also coming out of the handle. If it’s leaking from the faucet, you may need to replace a seal, or you might need to replace the whole faucet, depending on what’s damaged and how badly.

If the leak is coming from the handle, it may be a simple O-ring. When the plumber arrives, point out the source of the leak and ask his or her opinion.

Shut the water off

Shut the water off before the plumber arrives to minimize water loss. When the plumber arrives he or she will turn it back on to see the leak in action.

The shut-off valve for most kitchen sinks is usually underneath the sink. It’s a small handle that you can turn to shut the water off. Sometimes, it’s a lever.

See if you can remove your faucet handle

If you have a single-handled faucet, pry the small plastic cap off the top of the handle. If you have a dual-handle faucet, you’ll need to take the decorative cap off both the hot and cold water handles. If you have a handle-style faucet, instead of a twist knob, you can usually unscrew the end of the handle and then unscrew the fixture. If you're unsure don't try this, wait for the plumber.

The business part of a faucet is the cartridge, and it lies underneath the decorative cap or handle. If the cartridge is worn out or cracked, it’s entirely possible that water could be seeping through here to the spout.

Fortunately, this piece usually pops out so that you can replace it. If it doesn't you may need to replace the entire faucet unit.

That cartridge usually has rubber O-rings that it uses to fully shut off the water supply. These O-rings can wear out or crack over time and it's the O-rings that are the usual culprits in a leaky faucet.

There are many professionals to turn for help with your Pittsburgh plumbing, but unless you know what you're doing, you are not one of them. Call a plumber!