33 home repairs you need to make before someone gets hurt

This means that the hose is ready to burst. A bulging washing machine hose is an emergency. It may burst next year, next week or right now. But it will fail and it won’t just leak – it will gush. In just a few minutes, it can do thousands of dollars in damage.

This means that there’s too much moisture inside the chimney. Efflorescence is the white material that appears on brick. It occurs when moisture moves through masonry. That moisture picks up minerals and leaves them behind in the form of tiny crystals. The minerals themselves do no harm, and a small amount of efflorescence is common. But heavy efflorescence on your chimney is a cause for concern. It’s a sign of moisture inside the chimney – and when that moisture freezes, it can slowly wreck the chimney from the inside out. Even more alarming, your flue liner could be cracked or broken, and deadly combustion gases from your furnace, fireplace or water heater may be leaking into your home.

Each year, thousands children are killed or injured because of falls from windows. Window screens are not strong enough to prevent falls. In rooms on upper floors, install window guards with quick-release mechanisms (in case of fire) to prevent windows from opening more than a few centimetres. And keep furniture away from windows so kids aren’t tempted to climb near them.

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Source: The Family Handyman