Only food in the garbage disposal!

Wow!!! When I tried the switch to this garbage disposal, I got a familiar sound of a jammed disposal. Most of the time, I'll find a piece of a bone, broken dish, or maybe the occasional dish rag. Not this time however. On the bottom of your garbage disposal, you can use a 1/4" hex key to manually turn the motor to assist in unjamming the blade. But as I found out, there was no quick way to unjam this one. Here we see that the painter took time to thoroughly clean his brushes in the kitchen sink. Also, guy that tiled the kitchen floor was thinking the same thing. And, I'm not sure how the other objects got in there...

After spending a little time breaking loose the dried paint, grout, and other objects, I'm happy to report that the disposal seems to have survived. Please, please, only put food in the garbage disposal.

 

Here are some tips to caring for your disposal.

• insert garbage loosely. If you pack in too much at once, you can jam the disposal.
  
  
• use a strong flow of cold water & keep the garbage disposer running at least 30 seconds after noise of grinding has stopped to flush all food particles through the drain line.
  
  
• always use cold water when operating the disposer to solidify fatty & greasy waste so they will be chopped up & flushed down the drain.
  
  
• it's safe to run hot water from the sink through the garbage disposer. However, use cold water when you are operating the disposer.
  
  
• if you wash dishes in a sink w/ a disposer, make sure all small objects are removed from the sudsy water before you drain the sink.
  
  
• if you have a continuous-feed disposer, move silverware & other small items away from the edge of the sink counter to avoid accidentally knocking them in while the garbage disposer is running.
  
  
• do put small bones through; they help to scour the sides of the grinding chamber.
  
  
• follow directions in the garbage disposer manual as to what should not be put through the disposer. Do not grind large bones or fibrous materials as corn husks unless the manual says it's ok. Only put a small amount of fibrous foods (celery, chard, asparagus ends, etc.) at a time through the garbage disposer w/ full water flow. If the drain line is long & quite horizontal, fibrous foods or too much garbage at one time can clog the line.
  
  
• do not put uncooked fat off meat into the garbage disposer as it may clog. Don't pour liquid fats down line; solidify in empty tin can in refrigerator & dispose in the trash instead.
  
  
• run the disposer each time you put food waste in it. This is particularly advisable in the less expensive models which are more subject to corrosion from the acids formed by food waste left for a long time.
  
  
• w/ a continuous-feed model, use the cover as directed to protect yourself when grinding bones or fruit pits--small particles could possible be ejected by the force of the disposer action. Avoid leaning over the disposer if you are feeding waste into it while it is running.
  
  
• all disposers have overload protectors to avoid damage to the motor. If the disposer should stall, turn off the disposer & the cold water. Retrieve the article causing the problem. Press the reset button on the disposer. If it won't stay in, wait a few minutes & try again. If the disposer won't start when the switch is turned on, check the house fuse.

Water Leaking In

Hello! This is my first post. My grandfather was a carpenter and built many homes in his lifetime. When I was young, he'd always say, "If nothing else, you always have to have a good roof on your home.", and that is so true and many of us know it. Water is very sneaky at costing you lots of money. Here are a few ways;

• Leaky Roof.
• Leaky Toilet.
• Leaky Pipes.
• Non-working Sub-pump. 
• Blocked Sink Drains.
• Blocked AC Condensate Drain.
• Blocked Washing Machine Drain.
• Poor or Lack of Gutters and Downspouts.
• Poor Surface Drainage.
• Caulked Deck.

Wait! What? Caulked Deck? All of these are easy to understand, but how does a caulked deck cause a problem you ask? One day I was contacted by a friend and they told me they were having some issues with loose floors. So, I packed up some things and went out to take a look. What I found was that someone had put weather caulking along the join where the deck board meets the sliding glass door threshold. And, Wow!, what a big mistake. Over the years water seeped in and rotted away the Sill Plate, Header Joist, several Floor Joists, and the Floor.

Oh, and the Deck had to go. So it was time to start making repairs. First thing we had to do was bring in some jacks to jack up that side of the house so we could replace the Sill, Header, and Floor Joists.

After all the framing was done. We could move on with installing a new section of flooring and installing a new door.

This is where I stopped at. The Homeowner had to special order siding and decide what style of new deck he wanted. I'll update this post at a later date with the final result.

Thanks, and stay dry!