Did you know that the average family spends close to $1300 a year on their home's utility bills? Unfortunately, a large portion of that energy is wasted. By using a few inexpensive energy efficient measures, you can reduce your energy bills by 10% to 50% and, at the same time, help reduce air pollution.
The key to achieving these savings is a whole house energy efficiency plan. To take a whole house approach, view your home as an energy system with interdependent parts. For example, your heating system is not just a furnace, it's a heat delivery system that starts at the furnace and delivers heat throughout your home using a network of ducts. You may have a top-of-the-line, energy efficient furnace, but if the ducts leak and are un-insulated, and your walls, attic, windows, and doors are un-insulated, your energy bills will remain high. Taking a whole house approach to saving energy ensures that dollars you invest in energy efficiency are wisely spent
This information shows you how easy it is to reduce your home energy use. It is a guide to easy, practical solutions for saving energy throughout your home, from the insulating system that surrounds it to the appliances and lights inside. These valuable tips will save you energy and money and, in many cases, help the environment by reducing pollution and conserving our natural resources.
The first step to taking a whole house energy efficiency approach is to find out which parts of your house use the most energy. A home energy audit will show you where these are and suggest the most effective measures for reducing your energy costs. You can conduct a simple home energy audit yourself, you can contact your local utility, or you can call an independent energy auditor for a more comprehensive examination.
After you have identified places where your home is losing energy, assign priorities to your energy needs by asking yourself a few important questions:
How much money do you spend on energy?Where are your greatest energy losses? How long will it take for an investment in energy efficiency to pay for itself in energy savings? Can you do the job yourself, or will you need to hire a contractor? What is your budget and how much time do you have to spend on maintenance and repair?
Once you assign priorities to your energy needs, you can form a whole house efficiency plan. Your plan will provide you with a strategy for making smart purchases and home improvements that maximize energy efficiency and save the most money.
Another option is to get the advice of a professional. Many utilities conduct energy audits for free or for a nominal charge. For a fee, a professional contractor will analyze how your home's energy systems work together as a system and compare the analysis against your utility bills. He or she will use a variety of equipment such as blower doors, infrared cameras, and surface thermometers to find inefficiencies that cannot be detected by a visual inspection. Finally, they will give you a list of recommendations for cost effective energy improvements and enhanced comfort and safety.
Checking your home's insulating system is one of the fastest and most cost efficient ways to use a whole house approach to reduce energy waste and maximize your energy dollars. A good insulating system includes a combination of products and construction techniques that provide a home with thermal performance, protect it against air infiltration, and control moisture. You can increase the comfort of your home while reducing your heating and cooling needs by up to 30% by investing just a few hundred dollars in proper insulation and weatherization products.
Warm air leaking into your home during the summer and out of your home during the winter can waste a substantial portion of your energy dollars. One of the quickest dollar-saving tasks you can do is caulk, seal, and weather strip all seams, cracks, and openings to the outside. You can save 10% or more on your energy bill by reducing the air leaks in your home.
Heating and cooling your home uses more energy and drains more energy dollars than any other system in your home. No matter what kind of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system you have in your house, you can save money and increase comfort by properly maintaining and upgrading your equipment. By combining proper equipment maintenance and upgrades with appropriate insulation, weatherization, and thermostat settings, you can cut your energy bills and your pollution output in half.
Heat pumps are the most efficient form of electric heating in moderate climates, providing three times more heating than the equivalent amount of energy they consume in electricity. There are three types of heat pumps: air-to-air, water source, and ground source. They collect heat from the air, water, or ground outside your home and concentrate it for use inside. Heat pumps do double duty as a central air conditioner. They can also cool your home by collecting the heat inside your house and effectively pumping it outside. A heat pump can trim the amount of electricity you use for heating as much as 30% to 40%.
Using the sun to heat your home through passive solar design can be both environmentally friendly and cost effective. In many cases, you can cut your heating costs by more than 50% compared to the cost of heating the same house that does not include passive solar design. Passive solar design techniques include placing larger, insulated windows on south facing walls and locating thermal mass, such as a concrete slab floor or a heat absorbing wall, close to the windows. However, a passive solar house requires careful design, best done by an architect for new construction or major remodeling.
When you cozy up next to a crackling fire on a cold winter day, you probably don't realize that your fireplace is one of the most inefficient heat sources you can possibly use. It literally sends your energy dollars right up the chimney along with volumes of warm air. A roaring fire can exhaust as much as 24,000 cubic feet of air per hour to the outside, which must be replaced by cold air coming into the house from the outside. Your heating system must warm up this air, which is then exhausted through your chimney. If you use your conventional fireplace while your central heating system is on, these tips can help reduce energy losses.
It might surprise you to know that buying a bigger room air conditioning unit won't necessarily make you feel more comfortable during the hot summer months. In fact, a room air conditioner that's too big for the area it is supposed to cool will perform less efficiently and less effectively than a smaller, properly sized unit. This is because room units work better if they run for relatively long periods of time than if they are continually, switching off and on. Longer run times allow air conditioners to maintain a more constant room temperature. Running longer also allows them to remove a larger amount of moisture from the air, which lowers humidity and, more importantly, makes you feel more comfortable.
Sizing is equally important for central air conditioning systems, which need to be sized by professionals. If you have a central air system in your home, set the fan to shut off at the same time as the cooling unit (compressor). In other words, don't use the system's central fan to provide circulation, but instead use circulating fans in individual rooms.
You can save as much as 10% a year on your heating and cooling bills by simply turning your thermostat back 10% to 15% for 8 hours. You can do this automatically without sacrificing comfort by installing an automatic setback or programmable thermostat.
Using a programmable thermostat, you can adjust the times you turn on the heating or air conditioning according to a preset schedule. As a result, you don't operate the equipment as much when you are asleep or when the house or part of the house is not occupied. (These thermostats are not meant to be used with heat pumps.) Programmable thermostats can store and repeat multiple daily settings (six or more temperature settings a day) that you can manually override without affecting the rest of the daily or weekly program
Your home's duct system is one of the most important systems in your home, and may be wasting a lot of your energy dollars. It is a branching network of tubes in the walls, floors, and ceilings, carries the air from your home's furnace and central air conditioner to each room.
Unfortunately, many duct systems are poorly insulated or not insulated properly. Ducts that leak heated air into unheated spaces can add hundreds of dollars a year to your heating and cooling bills. Insulating ducts that are in unconditioned spaces is usually very cost effective. If you are buying a new duct system, consider one that comes with insulation already installed.
Sealing your ducts to prevent leaks is even more important if the ducts are located in an unconditioned area such as an attic or vented crawl space. If the supply ducts are leaking, heated or cooled air can be forced out unsealed joints and lost.
Although minor duct repairs are easy to accomplish, ducts in unconditioned spaces should be sealed and insulated by qualified professionals using the appropriate sealing materials. Here are a few simple tips to help with minor duct repairs.
Water heating is the third largest energy expense in your home. It typically accounts for about 14% of your utility bill.
There are four ways to cut your water heating bills: use less hot water, turn down the thermostat on your water heater, insulate your water heater, and buy a new, more efficient water heater. A family of four, each showering for 5 minutes a day, uses 700 gallons of water a week; this is enough for a 3-year supply of drinking water for one person. You can cut that amount in half simply by using low-flow showerheads and faucets.
If you heat with electricity and you have a non-shaded, south-facing location (such as a roof) on your property, consider installing a solar water heater. Solar water heating systems are also good for the environment. Solar water heaters avoid the harmful greenhouse gas emissions associated with electricity production. During a 20 year period, one solar water heater can avoid over 50 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Windows can be one of your home's most attractive features. Windows provide views, daylight, ventilation, and solar heating in the winter. Unfortunately, they can also account for 10% to 25% of your heating bill. During the summer, sunny windows make your air conditioner work two to three times harder. If you live in the Sun Belt, look into new solar control spectrally selective windows, which can cut the cooling load by more than half.
If your home has single pane windows, as almost half of homes do, consider replacing them. New double pane windows with high performance glass (e.g., low-e or spectrally selective) are available on the market. In colder climates, select windows that are gas filled with low emissivity ( low-e) coatings on the glass to reduce heat loss. In warmer climates, select windows with spectrally selective coatings to reduce heat gain. If you are building a new home, you can offset some of the cost of installing more efficient windows because doing so allows you to buy smaller, less expensive heating and cooling equipment.
Landscaping is a natural and beautiful way to keep your home more comfortable and reduce your energy bills. In addition to adding aesthetic value and environmental quality to your home, a well placed tree, shrub, or vine can deliver effective shade, act as a windbreak, and reduce overall energy bills.
Carefully positioned trees can save up to 25% of a typical household's energy for heating and cooling. Properly placed trees around the house, can save an average household between $100 and $250 in heating and cooling energy costs annually.
During the summer months, the most effective way to keep your home cool is to prevent the heat from building up in the first place. A primary source of heat buildup is sunlight absorbed by your home's roof, walls, and windows. Dark colored home exteriors absorb 70% to 90% of the radiant energy from the sun that strikes the home's surfaces. Some of this absorbed energy is then transferred into your home by way of conduction, resulting in heat gain inside the house. In contrast, light colored surfaces effectively reflect most of the heat away from your home. Landscaping can also help block and absorb the sun's energy to help decrease heat build up in your home by providing shade and evaporative cooling.
Increasing your lighting efficiency is one of the fastest ways to decrease your energy bills. If you replace 25% of your lights in high use areas with fluorescents, you can save about 50% of your lighting energy bill.
Use linear fluorescent and energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in fixtures throughout your home to provide high quality and high efficiency lighting. Fluorescent lamps are much more efficient than incandescent bulbs and last 6 to 10 times longer.
Many homeowners use outdoor lighting for decoration and security. When shopping for outdoor lights, you will find a variety of products, from low-voltage pathway lighting to high sodium motion detector floodlights. Some stores also carry lights powered by small photovoltaic (PV) modules that convert sunlight directly into electricity; consider PV-powered lights for areas that are not close to an existing power supply line.
Appliances account for about 20% of your household's energy consumption, with refrigerators and clothes dryers at the top of the consumption list.
When you're shopping for appliances, you can think of two price tags. The first one covers the purchase price - think of it as a down payment. The second price tag is the cost of operating the appliance during its lifetime. You'll be paying on that second price tag every month with your utility bill for the next 10 to 20 years, depending on the appliance. Refrigerators last an average of 20 years; room air conditioners and dishwashers, about 10 years each; clothes washers, about 14 years.
Most of the energy used by a dishwasher is for water heating. The Energy Guide label estimates how much power is needed per year to run the appliance and to heat the water based on the yearly cost of gas and electric water heating.
Refrigerators with the freezer on top are more efficient than those with freezers on the side.
The Energy Guide label on new refrigerators will tell you how much electricity in kilowatt hours (kWh) a particular model uses in one year. The smaller the number, the less energy the refrigerator uses and the less it will cost you to operate.
About 80% to 85% of the energy used for washing clothes is for heating the water. There are two ways to reduce the amount of energy used for washing clothes - use less water and use cooler water. Unless you're dealing with oily stains, the warm or cold water setting on your machine will generally do a good job of cleaning your clothes. Switching your temperature setting from hot to warm can cut a load's energy use in half.
When shopping for a new washer, look for a front loading (horizontal axis) machine. This machine may cost more to buy but uses about a third of the energy and less water than a top loading machine. With a front loader, you'll also save more on clothes drying, because they remove more water from your clothes during the spin cycle.
When shopping for a new clothes dryer, look for one with a moisture sensor that automatically shuts off the machine when your clothes are dry. Not only will this save energy, it will save wear and tear on your clothes caused by over drying. Keep in mind that gas dryers are less expensive to operate than electric dryers. The cost of drying a typical load of laundry in an electric dryer is 30 to 40 cents compared to 15 to 25 cents in a gas dryer.
Understanding real estate appreciation
Real estate appreciation refers to an increase in value of your home and the property. When your property "appreciates" you have greater equity against which to borrow, and you realize a greater profit when you sell. Property values fluctuate regularly for many different reasons, so how do you know the home you’re buying is going to appreciate over the years?
By and large, the economy is the driving factor of real estate appreciation in theU.S. That includes interest rates as well as the current employment rate, business growth in the area, housing supply and demand and affordability.
Regional economic and social factors also affect real estate appreciation. Many homebuyers choose to live in areas with the best and most convenient features for households to thrive, such as a close proximity to schools, jobs and commerce.
A good school district can also be an indicator of good home appreciation. It is believed that good schools help foster lifestyles associated with high levels of attainment at the individual, household and community level.
Demographics also play a role in real estate appreciation. For example, during the 1980s, much of the baby boomer generation (People born between 1946 - 1964) was buying real estate, causing homes to appreciate at a faster rate than inflation and made real estate a profitable investment. The group referred to as Generation Y – born roughly between 1980 and now – is the biggest generation since the baby boomers. Their contribution to real estate is expected to be far greater than their older siblings of Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979).
There are some aspects that significantly contribute to real estate appreciation, which you may want to ask your agent about when shopping for a home:Recent sales. Ask your agent or retrieve public records on real estate sales in the neighborhood you wish to live in. How many home sales have there been in the past year? What are the asking prices? Do the final sales exceed the asking prices?
Appreciation history. Have home prices risen or declined over the past 5 to 10 years? Is the neighborhood considered desirable because of its location, amenities or affordability?
Local business economy. Is there a good mixture of business or does the area rely on one industry? Have any new industries moved into or out of the area? Is there a lot of new development nearby?Economic changes such as a large factory going out of business can dramatically affect demand for housing in a particular area.
It is important to note that while appreciation is nice to have, it should not be the reason you decide to buy a home in a particular area. Even if you buy a house in a rapidly appreciating area, there is no guarantee that its value will rise by the time you want to sell it. That’s why it’s best to pick a neighborhood – and a home – in an area that suits your own needs.
The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing-home sales declined on the heels of a strong gain in September as uncertainty and economic concerns increased in October.
NAR's chief economist, said consumer hesitation is understandable. “Many potential home buyers appear to have withdrawn from the market due to the stock market collapse and deteriorating economic conditions,” he said. “We have favorable affordability conditions, but we need more than that to give buyers with jobs the confidence they need. This is why a housing stimulus is so critical now to encourage more buyers to draw down the inventory and stabilize home prices. Without home price stabilization, there will not be an economic recovery.”
Total housing inventory at the end of October slipped 0.9 percent to 4.23 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 10.2-month supply2 at the current sales pace, up from a 10.0-month supply in September.
Here's a key question about the current market: Do you look at home prices to figure out where we are in the real estate recovery cycle, or do you focus on sales?
In an economy where an estimated 35 to 40 percent of all home transactions are foreclosures or short sales - distress situations in other words -- prices won't really guide you much beyond the conclusion that: We're still "correcting” the excesses of the boom years, still peeling back those wild and unsustainable hyperinflationary price run ups.
So it's no surprise that median prices are down, year to year, in a majority of large markets across the country.
Sales statistics, on the other hand, tell you how fast buyers are responding to those lower prices -- and greatly improved affordability.
Right now, in market after market, sales are picking up tempo -- especially in places where prices once spiraled out of control.
Third quarter sales of existing homes in the U.S. were up by 2.6 percent over second quarter 2008 levels, according to the National Association of Realtors' latest study. That's not spectacular -- but let's face it: It's forward movement … and we're in a recession.
No question that a high proportion of these sales are distress situations. But that's what the bottom of a real estate cycle looks like: Value-savvy buyers see the opportunities, move in and mop up the mess left over after the big party.
Happily, in this cycle, they're getting real help from the capital markets: Mortgage money is at historically-attractive low levels, and is readily available to anyone with a downpayment and reasonable credit.
Rates fell again last week to an average 6.16 percent for 30-year fixed loans, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, and to 5.87 percent on average for 15 year loans. If you can spot the opportunities -- and have the resources -- it's not a bad time to be a buyer.
If you're putting your home on the market, better be sure you're ready to tell all -- good and bad.
The majority of lawsuits or claims that occur are as a result of buyers finding out about something that is wrong with their property after the close of escrow and coming to the belief that the seller knew but didn't tell them.
Disclosure is vital. In one extreme case, it may have spared a seller from going to jail and even saved lives. The New York Times reported on a trial back in the late eighties that found the seller of a home guilty for not disclosing to the buyers that the home's heater had malfunctioned. The buyers and one of their children were asphyxiated by fumes from a gas-fired heater used to de-ice the driveway of their home. Only their four-year-old child survived. The seller was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. This case is believed to be the first of its kind where a home-seller was held criminally liable for the sale of a home that had a fatal defect.
While certainly this isn't a typical scenario. It gives good reason to pay attention to the details that you're disclosing when selling your home. It's not worth it to leave off some important details just because you think the home won't sell or will sell for less money if you disclose any problems.
Reporting problems about your property prior to the sale of it can be done through various reporting mechanisms such as the Disclosure Statement. But some disclosure reporting statements are written in the present tense, which creates a reporting dilemma for some sellers.
The seller will look at the Disclosure Statement and say well there was something wrong but it's not anymore; therefore, I don't have to disclose it. If sellers haven't disclosed it and it turns out to be a problem, then you have a potential significant issue, whereas if it's been disclosed, then the buyer can elect what to do with it.
Chances are buyers won't decide to do anything further because the problem has been disclosed by the seller and reported that it's been fixed. The will allow the buyers to feel that the problem has been completely resolved and therefore will not hold up the sale of the home.
Reporting all problems with the home regardless of whether they have been fixed is the safest way to sell your home. Making sure you keep good records is vital because, as the years pass, many sellers forget about all the repairs they've done to the property.
Every homeowner should have a file of everything they do to the house. This file should be given to the buyers for them to review. The file should show all problems and how they have been repaired, complete with receipts. This is a step above what Michigan requires a seller to do. Even though legally there's no real requirement to tell about fixed problems, those are as critical as the existing problems. When you don't report a problem, buyers generally learn about it from neighbors and then assume that you were not telling the truth when you sold the home.
But many sellers resist disclosing problems for fear that their homes won't sell. That's the fallacy. People think if I tell the truth about my house, a buyer won't buy. Buy, if you sell the home with a problem and the buyer finds out after the close of escrow, the buyer will likely file litigation to resolve the problem—creating a huge headache.
If the seller properly discloses all issues with the home, then the buyer can make an educated decision to buy or not. The fact is that the vast majority of buyers don't walk away. They decide to buy a house because they've determined it's the house for them. Once they've made that decision they usually find a way to make it work.
So, when's the best time to disclose? Right away. A good buyer agent will get whatever negative information there is out there as fast as possible. Once buyers make a decision to go forward they will have made their decision based upon all these factors, including that one.
In a statement to the House Financial Services Committee today, the National Association of Realtors® recommended a four-point plan to stimulate home sales and stabilize housing valuations.
"The only way to overcome today’s economic turmoil is to motivate and encourage worried or cautious housing consumers to enter the marketplace," said NAR President Charles McMillan, "Stabilizing the housing market will lead to a quicker and greater economic recovery. Our goal is to ensure there is a healthy market and sufficient capital to support mortgage lending to qualified borrowers."
NAR developed the plan for consideration by the current lame-duck session of Congress, and for the 111th Congress and the new administration. The four-point plan’s principles are consumer-driven to help foster a housing recovery to support an economic rebound. The plan calls for eliminating the repayment of the first-time home buyer tax credit that was passed in the February stimulus bill, and to expand the tax credit to include all home buyers. The plan also recommends making the increased FHA and conventional loan limits permanent to stimulate home sales and stabilize prices. In addition, the plan urges that the Troubled Asset Relief Program be put back on track by targeting the funds for mortgage relief through a mortgage interest rate buy-down. Finally, the plan recommends finalizing legislation to prohibit banks from entering into the business of real estate brokerage and property management.
"The federal government must ensure there is sufficient capital to support mortgage lending not only in strong markets but also in tumultuous ones," said McMillan. "Realtors® are frustrated with the current mortgage lending environment that places a variety of barriers on families who wish to buy a home, impeding sales and price stabilization. We look forward to working with the Congress and the new administration to transition out of current instabilities and move toward strong and stable financial and housing markets."
" A systemized approach to the homebuying process can help you steer clear of these common traps, allowing you to not only cut costs, but also secure the home that’s best for you."
No matter which way you look at it buying a home is a major investment. But for many homebuyers, it can be an even more expensive process than it needs to be because many fall prey to at least a few of the many common and costly mistakes which trap them into either:
A systemized approach to the homebuying process can help you steer clear of these common traps, allowing you to not only cut costs, but also secure the home that’s best for you.
This important report discusses the 9 most common and costly of these homebuyer traps, how to identify them, and what you can do to avoid them:
What price should you offer when you bid on a home? Is the seller’s asking price too high, or does it represent a great deal. If you fail to research the market in order to understand what comparable homes are selling for, making your offer would be like bidding blind. Without this knowledge of market value, you could easily bid too much, or fail to make a competitive offer at all on an excellent value.
What are you looking for in a home? A simple enough question, but the answer can be quite complex. More than one buyer has been swept up in the emotion and excitement of the buying process only to find themselves the owner of a home that is either too big or too small. Maybe they’re stuck with a longer than desired commute to work, or a dozen more fix-ups than they really want to deal with now that the excitement has died down. Take the time upfront to clearly define your wants and needs. Put it in writing and then use it as a yard stick with which to measure every home you look at.
Make sure very early on in the negotiation that you will own your new home free and clear by having a title search completed. The last thing you want to discover when you’re in the back stretch of a transaction is that there are encumbrances on the property such as tax liens, undisclosed owners, easements, leases or the like.
As part of your offer to purchase, make sure you request an updated property survey which clearly marks your boundaries. If the survey is not current, you may find that there are structural changes that are not shown (e.g. additions to the house, a new swimming pool, a neighbor’s new fence which is extending a boundary line, etc.). Be very clear on these issues.
Don’t expect every seller to own up to every physical detail that will need to be attended to. Both you and the seller are out to maximize your investment. Ensure that you conduct a thorough inspection of the home early in the process. Consider hiring an independent inspector to objectively view the home inside and out, and make the final contract contingent upon this inspector’s report. This inspector should be able to give you a report of any item that needs to be fixed with associated, approximate cost.
Pre-approval is fast, easy and free. When you have a pre-approved mortgage, you can shop for your home with a greater sense of freedom and security, knowing that the money will be there when you find the home of your dreams.
If a seller fails to comply to the letter of the contract by neglecting to attend to some repair issues, or changing the spirit of the agreement in some way, this could delay the final closing and settlement. Agree ahead of time on a dollar amount for an escrow fund to cover items that the seller fails to follow through on. Prepare a list of agreed issues, walk through them, and check them off one by one.
Make sure you identify and uncover all costs - large and small -far enough ahead of time. When a transaction closes, you will sometimes find fees for this or that sneaking through after the "sub"-total - fees such as loan disbursement charges, underwriting fees etc. Understand these in advance by having your lender project total charges for you in writing.
Take your time during this critical part of the process, and insist on seeing all paperwork the day before you sign. Make sure this documentation perfectly reflects your understanding of the transaction, and that nothing has been added or subtracted. Is the interest rate right? Is everything covered? If you rush this process on the day of closing, you may run into a last minute snag that you can’t fix without compromising the terms of the deal, the financing, or even the sale itself.
How to eliminate heat loss at exterior doors
Air infiltration -- the movement of outside air into and out of your home -- can account for a significant amount of heat loss, and the resulting air currents can make a home feel uncomfortably drafty. When it comes to air infiltration some of the most common culprits are exterior doors, so a few weekend hours devoted to some new weatherstripping can have some pretty dramatic results.
Selecting the right weatherstripping
The type of weatherstripping to use depends somewhat on the type of door and frame you have, and also on how much time and effort you want to devote to the task.
The easiest and least expensive is foam, but, while it's better than nothing, foam doesn't form a tight, uniform seal and is also easily damaged. Foam weatherstripping comes in rolls of different widths and thicknesses, and is self-adhesive. It is applied to the inside edge of the door stop -- the wood strips mounted on the door frame that the door closes against -- and is designed to form a seal when the door closes against it. Select a foam that is the same width as the thickness of the door stop -- typically 1/2 inch -- and that is thick enough to close the gap between the door and the stop. Simply cut the foam to length with a pair of scissors, peel off the backing paper, and press it firmly against the door stop.
A better choice is a compression weatherstripping, which also fits between the door and the door stop to seal off air leaks, but has the advantage of being easier to adjust and considerably more durable. One type of compression weatherstripping is a semi-rigid, high-density foam strip that mounts into a slot in the door stop. Most new doors now come with this type of weatherstripping, and if you need to replace an existing piece on one of your doors, installation is simply a matter of cutting the replacement material to length and tucking the flange on the weatherstripping into the slot on the door stop. If your door does not currently have this type of weatherstripping, adding it would necessitate removing the door stops, cutting a slot along one edge, then reinstalling them.
Almost as effective -- and easier to install -- is vinyl bulb weatherstripping. Vinyl bulb weatherstripping has a tough, hollow strip of vinyl set in a rigid piece of aluminum, and a complete weatherstripping kit contains two long pieces for sides of the door, one short piece for the top, and all the necessary screws or nails for installation. To install, cut the short piece to fit between the door stops. Close the door, place the weatherstripping on the face of the door stop so that the vinyl bulb is slightly compressed against the face of the door, and nail it in place. Then simply repeat the process with the two side pieces.
To complete any door weatherstripping operation, don't forget the gap between the bottom of the door and the wood or metal door sill. The simplest way to close this off is to use a door sweep, which is a flat aluminum strip with a piece of vinyl weatherstripping in one edge -- simply screw the strip to the outer face of the door so that the vinyl makes contact with the sill and covers the gap.
More effective, however, is the door bottom, which is an L- or U-shaped aluminum strip with a curved vinyl insert on the bottom. The metal fits over the very bottom of the door, and is adjusted up or down so that the vinyl forms a complete seal against the sill. Installation may require removing the door and cutting a little bit off the bottom to accommodate the thickness of the metal and vinyl.
All of these types of weatherstripping are available at home centers, lumber yards, hardware stores and discount stores, and typically come with complete installation instructions and all of the necessary hardware for fast and easy installation.
This is a heads up on very good news for our industry. As you know, FHA has traditionally treated Site Condo’s as a true condominium which required spot approval. It appears that they are now set to announce a change in position and begin to consider them a PUD which means that we will be able to do away with conditions surrounding the condo approval.
Stay tuned…
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