HOME FIRE SAFETY

In the excitement of buying or building a new home, we often forget about basic fire safety, especially fire escape routes from the second or third floors of a home. Many building products and home furnishings are not as flammable as in the past but a small fire can get completely out of control in less than a minute. The stairway of a home acts as a chimney pulling the heat and fire up to the attic and out the roof. People on the second or third floors can become trapped before they are aware of the fire.

Several years ago when my children were 11, 9, and 7 years old, we remodeled an older home with an upper floor. The two boys had two windows a porch that gave them an escape route in case of a fire. Our daughter’s room, however, had only a small gable window. I squared the gable off back at the peak of the roof and brought it out even with the outside wall and added an exterior door that opened on a small deck thus giving her an escape route. Neither of these escape routes were practical without smoke alarms and fire escape ladders.

Every family should have a pre-arranged escape plan according to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). This organization recommends you devise an escape plan before a fire happens and practice escaping from every room in the house, especially the bedrooms.


There are many residential fire escape ladders on the market. They come in varying lengths and weights and made from various materials. If you are planning on an 8-10 year old using an escape ladder, remember to consider the weight. A child is not going to be able to lift a 25lb. ladder out the window to let it down. A lightweight one made of aluminum and nylon strapping is the lightest. Others made entirely of metal are quite a bit heavier. Permanent fire escape ladders that are recessed into the interior wall beneath the window are the simplest to use. The homeowner simply opens a small door and releases the ladder and can escape to safety in 30 seconds. It can be repacked and reused so it is perfect for practice drills.

Of course fire escape plans, smoke alarms, and fire ladders are not the only steps a homeowner should take to ensure home fire safety but it is a start. Home fire hazard inspections are important. Check lists for homeowners are available at homesafetycouncil.org or sparky.org/sparkychecklist.pdf. Fire extinguishers in the home are two more items that can help bring peace of mind to the homeowner

Installing a Residential Mailbox

When we think of country lanes, we think of mailboxes with wild flowers twining around the post. Surprisingly, at the present time, most curbside residential mailboxes are located in the cities and suburbs. The United States Postal Service encourages curbside delivery since it is cheaper than house-to-house delivery.

Installing a residential mailbox is not difficult. You might want to check with your homeowner’s association about any rules regarding residential mailboxes. After that, the first consideration is the location of the box. Do you live on a state road or a city street? Most states require break-away posts on residential mail boxes. The highway department will install the post for you; you only have to attach the mail box to the post.

If you reside in a city, you will need to check with City Hall before doing any digging. Evan if you live out of town it is necessary to call the county and have the water, gas, and telephone lines in the area spotted for you. This is good information to have and copies of maps, liens, and other documents should be filed with your important papers.

If you would like to place the residential mailbox post without concrete to hold it, dig down 16” or so; place the post upright in the hole; add gravel or soil gradually to the hole packing it around the base of the post with a pole or pipe. As the gravel is packed in around the post, depending on the soil, it will become tightly wedged in the ground.


Another option is to have a movable base on your mailbox. A large bucket or an old car wheel can be filled with concrete and the mailbox post put in the center. This option works well for several scenarios: it can be moved when you mow the grass; it can be moved if the city is working on the street; or if the streets in your neighborhood do not have curbs. This type of base is easy to build and easy to level when there isn’t a curb.

A third option is to dig down 8” – 12” and use concrete to secure the base of the mailbox post. This is the most common installation. As in all mailbox installations, be sure to get the post straight so the box will be level.

After the post is up, the mail box is installed on the top of the base with screws, bolts or hardware that comes with the box. All types of residential mail boxes are available: brick, antique-look, heavy-duty plastic, security boxes, and lots of decorative boxes from ducks to tractors. You also might want to consider installing solar-powered electric lighting on the box to illuminate your address for 9-1-1 purposes. A nice mailbox can dress up your address!

Clogged Sink Drain

One of the more unpleasant events of the holiday season is the clogged sink drain. All that cooking; all those vegetables being sliced and diced; all that left-over food being fed into the garbage disposal. Right in the middle of clean up, usually late in the evening, the inevitable occurs a clogged sink drain; the sink backs up, the dishwasher can’t be used, and the whole household is disrupted.

Garbage disposals can certainly cause or contribute to clogged sink drains but sinks without garbage disposals can clog just from grease or other matter going down the drain. To ascertain if the garbage disposal is contributing to the clogged sink drain, take a broom handle or any wooden stick, 1” or larger, and try to turn the garbage disposal with the stick. NEVER put your hand in the garbage disposal and NEVER use a metal tool inside the disposal as either of these practices can cause injury.

Remember to always put safety first. If you can’t turn the disposal with the broom handle or turning it does not help with the clogged sink drain, then it’s time to fix the clogged sink drain.

Tools you will need: (1) a sewer snake to put into the clogged sink drain line to break up the clogged sink drain. There are several types available. The first type is a hand-cranked snake with a ¼” spring or tape 25 feet long that feeds into the line and is cranked into and out of the clogged sink drain line by hand.
(2) A power sewer snake (more about that later). (3) A pair of heavy-duty leather gloves to protect your hands and wrists. (4) Eye protection should be worn, especially if you are working with a power drain auger. (5) A bucket to catch water from the clogged sink drain. (6) Rags to clean up.

Look under the sink at the drain pipes. Most newer homes have 1-1/2” PVC drain lines. Older homes may have 1-1/2” cast iron drains. Some plumbing systems have a clean out plug for clogged sink drain under the sink. If the plug is easy to remove, this would be a good place to work from. Be sure to have a bucket under the sink to catch any excess water when you remove the plug from the clogged sink drain. If the plug is PVC and is glued into place, don’t force it. You could break it off in the wall and that would be an expensive repair. If the plug is stiff and doesn’t turn at your first real try, leave it alone and concentrate on the main drain line.

To start this process, put a bucket in the area under the sink to catch excess water. Take the disposal loose from the sewer line at the back where it is attached to the drain. Remove the bucket that caught the excess water from the clogged sink drain and put the end of the sewer tape/spring in the sewer line and begin to crank it in.

The sewer line may make some 45° or 90° turns in the wall. When you reach one of these, the tape may become harder to turn. You will have no way of knowing if you are at a corner or hitting the clog in the line. Turn the crank a few times. If you make no progress, crank the line back out of the wall and check the end of the tape/spring. If you find vegetable matter or other material hung in the end, it will indicate that you have probably hit the clog. You are now beginning the trial and error process. Put the bucket back under the sink; use a hose to run a small amount of water into the clogged line to see if it drains. If after several attempts you are not making progress, you may need to rent or purchase a power drain cleaner.

Power machines make the process quite a bit easier as they power the sewer snake through the line forward and backwards as you press a switch. The cable size in these machines varies from ¼” to ½”.
For household drains, drains that are encased in sheetrock walls, I do not recommend using anything larger than 3/8”. A ½” cable is capable of shattering PVC drain pipes and damaging sheetrock walls. If you are unable to break the clog with a power 3/8” drain machine, you probably need to call in a plumber. The large machines are designed for use on 3” or 4” yard lines.

Using the power machine to clear the clogged sink drain, insert the cable end into the drain line and feed in as much line as the drain will take. Pull the cable back to the housing and then feed it back in. Make several attempts and them test the sewer line. If it looks like the line is draining, test by hooking the garbage disposal to the sewer line and running water through it or use a hose to run water into the sewer line. These power machines have the ability to break up clogs and move them into the main sewer lines and out of your life.

Remember to be patient when doing a job of this type. You don’t want to damage your kitchen sewer line while removing the clog. Wear protective equipment and good luck!

How to Repair Pickup Tool Box Lid Latch

     One very annoying problem I had lately was the with my truck toolbox. The lid latch on the driver's side broke and I was unable to find a replacement part on the internet or anywhere else. I removed the latch and discovered that the bolt that held the lid open was broken off at the sqared-off shoulders. (Check out the photos I posted). This bolt is 1/4" in diameter and 1/2" long on the short leg; a 90 deg. bend,  and 3" long with the last 7/8"  of the long leg squared-off. The bolt had sheared off at the sqared-off shoulders.

   I ran an internet search for "tool box lid latch" and discovered a whole community of people blogging about how difficult it is to get repair parts for these particular tool box latches or any tool box latches. I decided it be easier and less time consuming to just fabricate a part in my shop.
  
   I rummaged in my boxes of junk metal looking for a rod with a 90 deg. bend since getting a good bend would be the most difficult part of the fabrication. I found a piece of 3/16" rod with the 90 deg. bend. It was 1/16" larger but I ground it down pretty quickly. I cut it to length, rounded the ends as needed, squared off 7/8" long leg, drilled the hole for the latch pin, and there it was! the pin fit perfectly. I remounted the whole latch assembly and I was ready to go to work.

   You know, after all that work, I realized that I could have used a cheap caulking gun....caulking guns have a rod of the same size with the 90 deg. bend. I'll remember that for next time...Happy New Year.

Happy Holiday

This little safety reminder is for the decorators who put up the outdoor or indoor Christmas lights. I'm running late this year and dragged mine out of storage this afternoon and started the process. To save some time and be safe, here's some safety hints on putting up lights:
Lay the strings of lights out and check each and every bulb to be sure the light up. While going through that process, look at the wires. Are any of them frayed or broken? Bare wires can arc and start a fire or shock the installer. And, it's frustrating to get the whole string on the eave of the house, plug it in, and be rewarded with total darkness.

Check the extension cords that bring the light strings together to the electrical plug. It's a very good idea to have a grounded outdoor plug just for the lights. Plugging the lights into a household circuit with appliances or other electric lights on it may overload the circuit and kick the breaker. If the breaker keeps kicking off, don't ignore that warning signal. The breaker is kicking off because it's overheated or its a bad breaker. Use your common sense and unplug something. If the breaker keeps going off call an electrician.

Indoor lights need careful installation. Check the cords and lights. A common error with indorr lights is running the cords under a rug or tree skirt to hide them. The tree looks so good with all the decorations and the tree skirt. Wouldn't you know it, the plug is not in exactly the right place for the lights to be plugged up so an extention cord is needed. But who wants that bright orange cord spoiling the red/green decor? Throw a rug over it and solve that problem. However, a frayed cord under a rug or tree skirt can short out and cause a fire. Or give your mother a shock when she steps on the rug. There's two schools of thought about outdoor Christmas lights: leave 'em up all year or take 'em down and put 'em in the shed until next year. I favor the take 'em down school of thought but either one works. But, however you feel about it, if you take the lights down, don't crimp the wires when you put them in the box. if you're careful about rolling them up and storing them, they'll be a lot easier to put up next year.

If you like to leave your lights up on the house ready to go next November, remember that before you plug the lights in, the ladder will have to come out of storage, go up on the house, and you'll need to check the wires for bare spots or breaks. A year of wind blowing and rubbing the wire against the cornice can wear away the insulation from the wires causing a fire hazard.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Bob is passionate about working with wood and receives a great since of satisfaction from remodeling older homes that most would consider demolishing. Bob also has a keen eye for details that serves his clients well in any construction project. Bob has built over 20 custom homes for very satisfied clients and has remodeled countless older homes from Waco to Red Oak and Cleburne to Corsicana.

In the 40 years that Bob has been in the construction business he has amassed a wealth of knowledge in every construction trade. He is a licensed master electrician and seems to have an unnatural “sense” for the flow of electricity. His resume in the construction includes master level knowledge in electrical, concrete, plumbing, leveling, welding, roofing, drywall, paint, masonry, glass, tile, but his first love is working in wood.