Fix Air Leaks Around Doors and Windows – Are You Cooling Your Neighbors Space?

The Case of the Door that Would Not Close

Recently, in a meeting with my web designer, she complained about the gap in her front door and the fact that it was allowing so much cold air out of her home.  After a brief inspection of the door, I concluded that my friend was doing more than her fair share to cool Mother Earth.

What was the problem you may ask? Warped door jambs?  Missing Insulation?  Threshold loose?  NOPE, none of the above.  My friend’s problem was the result of two screws that had come loose.  Not to the point where they were sticking out and noticeable but just enough to let the strike plate slide forward preventing the door from closing tightly against the weather-stripping. The result of these two loose screws could easily add up to hundreds of dollars on her electric bill over the course of a year.

As a General Contractor, I am asked into homes to look at renovation projects and often see things like the loose screws mentioned above.    I mention the various things that I see to the home owners and the responses I get typically fall into one of two categories; 1) oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to fix that, or 2) Oh man, I have never seen that before, I’ll have to look into it.  Each response, while different, are essentially saying the same thing; “thanks for pointing that out, I’m not going to do anything about it right now”.  Knowing the normal reaction, I asked my friend why she chose to fix the “minor” “maintenance” issue.  “I do not wish to pay for cooling my neighbor”.  Now here is someone that truly understands the indirect costs of home ownership.

In Florida, your utility bill, or how much you pay to cool your home, is one of biggest drains on your bank account.  I was a bit shocked to learn that you might be paying as little as $0.35 cents per hour and as much as $0.75 cents per hour to cool your home (all depending on how old your AC unit is and how much you are currently paying for electricity).  I found a great article to explain to me how to calculate how much I was paying to cool my home per hour; check it out yourself.

My friend had the right idea; see a problem?  Fix it before it becomes a major problem!  Picture yourself getting up from your couch every hour, walking to the front door and reaching into your pockets and pulling out $0.60 and just throwing it out the door.  After a short 24-hour period you will have thrown out $14.40.  Would you reach down and pick this up or would you want to wait a few more days?

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DIY Dryer Repair

IT WENT THUNK! THEN IT WENT CLUNK!

If you own a tool box and know how to use the tools inside of it, chances are you have had a friend or relative call you up and ask you to come over and fix something and upon arrival you realize they have already tried – and failed to complete the repair.  This was the case for me a few weeks ago when my mom called and invited me over for dinner.  For those of you not familiar, my mother is the queen of getting things done by other people; she can even make you happy that you “volunteered” to do whatever it was she wanted done.

I arrived promptly 15 minutes late for dinner and was surprised to find that mom had invited more guests to the table.  As I sat down, one of the guests was explaining to the rest of the table that they would have to go out tomorrow and buy a new dryer because something went terribly wrong with theirs early that day.   In an attempt to be polite, I inquired as to the fate of their dryer and was told that in an attempt to “get at” some built up lint in the back of the dryer (you could see it sticking out of those holes) they had decided to remove 3 screws located on the inside of the dryer and on the back of the rotating drum.  After the third screw was pulled out the drum “fell” and made a solid “thunk” noise when it came to rest.   Realizing something had gone wrong but not knowing exactly what they decided to remove three more screws from the inside of the dryer and on the back of the rotating drum.  Once again, after the removal of the third screw the drum fell again only this time it made a much louder “clunk” noise before coming to rest.

“That’s terrible” would be the most common response given by most people to a story such as this; I am not most people.  I offered to stop by the next day and have a look at the dryer that made the mysterious noises.  I think I saw my mom smile!

The first three screws connected the drum to a reinforced plate located behind the drum.  The second three screws connected this plate to a stabilizer bushing.  According to the YouTube video (I’m guessing someone else must have made this mistake) that I watched, getting behind the drum to repair the problem would be a snap!

We were able to vacuum up a lot of lint that was discovered under and around the back of the drum and would not otherwise been able to get to.  So, I suppose we did solve a small fire hazard.

The moral of this story is simple, if you don’t plan on looking at the owner’s manual (assuming you know where it is) at least take a moment to run a Google search on whatever it is you are planning to take apart so you can see what mistakes have already been made and avoid them (what fun is it to make someone else’s mistake)?

Although Sunset Builders & Maintenance does not actually repair washers and dryers, we are here to serve most all home maintenance and repair needs and would be happy to offer advice or referrals with regard to any project outside of our scope of services.

Contact Sunset Builders & Maintenance today for a consultation on your next project.

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