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Adding Stairs Into Deck Railing Plans
Most deck railings are completely designed unlike interior stair railings, which are a simple way to get from a floor to another. You can create an extension of your personal likes in decoration, with ornamental parts of wood, iron and...
Choosing The Right Garage Door
A garage is home to your personal automobiles and usually a large selection of sporting goods and tools. Therefore in order to keep these possessions safe the right choice of garage door is vital.
A garage door is one of the most important...
Is Big Brother Watching You? Or Are You Watching Big Brother?
Isn’t technology a wonderful thing? I thought this as I received the text to my mobile phone telling me that my home security camera had detected movement. Someone or something was where they shouldn’t be at the rear of my house and I was 2000...
Thinking about Home Improvement? Then here's a checklist!
Dear friends, if you are planning to improve/renovate or
refurnish your home then this article can be a very
useful guide and save your lot of time.
When it comes to home improvement, most people think that
it's has to do with painting the...
Windows and Doors Enhance Home Safety
Windows and Doors Enhance Home Safety
(ARA) - Safety starts in the home and it begins with fundamentals such as windows and doors. While functional, these products may be safety hazards if not maintained properly and replaced when they are worn...
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Checking Your Chimney Caps
While you are cleaning leaves out of your home’s gutters, dealing with Christmas lights, or adjusting a satellite dish, don’t forget to check on your chimney caps while you’re on the roof. Chimney caps are those mesh-sided enclosures (usually made of stainless steel, copper, or galvanized steel) atop your chimney to prevent water, animals, bird droppings, and leaves from entering your home. A once-a-year assessment of your chimney caps’ condition can be well worth your time for protecting your house. Here are four things you can easily check on your chimney caps:
1. Are the chimney caps there?
If there have been high winds in your area, your chimney caps may have blown off. Properly secured chimney caps withstand most high winds, but exceptional winds can do damage, including blowing chimney caps off.
2. Are the chimney caps securely attached?
Time, wild animals, or high winds can degrade the security of your chimney caps’ attachment to your flues or chimneys. You can retighten screws or reapply a sealant if your chimney caps are no longer securely attached.
3. Are the chimney caps rusting through?
Galvanized steel chimney caps generally last about three to five years before they become too rusted to serve their purposes. In salt water environments, galvanized chimney caps corrode even more quickly. Stainless
steel and copper chimney caps usually have lifetime warranties, so they are good replacement choices for those who don’t want to be replacing their chimney caps every few years.
4. Are the sides of your chimney caps clogged?
The mesh or screen sides of your chimney caps may get clogged with leaves or other detritus forced into the mesh by very high winds. More frequently, chimney caps’ mesh can get clogged with soot and creosote, especially if you are using unseasoned, green firewood. This clogging is most common in chimney caps designed with smaller mesh holes for use in wildfire prone areas. If the mesh sides of your chimney caps are clogged, your fireplace’s or woodstove’s draft will be reduced, leading to poor performance or even to a chimney fire.
When you head up to the roof, take along a metal tape measure, paper, and pencil. In case you find you need new chimney caps, you will have the tools at hand to measure your flues or chimney crown for their replacement chimney caps.
About the author:
Susan Penney appreciates simple ways to make our homes renewing spaces for our families. She invites you to visit http://www.fireplacemall.com for fireplace accessories to serve your fire-less or your fire-filled fireplace.
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