Lifetime | South Eastern Connecticut Landscaping

30 Dec

Home Repair: When Is It Time to Re-Shingle Your Roof?

Author: admin // Category: Home Gardening, Tips

This past spring, we had one heck of a gully washer here in the Midwest, and it dumped a lot of water on everyone. We had streets flooded for days, and the storm sewers just couldn’t keep up with it. While this was going on, I walked into my kitchen only to hear the drip drip drip of a roof leak.

I looked around and saw a puddle coming from the corner of our room and water dripping from the ceiling. I put a bucket under the leak and called a roofer for the first time in my home history. He came over and said that the shingles in the roof were in bad shape and that it caused the roof to rot and develop the drip.

I hated that man. It wasn’t his fault, but the idea that I allowed my shingles to get that bad irked me. Me! Mr. Fix It, let one slip. For those of you not familiar with the concept of shingling and re-shingling, it entails either adding a layer of shingling to the existing shingles or striping the roof or adding a new layer. It’s costly and annoying.

Here are some tips on deciding if it’s time to re-shingle:

1. Go outside and take a look. You are never going to know if the shingles are bad until you go outside and actually look at them. If you are comfortable with actually going on your roof and taking a look, then that’s even better.

2. Check for shrinking. When the shingles were put on, they were all set in a nice order and straight. If you see shingles that seem shorter than the others or that are curling up, then it’s probably time to put on a new layer. If you have a leak in your home, then some of the shingles will have to be taken up and the rotted wood removed before new shingles are put on.

3. Damaged shingles have to go. Shingles have a lifetime of 10 to 30 years, depending on how much bad weather and sun they are exposed to. If your shingles are 15 years old and are already disintegrating, then you’ve had some bad weather over the years. Damaged shingles translate to new shingles.

Shingles can be done by a professional roofer, or they can be done by a do-it-yourselfer. I will tackle how to shingle your home at a later date, probably a little closer to spring.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/dolfindans/3725566764

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17 Jan

TRUCK led lights – How to rate them

Author: admin // Category: Tips

Why buy Led lights for my truck or car? Well. led lights are semiconductors, just like a computer chip in you r computer . When voltage is passed through them, they emit energy in the form of light. They are made with certain chemicals, that determine their light color. leds convert the majority of voltage passed through them to light, as opposed to other incandescent bulbs that produce light by energy heating them. But led can be up to 90% more efficient than traditional truck filament light bulbs

What s the cost to you? They can be more expensive than the traditional truck bulbs. But if you shop online you can get them for a fair price. The led light last a lot longer and use less voltage from the batteries. But most of all they are far more reliable then the old style filament bulbs. They run cooler and use less energy to work. They generally are sealed units so you do have to take tem apart and clean the sockets like you do some times with filament bulbs. I guess you can say it means less down time. When you are trucking time is money you do not want any down time.

Led rating: originally when LED bulbs came out there were no real standards, manufacturers would claim lifetimes of 100,000 hours with no real testing. Since then the standard has been to scale back to 50,000 hours so as not to over-state claims. (Beware of bulbs that are rated at 100,000 hours unless they state specifically Why they are rated at so high I would be wary of trusting this rating).Many of the manufacturers producing their 3rd generation LED bulbs are now starting to be more conservative and rating their bulbs at 35,000 hours, having gotten test results back from 1-2 years of testing. Rated at 35,000 hours, you can rest assured the manufacturer is not overstating their claims. Anything more than 50,000 hours… buyer beware or it could be BS.

The led lifespan led bulb may continue to be useful for several thousand hours past its stated lifetime. Unlike old-fashioned light bulbs, it is extremely rare for an led light to simply burn out. Rather, it will gradually fade over time, as the little diode start to fade ,but your truck light is still visible to on coming cars unlike filament bulbs that just quit.

How do you compare the led bulbs to each other? There are quite a few websites like our “Edgeolite.com” online that you can buy led bulbs. The problem is “how do you compare one bulb to another?” A quick way to do this is to calculate the lumens/watt, or , the total amount of light you get from the amount of electricity you put in. This is done by simply dividing the bulbs wattage by the stated number of lumens. Anything over 50 lumens/watt is good at the moment. 75 lumens/watt is very good while 100 lumens/watt is excellent. Keep in mind this is just a general comparison – some bulbs may be rated as brighter or dimmer than this.

At least this article gives you an idea of the measurement used for led lights. The other measurement I would use is the quality of the led light you buy. Is it designed to withstand the vast changes in the weather from being in the cold and wet to being extremely hot and dry. The quality of the lenses of the outer led is also something to consider and also the ability to mount it on your truck.

If you are interested in more information on this topic or would like to see the Edgeolite led lights simply click here. http://www.edgeolite.com/led-trucklights.html

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