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Will Your Dishwasher Start a House Fire?

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Is this Whirlpool washer likely to start a fire? Whirlpool says no, but consumers say otherwise.

An important step in remodeling or restoring your home is to make sure that your appliances are maintained and working safely. Otherwise it would be a shame to have all the time and effort put into your home go to waste when your dishwasher lights up in flames like a Roman candle on the Fourth of July.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 150,000 residential fires have caused $547 million in property damage and 150 deaths in just a two-year period from 2006 to 2008. These fires were found to have been all ignited by home appliances. In a closer study, Consumer Reports found that 50% of the appliance fires from 2002 to 2009 were caused by human mistakes, animals or storms while the other half was due to faulty product.   [Read more…]

Brea Fire Contained, But Red Flag Warning For Inland Empire Remains

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It may be getting colder in the mornings, but that doesn’t mean that wildfires aren’t still a danger. In fact, we’ve had Santa Ana winds lately, and those dry winds combined with the sun-dried hillsides in the Inland Empire are prime for wildfire action.

Case in point: There was a brush fire that burned about five acres in an oil field near Valencia Avenue and Rose Drive this morning, which has now been contained, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. Officials received multiple calls about the brush fire at about 9 a.m. this morning, which was first reported to be about 200 square feet in size and moving in a northerly direction. Firefighters from the Brea-Fullerton Fire Department, the Los Angeles County Fire Authority, and Orange County Fire Authority responded to the wind-driven grass fire.

Although electricity lines were down in the oil field where the fire burned, it has not been confirmed that sparks from the lines started the blaze, said Captain Marc Stone of the OCFA. The Red Flag warning regarding strong winds had already been issued in Orange County and the Inland Empire by the time that firefighters had started to stop the spread of the fire. The firefighters were concerned that it would be difficult to put out the fire, and that the winds would cause it to spread quickly and threaten nearby homes.

Officials considered evacuating a tract of homes along Rose Drive, according to Sergeant Jim Griffin of the Brea Police Department, but did not start that process as firefighters gained the upper hand on the blaze. And although one structure was threatened, none were damaged, thanks to the skills of these brave firefighters.

The Red Flag warning is expected to continue in Orange County and the Inland Empire until 6 p.m. this evening, with the Santa Anas blowing strong with temperatures up into the 80s. Perfect wildfire weather, so keep your eyes open for anything suspicious today. As we know, in past years arsonists have started many fires in Southern California that have destroyed both homes and lives.

If your home has been damaged by smoke or fire, please call Paul Davis Restoration Inland Empire now for an estimate. We only use the latest equipment in order to bring your home back to exactly how it was before the damage, and that equipment allows us to do that in the most affordable way. Call (877) 732-8471 now, or use our online form to request more information.

Water and Kitchens Don’t Mix

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What looks like a small puddle of water could actually cause damage of over $10,000.

To follow on from our blog last Friday, water is more insidious than you might think. Within minutes of the water leaking or overflowing from some source or appliance in your home, it can get to places you hadn’t even imagined.

For instance, let’s look at kitchens. One would assume that, what with all of the water that runs through a kitchen, that they would be designed to be compatible with and resist water. Dishwashers, freezers, refrigerators with water dispensers—and let’s not forget the kitchen sink and the garbage disposal—all of these are potential hazards for your kitchen.

It’s not just about the water getting under your hardwood or tile floor, as we discussed last week.The kitchen is one of the most overlooked area in the house, and when it’s overlooked, it can become the most expensive place in the house to have water damage. One small garbage disposal leak can spread to all of your kitchen cabinets and start a mold factory. Within a few short weeks, you could be looking at an entire kitchen replacement. [Read more…]

Why Strap Your Water Heater to a Wall?

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We recommend that you have a professional plumber install your water heater and strap it correctly.

First of all, because it’s California state law. It’s true, and it makes sense. Besides great weather, superb wines and Hollywood, California is certainly known for its earthquakes. And because of that, California state law requires that any new or used water heater sold on or after July 1, 1991 to be strapped securely to a wall.

NO exceptions are allowed for any home, public building or multi-family property, including office buildings, apartment or condominium complexes or public spaces. Why? Because if an earthquake hits and that water heater falls over, there’s a serious potential for both water damage and a fire that could endanger the building and people in it, who may be trapped by debris or unconscious after the quake. [Read more…]

Are You Ready for the Great California ShakeOut This Thursday?

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Riverside County cares about its constituents, and that’s why we’re so proud to be part of this great community. This Thursday, Riverside will host what’s being billed as “the largest earthquake drill” in California history.

Every government office, business, school and family will participate, and we think that’s the most important part. Let’s think about it—when was the last time YOU did an earthquake drill? When you were in high school? Don’t you think it’s time for a refresher course?

The annual “Great California ShakeOut” will be held this Thursday at 10:20 a.m., and participants will “drop, cover and hold on” for several minutes to simulate their response to an actual, massive earthquake. [Read more…]

Are Budget Cuts Making Your Child’s School Toxic?

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Riverside's buildings are aging; is there a mold problem lurking at your child's school?

Last month, Recordnet reported that mold had been discovered in yet another California school campus, this time in the Lodi Unified School District. According to the article, high airborne counts of mold were discovered recently at the Washington School of Development Center for the Handicapped.

Recordnet reports that it is the third school building this year to experience mold problems in the district, but the problems and costly mold remediation projects have stretched back to 2006. Although experts have indicated that the reason the buildings in Lodi are susceptible to mold is because they are old, don’t think it can’t happen down here.

Irvine’s inception was as far back as 1971, which makes some of its buildings 40, but look at Riverside. It was founded in 1870, which means there are historical buildings and homes, even a few examples of authentic Victorians.

The big problem for schools is how the districts’ funding has been slashed due to the struggling economy, especially their maintenance budgets, as state and local budgets are squeezed. This means that preventative maintenance is either postponed—or worse, eliminated—which turn minor indoor air quality (IAQ) issues into major problems, both in health and cost.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can cause illness requiring absence from school, and can cause acute health symptoms that decrease performance while at school.  In addition, recent data suggest that poor IAQ can reduce a person’s ability to perform specific mental tasks requiring concentration, calculation, or memory.”

Wow. That’s certainly not what we send our children to school for. Get involved in your children’s school and ask if they are performing regular maintenance and keeping on top of indoor air quality and mold. The schools need to hear from parents that their children’s health is as important as their education!

If you feel that there might be a mold issue at your school, have your school call us for remediation and cleanup. We are experts in commercial property mold remediation, and execute the EPA’s stringent requirements for cleanup.

Our team of professionals, both in the office and out in the field, have advanced degrees in engineering, healthcare, science, construction management and accounting—a combination of expertise that other restoration companies in Southern California cannot offer.

Is your child’s school harming them? Please call us today for a consultation for their school: (877) 732-8471 or use our online form to contact us.

Returning Home After a Flood: Tips for Safety

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Don't try to re-enter your home after a flood—be safe and call a professional team.

With the flash floods in California over the past week with the thunderstorms, and the devastation we saw in New Jersey the week before, we wanted to talk to people about what to do when you think it’s “safe” to go back into your home after a flood. Of course, the first thing you should do is call us—for many reasons, most of them listed below. We also encourage you to call us first so that we can help minimize the damage and get the clean up started immediately.

As much as you’d like to get into your home and survey the damage, there are hidden dangers that you are not aware of, which is why you should send in professionals like Paul Davis Restoration. Don’t compound the problems of the flood by becoming a victim of an accident! Here are our tips below: [Read more…]

Flash Flooding is No Joke, and Continues in California

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Some people are calling them “late summer storms”, but we call them disasters that take residents and business owners by surprise, and can cause quite a bit of damage.

The storms are dumping a lot of rain in a short amount of time across the Southland, exceeding 2 inches per hour in some areas, including Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. For instance, torrential rains caused an enormous amount of damage to roads in Joshua Tree National Park. [Read more…]

Wildfires Across Southern California: Be Alert!

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Wildfires travel fast, and can cause neighborhoods to be evacuated unexpectedly for residents' safety.

From small, 55-acre fires here in Riverside to over 14,000 acres in Kern County, wildfires are raging across California right now.

Wildfire season is a time for everyone, particularly those areas close to large expanses of grassland like Orange Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, Chino Hills, Yorba Linda, Perris, Murrietta, Temecula and Moreno Valley, to exercise care and caution—every year houses, land and workplaces in Southern California are threatened by wildfires.

The best way to be safe in wildfire season is to be aware of what’s happening. Make sure you: [Read more…]

September is National Preparedness Month

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We are happy to share with our readers that September is officially National Preparedness Month, and here in our home state of California, it couldn’t come at a better time. Our sister companies back east and in the Midwest are bracing for the winter weather, while here in SoCal, we’re watching our hillsides get dryer and dryer, and waiting for that smell of smoke in the air that signals a wildfire.

And the word “wildfire” is misleading—it’s not that the fire is out in the wilderness, although sometimes they are. It’s more that they are wildly out of control, what with our strong Santa Ana winds that come out of the desert and rush across to the coast. It seems to be Mother Nature’s cruel joke that our end-of-summer heat that sucks all the moisture from our terrain coincides with the hot Santa Ana winds, which can create a disaster out of a small fire. [Read more…]

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