Is Popcorn Ceiling Dangerous?

There are so many homes across the country where you can find those classic popcorn ceilings, and, while they were all the rage for a long time, it turns out that they may contain some hazardouz materials which you probably don’t want in your home.

Prior to the 70’s, asbestos was used to create the bumps you see in pocorn ceilings. Asbestos is not a danger if left undisturbed, but if you do any drilling into your ceiling for light fixtures, or even if it gets tapped or touched or shook by something, then it will become airborne and can put the inhabitants at risk of diseases including cancer.

After asbestos was taken of the market for wallpaper, popcorn ceilings have since been made from Styrofoam and other such materials. The wallpaper type still has a pretty bad reputation since then that has been hard to shake, which has prompted many homeowners to go for removing it completely.

Luckily there are a lot of great contractors that deal with these problems. Our friends in Charlotte, NC have a successful business for wallpaper removal and there is likely one just like them in your town!

What Should I Look For in a Good House Painter?

Getting out and tackling the painting of your own house can be a real pain in the neck. It takes up a lot of time, and if you’ve never done it before, there are a lot of ways it could go wrong. Painting houses properly takes skill, experience, the ability to use the right techniques and a good eye for symmetry. Whether you’re just going to paint a single room in your house or you want to paint the entire exterior of your house, hiring a professional is definitely a smart move on many fronts.

When looking for the right painting company to hire for work on your house, first look to your family and friends to see if they’ve got any good recommendations. Very often there will be someone who’s done work on one of their places and they’ll be able to quickly refer you to them so they can get started on your home. They’ll also give you a “head’s up” if they’ve had a bad experience with any specific companies so you know not to go back there.

Take a look at some reviews on the internet and see what people say about a few different companies. Read all the reviews to get a bigger picture about their skills and see what’s what. You can often see how professional and how serious a company is about doing a good job through the reviews people leave.

Try and meet the people who will be working on your house so you can see if you can entrust them with working on your home. Painting companies will often do estimates on site, and if they immediately give you an estimate without even coming out then you might want to avoid working with that company. Also pay attention to how they carry out the estimate. If they just glance at the house for a second and don’t pay any attention to details then you might want to rethink working with them. Get someone who pays attention to details and notices little things. Those are the kinds of companies that do the best jobs.

House Painters Rancho Cucamonga CA

Using a Hot Tub In the Winter

So when you first think of using a hot tub most people think about relaxing on a nice warm evening at the end of a long day. You probably don’t think of freezing cold winter temperatures, do you? Well studies have shown that using a hot tub for your wellness routine during the winter can also be highly beneficial to your health.

A lot of people feel a dip in their emotional status and experience more frequent foul moods and sometimes even depression in the winter months. This isn’t just a myth, but an actual condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Funny how the initials spell the word SAD, right? On a list of things that trigger SAD, we find a drop in serotonin (the chemical in the brain that triggers happiness) and melatonin (a chemical that influences our sleep).

Well utilizing a hot tub has been proved to alleviate feelings of depression, making it a good candidate for getting over your winter blues. Not only that, but it’s been shown that submerging yourself in hot water can improve energy levels, encourage better quality sleep, improve concentration and increase appetite. All of these factors add up to a useful tool avoid that sadness that often accompanies dark days and cold weather.

The holidays also represent a time of great stress for many people. A lot of jobs get much more intense during the holidays and this can put a lot of pressure on people causing increased stress. Not to mention all the Christmas shopping! With all the gifts to get and money to spend of course you’re going to start feeling some stress. When the body is subject to stress it tends to tense up, making your muscles constrict and your heartbeat quicken. This can serve to exhaust you and make you feel more tired throughout the day.

But the good news is that you can avoid a whole lot of that! Just through jumping in that hot tub and letting all that lovely warm water relax your muscles and soothe your joints you can clear your mind alleviate a whole bunch of stress.

So if you haven’t used your hot tub in the winter yet, I suggest you try it. You won’t regret it!

How to Know if Your Fence Needs Repair

Fences are an important part of many different kinds of property. They can be used on farms to keep animals in, domestic houses, swimming pools, or simply to make a border so you can square off a piece of land. In today’s world, wooden fences are still the most popular type of fence. Even though there are various types of materials to make fences from, wood remains the number 1 material across the country. Wood fences look fantastic and have a kind of timeless feel to them, like they’ll never go out of style. But wood needs to be taken good care of in order to last long and keep its prestigious look.

All kinds of questions can pop up in regards to fence repair, like “how do I know when to repair my fence?” or “what are some signs that my fence needs to be repaired?” There are a few easy signs that you can spot that will help you know whether or not it’s time to call a fence repair professional to get your fences back in order.

Probably one of the simplest ways to know that it’s time to fix your fence is if some of the wooden boards are damaged or broken. This happens often, either due to weather, time, or sometimes simple impact. It’s generally pretty easy to replace a single fence board, but if there’s a problem with the structure and it’s affecting the whole fence you might be better off just replacing a larger section of the fence, and in some cases the whole thing.

If you’ve noticed that your fence is hanging, sagging, or leaning to the side and it’s not looking sturdy this could easily be another sign that it’s time for some repairs to be done. This problem can sometimes be solved be replacing several of the fence posts. Again, if the problem has spread across a larger portion of the fence, it might be time for a replacement.

Another more serious problem would be insect infestation. Damage done by insect is most often fatal to wooden fences, since it eats away at large portions of healthy wood and leaves the fence weak and rotting. If you catch it early on and the damage hasn’t spread too far then you might be able to simple replace the parts of the fence that are damaged. However this is often not the case with insects, as they tend to move quite fast.

In the end, it’s up to you to decide exactly how and when you want to repair your own fence, but these are a few tips that could be useful to coming to a satisfactory conclusion.

Is Installing a Privacy Fence a Good Idea?

Most people want their homes to be a place where they can retreat from the rest of the world, a place where you can feel separated and safe from the rest of the world. In situations where your house is close to your neighbors, or if you have a pool you spend a lot of time at you might feel like you need something to create a little more indication of privacy and seclusion. Maybe you want to sit on your deck in your swimming trunks or pajamas reading a book or listening to music with a cup of coffee while being completely out of eyeshot of your neighbors and the outside world.

Privacy fences are also a big bonus for keeping pets. A lot of dogs and cats get “wanderlust” from time to time, or see something exciting they want to chase while looking through the gaps in a fence. They might just squeeze through and scurry off, or in the case of dogs, start barking and barking for what seems like forever at a squirrel or something that passes by. With a privacy fence you’ll have a little less to worry about.

If you’ve recognized some of the situations or feelings mentioned here, then maybe it’s a good idea to get yourself a privacy fence. Privacy fences are generally tall and have no spaces to see through, providing home owners with a cozy private space. These are the basic descriptions of a privacy fence, but there are a whole lot of things you could do and little details that can be added to spruce up your privacy fence and get it looking just the way you want.

Wood fencing is the classic choice, and most people will still choose wood for their privacy fences. Wood’s generally not too expensive and is fairly easy to customize, paint, or stain. It also dampens the sound coming from outside, offering a kind of mild sound proofing for your property. Redwood and Cedar are both naturally resistant to bad weather, insects and rot, although it’s definitely a good idea to coat your fence in a preservative every couple of years just to ensure that your fence lasts as long as possible and stays sharp and pretty.

Another choice which has been getting more and more popular recently is the vinyl privacy fence. These always look fresh and are resistant to cracking and warping. They also don’t even need to be painted or stained. You can also get vinyl that looks like wood, so if that’s the look you’re going for you can get the best of both worlds.

To wrap things up, if what you want is more seclusion and better separation from the rest of your neighborhood, a privacy fence is the way to go.

wooden fence

Fence Company Milton MA