In your fight to keep your home free from mold, your best defense is a strong offense. To prevent the growth of mold, keep moisture out of your home. Watch out for the first signs of mold growth, including musty smells and watermarks on your ceilings and walls.

If you catch it in its early stages, you can typically remove mold by washing it thoroughly with a solution of water and bleach. To keep mold from growing back, you must attack it at the source: moisture. Eliminate all moisture by promptly drying the areas you wash as you clean (you may need to repeat this process several times). Be sure to bag up and throw away all materials that have moldy residues after cleaning, like paper, rags, and debris.

Mold, just like insect infestations and rot, isn’t often covered by homeowners policies. Your homeowners policy probably covers accidental and sudden disasters. These policies don’t cover the costs of home cleaning and maintenance. However, if your mold resulted from a covered event like a burst pipe, you could be compensated for the expense of eliminating your mold.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) say that mold exists everywhere. It grows throughout the year and is found indoors and out. Outdoors, mold often grows in damp, shady areas (and in the ground). Indoors, mold grows in humid and moist areas like kitchens, basements, and bathrooms. It’s often found on ceilings and the insides of walls; water from leaking pipes, windows, or roofs can gather in these places. Most kinds of mold don’t harm humans; however, the CDCP says certain types of mold produce allergies with symptoms similar to hay fever. If anyone in your family has mold symptoms, see your physician immediately. Remember –mold exposure symptoms could also be caused by other illnesses.

Experts suggest you take these steps to prevent mold from growing in your house:

Lower Your Home’s Humidity

• Keep your home’s humidity level between 30% to 60% with air conditioners and dehumidifiers.
• Install bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans.
• Don’t put carpets in moist areas like bathrooms and basements.
• Don’t allow water to accumulate underneath your house plants.

Buy Mold-Reducing Cleaning Products

• Clean your bathrooms with a bleach solution or use mold-killing cleaning products.
• Before application, put mold inhibitors in your paint.

Keep Your Belongings Dry – And Your Home!

• Inspect your pipes, fittings, and hoses. Most water hoses cost only five to ten dollars. Replace all water hoses connected to your major appliances (especially clothes and dish washers) every 5 years:
  • Water Dispensers and Ice Makers in Refrigerators
  • Water Heaters
  • Clothes Washers
  • Dishwashers
  • Bathroom and Kitchen Sinks
  • Bathroom Toilets
• Clean your gutters regularly.
• Maintain and inspect your roof, so water doesn’t seep in.

   

Millions of Americans enjoy safe outdoor barbecues every year; however, accidents occasionally happen. The United States Fire Administration says roughly 5,700 grill fires happen on residential properties each year. Annually, grill fires cause an estimated 10 deaths, 100 injuries, and $37 million in property damage. Most grill fires happen when gas grills malfunction. Thousands of people end up in emergency rooms each year with burns from barbecue grills.

Grill fires are rare; however, one could spread across your property. Check with your independent insurance agent to confirm that your homeowners insurance policy provides financial compensation for grill fires.

Typical homeowners policies cover:

• Grill fire damage to houses
• Grill fire damage to your belongings (like lawn furniture)
• Grill fire damage to non-house structures on your property like sheds and gazebos.
• Grill fire injuries to your guests (in the liability section of your policy)

Remember – you’ll need to cover your deductible payment before your homeowners insurance compensates you. If you suffer minimal damage, and carry a high deductible, you may choose not to make a claim. Ask your agent if it’s in your best interest to file.

The best plan for enjoying a summer full of outdoor barbecue fun is to prevent accidents before they occur by employing safe grilling techniques and properly maintaining your equipment.

If you want to buy a new vehicle, you probably have safety on your mind. All new cars need to achieve federal standards for safety; however, all vehicles have different levels of safety. Variations in safety features make some vehicles much safer than the others. Automakers often provide more safety features than the minimum governmental requirements.

Consider these safety features when you’re thinking about buying a car:

1. Crashworthiness Certain features reduce your risk of serious injury or death in a crash. You can find crashworthiness ratings with this United States Department of Transportation shopping helper.


2. Structural design Vehicles with proper structural designs have strong occupant compartments (safety cages). Their rear and front ends will bend and buckle to absorb powerful impact forces. This “crush zone” technology directs dangerous forces away from passengers in the safety cage; however, if the cage collapses, passengers’ chances of injury rapidly increase.


3. Vehicle weight and size According to physics, heavier and larger cars outperform smaller and lighter ones. People in compact cars are twice as likely to die in crashes as people in large cars. When small and large vehicles collide, heavier vehicles push lighter vehicles backward; this decreases the forces experienced by people in the heavier car and increases those endured by people in the lighter car.


4. Restraint systems Airbags, head restraints, and belts, together with your vehicle’s structure protect you and your family in crashes. Your lap and shoulder belts will hold you safely in place; this reduces the chances you’ll hit a hard object or be thrown from the vehicle. If you don’t wear your seatbelt, you’ll keep moving forward when the car stops until an object stops you; this could be a hard surface on the interior of your vehicle – causing serious injuries.
   
   
   • Shoulder belts in cars have inertia reels which allow for your upper body to move around when driving; however, they lock when you brake hard or crash into something. These reels store belt webbing; during frontal crashes, slack in this webbing permits your upper body to fall forward. You could hit your steering wheel, windshield, or dashboard. Some automakers address this issue by adding belt crash tension devices that activate at the beginning of a crash and reel in any belt slack to prevent forward body movement.
   
   
   • shoulder belts, lap belts, and airbags work very well together. However, deployed airbags can cause injuries and death. You face serious injury risk if you’re above or quite close to your airbag when a crash triggers it to inflate. Be sure to buy a car which lets you reach your brake and gas pedals comfortably; you shouldn’t sit too near to your steering wheel. Your car may offer a telescope-style steering column which offers helpful adjustments.
   
   
   • Your side airbags should protect the upper abdomens of you and your passengers. These can also help keep your heads from banging into any intruding interior structures.
   
   
   • All new cars need head restraints for people in the front seats; these keep your heads from snapping back, a common cause of neck injury in rear-end crashes. However, not all head restraints are the same; some can be adjusted, others can’t. These devices can vary in their heights, and in how far back they are from passengers’ heads. To avoid neck injuries, your head restraints should be right behind you and very close to your head. Make sure your new car has these types of restraints. If these devices can be adjusted, ensure they are locked firmly in place. Some head restraints don’t lock; these can be pushed downward in crashes.


5. Anti-lock brakes When you press hard on conventional brakes, your car’s wheels could lock up; this causes skidding and poor steering. If you have the anti-lock style of brakes, they will automatically turn on and off many times per second; this prevents lockup and lets you keep better control of your car. If you learned to brake softly on wet roads or to “pump” your standard brakes in skids, unlearn these particular habits; you should put hard and continuous pressure on your brake pedal to activate your anti-lock system. Though your anti-lock brakes can help you stay in control of your steering, they may not help you come to a stop any faster.


6. Daytime running lights Your ignition switch activates your daytime running lights. These usually consist of high-beam headlights with a reduced intensity; they could also be low-beam lights with full or limited power. These lights increase the visual contrast between vehicles and their backgrounds; this makes vehicles easier to see, especially to oncoming drivers. This increased visibility helps prevent accidents during the day.


7. On-road experience Many design characteristics influence your risk of injury when driving. For example, small sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks may roll over in crashes. “High performance” vehicles usually have high death rates; drivers of these cars can be tempted drive too fast. Putting young drivers in high-performance cars is especially dangerous.