Who Designs Better? Men or Women? Find out Here!

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

Oh the age old question, who is better at such and such men or women. Well for this article’s case the such and such is home design. Read this article to find out what this writer’s research uncovered.

From the article:

Men may be from Mars and women from Venus but they both think a great kitchen is their No. 1 priority in a home, according to an informal survey conducted by two architects, an interior designer, and a home builder.

Even more interesting was that their ranking of priorities for other home features were almost evenly aligned. In fact, men and women shared the same top three priorities. In addition to kitchens, they ranked function, function, function at No 2 and a wonderful master suite No. 3.

The other seven items they chose for their lists were closely aligned in order of preference, except for the garage/workshop. That priority ranked last in the top 10 for women and seventh on the list for men.

While He and She said mostly the same things, they seemed to have different reasons for their rankings, said Crasi: They got there on different paths.

For instance, women and men polled ranked a place to work at close to the same level of importance, but the spaces they wanted differed. Women wanted command center-style areas near the kitchen at the heart of the house where they could listen for oven timers and dryer bells while watching the kids as they worked. Men preferred more traditional quiet spaces away from the fray, the presenters said.

Garages made the rankings for women because they are good for storage, create a sense of safety, and they’re practical in inclement weather. Men like garages for their toys.

There was one area of strong divergence. Women ranked having a space for guests as No. 9 on their priority lists while most men didn’t put it on their top 10 list at all. Men ranked home technology No. 10, while it was missing from the women???s top 10 list.

The items excluded from the lists of most men and women were green-ness, bonus space, and kids space. The thought among the panelists about why kids space and bonus space were excluded was that those polled most likely thought that kids??? space was already included on their wish list in other categories.

While the men and women surveyed as a whole seemed to be almost on the same page in home priorities, there were some interesting differences when the groups were sorted by age.

For instance, men and women under 30 truly could be from different planets. A wonderful master suite was most important to women of that age, while men wanted entertaining space. Men ranked outdoor living as their second favorite feature, while women preferred a great kitchen at the second spot. The only things they agreed on were function, function, function at No. 2 and the garage/workshop at No. 9.

If you have additional questions contact us today!

To view the entire article click here: http://www.builderonline.com/demographics/mars-vs-venus-on-home-design.aspx

Warning Signs That Your Dryer Vent Ducts are Clogged

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

In this video from Jeremy and the team from Dryer Vents Plus, you’ll learn helpful tips and tricks to be able to see the warning signs if that your dryer vent ducts are clogged and need immediate attention.

View Warning Signs That Your Dryer Vent Ducts are Clogged Video on Youtube

Transcript of Video:

Hello my name is Jeremy Leake and I???m with Dryer Vents Plus. Dryer Vents Plus is a dryer vent cleaning and repair company. Were in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and we’ve been operating for the past 6 years and we service south Louisiana.

Today I???d like to talk to you a little bit about your dryer efficiency. A few tips that you can use to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your dryer and things that you can pay attention to. Very simple first you want to look at the dryer lint screen. If the lint screen does it’s job it catches about 75-80% of the lint but the rest goes on through the dryer and clogs up the vent.

If you ever notice that you have a dryer vents screen that’s collecting on only half the screen or if it’s collecting on both sides or you notice that it???s not collecting any lint at all that is a problem. That’s a sign that your dryer vent is clogged up and you have an air flow issue. If the air is not flowing through properly lint won’t collect properly and that’s a sign that you need to look for to have the vent cleaned out.

Another thing you can look for is the heat of the dryer. If the heat of the dryer is warm that’s what you want to look for but if it’s hot to the touch then you don’t want to keep you hand on it it’s too hot then that’s a sign that you have an extremely clogged up dryer vent and you have an issue that needs to take care of.

Another thing is if your clothes are taking too long, especially jeans and towels, to dry then you want to give us a call to come out and clean out the dryer vent. Another simple thing a lot of people overlook is the space between the wall and the dryer if you keep about 4 or 5 inches between the wall and the dryer that will alleviate the problem that you could have with the dryer vent hose behind the dryer. You want to leave enough space so that there’s not getting crushed back there and the air duct has enough space there to blow through.

Those are a few simple things you can look at while you???re doing your laundry. If you have any of these issues you can always reach us. Again this is Jeremy from Dryer Vents Plus. Our phone number is 225-612-7752.

More Dryer Fire Statistics

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

Dryers start fires. It’s a fact. Still don’t believe us? Read this article and decide for yourself.

From the article:

In 2010, an estimated 16,800 reported U.S. home* structure fires involving clothes dryers or washing machines (including combination washer/dryers) resulted in an estimated:

51 civilian deaths

380 civilian injuries

$236 million in direct property damage??

Leading Items First Ignited in Non-Confined Fires Involving??Clothes Washer or Clothes Dryer, 2006-2010

Dryer Fires??

Dust, fiber, or lint 29%

Clothing 28%

Unclassified soft goods or clothing 9%

Washer Fires

Wire or cable insulation 26%

Appliance housing or casing 21%

Drive belt 15%

In 2006-2010:

Most (81%) home structure fires involving washers or dryers began in a laundry room??or area.

Most of these home fires involve clothes dryers (92%).

The risk of fire is roughly equal for gas-fueled clothes dryers and electric-powered

clothes dryers.

The leading cause (32%) of home clothes dryer and washer fires was failure to clean.

If your think your dryer vents might be clogged give us a call today!

To view the entire article click here: http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/DryerFactSheet.pdf

Think You’ll Save Money By Not Having an Inspection? Think Again!

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

Thinking of skipping an inspection to save a few dollars? IT’s rarely worth the risk. Read this article and decide for yourself.

From the article:

Strange things happen in hot real estate markets, and some of these things can be detrimental to sellers, buyers and the whole real estate experience. One such hot-market phenomenon is that some buyers decide to not make a professional inspection a contingency of their offer to purchase a home. Waiving the inspection contingency may help them prevail in a multiple offer situation, but it can prove foolish.

Fred Friedland, a REALTOR?? with the St. Francis Wood office of Prudential California Realty in San Francisco — one of the nation’s hot real estate markets — says he has seen three all-cash, no-inspection offers in recent months. “I would never advise a buyer to not have inspections, but it seems it’s being done,” he says. “And they’re the ones who are getting the property.” Sellers naturally favor offers that don’t contain an inspection contingency because it’s tantamount to selling their home as-is. Regardless of the home’s condition, the buyers can’t insist on the seller making any repairs that aren’t otherwise provided for in the purchase contract.

Of course, the buyers may not have much leverage in a hot market anyway because the seller may be holding formal back-up offers and other eager buyers may be waiting in the wings. Nonetheless, the risks to the buyer of not having a professional inspection as a contingency are considerable. “The buyers face a huge risk in terms of buying a property with an unforeseen defect,” warns Friedland.

He recalls one instance when an inspector discovered that a home had been built on a sewer easement. “The value of the property went to zero,” he says. Friedland recalls another case in which the sellers of a 1897 Victorian home provided a pest control report showing the property needed $2,400 in mitigation work. The buyers hired a home inspector who happened to be a licensed pest control expert as well. He noticed some additional termite damage that would cost thousands of dollars more to repair. In fact, the home was being eaten alive from the ground up. “The sellers were trying to minimize the appearance of how much damage there was,” Friedland believes.

While these are extreme cases, buyers who waive the inspection contingency have no protection from a host of lesser, yet still costly potential defects in a home. A leaking roof, faulty electrical wiring, malfunctioning major appliances, a defective heating or cooling system and many other problems can result in thousands of dollars of unexpected repair costs at a time when most buyers are strapped for cash.

Waiving the inspection contingency doesn’t mean the buyers are buying blind. They can see much for themselves, and Friedland mentions that a buyer who is a general contractor probably can assess a property without an inspector’s report. Also, some state disclosure laws force sellers to reveal any material problems of which they are aware. However, many sellers are blissfully ignorant of serious defects in their home, and they naturally can’t disclose what they don’t know.

Finally, a buyer’s purchase offer might contain a right to have a professional inspection even though approval of the inspection report won’t be a contingency of closing the transaction. If the inspector uncovers substantial problems, the buyers can attempt to find another way to cancel the escrow.

The bottom line is that waiving the inspection contingency is rarely worth the risk, particularly because it doesn’t ensure a price discount in a strong market. Friedland says well-informed buyers much prefer to move on to another home rather than pass on the inspection. “They’ve always felt they would rather not get the property if they wouldn’t be allowed to have the inspection,” he says.

For all of your dryer inspection needs look no further!

To view the entire article click here: http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/buyers-basics/goodbye-inspection-hello-trouble.aspx

Looking to Sell a Home? Checkout These Ideas!

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

If you are trying to sell your home it can be difficult to know how to set your house apart from the other houses on the market. We found this article with 15 different marketing ideas that we hope will help.

From the article:

Website Design

Think of your marketing plan as a solar system and your website as the sun, the panelists suggested. Your marketing efforts around the Web, including social media, email campaigns, and other venues, should all direct shoppers back to a well-planned site.

Don’t offer site visitors the whole story, since that allows them to make a decision without you ever having the chance to contact them. Instead, hold some information back, such as pricing, and experiment with different calls to action to harvest email addresses or phone numbers to enable your sales team to follow-up with prospects.

For the same reason that most builders wouldn’t trust your average freelance writer to hang drywall, panelists suggested hiring professional writers to write website content; builders should also have their writers create content for blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, email blasts, and other outlets.

Make sure your online ads are staying in front of prospective buyers by placing cookies on their computer when they visit your site. Those cookies will then track the next few sites they visit???which are likely to be sites they visit often and place your ads on those sites when they visit them again.

Incorporate a form into your website to garner information on what shoppers are looking for in a home. (How many beds and baths? Do they want a formal living room?) Then email them floor plans that fit their criteria.

Branding

According to a study of new-home buyers, five years after Lennar customers purchased a home, they couldn’t identify who their builder was, but they know what kind of car they drive, one panelist pointed out, emphasizing that builders need to look to other industries for good examples of how to stay visible to customers to better establish a brand reputation.

Decide what message you want your brand to be most associated with, and then ensure that message is conveyed at every interaction a customer has with your company.

Rather than fight the reality that people use model homes for decorating ideas, embrace it by redecorating one room in your model each month to keep people coming back while establishing your brand as a leader in design. Send out an email blast with a photo of a corner of the room, and then make people come into the model to see the rest.

Don’t underestimate the power of philanthropy.

Video

With the value of using video today, we as builders should do something cool, one panelist noted, adding that last year, 456.6 million content videos were watched and 105.4 billion video ads were viewed. Viewers spent 2.5 times more time watching personally relevant short form videos compared with other videos.

Targeting

Tap into professional organizations such as young professionals groups, medical professional organizations, and teachers associations by offering a networking lunch at your model homes and collecting business cards for a raffle. These are people who have a career and a paycheck, making odds better that they will be in a position to buy, one panelist noted.

Working with Realtors

Stay top of mind with local Realtors by sending sales teams to the Realtor offices to be a part of their weekly meetings.

Since Realtors are an excellent source of qualified leads, treat them as a customer and educate them on how you build and the value your homes offer.

Don’t waste money targeting all Realtors, since 90% of the business comes from 10% of the Realtors, one participant noted.

Consider hosting a monthly lunch group for the top Realtors in your area at your model homes to give them a chance to become familiar with your product and learn about any new communities or floor plans you offer.

If we can be of any help please contact us today!

To view the entire article click here: http://www.builderonline.com/marketing/15-marketing-ideas-for-new-home-sales.aspx

Prevent Accidental Flooding From Your Washer

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

In this video from Jeremy and the team from Dryer Vents Plus, you’ll learn how to prevent accidental flooding from your home’s washing machine.

View Warning Signs That Your Ducts are Clogged Video on Youtube

Transcript of Video:

Hi. I’m Jeremy with Dryer Vents Plus. Today we’re here in the laundry room where I would like to help you get more out of your dryer.

Today we’re going to talk a little bit about washing machines, primarily washing machine hoses. If you have the old rubber hoses in the back of your washing machine, those hoses over time, they get brittle. They can cause a rupture and that would cause a house flood. That’s the leading cause of house flooding.

Part of our service, what we do is change out those rubber hoses with the stainless steel braided hose. The stainless steel braided hose has got a reinforced braid all the way around it to stop that line from rupturing. This is part of our service. It’s something that we can do on a regular basis for you. I would suggest you get this done every four, five years. But it is something that we can take a look at whenever we come out to service your dryer vent.

Again this is Jeremy from Dryer Vents Plus here to help you get more out of your dryer.

Learn How Much Bang You Can Get For Your Buck

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

Interested in how much house you can get for a certain amount of money in different locations? Then checkout this article we found.

From the article:

FOX POINT, WISCONSIN

WHAT:A five-bedroom stone Tudor with three and a half bathrooms

HOW MUCH:$699,000

SIZE: 3,688 square feet

PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT: $189.53

SETTING: Fox Point is a residential village on Lake Michigan, 10 miles from Milwaukee. This house sits on a bluff overlooking the lake, in a part of town known as East of Lake Drive, where the village’s grid gives way to wooded, winding roads lined with prewar houses on acre-plus lots. The village has a handful of county landmarks, residential and municipal, including cast-iron street signs hung shortly after the village incorporated in the 1920s. For shopping, most residents go to Whitefish Bay; Milwaukee is also nearby. There’s a public beach five minutes away, in Doctors Park.

INDOORS: The two-story house was built in 1934. Four wood-burning fireplaces, wood-beam ceilings, and hardwood floors are believed to be original; other parts of the house like the kitchen and bathrooms were recently updated by the current owner. Off one side of the central foyer is a dining room with a cove ceiling; off the other is a living room with wood-beam ceilings and a fireplace. The dining room leads to a kitchen, which in turn leads to a family room via a hallway lined with built-in floor-to-ceiling bookcases. French doors in the family room open to the covered back patio.

The master bedroom suite is off the living room, and opens to the back patio. The other four bedrooms are upstairs. One has an en-suite bathroom. Downstairs, in the finished basement, is a recreation room with a fireplace and a mosaic-tile floor also original details.

OUTDOOR SPACE: The lot is on over an acre and a half, with a patio, landscaped perennial gardens and mature trees.

TAXES: $20,139.26

For all of your dryer inspection needs look no further!

To view the entire article click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/greathomesanddestinations/real-estate-for-700000.html?_r=0

Dryer Safety Tips from the National Fire Protection Association

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

Everyone knows to clean the lint trap out before starting a new load of laundry but there are other things that you can do to protect yourself and increase the life of your dryer. We found this article with tips that we think should help you a lot.

From the article:

Doing laundry is most likely part of your every day routine. But did you know how important taking care of your clothes dryer is to the safety of your home? With a few simple safety tips you can help prevent a clothes dryer fire…

Have your dryer installed and serviced by a professional.

Do not use the dryer without a lint filter.

Make sure you clean the lint filter before or after each load of laundry. Remove lint that has collected around the drum.

Rigid or flexible metal venting material should be used to sustain proper air flow and drying time.

Make sure the air exhaust vent pipe is not restricted and the outdoor vent flap will open when the dryer is operating. Once a year, or more often if you notice that it is taking longer than normal for your clothes to dry, clean lint out of the vent pipe or have a dryer lint removal service do it for you.

Keep dryers in good working order. Gas dryers should be inspected by a professional to make sure that the gas line and connection are intact and free of leaks.

Make sure the right plug and outlet are used and that the machine is connected properly.

Follow the manufacturer’s operating instructions and don’t overload your dryer.

Turn the dryer off if you leave home or go to bed.

If you have additional questions about our Baton Rouge dryer vent cleaning services, call us today!

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To view the entire article click here: http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/Research/DryerWasherSafetyTips.pdf

Hints from Heloise – Preventing a Dryer Fire

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

In this except of a recent article by the nationally-syndicated column “Hints from Heloise”, she answers a reader’s question about some of the potential (and unknown) dangers of unchecked dryer vents and lint buildup.

From the article:

I recently purchased an ELECTRIC DRYER. Before the deliveryman installed the new one, I vacuumed out the exhaust hose and was surprised to get a lot of lint. I noticed that the dryer did not completely dry the clothes on the setting I chose, so I tried another setting, with success.

I put in another load, and shortly after, I noticed a red light under the check vent option. My husband went outside and took the cap off the dryer vent, stuck his hand inside and pulled out compacted lint.

I truly was amazed, as I always clean the lint filter inside the dryer after each load.

The manual says to clean the exhaust hose every two years, but I recommend once a year to be safe. Since I was careful to clean the lint filter, I didn’t give the exhaust hose a thought. This could have started a fire. — Sue W. in Ohio

If you need help with your dryer vent cleaning in Baton Rouge, we’re always here to help!

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To read the entire article click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/hints-from-heloise-preventing-a-dryer-fire/2013/02/27/a1806e3e-80fe-11e2-8074-b26a871b165a_story.html

Exterior Dryer Vent Cleaning

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Jeremy Leake

In this video from Jeremy and the team from Dryer Vents Plus, you’ll learn if your dryer vents need to be cleaned out by looking at the outside air vent.

View Warning Signs That Your Ducts are Clogged Video on Youtube

Transcript of Video:

Hi. This is Jeremy Leake from Dryer Vents Plus and today we???ve moved outside of the laundry room to the exterior exhaust. We want to check the air flow in this vent.

Also we want to take a look at these louvers. These louvers are a notorious place for lint to get caught up in. Think of that lint getting in these little crevices and it’s very tenacious the lint. It can get stuck in there. It’s almost like paper-mache. It builds up and builds up.

Over time if it dries out, it can clamp these little things shut and it could reduce your air flow and that, even though the dryer is working fine, will inhibit the efficiency of the dryer. You can see these are all moving fine and there’s a lot of air moving through there. That’s what you want. But this is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind problem.

So from time to time, you should come outside when the dryer is on and make sure your flaps are opening up. Make sure you have lots of exhaust coming out.

Again this is Jeremy from Dryer Vents Plus, hoping you get more out of your dryer.