Easy Halloween Decorations to Spook Your Guests

Stay true to your annual Halloween traditions even during this pandemic by celebrating safely at home with these easy DIY projects:

The sorceress’ downfall
The wicked witch may have fallen, but your porch will come alive with this easy-to-make decor.

1. Cut two pool noodles to leg size (about 30 inches tall).
2. To make knees, draw a 3-inch half-circle in middle of each leg and cut the shape out. Pull edges together and secure with duct tape.
3. Tape quilt batting around pool noodles, adding extra layers to hip and thigh areas and an almond shape where it bends to complete knee. Use more tape to smooth out form.
4. Pull tights over legs. Stuff witch boots with batting and secure to legs by tying laces tightly.
5. To make sign, hot-glue six paint stirrers together to form a jagged rectangle, then hot-glue another stirrer to the back as a signpost. Paint on a phrase like, “Poison Apples for Sale.” Source: WomansDay

Say your message with jack o’ lanterns
Spell out your greeting in mini pumpkins gathered on your porch.

Step 1: Pencil letters on hollowed pumpkins (carve out the opening from the bottom).
Step 2: Using a drill with a half-inch bit, bore holes to form each letter.
Step 3: Hang strings of Christmas-tree lights, gathered in small bunches, to illuminate each pumpkin (unscrew bulbs where the string descends to the next row). Source: CountryLiving

Let spirits roam around
Cheesecloth is a crucial material for any DIY Halloween toolkit. Its loose, gauzy weave is reminiscent of cobwebs and ancient, forgotten places. You can drape it anywhere — over a mantel, lampshades, a dresser, a chair, or a window — to give your home an instant haunted house feel. It’s also the ideal material for making ghost decorations. A few ideas for cheesecloth ghosts include:

– Floating Ghosts. To give it a freestanding ghostly shape, soak cheesecloth in liquid fabric starch and drape it over a form shaped to look like a ghost’s body. Let dry, remove the form, and you’ll have a ghost that “floats” on its own, as shown on Home Talk.
– Life-Size Halloween Ghost. Use a similar method to make a life-size levitating ghost for your outdoor decor. Make a larger frame, this time using wooden stakes and multiple Styrofoam balls. Then follow the same basic method as for the floating ghosts. Get the full instructions on HGTV.
– Ghostly Outdoor Draperies. Inexpensive cheesecloth makes the perfect budget material for ghostly draperies. Hang yards of cloth from lightweight poplar boards you can staple to your porch roof like they did on HGTV. Source: MoneyCrashers

Want to improve your home’s curb appeal so that it would look awesome even without fancy decoration? We’d love to help! Call us today to get a free estimate.

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

 

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5 Things You Must Do to Prevent Carpet Beetles from Coming Back

Have you started to notice bald patches on your carpet’s surface? The culprit might be the tiny insects that feed on its fibers. Get rid of them and stop future infestations by doing these simple tricks:

Keep your pet’s area clean

Furry pets are the first choice of carpet beetles. They feed on the dead skin of your pets and use their body as their hiding place. If you spot any carpet beetles on your pet’s bedding, clean and wash it in hot water to kill larvae or eggs. Don’t forget to give your pet a shampoo bath.

Don’t store fabrics or cloths for extended period

You must regularly clean and wash cloths, fabrics, rugs and carpets in hot water or dry clean them. This is particularly applicable for cloths and fabrics which were not used for some time. Source: DoItYourself

Watch out for dead bugs

Constantly be on the lookout for dead insects in the cracks of the walls and flooring of your home. Try removing dead bugs by vacuuming over them or picking them up with a paper towel. Cracks are one of the more subtle living spaces that carpet beetles can thrive within.

Go synthetic

Choose synthetic materials over organic fabrics when possible. Get products made of synthetic fibers instead of natural ones as often as you can. Carpet beetles don’t feed on synthetic fabric. Keep this in mind when purchasing furniture, rugs, and carpets. Source: WikiHow

Sprinkle boric acid

Boric acid, which acts as a poison on insect metabolism, is only hazardous to humans if ingested or inhaled in large quantities. Find it at pharmacies and sprinkle it in powder form lightly and evenly on carpet, then use a broom or brush to distribute it into the fibers. Wait several hours and vacuum thoroughly. You may also prepare a larvae-killing spray by adding one tablespoon of boric acid to two cups of hot water and stirring until the powder dissolves. Fill a plastic spray bottle with the solution and mist curtains, upholstery, baseboards, and dark nooks and crannies where carpet beetle larvae hang out. Source: BobVila

Let us help you repair those ugly spots on the carpet so you won’t have to look at them anymore. Call us anytime to get a free estimate!

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Thinking About Installing Roll Roofing? Read This First!

Deciding on what type of roofing materials to use for your home can be quite daunting considering how many options are out there in the market. If you’re looking for something that’s more budget-friendly, then this is something you should see.

What is Roll Roofing?
Roll roofing is a composite sheet of roofing material manufactured into a roll so it can be laid on the roof in strips that overlap each other. The roofing material used to make the roll can vary depending on the type one desires for their roof. Common materials used to make roll roofing sheets are similar to what’s found in most traditional roofing shingles and can include:
– Asphalt
– Fiberglass
– Asphalt-saturated organic felt
– Asphalt-coated fiberglass Source: LoveToKnow

Advantages
There are a lot of advantages or pros to installing a roll roof. The biggest one is the cost advantage compared to a clay roof or traditional asphalt-shingle roof. The cost of the rolls is less than half of what is needed for a shingled roof. With this in mind, homeowners can see a true cost savings for their overall home-improvement budget.

Rolled roofing is very easy to install, and there is minimal expertise needed to finish the job. Heavy-duty saws or nail guns don’t need to be used, and without a slope, there isn’t a huge risk of falling as with a traditional roofing job.

Roll roofing offers a great deal of color options to match with existing home colors, which allows for a finished look that is professional and adds curb appeal. Source: Improvenet

Disadvantages
– Rolled roofing is less durable than shingles. One reason why shingles work so well: the network of multiple, loosely interlocking shingles expand and contract without stressing individual shingles. By contrast, rolled roofing is like having one big shingle. This shingle cannot respond to changes in the building structure without tearing.

– Rolled roofing has a short lifespan of between five and eight years. Compare this to a lifespan of about 20 years or even more for composite shingles. Rolled roofing tends to lose its grains and develop bald spots after only a few years of use. Also, one of the benefits of roofing with many hundreds of small units (shingles) is that they can move and shift as the house moves and shifts. Rolled roof’s larger sections do not move as readily as the home expands and contracts.

– You can expect extremely poor resale value on residences that use this type of material. Few home buyers would consider rolled roofing to be anything more than a temporary, stop-gap roofing solution. Source: TheSpruce

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

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Replacing Your Carpet? Here Are 4 Ways to Reuse the Old One

Installing new carpet does not necessarily mean that you’re ditching the old one straight to the recycling facility. If you want other eco-friendlier ideas that you could use at home, here are some tips to consider:

Single-use beds for your fur baby

We sure do love them, but those furry friends at home can make quite a mess in their living space. While buying new beds and mats can become pricey over time, a quick and easy, money-saving solution is to cut up a few squares of your old carpet to change in and out of their pens or bedding.

Durable car floor covers

No matter what kind of vehicle you are driving these days, consider cutting up your floor covering to use as mats inside your car. Help protect your existing mat by placing a freshly cut square on top. Plus, during the worst of weather seasons, which are always just around the corner, your old carpet will take the beating, leaving your car flooring unscathed. Source: RecycleNation

Welcome mat

Old carpets make the perfect material to create a new door mat. Cut the carpet into the size and shape you desire for a door mat. Then, you can even paint the carpet with latex paint in order to give it a whole new look. Use stencils to personalize it as needed. These even make great gifts for friends and family members moving into a new home, or you can easily create a holiday themed door mat on the cheap this way. Source: DoItYourself

Garage wall cushion

If you’ve been known to park a little too close to the wall of your garage, attach a strip of carpet to the wall so that you don’t ding up your car door when you swing it open. A simple solution to what could have otherwise been an expensive car repair. Source: LittleThings

Are you thinking twice about replacing your old carpet? We can still probably make it look as good as new. Let us take a look! Give us a call today for a free estimate.

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3 Useful Tips to Prepare You for Replacing Roof Shingles

Do you feel like it’s already past time to replace the shingles on your home’s roof? Here are some necessary precautions and tips to consider before you go up there:

Assess the damage
Unless you’re seeing water damage inside your house, it can be tough to tell when you need to replace your roof’s shingles. There are, however, a few tell-tale signs to look out for.

Signs It’s Time to Replace Your Roof Shingles:
– The edges of shingles are starting to curl up.
– Moss or algae are building up on the roof’s surface.
– Asphalt granules from shingles are in your gutters.
– Your roof is more than 20 years old. Source: BudgetDumpster

Bring the right equipment
Before you set the day to remove the shingles from your roof, contact a local equipment rental company for a large dumpster for the shingles. A square-edged spade or roofing shovel are ideal tools for getting underneath the shingles and loosening the roofing nails from the wood. Purchase sheets of plywood to place over the windows below your roof to prevent any debris from shattering them. Two or more bar magnets will be needed so that you can easily gather the nails that will fall to the ground. It will be difficult to see the nails in the grass that surrounds your home. Source: DoItYourself

Wait for cool weather
Asphalt and asphalt sealant will heat up in hot weather, making it moldable and much more difficult to remove. It’s a lot easier to remove shingles that are cooled down and slightly more brittle than the moldable, so do the work of removing them first thing in the morning, before the sun has beaten down upon them considerably.

– Wet shingles to cool them down before removal, if you must work in the heat. Wetting them down with a small amount of water will help them to tighten and firm up, making them much easier to remove, if necessary. Source: WikiHow

Before taking on a roofing project, make sure you’re 100% safe by having the right experience and tools. Or if you want, you can just leave the task to us so you can sit back and relax as we fix any roofing problems for you. Call us today!

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

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Carpet Scams to Watch Out For

There are good and bad people in any industry or market. No matter how strict the regulations are, you have to be wary and cautious with every deal you’re signing so as to avoid getting ripped off. Keep your eyes peeled for the following scams when you’re buying carpet or having it installed.

Overpriced Quotations

You call a professional to give you a quote for your carpet installation. He starts measuring the surface that will be covered, while having a nice conversation with you.

After he’s done measuring, he will give you the quote: “let’s say a promotional $9/ square foot, for all your 200 coverable square feet. That means $1,800.”

You decide to be smart and think it is a good idea to shop around to see if there is a better best price, so after he leaves you start looking for another quote and find out the average price is $12/ square foot – so your man was the best!

What you haven’t realized is that your coverable space is only 100 square feet not $200, which means only $1,200 at the average price (the scammer is actually charging you $18/ square foot).

How to avoid:

Buy a tape measure and measure the length and breadth of the surface yourself (multiply them together to get the measurement in square feet). Then ask around for quotes for carpet installation for that measurement. Source: Scam-Detector

“Free” Installations

In this scam, carpet dealers advertise greatly reduced installation rates or even free installation. But the advertisements neglect to mention that this only apply to “basic” installations, which can mean as much – or as little work as dealers want. Any additional installation comes with hefty fees. Buyers should not sign anything until they know just what the basic installation entails – or the amount a dealer would impose for the rest of the installation process. Source: DoItYourself

The Private Label

It starts when you find a carpet sample you really like on a contractor’s board but think the price is just too high. You go looking for it elsewhere, but with no luck. He tells you the carpet is actually a “private label,” and no one else sells the exact same brand. In fact, he’s lying. The carpet is available at any retail or big-box store, just under another brand name. Because it’s been rebranded (sometimes by the suppliers themselves) finding a match becomes difficult.

Don’t believe any company that tells you they’re the only ones who can carry a specific color or type of carpet, unless you’re looking for something extremely specific and high-end. If you spot a bad rebrand, move on. Source: AngiesList

Have your carpet repaired or installed by someone who has a good track record and has been in the business for a long time. Give us a call to get a free and honest estimate of your carpet needs.

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What You Need to Know about Foam Roofing

Have you heard about foam roofing and its outstanding insulation properties before? If you haven’t yet, this is the perfect time to do so as it might be exactly what you need to add more barrier between you and extreme temperatures.

What is it?
Polyurethane foam is a liquid that is applied over existing roofs to create and expand into a foam layer. It is incredibly helpful for asphalt roofing shingles or metal panel roofs to create a layer of insulation and make your home more energy efficient. There are quite a few roof shingle types that can be installed with foam roofing. Source: Modernize

Different types
Cool roof coatings fall under the class of elastomeric coatings. These coatings protect the foam underneath and provide a painting surface. This creates an additional waterproof membrane that reduces heat infiltration on the roof. A cool roof coating may require several weeks of drying for additional layers of foam. The elastomeric coating also reduces the UV radiation from the sun that can cause foam to oxidize over time. All of these coatings can be applied at the same time as well.

Installation of a foam roof will require substrate preparation, coating and sealing. A foam roof cannot be applied directly without conditioning the substrate below. A clean, dry surface is prepared for contact, a process that includes the removal of any existing roofing material. The entire surface is primed with an adherence polymer to increase the adhesion of the foam product to the roof deck. This priming also prevents overspray from foam during the curing phase. Source: Improvenet

Advantages and disadvantages
Spray foam roofing systems have many advantages, such as being more energy-efficient than conventional asphalt or metal panel roofs and creating less of a carbon footprint. However, we should also take into account some drawbacks when installing a spray foam roof on your home or property.

Pros	Cons
Can be used in any climate Lasts over 50 years Eco-friendly Lightweight Seamless Thermal insulation Waterproof Easy to install and maintain Causes minimal disruption for homeowner	Requires professional installation Precision is imperative during installation Fumes may be toxic More expensive than other roofing options Must be installed in dry, warm weather Contact with foam could cause sensitivity or allergy

Source: Fixr

Do you want to have foam roofing installed at home? We’ll be more than happy to assist you in making your place cozier. Call us today to get a free estimate!

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

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