Category Archives: Home safety

Mar 19 2 comments
Home safety

First Aid

It has been a rough week, and it’s not even over.  Earlier in the week, I whacked my knee on a pipe, the result is a big purple bruise.  Then, I burned my arm with scalding water and today I got bit by a dog.  The dog bite was a good one, four puncture marks in my left buttock.  Fortunately I know the people who own the dog (they are extremely mortified and have been calling me every two hours to check on my well being).  All of the dog’s shots are up to date.  My Tetanus is also up to date.  I cleaned out the puncture wounds with hydrogen peroxide and will keep an eye on it for the next few days for signs of infection.

All of this is hopefully over with and I am looking forward to a good day tomorrow.

This brings up the subject of first aid and treating “ordinary” DIY wounds.  For this, I fall back to my Navy training.  First aid is, for the most part, common sense.  It is always a good idea to have a complete first aid kit available.  You can make one yourself for less than $10.00.  Minimum Items needed:

  1. Sterile Gauze pads, large and medium 1 box each
  2. Q-tips (sterile if you can find them)
  3. Medical tape
  4. Miscellaneous band aids
  5. Topical antibiotic ointment (A&D, Ozonal, etc)
  6. An old belt
  7. Hydrogen Peroxide 1/2 liter
  8. Sterile water, 1 liter bottle
  9. latex gloves

And some type of box or bag to keep all this in.

Here are a few basic guidelines:

  1. First, stop the bleeding.  This can be done by putting a sterile gauze pad on the wound and appling direct pressure.  Elevating the wounded part above the level of the heart also helps.  If you cannot stop the bleeding, call an ambulance!
  2. For minor wounds, clean and remove all dirt and debris, irrigate thoroughly with water, use sterile water if available.  If the wound will not stay closed, stitches may be required.  Otherwise bandage and keep dry.
  3. For burns, cool the area with water ASAP.  Apply ice if available.  If the area is blistered or charred seek medical attention as secondary infection is likely in these situations.
  4. For fractures, immobilize the fracture with a splint.  Do not try to move it into the proper position if it is not.  Seek medical attention ASAP.
  5. For amputations, retrieve the body part if possible and pack in ice.  Bring it with you to the emergency room.  Large limb amputations may require a tourniquet (and an ambulance).
  6. For impalement, do not remove the offending object.  Secure it in place as best as possible and get thee to the hospital.

One other thing that should alwasy be handy is the number to the poison control center (800) 222-1222.  They are very knowlegeable and helpful.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Mar 06 15 comments
Home safety

Wired vs. Battery powered smoke and CO detectors

Something that I always wondered about, at least a little bit, is what is the advantage to having a wired smoke and/or CO (Carbon Monoxide) detector? I asked our Homeowner’s insurance company, since they give a modest discount if the home has wired detectors. What it comes down to is changing the batteries. Too many times people forget to change the batteries in a smoke detector making it useless when a fire breaks out.

Another advantage is wired smoke detectors can be installed so that if any one unit goes off, they all do. This is especially helpful in larger homes where a basement smoke alarm my not be heard on the second floor.

Wired smoke detectors are considered more reliable. Most wired systems will continue to work for several hours on a back up battery if the power goes out. In addition, wired units can be connected to a central alarm monitoring company and they can be different types, e.g. heat detector, photo electric detector or ionized particle detector. Battery types are almost always ionized particle detectors.

Does anyone know what happens this weekend? Yep, daylight savings time! And, according to the local fire department, time to change those smoke detector batteries!

One more thing about CO detectors. If you burn anything for heating, hot water, cooking, etc, you need to have a CO detector in your house. Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a by product of incomplete combustion and can be created by any malfunctioning furnace, hot water heater, clothes dryer, wood stove, pellet stove, etc. It is a deadly, odorless, colorless gas that essentially steals oxygen from your red blood cells and kill in a matter of minutes. CO detectors are inexpensive, they are often combined with smoke detectors, and work the same way. They are a good way to ensure that you and your family are safe.

The long and short, both types work well. Wired units are more expensive to purchase and install but are more reliable. Battery units are less expensive and easier to install.  You should test your battery powered smoke detectors often to ensure that they are working properly.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Jan 30 3 comments
General, Home safety

Is somebody stealing my garbage?

This is a rather disturbing development.  Last night, after supper, I threw a big bag of kitchen garbage into the garbage pail outside.  This morning, I my way out to the truck, I noticed it was gone.

My wife said she heard something on the deck in the middle of the night, I slept right through it.

We do have a large variety of animals around here, as I have written about before.  Normally, when say a raccoon or a bear gets in the garbage, they will rip the bag open and scatter it all over the place while they eat the bits they want.  I have never seen a whole bag of garbage simply disappear.

Further still, we have snow cover.  I walked around in the yard looking for bear tracks or perhaps drag marks from the heavy bag of wet garbage and saw none.  The only conclusion I can come to is a two legged animal sneaked up our driveway and removed the bag of garbage to another location.

Why?

Fortunately it was kitchen garbage.   I do occasionally throw junk mail in the kitchen garbage.  Last year, I managed to stop all of the credit card offers that we were receiving by opting out (I also did that with the catalogs).  Basically our junk mail is pretty dull, unless you like the sales at the local food market.

I picture this person sitting some where going though our old food wrappers looking for a social security number, or a date of birth.  There is no personal information in that garbage bag, of that I am sure.

Perhaps now would be a good time to mention the Catskillhouse arms locker.  Without revealing too much, I will say we have guns, ammo, and knowledge of operation.  Caution is advised.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Apr 10 0 comments
Home safety, Interior

Lead Paint

One evening, as I lay in bed looking up up at the ceiling in our bedroom and listening to my son breathing, I was thinking about lead paint. My wife, ever the concerned parent, took home a lead paint test kit that they were giving away free at the school where she worked. The test was inconclusive, as once it showed no sign of lead paint, and the next time it did. Both paint chips were taken from the same spot (a window frame in the living room).

I don’t think we have a huge problem since most of the walls were covered with wall paper. Once we removed all the wall paper, the wall board underneath was patched up and painted and then re-coated with latex based paints. All of the windows except the large living room window have been replaced and all of the trim and moldings have been replaced. Much of the dry wall inside the kitchen, living room and second bathroom has also been replaced. Still, it is a concern.

A little history on Lead Paint; for centuries, the primary white pigment in paints was white lead carbonate, (2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2), one of the oldest pigments known. Red lead was once popular as a primer. Many countries banned lead in residential paint early in the 20th century. Despite mounting evidence of the effects of its use, lead was still used in paints in US until the danger became too widely known to be ignored. After the 1978 ban, paint manufacturers replaced lead with other ingredients, such as barium sulfate and titanium dioxide.

Although lead improved the performance of paint, lead is extremely toxic to living organisms. It is especially dangerous to children under age six whose bodies are still developing. Lead causes nervous system damage, hearing loss, stunted growth, reduced IQ, and delayed development. It can cause kidney damage. Lead affects every organ system of the body. It also is dangerous to adults, and can cause reproductive problems in adult men. One myth related to lead-based paint is that the most common cause of poisoning was eating leaded paint chips. In fact, the most common pathway of childhood lead exposure is through ingestion of lead dust through normal hand-to-mouth contact during which children swallow lead dust dislodged from deteriorated paint or leaded dust generated during remodeling or painting. Lead dust from remodeling or deteriorated paint lands on the floor near where children play and can ingest it.

What this means for owner’s of older homes is that more likely than not, there are some areas with lead paint in your house. I would be particularly wary of painted plaster walls. Disturbing the painted walls by either cutting them, sanding or removing them will create dust born lead which can be ingested by breathing or by hand to mouth contact.

When working on areas that may have lead paint it is important that a HEPA filter type mask be worn and any area cleanup is done with a HEPA filter equipped vacuum cleaner. When in doubt, better to treat the area as lead contaminated.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) has a good web site about Lead Paint Test Kits Again, better to be safe now then sorry latter.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Oct 12 4 comments
Heating, Home safety

Installing our Jotul F100 Woodstove

Our house came with a Franklin stove, which was improperly installed. The clearance behind the stove was not adequate, and there was an electrical outlet back there that was pretty much melted. One has to wonder how the house did not burn down. When we re-built the living room area, I decided to move the location of the wood stove, then though better of it and bought a whole new wood stove. I did quite a bit of research on installing and using a wood burning appliance, and while we did it ourselves, I don’t recommend it to the uninitiated. I purchase a very good book called “The Wood Burner’s Companion” by Dirk Thomas. I found this book to have loads of information and safety tips for people who heat with wood.

One thing about installing any wood burning appliance in the state of New York; it requires a building permit. This is for the home owner’s protection. A building permit ensures that the installation will be inspected by a building inspector. This, in turn, ensures that the installation will be done correctly, which means the Insurance Company will not have any problems with insuring the structure, and if the worst case happens, paying out the claim on a damaged structure.

An improperly installed wood burning appliance can create Carbon Monoxide (CO), a deadly, colorless, odorless gas that will kill humans and any other red blooded animal. An improperly installed chimney will fill your house up with smoke and can create structural fires. If you are unsure of what you are doing, hire a professional. You should have a working CO and smoke detector installed and tested regularly. There should be an all purpose fire extinguisher located near the appliance, and the required maintenance must be performed. The chimney must be cleaned once a year.

The first thing I did was read, then re-read the installation instructions in the owner’s manual. This gave all of the information on required clearances for the appliance. I researched on line for the required clearances for the connector pipe, hearth size, wall protection, and chimney installation. I chose to install Simpson DuraTech HT class A chimney. This is rated at 2100 degrees F, which, under normal conditions, the chimney should never reach. The chimney installation instructions were also quite detailed, and included a list of all required parts and clearances to keep the chimney in a “listed” state. Listed means that it has been tested and listed by the Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) as an assembly. If you use different components from different manufactures, even though they look and function the same, the assembly is not listed, and should not pass inspection by the building inspector. Seems a little nit picky, but it really is for safety reasons.

It is very important the the chimney have the correct inside diameter, neither too small or too large. If it is too small it will not have enough volume to remove all of the smoke from the wood stove and it will over heat. If it is too large, it will not heat up properly, causing draft problems and creosote buildup. Creosote is a bad hombre and is to be avoided at all costs.

The instructions for the Jotul Nordic F100 are very detailed. We installed our stove in a corner with protective shields on the walls per NFPA 211. The clearances give for the corner installation stipulate that the stove must be not closer that 7 inches (178 MM) from the wall surface if the protective shields are installed. Our stove is about 8.5 inches (215 MM) away. The next area is the clearance around the stove connector pipe. This is very important because the connector pipe gets almost as hot as the stove. Our wall shield are 48 inches (609 MM) tall, so part of the wall is exposed behind the stove. Using a single wall connector pipe requires 18 inches (457 MM) of clearance between the pipe and the wall. Double wall connector pipe requires 5 inches (127 MM) of clearance. We are using Simpson DVL close clearance connector which is a double wall pipe.

I purchased the following items for the chimney assembly:

(All sizes are 6 inch inside diameter)

Part Name Simpson stock number
48 inch stainless stell chimney section X 2 9407
Chimney Cap 9484
Square Ceiling Support 9444
Attic insulation shield 9446
Roof Flashing 9449
Storm Collar 9459
Locking Band 9301

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The class A chimney installation was straight forward. The chimney is supported by a support box which is installed between ceiling joists. The chimney goes up through the center of the house just off center of the ridge vent. The chimney requires two inches of clearance from any combustible material.

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A attic insulation shield is required in an open attic so that insulation does not come in contact chimney. A locking band is required to join the two four foot sections together. On the roof, a vented adjustable flashing attached to the roof.

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The chimney passes through this flashing and rises 3 feet above the roof line. A storm collar goes around the chimney to prevent water from entering the flashing vents or running down the chimney.

I purchased the following items for the stove pipe connector assembly:

(all sizes 6 inches in diameter)

Part Name Simpson Stock Number
DVL black pipe 12 inch section 8606
DVL telescoping section 29 to 48 inches 8646
DVL 45 degree elbow X 2 8645
DVL to Duratech chimeny adaptor 8647
DVL to stove adaptor w/damper 8679

The connector pipe assembly was also straight forward. Each piece is secured with three sheet metal screws to the next piece. This is very important because the connector pipe expands and contracts as it heats up and cools down. If the pieces are not fully secured they can work themselves apart and you would not want that to happen. The stove adaptor is available without a damper. I had to use two 45 degree angle elbows to make the connection to the chimney support box in the ceiling.

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The real test for for a chimney installation is whether or not it drafts properly. When I am lighting a fire or putting more wood in the stove, no smoke comes into the house. With no fire in the wood stove, I can feel an up draft at the chimney exit on the roof, if I put my hand near the chimney cap and the stove door is open.

For some very good information about installing wood burning appliances, check out this article at Hearth.com

Popularity: 9% [?]