It’s starting to look like spring has arrived. With plus zero temperatures predicted for most days over the next couple of weeks, it’s about to get wet. A little preventative maintenance is in order if you’d like to keep the spring melt-off from ending up in your basement.

Here are our top ten tips to prevent a basement flood.

• Remove snow from around your foundation and window wells.
• Most lots drain along the outside edges. Remove snow from these areas.
• Keep the snow in your yard because shoveling it onto streets or lanes could block drainage.
• Clear snow and ice from around the bottom of your downspouts and extend downspouts at least two metres so water drains away from your foundation.
• Where possible and safe, help clear snow, ice, and debris from the catch basins in your area.
• Check your roof and eaves troughs for excessive snow.
• Consider hiring a professional to clear snow from your roof.
• A roof rake may help you to clear snow and debris from the edge of your roof.
• Consider using sandbags to block water from entering low-lying areas beside your foundation.
• If water is getting close to your foundation, use an appropriate pump to drain it to the gutter or back lane.

Best wishes for a dry spring.

Norm

Ice damming is pretty common in areas that get lots of snow and very cold temperatures like Saskatchewan. We seem to be coming across quite a few this year. The image below from the University of Minnesota gives a quick overview of how they happen.

This article from the same source goes into more detail and includes some suggestions on how to fix it if you're experiencing damming on the roof of your home.

At a social outing this weekend a former Saskatoon home inspector told me that he's "buying up as much drying equipment" as he can get his hands on right now. He's expecting a busy and profitable spring. We've had a lot of snow this winter. Some of that will end up in basements.

If the Weather  Network's 14-day weather trend for Saskatoon is correct some of this snow is going to be melting. The good news is that it looks like it should be a slow melt. The bad news? A lot of ice will be created overnight. That ice could back up your gutters and downspouts and prevent water from moving away from your house. A lot of snow will produce a lot of water if the weather is even a little warmer than predicted. Act now to protect yourself from costly flooding by having snow removed from your roof (use a professional to avoid falling) and then move that snow away from your home's foundation.

If you don't get to it and water gets to you I'd be happy to refer you to a guy with a lot of drying equipment for hire.

Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here now. I

’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

This post was originally published in October of 2009. I thought it might be a good time to kick it back to the top of the list.

Like it or not, winter is coming and now is the time to get your home ready for it. A few hours looking after some preventative home maintenance items may save you from dealing with costly emergency repairs when everyone else is looking to have something fixed and service people are stretched thin.

Here is a list of things we should all be looking after over the next couple of weeks to keep our Saskatoon homes in tip-top shape, and our families safe living in them.

If I've missed something that you feel should be added to my list please leave a comment below.

On the inside

• Consider having your home heating system professionally serviced to ensure reliability and efficient operation through the long winter.
• Change the furnace filter, ensure that the furnace chimney is sound and free from obstructions and that the furnace has an adequate source of fresh air.
• If you don’t already have one, consider a humidity control system for your home to keep the air comfortable.
• Consider a programmable thermostat to save on energy costs and maintain maximum comfort.
• Tune-up the hot water system, perhaps even draining and refilling the tank to remove sediment build-up from the bottom of the tank.
• Have a professional inspect and clean fireplaces and chimneys for safety and efficiency.
• Test and service your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to ensure that they are operational. Replace the batteries, whether they need it or not.
• Add weather-stripping as required on the inside of doors and windows.
• Purchase and install window insulation kits to cover inefficient windows from the inside to prevent heat loss and ice build-up on windows.
• Give ceiling fans a quick cleaning, oil the motors, and reverse the direction in which they turn to push warm air back down into the room.
• Remove window-mounted air conditioners and cover central air conditioning units to keep the snow off of them.
• Clean your clothes dryer vent from the inside and the outside of the house to remove potential obstructions.
• With several additional hours of daily darkness just around the corner consider installing night lighting in hallways especially around staircases and hallways.

On the outside

• Have a walk around the roof of your home to look for loose, damaged or missing roofing material. Inspect for cracks in the flashing seals around skylights, chimneys and vent stacks.
• While you’re up there, give the gutters a quick cleaning to make sure that water can run freely in the spring. Clogged gutters can allow water to back up against the house causing damage to roofing material and siding. Worse, excess water will fall over the outside edge of the gutter reaching the ground near your foundation wall. Finally, an excess build-up in gutters produces stress to the systems supporting the gutter and can reduce life.
• Make sure that the extensions on your downspouts are carrying water four to five feet from the foundation wall and that the grading of soil surrounding the house is diverting the flow of water away from the foundation wall, and not towards it.
• Terminate the water source to all exterior taps and sprinklers and open all exterior valves to ensure proper and complete drainage.
• Underground sprinkler systems should be blown out to prevent water lingering below ground in the system’s pipes from freezing.
• Tidy up your landscaping by pruning shrubs and tree branches away from the house, particularly those that might encroach on the roof, gable venting or overhead utility lines.
• Clear the areas around foundation walls to prevent build-up of debris and leafy material, which can trap moisture at the foundation wall.
• Inspect foundation walls and exterior vents to ensure that you’re not providing easy access to rodents seeking a warm place to stay over the winter.
• Apply exterior caulking around windows and doors as needed. Even a small opening can allow a lot of heat to escape from your home. Homes with wood siding and windows that protrude past the siding material should only be caulked on the sides and at the top. Some opening beneath the sill provides an area through which moisture can escape from exterior walls.
• Seal cracks in the exterior finish of buildings and cracks in flat concrete surfaces to prevent water penetration that can freeze and expand causing further damage.
• Lubricate hinges including those on overhead garage doors.
• Tune-up electric garage door openers.
• It’s time to put the summer toys away and crack out the winter goodies. You know, ice scrapers, shovels, snowblowers, etc.
• Remove fuel from gas-powered yard care equipment and run the equipment continuously until all remaining fuel has been burned.
• If you do the Christmas lights thing, they’ll be a lot more fun to install in October than December.

Wishing you all a wonderful and short winter.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

Citizens of Canada’s are no strangers to asbestos problems. Used throughout the 20th century as a prominent building material and insulator, health hazards related to asbestos has affected millions worldwide. Highly regarded for its qualities as heat and fire resistant, homes, buildings, and other products built before 1980 could still contain asbestos materials.

If you are a potential homeowner or are seeking to remodel an older home, exposure can cause many health concerns for you and your family. If you are interested in living in a safe, healthy environment, free of health damaging materials, here is some information to get you on that track.

Asbestos exposure can cause a debilitating lung ailment known as mesothelioma. This asbestos-related illness is one of the hardest for physicians to diagnose for a variety of reasons. The disease typically has a latency period lasting anywhere from 20 to 50 years when it has already reached its later stage of development. Its symptoms also resemble many of other less serious conditions. Mesothelioma treatment is usually limited to a handful of procedures and results vary from patient to patient. If your home or jobsite has had asbestos removed, exposure may have occurred previously and receiving a medical checkup is of the upmost importance.

Health Canada offers assistance and information in the prevention, disposal and removal of asbestos. They are federally responsible for helping citizens maintain and improve health at home and the work place. Homeowners should not disturb any suspected asbestos themselves as this makes its fibers airborne. The inspection and removal of toxic substances must be performed by licensed abatement contractors who are trained in handling dangerous materials. They work under provincial and federal regulations to ensure no health concerns arise from improper removal.

Once the area is asbestos free, environmentally sustainable materials should be considered including cotton fiber, cellulose and lcynene, water based spray polyurethane foam that can reduce energy costs annually. With the constant growth in technology, there is absolutely no need for health damaging materials such as asbestos.

A qualified home inspector can often detect the presence of asbestos and other potentially dangerous products that may have been used in home construction over the years. Put "healthy living environment" for your family at the top of your "wants and needs" list when shopping for a new home.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 

All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.

Norm Fisher Royal LePage Vidorra

It’s starting to look like spring has arrived. Following a winter with precipitation levels which were 40% above the average, and with plus zero temperatures predicted for most days over the next couple of weeks, it’s about to get wet. The City of Saskatoon has issued a warning that a little preventative maintenance is in order if you’d like to keep the spring melt-off from ending up in your basement.

Here are the tips they’ve provided to prevent a basement flood.

• Remove snow from around your foundation and window wells.
• Most lots drain along the outside edges. Remove snow from these areas.
• Keep the snow in your yard because shoveling it onto streets or lanes could block drainage.
• Clear snow and ice from around the bottom of your downspouts and extend downspouts at least two metres so water drains away from your foundation.
• Where possible and safe, help clear snow, ice, and debris from the catch basins in your area.
• Check your roof and eaves troughs for excessive snow.
• Consider hiring a professional to clear snow from your roof.
• A roof rake may help you to clear snow and debris from the edge of your roof.
• Consider using sandbags to block water from entering low lying areas besides your foundation.
• If water is getting close to your foundation, use an appropriate pump to drain it to the gutter or back lane.
• Please use all equipment properly and follow safety guidelines.

Best wishes for a dry spring.

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

We’ve known for a number of years that many buyers are going for larger homes, so perhaps these top trends shouldn’t come as any real surprise.

CNN credits Mark Nash, author of Real Estate A-Z for Buying and Selling a Home who gathered this information in a recent survey that involved 923 real estate brokers, agents, and industry experts who were interviewed.

Here’s what Mr. Nash sees coming:

• Upscale garages – “Today’s owners want their garages decked out with cabinet and storage systems, matching refrigerators, air conditioning and residential looking flooring.”
• Personal Space – Nash calls it “caving” but the bottom line is personal space where people can find a little privacy to work or relax.
• Rejuvenation rooms – Spaces set up for exercise, meditation, yoga, saunas and steam showers.
• Heated patios – Expanding your living space to outdoor areas makes sense and there’s nothing like an outdoor fireplace or a natural gas heater to add a few weeks to both ends of the season.
• Snoring rooms – A “snoring room” is simply an additional bedroom off of the master bedroom.

My wife asked me what a snoring room is and I described at as a comfortable room which she could use to escape my snoring. She said she thought it is more likely to become a comfortable room that I could use to escape her elbows.

Topping the list of features that we can expect to see less of? Spiral staircases, bamboo, and laminate flooring.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

I’m hearing that more people are considering renovating their Saskatoon homes as a result of the limited selection of properties available in our new and resale real estate market so this seemed like a timely post.

An interesting video clip appears on New York broker Barbara Corcoran’s blog.“Dump to Dream House” features Barbara on ABC’s Good Morning America and chronicles one home owner’s quest to turn their dump into a dream home and it provides some good tips on how to hire a contractor for home renovation projects.

Barbara had a new tip I hadn’t heard before which I thought was an excellent idea. She suggests that you walk the contactor back to his truck as he leaves your home and takes note of its condition. “If it’s a mess, the job he’s going to run will be a total mess. You have to appreciate that the truck is that contractor’s office and how he manages his truck is exactly how he’s going to manage your job.”Good one Barbara!

Barbara also points to the importance of asking good questions. You might want to check out CMHC’s tips as well which provides a list of questions and other items you should be thinking about when you hire a contractor.

Check Barbara’s appearance on Good Morning America here. (no longer available)

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra