The Homeowners Guide to Foundation Protection During A Drought
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When designing a drought-tolerant yard, the most crucial decision is selecting plants that can endure California’s blistering summer temperatures and require little water for half of the year once they are planted. This allows the plants to thrive and saves you a fortune on water bills compared to a traditional grassy lawn. Jeanette Marantos is a Features reporter focused primarily on plants, gardening and Southern California’s changing landscapes for the Los Angeles Times. Times Plants newsletter, which includes a calendar of upcoming plant-related events.
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Mark every draught source and visit your DIY shed, or go online, and look for suitable remedial products. Believe it or not, your problem will not be unique — every possible draught has been considered and appropriate products produced. Draught proofing is generally considered to be DIY work — if you can handle a screw driver and a silicone gun you should be fine.
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Closing doors of upstairs rooms during the day will have a similar, insulating effect, as will keeping the door closed to the room you are in – perhaps your home study. While the front door is the main draft problem, with perhaps exposed keyholes and letterboxes that allow cold air free access, interior doors with keyholes can also allow drafts to pass through. When exploring the world of front-door ideas, draft exclusion may not have been in the center of your thoughts.
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When drought inevitably returns, Fuchs worries that forests, groundwater reserves and vital reservoirs may quickly revert to a state of crisis. And although Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which hold so much of the water Southern Californians use, may have recovered somewhat, numerous dry years have shrunk their levels substantially. More than 7 million California residents live in an area where they are at risk of flood, officials said — and many don’t even know it. El Niño events usually signify a warmer, drier winter and fall in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, per the U.S.
Draft, Draught
Foundation cracks can lead to many other issues inside your home, such as causing your floors to slope and become uneven. With constantly changing weather conditions and climate patterns, droughts can happen almost anywhere. Compounded by the extremely high temperatures that often accompany drought conditions, special precautions must be taken to preserve the value, comfort, and safety of your home. She first joined Future Plc as a News Writer across their interiors titles, including Livingetc and Real Homes, before becoming H&G's News Editor in April 2022. Before joining Future, Megan worked as a News Explainer at The Telegraph, following her MA in International Journalism at the University of Leeds.
The genius ‘candle test’ which reveals how to stop draughts sneaking into your home... - The Sun
The genius ‘candle test’ which reveals how to stop draughts sneaking into your home....
Posted: Wed, 22 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Houses are full of holes—and not just drafty old houses
On the next cold day with no wind, try waving your hand around your doors, walls, and window until you find a burst of coolness. Both of those assumptions are understandable; aging windows and older central heating systems can certainly be part of the reason that your house feels chilly. You no longer need to wonder how to keep an old, drafty house warm.
If you discover cracks in your foundation, fill them with waterproofing, which can be easily found in local hardware stores. After patching up obvious cracks, homeowners may need to install piers underneath their homes to make them less susceptible to shifts and movements in the soil. Of course in winter you will want to be using your fireplaces and woodburners to keep your rooms toasty, but there may be a chimney or two that aren't being used that will still be letting cold air in and warm air out. As we said above, you shouldn't just seal the bottom of your front door to keep drafts out. Interior doors, if they don't reach right to the floor, will increase airflow from room-to-room.
All sorts of shops sell draught excluders, or you could even make one yourself by filling a large piece of fabric with old clothes or rice. Draughts from outside can come into your home through gaps around doors, letterboxes and even keyholes. Secondary-glazing film is a transparent tape that fixes to windows to create a double-glazing effect.
This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. In both British and American English, when people are drafted somewhere, they are moved there to do a particular job. Gradually, however, the spark grew to a burning mass, which created the draught of air that fanned it. This, however, will not be necessary where there is a chimney high enough to create a strong draught. Being quieted by the Captain with a draught of cold tea, and made to sit down, the examination of the book proceeded. At night, shine a flashlight, like the Maglite Mini PRO LED Flashlight, on door and window frames.
Make sure you keep outside ventilation in areas where there are open fires or flues, and in rooms where moisture is produced, such as kitchens and bathrooms. Plus, you might find you're able to keep your thermostat a little lower once you've draughtproofed your space. Turning down the thermostat by just one degree in a typical home could save you between £85 and £90 a year.
Homeowners may want to hold off on temporary fixes, like replacing doors and windows, tuck pointing, and drywall repairs, until they determined the larger structural issue affecting their homes. The structure of a home deteriorates over time and if you don’t address these issues early on, you could have to deal with serious issues like collapsing walls, a broken sewer, or a complete replacement of your foundation. As a precautionary measure, spray the soil around your house with water to increase moisture and close the gap. One useful and aesthetic way to maintain this moisture is to plant shrubs and flowers around the base of your foundation.
During recent droughts in Texas, contractors regularly charged between $8,000 and $15,000 for foundation damage jobs. Drought problems are often more severe in areas with clay soil because it is more likely to shift when dry. Brick homes are also known to experience more foundation problems during drought because bricks are heavier and put more pressure on the soil than wood and siding.
Email calendar submissions or plant-related story ideas to for consideration. Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) is a fragrant Mediterranean shrub with dark green foliage and sweet violet flowers that is handsome on its own or as a backdrop to other showier plants. We can thank South Africa for these cheerful, fragrant and drought-tolerant shrubs, which come in a variety of flavors and colors. This variety, Pelargonium citronella, has a citrus scent, but there are many others with aromas including chocolate and mint.
The U.S. Drought monitor’s latest data show the vast majority of California reporting no drought as of Oct. 17, though pockets in the northernmost and southeastern parts of the state are still considered abnormally dry. Wherever you plan on going next in California, there’s still time to make your road trip more eco-friendly. Here’s your guide to designing a drought-tolerant landscape that will thrive in California. All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only.
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