Prevention is Better and Cheaper than Cure: How Parents Can Secure the Safety of Their Children at Home

February 16, 2019

If you ask any parent what’s the hardest thing they’ve ever had to do in their lives, most would probably tell you it’s having a baby. It’s by far the most exhausting and challenging task a human can be charged with, and not everyone who sets out to do it is actually up to the responsibility. One of the biggest concerns about raising a child is keeping them safe, whether it’s from psychological damage or bullying or, the fact that they’re different. But at a younger age, it’s usually simpler than all that. You don’t find yourself really worried about what your kid’s opinion in politics is; at a young age, it’s all about keeping them safe.

So, how can you secure your home for your children, to avoid any problems and injuries and unnecessary treatments?

Fire protection

You’d be surprised how easily and quickly a house fire can break out. They happen because of cooking accidents, electrical plug malfunctions, and possibly kids playing with lights or matches. It’s essential that you have working fire alarms in your home for fire safety. True, they can go off at random times and be annoying, but when an actual fire does happen, and this saves you, you’ll be grateful.

Window proofing

Statistics show that every year, thousands of children end up in hospitals or worse due to falling off from windows. You need to install window bars to make them safe for children, or a stop that would prevent the window from fully opening.

Sharp objects

You need to be thorough with this one. Make sure the house is clear from any exposed sharp objects. This can range from scissors lying on the table to kids toys themselves not properly shelved. Also, table and chairs pointed corners should be properly covered in a layer or coating to protect the children running aimlessly in the house.

Poisoning

Poisoning is also one of the most prominent causes of injuries to toddlers and young kids. You need to understand that kids are very curious, which means they’ll grab anything and put it in their mouths. So, you need to make sure to keep all possible sources away from them. Also, there are worse things to get poisoned; carbon monoxide poisoning is one of the worst because, most of the time, people don’t even realize they’re being poisoned.
Sources of carbon monoxide in the house include grills, power tools, heaters and stoves, and most electrical appliances. So, you need to be really careful and aware of how to use those in order to keep your kids safe from the very harmful carbon monoxide, which is just hanging around the house as an accident waiting to happen. Also, get a carbon monoxide detector.

Fewer chemicals, more organic material

If you happen to be living on a farm or something, chances are you’ll be suffering from annoying pest problems. It’s vital not to get carried away with the use of chemical pesticides because those can have some serious effects on your children’s health in the short and long runs. Instead, opt for organic, homemade pesticides which handle the problem without the damage of the chemicals.

Exercise sound judgment

At the end of the day, the goal here is keeping your kids safe. That means you need to exercise good judgment and ask yourself what in the household might be a danger to them. Pretend you’re a baby, curious and stupid, and see what might spark your interest to eat or shove somewhere, and then safeguard that item. You will need to give the house proofing process its due time.

Link to the article: https://www.sochealth.co.uk/sp/prevention-is-better-and-cheaper-than-cure-how-parents-can-secure-the-safety-of-their-children-at-home/

Related articles: https://fresnodad.wordpress.com/2017/08/04/national-council-for-home-safety-and-security-offers-helpful-tips-for-every-family/

For further assistance in home security, click here for more: http://villaricalocksmith.net/

Top home maintenance tips

Contributing Writer : Jessica Jacobs

 

Whether you own a home or rent, most likely your home is the single biggest investment in your life. Just like your physical health, taking care of a home well requires effort, but it doesn’t always need to be a chore. More importantly, getting your home maintenance checklist and schedule in order can save you time and money in the future. HVAC systems will operate more smoothly; roofs will have less leaks; appliances like your laundry machine and dishwasher will last longer. Simply put, your home will thank and reward you for taking care of it.

 

But where does one start? Home maintenance can feel like a very daunting task. Luckily, we’ve put together a guide of top home maintenance tips. Learn to avoid common home maintenance pitfalls, understand the essential tasks to do regularly, and even get your home set up on autopilot. Keep reading, and you’ll see why a little investment in learning the basics now can pay off in spades down the line.

 

1. Avoid common home maintenance mistakes 

 

When you own or even rent a home, you take maintenance and upkeep for granted. It’s just something you do every day. You may not even realize that you’re doing something unnecessary or, heaven forbid, incorrectly. Keep up your home in a way you’re proud of by avoiding some common mistakes.

 

Even if you just do a few little things every day around the house, you keep your house a place you’re not only proud of, but an investment that only increases in value over the years.

 

2. Understand the vital home maintenance tasks that should be done regularly 

 

Cleaning your house is a normal part of your routine, but what about home maintenance? This is not about replacing light bulbs or unclogging the toilet every once in a while. What about keeping up the areas of your house that you usually don’t think about?

 

Ignoring certain items around the house can cause serious problems down the line. Whether it’s the hot water heater, the dryer, or roof, some of these easily forgotten things need more of your attention than you’ve been giving them.

 

3. Keep your bathroom in order, including the tank 

 

How often do you open the toilet tank and peak inside? Many of the stains happening in the toilet bowl could be coming from your tank. No one wants to clean the bathroom, but everyone enjoys and appreciates it when the bathroom is clean.

 

It may be surprising, but there are many ways you can cut the time you spend cleaning and have a cleaner bathroom. You don’t have to rush out and buy fancy products or commercial cleaners.

 

4. Don’t forget about your air ducts

 

You might need to clean your air ducts if you notice you’re sneezing more often or your home has recently undergone renovations. Otherwise, it probably isn’t necessary. But cleaning your air ducts ensures that your heating and air conditioning systems run more smoothly because the parts won’t be slowed down with dirt and dust.

 

Different types of duct systems exist, but the process of cleaning them is generally the same. Clean the vents and ducts, and replace your furnace filter while your at it. You might not get all of the dirt out, but your air ducts are sure to be cleaner than they were before you started!

 

5. Don’t forget about the lawn

 

Summer times means green lawns and spending time outside with family and friends. You want to make sure your entertainment space is gorgeous and vibrantly green.

 

There are many things that can take the green out of your grass, leaving your yard with unsightly brown patches. These tips can help keep your grass green and beautiful all season long, making it the perfect backdrop for entertaining.

 

6. Know how to apply caulk the right way

 

Re-caulking a bathroom yourself can save you a lot of time and money. Here are a couple of tips you’ll want to watch out for. First and foremost, you want to make sure you properly remove the old caulk. Depending on the type of caulk, the removal process is a little bit different. Prepping the surface before you caulk is key, including removing any existing mold. Second, you want to invest in a proper caulk gun as well as caulk itself. For instance, the caulk for kitchen and bath is typically labeled for kitchen and bath use only.

 

Whether you rent or own, taking care of a home is hard work. There are routine maintenance procedures you must know to keep your house in good working condition and to help save money in the long run. Unfortunately, not all the secrets are told to you by your landlord or your real estate agent. Thankfully you need not worry, as the following is a list of solutions to common household problems that you should know about. Most of the fixes are very doable yourself.

 

7. Clean the dryer

 

You might not think too much about cleaning your dryer. After all, the only thing it does is dry clothes that are already clean. But the inside of your dryer can get pretty dirty, especially if you don’t clean the lint out of it on a regular basis. Without regular care, the dryer machine just won’t last as long. Plus, it doesn’t help your clothes.

 

Keeping your dryer clean doesn’t actually take too much work and can save a lot of money. As long as you have the tools to remove the lint stuck in the vent and you have a few old towels on hand, you can quickly clean it up without wasting too much of your day.

 

8. Put your home on auto pilot

Sometimes you can’t remember what you had to eat yesterday, much less remember the last time you changed your air filter. Take a load off your mind and still maintain your home perfectly by putting some of these tasks on autopilot.

 

Here are some ways to help yourself remember to do certain tasks meant to make keeping up your home less of a burden, especially if you are a homeowner trying to save money on repairs and other costs of running a home.

 

Link to the article: https://cooktopcove.com/2019/02/13/top-home-maintenance-tips/

Related articles: https://247wallst.com/housing/2018/05/13/6-home-maintenance-chores-to-do-now/

For further assistance in home security, click here for more: http://villaricalocksmith.net/

Home Maintenance Essentials – Garage Door Repair and Maintenance Tips for Homeowners

For most homeowners, the largest moving part of their homes is the garage doors. It is used multiple times every day, so making sure that it’s maintained properly in the long run is important. You should consider a twice-a-year inspection and maintenance schedule for your garage door so that you maximize the life of the system and avoid unnecessary issues and a major expense. You can call and hire a professional for garage door repair, or you can do the some of the maintenance yourself.
Here are some helpful tips to keep your garage doors in good condition for the long run:

1. Safety First

Garage doors will have excessive wear and tear if improper regular maintenance is avoided or overlooked. As a result, a door can lock, stick, or possibly even fall off its tracks in extreme situations, which can potentially cause serious damage and injuries.
Hiring a professional is highly recommended and definitely your best choice for any repair and maintenance on your homes garage doors, However, if you choose to do any work yourself, remember that accidents can easily occur while you’re maintaining your garage door, so you have to take appropriate safety precautions to avoid them before performing any work:

• All tension should be removed from the door when removing the lift cables.
• Put spring locking pliers on the roller tracks when working on an open door to keep it secure.
• Unplug the door opener and remove any controls so it won’t be activated while you’re working.
• It’s dangerous if you adjust or release the tension on the overhead torsion springs during maintenance, so leave them alone.

2. Make an Inspection

Once you’re done with the tune-up, you can now start to do the preventive maintenance for your garage door. It’s as important as maintaining any part of your house, especially if you’re planning to sell it. The first thing that you should do is to make an overall inspection.

• Look for any damage around the doors. Check if there are any breakages or rusts in the tracks, springs, cables, roller wheels, and hinges.
• Observe it while it’s moving and take a look if its movement is jerky or smooth.
• Listen to the garage door’s sound and check if there are scraping or grinding noises.
• Also, inspect if both sides look symmetrical.

3. Keep Hardware Secure

Garage doors are often used multiple times every day, which can loosen the doors hardware as time goes by. Check the following hardware parts and tighten them if they are loose:

• Rollers
  If you’re using nylon rollers, check for cracks and chips. If you’re using steel rollers, check the bearings if there’s a tilt to its wheel. You can buy replacements at hardware stores if needed.
• Nuts and bolts
  Tighten all the roller brackets and bolts that connect it to the rail.
• Tracks
  Check if there are any cracks, bends, breaks, or other damages. If there’s any, call a technician since it may cause harm if you’ll do it yourself.
• Lift cables
  These can wear, especially in colder climates. Remove any dirt or build-up at its bottom since it’s the part most exposed to moisture. You can use soft brushes to clean it up.

4. Keep Moving Parts Lubricated

In order to prolong the life of your garage doors, you need to keep all the moving parts well-lubricated so the rollers and the door opener can operate with less stress and tension on the system. A top preventive choice for lubrication is using white lithium grease.
Lubrication and cleaning of the overhead tension springs and extension springs should be done twice a year. A lubrication schedule should be implemented so that the garage door will work properly for years by preventing sticking and friction issues.

5. Test Balance

Balance is very important when it comes to garage doors. If the door is not balanced properly, it won’t last as long because it will be harder for the system to go up and down. To check, move the door halfway up after disconnecting the opener by pulling the release handle. You will know that the springs are unbalanced if the door don’t stay put. You’ll have to call in a professional to adjust the door springs.

6. Repair Weather Stripping

The rubber weather seal strip keeps out the cold, dirt, and dust. If there are any cracks or if the weather stripping already looks brittle, replace it.

7. Check Safety Features

Usually, modern automatic garage door openers have a safety auto-reverse feature to reverse and stop the direction of the door when an object gets in the way before reaching the ground.
These are the two mechanisms of this feature:

• Mechanical – The door should go back up again when an object touches it.
• Photocell – It has beams on each side, which can detect when an object passes the door’s path. It will then reverse its movement.

8. Paint, Clean, Wash

If you have wood garage doors, then periodic painting is necessary to cracks, chipping, water damage, and warping. If your door is made of steel, look for rust, then sand, prime, and paint it if needed. If it’s fiberglass, wash it with an all-purpose cleaner.
Garage doors are often overlooked and taken for granted by many homeowners which can easily result in unnecessary wear and tear that requires replacement of the system. Make sure to check all the parts of your garage door and apply these maintenance tips to ensure safety, convenience and reduced costs by extending the life of your homes garage door system.

Link to the article: https://www.thepinnaclelist.com/2019/03/31/53351/home-maintenance-essentials-garage-door-repair-and-maintenance-tips-for-homeowners/

Related articles: https://garagedoorrepair111.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/proper-garage-door-maintenance/

For further assistance in home security, click here for more: http://villaricalocksmith.net/

Restore Security Gates and Burglar Bars

29/05/2019

There aren’t many homes that don’t have some type of security gate or burglar bars, and these will need to be restored when rust starts to appear.

While your steel burglar bars and security gates are strong, they are still susceptible to rust, especially after withstanding the elements for a few years. When the first signs of rust occur, it is better to take action as quickly as possible, as even small areas of rust will soon expand and weaken the structure.

Set aside a day or weekend to tackle steel burglar bars and security gates to not only remove any signs of rust, but also to enhance your home.

Remove Surface Rust

Use a wire brush to brush away as much of the rust coating as possible. Depending on how much rust there is, this can be a quick and easy task, or require a bit more elbow grease to remove all the surface rust.

GOOD TO KNOW: Make sure to get into any corners or detailed areas to remove as much rust as possible.

The scrubbing will also assist in removing any loose paint on the surface of the steel or powder coating.

Apply Rust Stripper or Rust Converter

Applying rust stripper will ensure that all remaining traces of rust are removed after brushing clean with a wire brush. Follow the instructions on the can (or bottle) to ensure proper application and removal of all rust. A rust stripper or rust converter also makes it easy to remove any traces of rust on detailed wrought iron gates or burglar bars.

Clean away remaining product with a cloth and clean water. This will also neutralise the rust stripper.

GOOD TO KNOW: Wear rubber gloves when working with rust stripper, as these are generally quite toxic and need to be handled with care.

Apply Primer and/or Paint

When restoring my own burglar bars and security gates I like to use Rust-Oleum spray paint products, especially when most of these already have a built-in primer that cuts down on finishing.

Rust-Oleum have a wide selection of spray paint product, in assorted colours, as well as flat, satin or gloss finish, that lets you choose your own colour for gates and burglar bars to complement the colour palette in your home.

If you prefer to paint the cleaned gates or burglar bars, only use a paint specified for use on exterior metal or steel\

Link to the article: https://www.home-dzine.co.za/diy-1/diy-refresh-steel-gates-burgular-bars.html

Related articles: https://homesecurityprosmyrtlebeach.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/home-security-why-you-need-emergency-exit-door-alarms/

For further assistance in home security, click here for more: http://villaricalocksmith.net/

4 things to know before you install home security gates

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Century

 

 

At Century Secure Group UK Ltd, we help a lot of businesses secure and control access to their premises with our automatic gates solutions. But we also help homeowners too. Adding a security gate to your property obviously provides additional protection and peace of mind – particularly if you live on a larger property and keep expensive vehicles in your driveway.
Like anything you do to your home and the surrounding land – you want to get it right. Not only will you likely not have the budget for continually replacing or maintaining your gates, you also want to ensure that anything you do is adding value to your property, should you want to sell it again at some point.

With that in mind, here are 4 things to consider before you install automatic home security gates.

Look and feel

You’re proud of your home and you’ve spent time, money and energy to make it look the way you want it to. If you’re going to be introducing an automatic gate into this environment, you want to be sure that it’s going to fit seamlessly into the kind of look you’re trying to achieve. If you’ve got an older house, chances are a super sleek modern gate isn’t what you’re after. And by the same token, if you’ve got a newer house, you might want to steer away from more traditional looking gates.

Engaging with the right supplier will give you access to a bespoke design service which will enable you to create the look you want to complement your existing fixtures and fittings. They can be traditional-looking wrought iron, lightweight aluminium, hardwood or wood-effect.

Space

The space you have available and the layout of your driveway will have an impact on the kind of gate you will be able to install. There are 3 main form factors: sliding, swing and bifold. Sliding and bifold are usually best if you are limited on space in terms of the gates opening, but you should bear in mind that you will need space at or along the side of the gate for it to open. With a swing gate, you need to ensure that there is space for them to open out into. A reputable supplier like Century Secure Group UK Ltd will be able to come and help you assess the space and take the necessary measurements to decide on the best form factor.

Operating your gates

Depending on how you want your automatic gates to work for you, there are obviously a number of ways you can choose to operate (i.e. open and close your gates). This could be a proximity sensor, a fob or card system, or intercom. You might also choose to add remote access control to your gates – integrating with your wider smart home security system and enabling you to open and close the gates remotely. This can be particularly useful for things like deliveries, especially when combined with CCTV and smart intruder alarms.

Ongoing maintenance

Businesses with automatic gate installations are held to strict industry standards around the upkeep and ongoing health and safety of their gates. While you as a homeowner are not necessarily held to these standards, it’s still vital for you to ensure that they remain operational and safe to use. The last thing you want is to get home from a long day at work or evening out to find that you can’t get back into your property because your gate mechanism has failed! Suppliers like Century Secure Group UK
Ltd can provide flexible ongoing maintenance packages to ensure that your gates are kept in good working condition, as well as priority emergency callouts should you need them. Just like anything in your home, keeping your gates in good condition will ensure not only that you get the most value out of them, but that they will be more likely to add value to your property should you choose to sell it.

Choosing the right partner

You don’t want substandard products being installed in your home. Century’s automatic gate solutions for both business and home use only the best UK manufactured products. Our skilled and experienced DBS-checked engineers will ensure they are installed correctly and maintained to a high standard. If you would like to find out more about automatic gates for your home, get in touch now.

Link to the article: https://centuryfireandsecurity.co.uk/2019/03/28/installing-home-security-gates/

Related articles: https://remotesystemgate.wordpress.com/2019/01/30/what-are-the-considerations-for-a-good-remote-gate-for-sale/

For further assistance in home security, click here for more: http://villaricalocksmith.net/