Chuck's Heating & Air Conditioning

Tips to Increase Your Home’s Value

May 15, 2018 by Chuck's Heating

You may be in the market to sell your home or in the process of remodeling. A smart approach in either case is to work to save money and increase your home’s value. When it comes to plumbing, certain upgrades will give homeowners a greater return on their investment dollar for dollar. Here are a few plumbing-related tips that add value to your home:

1.)Upgrade your kitchen

Changing your sink, faucet, and adding a garbage disposal can increase the value of your home. The expense of remodeling a kitchen can be high but usually pays for itself – sometimes in multiples – my increasing home value and the amount of equity you have in your home while you occupy it.

2.) Water filtration

Water filtration will remove pollutants and chemicals from you main drinking source which is great for the health of your family. Installing a whole-house water filtration system is allows you to avoid spending money on such things as bottled water and replacing water pitcher filters. This will pay off in both convenience now and future value when it comes time to sell.

3.) Bathroom updates

A full bathroom remodel isn’t necessary to increase your home’s value. Minor bathroom updates on things such as fixtures, showerhead, faucet, sink and toilet can improve the overall look and functionality. By installing water-saving fixtures homeowners also save money and conserve water which is great for the environment.

4.) Repair existing plumbing problems

Many homeowners ignore small plumbing issues such as slow drains, leaky faucets, running toilets, water spots on the ceiling, etc. Constant leaks can become costly repairs and increase water bills. Before listing your house, make sure you have any and all existing plumbing issues fixed.

5.) Add luxuries

Add a utility sink to your laundry room or garage. Add an outdoor faucet to both front and back of your house. Install a natural gas line (if service is available to your home) directly to an outdoor grill or fireplace. Small upgrades to the plumbing in your home can increase value and provide you with ease and comfort!

Contact Chuck’s today to learn more about energy efficient alternatives, special financing, or to learn more about our Plumbing services.

Why You Should Stop Hand Washing Dishes

May 1, 2018 by Chuck's Heating

1.) It’s a health issue

Sponges soak up everything (bacteria included!) Studies show that the average kitchen sponge is dirtier than a toilet seat. Excess food particles are being washed off with hand washing but using a kitchen sponge adds bacteria to the dishes and utensils you eat with. Dishwashers will sterilize your dishes removing most of the bacteria and food particles.

Homeowners should be sure to practice careful hygiene when cleaning kitchen surfaces. The study mentioned above also found that attempts to clean or sanitize sponges by microwaving or washing them led to only a short-term decrease in the number of germs. Such attempts at sanitizing sponges might cause potentially harmful bacteria to grow back in even greater numbers.

Instead of attempting to clean kitchen sponges, experts suggest replacing them weekly. Although this generates a lot of waste and means that all of these kitchen sponges are just ending up in landfill. Replacing kitchen sponges often is a temporary and poor solution to a larger problem.

2.) Water-efficiency

It’s more water-efficient to use a dishwasher than to wash dishes by hand which means you’ll save money. By washing dishes in the dishwasher rather than washing them by hand, it uses less water. This is especially true if you’re using a new energy efficient dishwasher, which can save gallons of water per load. Newer diswasher models are more efficient than the models from 20, 10, or even 5 years ago. This means most homeowners can save more than double the amount of water than it would take to wash by hand. It’s worth it in the long run to invest in a good, energy efficient dishwasher.

3.) You’ll save time

This leaves more time to relax, read a book, go for a walk, spend time with your friends and family. Every minute counts which makes your dishwasher literally, a “life saver”. If you spend up to an hour per day washing dishes by hand but only 15 minutes to load and unload a dishwasher, this adds up to 15.2 DAYS PER YEAR in time that you save. That’s over 3 years of your life you can reclaim!

If you want more time, lower costing utility bills and less bacteria, then invest in an energy efficient dishwasher!

Contact Chuck’s today to learn more about energy efficient alternatives, special financing, or to learn more about our plumbing services or to get dishwasher recommendations.