The Atlantic hurricane season has officially begun! Although the historical peak of the season is from mid-August through mid-October, it’s never too soon to start preparing for a hurricane. The best way to protect yourself, your family, and your property is to get ready for extreme weather events well in advance. Here is a succinct guide on how to prepare for a tropical storm that may escalate into a hurricane.

Although many people believe that summer home maintenance is mostly about cleaning, it’s actually aimed at checking and repairing various structures and systems within the home. While you might already be aware of the most important summer maintenance chores, overlooking some tasks may result in more expensive and time-consuming repairs later on. To ensure that nothing gets left behind, here is a list of summer maintenance tasks that will help you get your Houston home ready for the season.

The new homes that are built nowadays include higher-quality materials, better insulation, and state-of-the-art technologies that make them more energy-efficient than older homes. However, we all love the old Houston homes, with their complex architectural structures and decorative details, which create a sense of history and permanence.

Piping materials and plumbing systems are designed to last for decades. However, all pipes will eventually wear out and require repairs or replacements. While replacing an entire plumbing system is one of the scariest projects for most homeowners, repiping your home as soon as you observe the first signs of a major plumbing problem can save you money, give you peace of mind, and even improve your overall comfort. Here are a few telltale signs that can help you determine when you should upgrade your plumbing system. 

It is about that time of year when floods are prevalent, and everyone is dealing with the reality of needing to prepare to deal with flood damage or look into ways to try and prevent the flooding from happening. One way to prevent flooding is to make an investment into home elevation. Home elevation is a key way to keep flooding from wreaking havoc on your home, though many do not consider it as an option. While costly, over time, the benefits can far outweigh the negatives of having to spend a large sum of money to meet elevation requirements. 

In a perfect world, all houses would be built perfectly - with the correct grading, the proper foundation, and the exact elevation needed to avoid flooding! However, not all houses are built perfectly, and sometimes, adjustments need to be made afterward to create the perfect house. This can be done through retrofitting your home, something that has a world of opportunity and a lot of different possibilities. In this case, we are going to be talking about retrofitting your home for flood prevention. 

Drainage issues can not only be annoying in their own right, they can be something that impacts your foundation! If water is kept too close to a home, and left to sit around a foundation, it can weaken the soil or sand that it sits on, or it can cause wooden beams or piers to start to rot and lose their ability to keep your foundation where it should be. There are a variety of different drainage problems that you should look out for, but we are going to focus on the top five most common landscape drainage issues that might impact you!

When it comes to foundations, they are absolutely crucial, and unfortunately vulnerable! Every home needs a stable foundation. The foundation is what keeps a home level, sturdy, and able to withstand the elements. A key part of this is being able to maintain your home's foundation - and save yourself thousands of dollars in potential repair costs by keeping the foundation well-cared for year round instead of waiting to do the repairs later! From doing at home inspections to managing the water level around your home, here are all of the tips and tricks to maintaining your home's foundation. 

Trying to keep your yard looking fresh and well-watered without it looking swampy is a difficult task to accomplish. Too little water and your lawn will look dead and dry. Too much water and your lawn will look like a jungle. Even worse - it will be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other unfavorable insects. Not only is it not great to look at, but it can also cause serious issues to a foundation if the water stands too close for too long and starts to seep into the foundation and weaken it. Luckily, if you do have a lawn like this, there are a few things that you can do for backyard drainage solutions, ranging from gutter downspouts, to creating a creek bed or installing a French drain. 

Looking at a foundation now, it may be hard to imagine that there were different kinds of foundations once upon a time! The evolution of foundations is as varied and vast as any other kind of history, starting with the basics and moving through advancements to become the intricate, detailed foundations that exist in homes today.