Friday, July 30, 2010

Appliance Repair

A colleague recommended the The Samurai Appliance Repair Man as a great source of appliance repair tips.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Foundation Repairs

I was happy to get a concrete foundation in the house we bought a year ago, but since it's really 3 separate foundations, we're anything but immune to cracks. We had one filled with concrete. But, I'm suspicious as to whether that was the correct decision. A more flexible material like butyl rubber would probably have been better. I just learned of another option: Crack-X. Crack-X is a company that specializes in concrete foundation cracks. They use an epoxy injection which effectively welds the two parts together. Will have to keep them in mind in case we have another crack to deal with...

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Air Conditioning Maintenance

I've been learning a bit about how to maintain my central air conditioner (A/C) lately. In particular, my neighbor noticed that my outdoor compressor fan wasn't blowing as strongly as it should have. Last night, unscrewed the top and found a pile of leaves, dirt, etc. at the bottom, mainly concentrated in the area where he noted the weakness. I had brought my wet/dry vac with me so I turned it on and sucked-out as much of the crap as I could. I'll soon be back for a second round to give it a more complete cleaning. One thing I found difficult was the fact that the fan was attached to the top metal piece that I removed to gain access to the inside. Also, much of the unit was held together by this top cover. So, I had to use one hand to hold up the cover while I used my second hand to stick the vacuum tube down. Definitely would have been nice to have a second person to help.