Our homes are 40 years old, and I will share my home maintenance experiences and tips.
Important home maintenance tasks that I do for my home:
- Especially because of our drought, I try to water my lawn once a week.
- I change my HVAC air filters every month.
- Every 3 months, I pour a hot water & vinegar into my HVAC drain pipe to avoid blockage.
- Annually, I clean my (outside) AC condenser with soap and water.
- Annually, I remove leaves and debris from my rain gutter.
- Annually, I wash all my windows and screens, I also check for cracks.
- I try to mow my front and back lawn once a month.
- Annually, I trim trees, shrubs, and bushes away from my house.
- During winter, I wrap all my outside plumbing with insulation.
And I often need help from my preferred contractors.
I See the Light
If you have upgraded the lights in your garage, you will understand the change I wanted. Originally my garage was dim, the ceiling lights were a couple of light bulbs. I wanted to replace the bulbs with new LED Fluorescent shop lights. I noticed I would have to rewire my outlets to plug in new shop lights. I ain’t no electrician. So, I called Roger ( the handyman) to reconfigure my wiring so I could have plug in outlets.
Have you ever tried to put a rectangular peg in a hexagon hole? It takes work. Roger replaced (2) different hexagon boxes with (2) rectangular electrical boxes, then wired-in my new outlets.
We now have plugged in (3) new LED fluorescent shop lights. Wow, my dim garage saw daylight! The next morning, I asked my wife to go into the garage and turn on the wall switch and tell me what she saw. She went to the garage and then came back inside the house. I asked her what did she see, she said “nothing.” I asked if she turned on the lights. She said yes. I asked did the light turn on? She said they are so bright, it blinded her. It took work and I am happy with my bright garage lights.
The heater went out on a freezing winter day
As you know some appliances in our homes are hard to replace without modifications. The ceiling heater in one of our bathrooms is over 40 years old. Replacement parts are obsolete. There a rectangular cutout in the ceiling where the heater sits. I measured the metal box and I could not find a heater that matched the size online. I asked Roger ( the Handyman) to check if he could make the old heater work again, like he did a couple years earlier. The heater wires were fried, beyond repair.
I told Roger that I checked to find another heater with the same measurements but could not find one online and asked can we modify the rectangular hole in my ceiling to fit a different size heater. Roger said, just because I could not match it online, doesn’t mean, we can’t find the right size at the store. Roger grabbed the metal box that held the old heater and said, “Let’s go to Home Depot.” When we arrived at Home Depot, there weren’t many heaters in stock. Roger measured the boxes containing the new heaters with the original metal box in his hand. He found a box about the same size. Roger simply said, this will work. I paid for the heater. About 30 minutes later, Roger unwrapped the new heater, secured it into its own metal container and slid it nicely inside the hole in the ceiling. A few minutes later the heater was blowing warm air into the bathroom on a cold winter morning. Thank you, Roger.
Roger Garcia “Handyman” (210) 241-8713 referred by a friend, has helped fixed what I tried to fix myself.
First he installed a doggie door in an extra-wide wood door encased in metal. My 40 year old bathroom heater quit working and Roger repaired it. My back yard flooded, Roger dug a foot down and repaired a water pipe connector. I wanted outdoor security lights and dawn to dusk porch lights, Roger did that too. Roger fixed a leaking toilet and a leaking kitchen sink. My ladder to my attic was in bad condition, Roger fixed that too. I had a 40 year old fluorescent light in my living room, Roger changed it to LED lights. So many projects I failed to fix myself. Roger is usually my first contractor call.
Ugly Tree Stumps – Be Gone!
Over the past couple years, I have had 6 trees that I had to cut down, leaving me with 6 ugly tree stumps in my back yard. And finally, they are gone. My neighbor was having a large tree removed by a tree service.
I was impressed how quickly a couple guys removed that huge tree. The next day, they brought a “riding stump grinder.” And I asked if they could remove my 6 stumps when they got done next door. I left to pick up my daughter from school and when I got home the stumps were gone (and all cleaned up too). I paid cash and I feel … that I got a deal! So, if you need some tree stumps removed call Patrick Samaniego at Quicken Tree Service (210) 812-9138.
Ruben Zambrano (210) 636-4022 – My New Affordable HVAC Tech
My HVAC system is the original, so that makes it over 40 years old. Several HVAC contractors have come and gone, warning me that my HVAC system is “too old” and won’t last much longer. But with some upkeep and a few bandages, it keeps cooling our home. I share this new experience and hope my neighbors might benefit from this story.
The 40 year old condenser has a coupler missing (they no longer sell this coupler), so we jump the wires past that missing part, and a few times, during consecutive hot summer days, the wiring overheats. We have replaced the wiring a few times and then condenser keeps running.
My biggest concern is the 40 year old drain lines. The main drain line (in the attic) empties outside next to the condenser, and when the main line gets clogged up, the secondary drain line drips into the pan, then the continues to drip by my front door.
When we see water by the front door, we know the main drain is clogged up. When that happens, I call my “handyman, Roger, to bring his compressor and blow out debris from the main drain. After the main drain is cleared, within about an hour, all the water in the (attic) pan empties through the secondary drain, and the main drain drips like it is supposed to when the AC is running and the secondary drain quits dripping.
But recently, things did not go according to plan. The secondary drain did not stop dripping after an hour. In fact, four days after the main drain cleaning, both drains were dripping plenty. My handyman referred his friend, a “certified HVAC tech,” to come over and take a look at my problem. Hello Ruben!
This was a great referral. Ruben, the HVAC tech opened the metal AC covers in the attic and found a small place where the two drains connect and used his nitrous oxide to blow out the debris. My AC is working great again, and the only dripping is through the main drain like it is supposed to.
I was very happy as the Tech only charged me $40 for everything. Thank you HVAC tech, Ruben Zambrano.
Valentin Reyes (210) 724- 7758 – My Sprinkler Tech
I was out of town when the Water Company installed those new electric water meters. My water bill skyrocketed. It took me several days to figure out I had a water leak in the ground between the City’s meter and my really old water sprinkler valves that was buried in mud.
I often wonder if the meter change could have caused the initial leak because my water bill increased plenty after the change until the leak was discovered and fixed.
A neighbor referred Valentin and he dug up my buried sprinkler plumbing and valves. And he replaced everything like new, all encased in a nice-easy to open- container. He also adjusted the pressure and my sprinklers are working better than ever.
Gerado Hernandez (956) 701-0447 – Garage tech
Replace 2 damaged garage doors or repair them, was the question?
I purchased 2 new garage doors and 2 motors about 20 years ago. About 2 years ago, I had a garage door spring break, it sounded like a shotgun blast, fortunately, I only had to replace the garage door springs.
Recently, I noticed both garage doors going up and down “crooked.” When I looked closer, I noticed one spring stretched way past normal.
I call my garage guy from years ago, but he referred me to a different tech to replace 2 garage door springs.
Garage door tech “Gerado Hernandez” showed up and explained how I had more than a damaged spring problem. We watched the doors go up and down and both doors were actually folding in the middle, as if they were breaking in half. I asked how much to replace both doors, and let’s just say, I have paid for “exotic vacations” for less than the price of replacing 2 garage doors.
He told me he could repair the doors, making them sturdy and safe by adding struts. I said great (even though I didn’t really know what he meant by “struts”). But I did ask how much? He said $180.
I said, tell me more. He took out some heavy duty angle iron, measured, cut and added it to my doors. When he was done. I was “awe struck!” My doors worked like new and I am very happy. Thank you, Mr. Hernandez.
Window Glass Repair – Mike & Sons (210) 857-8142
I remember coming home and seeing my large (dining room exterior) window, cracked, actually shattered, and I wondered how that happened.
My neighbor’s house was getting upgraded windows and I asked if one of the contractors could stop by, measure and replace my large window glass. The cracked window was facing the street, so we wanted it fixed asap.
We were pleasantly surprised when Mike & Sons, brought a new window glass and replaced our broken window that same day.
It looks great and was more affordable that other window companies had quoted us.