As we’re entering the month of March in Southern California, the heavy rainy season of winter is typically coming to an end. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any more rain, but the possibility of rain is tapering off. Spring will be here before you know it on March 22 with its longer days. It will soon be time to inspect our home drainage systems and make any needed repairs so we can check off this task as done on our maintenance calendars. Water generally flows downhill eventually and it’s best to make sure your drainage system is in good working order to protect your home.… Continue Reading A Drainage Dilemma In Lemon Grove: It All Flows Downhill
Five Tips For A Better Home Office
If you work at home and don’t have a comfortable home office or have one that’s not ideal, now is the time to convert a rarely used space (formal living and dining rooms), remodel a bedroom, or add a new addition. Costs are rising: labor, materials, equipment, furnishings, etc. Materials delivery is lagging too, but the sooner you start the sooner you’ll finish and possibly with a lower price tag. Financing is still at a relatively low rate, but interest rates are expected to rise by mid-year or sooner.
After a year-plus of being asked to work at home temporarily, you’re probably like many of us beginning to wonder if this might be the new normal. Some companies are also beginning to reconsider how much physical office space “togetherness” is really necessary to meet their business objectives. Those sprawling corporate campuses and skyscrapers are expensive. Many office employees also prefer some mix of home and company office time.… Continue Reading Five Tips For A Better Home Office
Love Your Trees, But Keep Them Away … Please!
In hot, dry, crowded Southern California, many people are attracted by those resort style or park-like homes set on ocean-view or urban forest lots. They tug at every nature lover’s heart. You fall in love with statuesque Palms or the sculpted limbs of old California Oaks or evergreen Cedars or stately Sycamores or fragrant Eucalyptus surrounded by beautiful lawns and beds full of shrubs and flowers.
I love trees too. Trees provide shade and are awesome to look at. There is, however a big downside to trees placed too closely to homes. They look great when you buy the home or when you plant those stick-like saplings. Years later, unfortunately, we are often asked by property owners and insurance companies to evaluate the structural damage after large trees fall or invasive tree roots cause harm.… Continue Reading Love Your Trees, But Keep Them Away … Please!
Learning the Sounds of Home Fire Safety
If your life or a loved one’s life depended on it, can you tell the difference between the sounds a home smoke alarm makes when there’s a real fire versus a low battery notification? Are you sure? Your lives might depend on the right answer.
The National Fire Prevention Association’s (NFPA) members want you to: “Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety”. It’s important that everyone in the home (parents, kids, seniors) learn the different sounds that smoke and carbon monoxide alarms make.… Continue Reading Learning the Sounds of Home Fire Safety
Preventing Termite Trouble
When was the last time that you had a termite inspection done on your Victorian, craftsman, Spanish revival or modern home? If you’re like many of us, that might have been a day or two before you moved into your newest home—even if it has been decades. Unfortunately in Southern California, it is generally termite season 365-days a year and none of the various treatments available last forever although some are more effective than others.So you need to watch out for signs of new termite infestations. At Helfrich Associates, we’re licensed engineers specializing in structural issues and we routinely encounter termite infestations and damage. We see them or sadly the damage they’ve already caused most often when we are a part of large renovation projects involving classic homes, such as aging Victorians with their intricate decorative trims or craftsmen with their rustic natural style.… Continue Reading Preventing Termite Trouble
Maintaining Your HVAC System Because It’s Too Darn Hot
This summer has been truly a record-setter in the West for heat, drought and smoky wild fires. If you’re not all that bothered about the heat at home because you work in a cool office all day and then jump in the pool after 5 o’clock,count yourself lucky. Also, don’t forget your home’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system also filters pollutants day and night to reduce the effects of allergies and other respiratory issues that affect quality sleep.… Continue Reading Maintaining Your HVAC System Because It’s Too Darn Hot
Dream Home: Pool Nightmare
The owners of a beautiful contemporary 7,000-square foot dream home with a forever view in Murrieta near the Temecula wine country of Southern California awoke to a disturbing pool disaster a few years ago. Shortly after construction, their new pool, surrounded by a resort-like patio deck suddenly started to slip tragically down the slope below.
The movement of the patio/pool structure with large, visible cracks left no doubt about the unstable nature of the lot and hillside below. With the region’s often weak, compressible soils, and a proclivity for earthquakes, hillside homes in Southern California are often unstable and subject to more than a little shaking.… Continue Reading Dream Home: Pool Nightmare
Now You’re in Hot Water . . . Let’s Keep it That Way!
Water heaters are like many appliances, and they need to be maintained regularly to extend their life. Minerals in our hard water, as well asnormal corrosion, can shorten the life of your water heater by years without annual maintenance. Otherwise, you might be in for a rude, cold surprise! If it has been awhile since you purchased a new water heater, the prices have gone up quite a bit. You can easily spend $500.00 to $1,000.00 for a simple, natural gas entry level small family water heater that serves up to four people.
Labor is extra and typically adds up to another $1,000.00 or more. In Southern California, earthquake strapping is necessary too. With natural gas, the services of trained, licensed plumber are needed to ensure safety during installation and that the installation will meet local fire codes.… Continue Reading Now You’re in Hot Water . . . Let’s Keep it That Way!
Property Inspections—Keep Your Eye on the Ball
Can a tennis ball really give you home-buying insight? Normally, when people are looking for properties to purchase, they worry about the roof or the walls or the plumbing or the appliances or the heating/ac system, but not many realize that inspecting the foundation is critical to the building’s structural integrity.
… Continue Reading Property Inspections—Keep Your Eye on the Ball
June Maintenance: Drainage Assessments
Hint: Water Always Flows Downhill …
Assessing drainage conditions around properties and how to improve them are both simple and at times complicated. Simple because everyone knows that water flows downhill; so you start out knowing generally what direction it is likely to go. Far more complicated, however, are designing commercial or residential property lot drainage systems based on technical analyses of how much water flow to expect, where it will go and what needs to be done to prevent damage. At Helfrich Associates, we are most often called in when drainage conditions have been long neglected and/or when there is real damage to property and structures. In Southern California with our abundant sunshine, it is tempting to put off addressing drainage problems until after our relatively short, but sometimes intense rainy season. Those fast-moving thunderstorms in August or that first gentle rain in the fall disappears and then nothing happens until January or February when the bulk of our seasonal rain arrives (sometimes in buckets).… Continue Reading June Maintenance: Drainage Assessments