It’s Fall Y’all! Time to Prep Your House Against the Elements
7 Tips to Help You Get Your Home Ready for Fall The weather has been unseasonably warm, but can you feel it? It’s still there – it’s Fall! The leaves are changing, pumpkin spice is everywhere, the Fall events are in full swing. However, the change of seasons can take its toll on your home. That’s why it’s important to get your home ready for fall, which will also put you on the road to getting your home ready for winter. Fall Home Preparation Tips Here are some tips to help you prep your house: Prevent flooding by cleaning your gutters. Water that flows over the gutter’s edge can pool around the foundation and enter cracks and crevices. Over time, the pooling can create those cracks that can allow moisture into your basement. A gutter leaf is a good way to keep debris out of your gutters to make cleaning much easier. Clean the fireplace, chimney, or chimney pipe of debris so that a fire doesn’t occur. You can hire a chimney cleaner who will ensure a properly closed damper and that all charred wood and ash is removed. Outdoor faucets need to be drained to avoid freezing. An outdoor faucet with water still in it could freeze up and crack, which can cause a leak. Hoses should also be removed and shutoff valves turned to those faucets. Gaps around windows should be sealed up so you can keep home energy costs down. Plus, you’ll be a lot more comfortable if you don’t feel cold air from outside blowing in on you when you’re trying to cozy up on the sofa. Have a roof inspection performed. This is the perfect time of year to have a roof inspector come and check for small bits of damage so that the damage doesn’t worsen over winter. Roof inspectors can also see if you are at risk for ice dams. Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse get cold and ice dams are common and damaging. Prevention is key so you’re not calling an ice dam removal service in the middle of winter to take care of a problem. Check vents to the furnace to make sure they are not clogged or covered up by furniture or rugs. Blocked vents are fire hazards and can affect airflow. Upgrade your security alarm system if you haven’t yet. Systems can now detect fire, flood, and carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a bigger danger in the fall. Carbon monoxide is a bigger danger in the fall – protect your family! Call Your Rochester Security Company Today! At SPS Fire & Security, we have helped people throughout Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo keep their homes safe and secure. These tips, along with our business security and home security services, will keep some money in your pocket and keep you and what’s yours safe. Call today at 585-770-0348 for a free estimate.
Home Security – Securing Your Home for Winter Vacation
Home Security and Home Prep Tips If you’re like many people in the Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo area, you go south for the winter or travel during the holidays. According to the AAA, more than 103 million Americans will travel 50 or more miles between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. That’s a lot of people! That also means there are a lot of homes left vulnerable to thieves looking to take advantage of the situation. The following points are tips for securing your home for your winter vacation, whether it’s a week or a few months: 1. Prevent Water Issues Since you won’t be home using hot water, you can turn down your hot water heater to reduce the amount of energy it consumes. This will save you money. You can also turn off your main water supply so you don’t have to worry about unexpected leaks. The last thing you need is to come home to a flood or receive a very high water bill. You can also keep your heat on to prevent the pipes from freezing, but keep it no higher or lower than 50 degrees. This is just warm enough to prevent the freezing of pipes and still save you money on energy costs. 2. Prevent Electrical Issues When it comes to appliances and other electrical devices, there is one rule to follow: unplug it if you aren’t using it. There’s no need for the computer, blender, microwave, or even the television to be plugged in. All of these things have electricity moving through them even when they aren’t being used. You also reduce your chance of having an electrical fire. 3. Make the Empty House Less Obvious Next, make sure the house doesn’t look empty. You can do the following to make the house look occupied: Keep a few key lights on in the home, preferably those that are on the most anyway. This is to ensure nothing looks out of place. Have a friend or neighbor pick up your mail and newspaper each day so the mail doesn’t accumulate in the mailbox. Have someone on standby to shovel your sidewalk, porch steps, and/or driveway if it snows. Keep on a radio so voices can be heard through windows or doors. 4. Properly Secure Your Home The last area to consider is the security of your home. With a properly installed home security system, there are many things you can achieve: View your home while you’re away via an app on your phone that can see what your home video surveillance cameras see. Control the lights in the home so you can turn lights on and off no matter where you are. You can also control your thermostat. What better way to make a burglar believe someone is home than to turn your home into a smart home? If a pipe bursts, the alarm system can detect it and notify you of a problem so you can send someone to your home to see what is happening. If there is a fire, the fire department will be notified. If someone breaks in, the alarm will sound and the 24/7 monitoring center will be notified so the authorities can be called. A home security system with all this functionality can help you manage parts of the other areas you need to do to make sure your home is secure while you’re gone. An Experienced Rochester, Buffalo & Syracuse Home Security Company At SPS Fire & Security, we want to help you protect everything that you have worked so hard for while you’re gone. If you don’t have a security system and you travel, now is the time to talk to us to see how you can better secure your home. Call us today at 585-770-0348 or complete the contact form below.
How Security Systems and Sump Pump Maintenance Go Together
Alarm Systems That Cover Your Whole House Did you know that a home or business security system can detect indoor flooding? If you didn’t, you do now. It’s not always about keeping burglars out of your home or business, but about keeping everything safe and secure. Overall safety is why these systems can also detect fire and carbon monoxide. But let’s get back to this flooding thing. Flooding is something that happens in the Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse areas. All it takes is a good rain to overwhelm storm drains and cause waterways to break their banks. Broken pipes are another reason. When you have a basement, the potential for flooding is always there. Even if it seems watertight, all it takes is a leaky pipe to cause significant water damage. The good news is that having a functional sump pump can make a major difference. Simple Sump Pump Maintenance Even when security systems detect flooding so homeowners and business owners know sooner rather than later, the sump pump is going to be a very good friend best friend. It can immediately start pumping out the water that is accumulating in the basement so that damage is minimized. However, you have to make sure your sump pump is in good working order by performing annual sump pump maintenance. The following are steps you can take to make sure your sump pump works for you when you need it: Make sure the sump pump power cord is plugged into a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI). Inspect the cord to ensure there is no wear and tear. Unplug the cord and take the pump out of the basin. Inspect the grate for debris and clean it. Too much debris can cause the sump pump to malfunction. Check the drainage pipes to make sure the joints are tightly connected and that they are draining to the proper area (pipe into the yard that points away from the foundation or main sewage line). All venting should be debris-free. Replace the pump and make sure it is upright and level. Test the pump by filling the basin with water. The pump should kick on immediately. If the sump pump fails to operate, you can have a plumber repair it or you can replace it. Sump pumps have a life span of 5 to 15 years. Usually, a sump pump under 5 years of age has a warranty. If it is between 5 and 15 years old, replacement may be your best option. Contact A Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo Security Company Your security system and sump pump can work together to minimize the damage in your home or business from flooding. The advanced warning given by the security system and the hard work of your sump pump can result in incredible cost savings when compared to the alternative. To learn more about these systems or any type of system you feel you need to keep your home or business secure, call SPS Fire & Security at 585-770-0348 or complete the contact form below.
A Sump Pump Alarm Can Help Immediately Mitigate Basement Flooding
When it rains a lot, some homeowners throughout Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse experience basement flooding. Many homeowners who have had their basements flood either don’t have a sump pump or don’t have a sump pump alarm. What is a Sump Pump Alarm? An alarm for your sump pump is a smart way to protect your basement and any valuables stored there from water damage. This alarm sounds the keypad of the home security system. If the security system is monitored by the 24/7 monitoring center, the center will contact the customer to let them know that the sump pump has triggered an alert. Because the alarm is part of the home security system, it is powered by the system itself. If the power goes out, the alarm system’s backup battery takes over so the entire system, including the high-water alarm, remains active. How Does a High Water Alarm Help? Let’s say you live in an area where water has been known to flow into your basement during extremely heavy downpours. There are many reasons why this happens in some areas and not in others. You’re at work when a major storm moves through. This storm drops inches of rain in a short amount of time, causing water to enter your basement. This is the time your sump pump decides to fail and you’re clueless because you’re at work. Scenario 1: you don’t have a high-water alarm on your sump pump: You come home from work to find that everything stored in your basement that touches the floor is saturated. You also have a rather amazing mess of water to deal with because your sump pump malfunctioned and didn’t do its job. Scenario 2: you do have a sump pump alarm: You’re at work looking out the window in amazement at how much rain is falling. Suddenly, you get a notification from your alarm company’s monitoring center telling you that your sump pump alarm has triggered the keypad of your home security system. This tells you that you may need to go home immediately or call someone else in your household to go home and check out the issue. Now, let’s say you get home very quickly before the water has had time to reach items stored in the basement. You can’t stop the water from entering, but you can quickly move your belongings. Rescue Your Wallet In cases where leaky pipes have caused basement flooding, people have gone home and shut off the water to prevent further flooding. When the issue is addressed quickly, you reduce the damage to the basement, which saves a lot of money in repairs. Having an alarm on your sump pump is a win-win because they do fail eventually. Many times, people don’t know that they have gone bad until something happens and they don’t work. A sump pump can be inoperable for months or years without a single sign until the basement floods. Having this safeguard can prevent a lot of headaches and damage to your wallet. Contact A Rochester NY Security Alarm Company Knowing that your basement is protected with the sump pump alarm gives you more confidence when storing valuables in the basement. If you don’t have an alarm already installed, call SPS Fire & Security at 585-770-0348 to schedule an appointment or for forth information.