What’s the Difference Between Single and Double Hung Windows?

When you’re shopping for vinyl replacement windows, you’ll find out there are a lot of different styles of windows out there -- casement windows, bay windows, picture windows, and garden windows, just to name a few. You’ll also probably hear a lot about double-hung windows, which are one of the most popular types of windows out there. But what exactly are double-hung windows and howe are they different from single-hung windows?

Even if you don’t know exactly what a single-hung window is, you’ve probably seen them many times. With a single-hung window, only one section of the window is moveable. The bottom half of the window can be opened and closed as needed.

While single-hung windows only have one sash that moves, double-hung windows have two operable sections. This gives you a little bit more control over how air circulates around your room. Since heat rises, being able to open the sash will help direct warmer air out of a room more effectively than a single-hung window would. On the flip side, if you wanted to get a little fresh air on a cooler day, perhaps in early spring or during the fall, keeping the top section shut and the lower section open will help keep warmer air in.

A big advantage of double-hung windows is that they can be easier to clean than single-hung windows. Both sections of double-hung windows can be tilted inward, making it easy to clean the exterior side of your windows without having to actually go outside. If you have windows on more than one story of your home, this can be a huge benefit since you won’t have to worry about having to get on a ladder to wash your windows from the outside. Some types of single-hung windows can also be tilted inwards for cleaning, but many single-hung windows don’t have this functionality.

Whether you go with single-hung or double-hung vinyl replacement windows, you’ll have the assurance of knowing that you’ll be getting windows that are very durable and are easy to maintain!

Do You Need Flood Insurance?

If you’re a homeowner, one of the best things you can do is purchase homeowners insurance. Your home is one of the most important investments you make in your lifetime and a homeowners insurance policy will help protect that investment by covering damages caused by things like fire and many types of weather damage. But when you hear the words “weather damage,” do you think that would include damage caused by flooding? After all, many floods are caused by excessive amounts of rain, so you’d think damage caused by them would be covered by your homeowners insurance policy, right?

Many homeowners are under the impression that flood damage is covered by their homeowners insurance, only to find out the hard way that it isn’t actually covered. Most homeowners insurance plans cover some forms of water damage but do not cover flood damage, so if you want to protect your home from flood damage, you’ll most likely need a separate flood insurance policy. Damage caused by flooding can be astronomically expensive. According to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the average claim for flood damage in 2014 was over $38,000, so purchasing flood insurance can help spare you from being hit with a massive expense.

However, there are a lot of misconceptions about flood insurance. Many people think they should only get flood insurance if they live in an area that’s at a high risk for flooding and that it’s a waste of money if your home has never flooded before. But the reality is that over 20% of flood insurance claims are made by people who live in areas that are considered low-to-moderate risk for flooding. Flooding can happen anywhere for a multitude of reasons, including excessive rainfall, rapidly melting snow, and construction projects in the area. Even if you don’t live anywhere near a body of water and never experienced flooding before, it’s still entirely possible you could find yourself dealing with a flood at some point.

If you live in an high-risk area for flooding, your mortgage company might require you to have flood insurance, but in most cases, nobody is going to require you to have flood insurance. But a lot of people are under the impression that they can’t get flood insurance or that flood insurance is very expensive. Virtually anyone can get flood insurance as long as they live in a city that participates in the NFIP. Like any other type of insurance, the price of flood insurance will largely depend on how much coverage you want to have and whether or not you live in an area prone to flooding.

Whether or not flood insurance is worth it is entirely up to you, but don’t feel like flood insurance is something that’s impossible to have. Just remember that it takes 30 days for flood insurance policies to become active, so be sure to keep that in mind if you’re looking to get covered in time for the winter thaw and springtime rainfall.

Fixing a Stuck Window

When the first warm, sunny day of spring arrives, one of the best ways you can celebrate is by opening up some of the windows around the house. After several months of cold, unpleasant winter weather, being able to open your windows and let in some nice, fresh air can be a wonderful feeling. But what if you go to open your window and aren’t able to because the window is stuck shut?

Stuck windows are a very common problem for homeowners. In the best case scenario, they’re annoying since you aren’t able to get the fresh air you want. But a stuck window can be a safety problem since windows can offer an escape route in the event of an emergency. The good news is that in many cases, a stuck window can easily be fixed.

Before you start trying to fix your stuck window, what type of window do you have and can you see what is causing it to stick? This may sound obvious, but make sure the window isn’t locked or secured shut in some other way. Dirt and debris in the track of the window can also make it difficult to open, so cleaning the track is a good way to help it open easier.

One of the most common reasons windows get stuck is because they’ve recently been painted in a way that allowed the window to effectively become glued shut once the paint dried. You’d be surprised just how strong paint can be when it’s dried, but this is an easy fix! All you have to do to is take a putty knife and run it along the edge of the window to break up the dried paint. You may have to do this from both the inside and the outside of the window. Depending on how badly it’s stuck, you might want to use a utility knife with a sharp blade and run it along the dried paint first to help break it up a little. If the paint has seeped in very deeply, you might also want to use a hammer to gently push the blade of the putty knife in even further. Just be very careful not to damage the window pane or the window sash when you do this.

Wood windows can be particularly prone to getting stuck. On humid days, wood windows can absorb some of the moisture in the air and swell, making them difficult, if not impossible, to open. If this is the case, you might be able to get some help from an ordinary candle. Simply taking a candle and running at along the track where your window slides can help reduce friction enough for the window to be able to move again. You don’t need to use any fancy types of candles for this; ordinary white, unscented votive candles will work perfectly fine.

If a window getting stuck has been an ongoing problem that doesn’t seem to have a discernible cause, you might want to consider having someone come out to look at your windows. Sometimes, windows can become difficult to open and close over time if the house has shifted and settled. If this is the case, having the window replaced might be the best solution in the long run. Vinyl replacement windows aren’t prone to problems like swelling and warping the way wood windows are so they could cause fewer headaches for you later on.

Taking Care of Your Sprinkler System

If you want to have a yard full of lush, green grass and beautiful flowers, you’re going to have to put a lot of time and effort into taking care of your yard. Depending on how big your yard is, making sure everything is being watered properly can be one of the most time consuming yard maintenance tasks on your list.

When you have a larger yard, simply setting one sprinkler, the kind your kids might like to play around in, on your lawn for a little while probably won’t be enough to get the job done. Having a sprinkler system would be a much more efficient way to make sure your yard is being watered adequately. No need to be constantly moving a single sprinkler around or wandering around the yard with a hose; you can just turn your sprinkler system on and let it do the work for you. You can even set it to run on a timer, if you want.

Since your sprinkler system can be such a valuable tool, you’ll want to be sure to maintain it to keep it in good working order. Once springtime rolls around and your lawn doesn’t have any snow on it, turn your sprinkler system on for a little while and see if you notice any problems like low water pressure or if any sprinkler heads are out of alignment or not working at all. Since it’s been awhile since you last used your sprinkler system, it’s good to give it a test run before you get into the peak summer watering season. Sometimes, sprinkler heads can get clogged or moved out of alignment, causing them to either not work optimally or spray in a less-than-ideal direction. If you notice any of these problems, fix them and you should be good to go. Also, be sure to take a look at each sprinkler head to make sure they’re all even with the ground when the system is off so that nobody trips over them. If you notice any problems with low water pressure and it’s not because your sprinkler heads are clogged, you might have a leak somewhere in your system.

During the summer, be sure to keep an eye on your sprinkler system and test it every now and then just like you did in the spring to make sure everything is still working correctly. You might notice that one area is getting too much water, or maybe not enough water, so you should readjust your sprinkler heads as needed. Be sure to keep an eye out for spots that constantly seem to always be wet since this could be a sign of a leak.

Since your sprinkler system could be damaged if water is left in the line and freezes, you should always have your sprinkler system winterized when the weather starts getting colder, before the end of November. Winterizing your sprinkler system will drain the water from the system so that there’s nothing left inside to freeze. If you call an irrigation specialist, they’ll come out and winterize your system for a fairly low price and save you hundreds of dollars in damage once spring comes around again.

The Pros and Cons of Tankless Water Heaters

On any given day, how much time do you spend thinking about your home’s water heater? Odds are, you don’t typically give it much thought at all. As long as you’re getting the hot water you need, it can be easy to forget your water heater is even there. But as soon as your water heater starts having problems or quits working altogether, it’s the kind of problem you can’t possibly ignore.

Water heaters typically last about 10-15 years and if you’ve reached the point where it’s time to replace your water heater, one option you might be considering is a tankless water heater. Traditional tank water heaters are still very popular, but tankless water heaters have become more popular in America in recent years thanks to their energy efficient nature. Since heating water is one of the most expensive parts of your home’s utility bill, it’s easy to see how finding a way to make getting hot water more efficient could be appealing.

Traditional storage tank water heaters work by storing water in a tank and heating it there so it’s ready to go when you need it to take a shower, do laundry, or wash dishes. As the name suggests, tankless water heaters don’t use a tank to store water. Instead, tankless water heaters work by heating water right on the spot with a heating element in the water heater. Since you’re only heating water when you need it, you aren’t losing money on standby energy losses that are very common with traditional storage tank water heaters.

Another big advantage of tankless water heaters is that they can produce hot water for as long as you need it. You could spend over an hour in the shower if you wanted to and you wouldn’t run out of hot water, you’d just have to wait a few seconds for water to warm up in the beginning. However, one of the biggest disadvantages of tankless water heaters is that they put out fewer gallons per minute than traditional storage tank water heaters, which could be a problem if you tend to do things like have the dishwasher and the washing machine running while you’re in the shower. In fact, tankless water heaters tend to be most efficient if you typically have rather low water consumption levels.

One of the nice things about tankless water heaters is that they take up much less space than more traditional water heaters do. They’re small enough that some people will go as far as to install multiple water heaters throughout the house so that, for example, their washing machine has its own water heater. Although this might sound like a great solution for the problem of tankless water heaters putting out less water per minute than other types of water heaters, this brings us to the biggest problem with tankless water heaters -- they’re expensive. According to Consumer Reports, tankless water heaters can cost between $800 and $1,150, while tank water heaters only cost about $300-$400.

Tankless water heaters can also require more maintenance than other types of water heaters. With a traditional storage tank style of water heater, all you really have to do is drain some of the water in the tank a couple times a year to help get rid of sediment and check the anode rod every few years. But tankless water heaters can be prone to limescale and calcium buildup and many people will recommend having it checked out annually to keep it running correctly. Depending on how hard your water is, a water softener could help prevent things like lime and calcium buildup, but that’s an added expense you’d have to account for.