Tag: safety

Keypad locks for homeowners are continuing to grow in popularity. Some of you may recall our first experience with the Kwikset SmartCode technology a few months back. If you read all the way through that post, you’ll see it didn’t all go according to plan. Well Schlage got in touch with me, and, after triple checking Kim and Fred’s door hole dimensions, I had them ship over a new... 

I’ve mentioned my friend Bj before. He’s the same guy that shared his experience with the Stōk Quattro grill, and about a week ago he told me that he discovered some lurker in his backyard with a ladder! Initially BJ was stunned by the stranger who obviously intending on climbing up to the second story balcony. After recovering, BJ phoned the police as the intruder ran off with the ladder.... 

A friend caught me the other day and asked if I knew anything about smoke detectors. He was curious why his smoke alarm was going off for no apparent reason and what he should do about it. I didn’t have an answer for him, and it actually reminded me that one of my smoke detectors may be on the fritz too. A while back, one of our smoke detectors started beeping every so often. No big deal right?... 

I think it’s impressive that Kwikset is constantly trying to bring new products to market. Remember a couple years ago when they introduced the SmartKey technology? If you’re not familiar, they created a lock that any homeowner can re-key in about 30 seconds, and it works really well! I was excited when they offered up their latest innovation for review- the SmartCode lock. The idea behind... 

A good table saw is practically a necessity for lots jobs like installing hardwood floors. There’s been a lot of talk lately about table saw safety and whether or not the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will mandate the use of a new technology called the SawStop. No matter what you think about the SawStop, the onus is still on the user to be safe. This post includes some of the safety... 

All modern American building codes requires fire stopping devices be incorporated in certain walls, floors, and attics. These fire stops prevent fire from moving too easily up a wall to the room above or into another area of the house. In modern residential home design, this is most commonly achieved in walls by continuous 2×4 or 2×6 top and bottom plates that separate studs from the joists... 

Over the last two weeks we’ve told you how polarized outlets and grounded electrical circuits increase the safety of the electrical systems in our homes.  This week we’re going to focus on a third electrical safety enhancement we enjoy: the ground fault circuit interrupt, or GFCI. You’ll recall from both of the previous articles in our series that in the normal operation of electric... 

My neighbors have ordered Fios and part of the process is connecting the house back to the fiber optic pipeline. That means that Miss Utility has been out spray painting the ground to mark buried lines. It’s a common occurrence but did you know that you need to make the same call whenever you dig? Call Before You Dig Homeowners, professionals, and do-it-yourselfers all need to make the call to... 

As part of our the recent remodel where we removed walls on the first floor of our house, we also sanded down the rest of the stipple ceiling on the first floor. We had sanding the stipple ceiling in our dining room the year before, and as part of that project, decided to get the ceiling checked for asbestos. Many popcorn and stipple ceilings built between 1950 and 1980 contain asbestos. Undisturbed,... 

Before Izzie was born, lots of people told me to get a video monitor, but I thought it was pretty frivolous. So I got a simple (but great) audio monitor – Safety 1st High Definition Digital Audio Monitor. It has great reception, even in our townhouse community, and has crisp, clear sound, picking up even the smallest whimpers. But in the end, I discovered there’s no replacement for actually...