Total Home Guard

Do you ever find yourself with a weak shower stream or low water pressure when running your sink? Low water pressure can be frustrating and can make it difficult to complete simple tasks such as washing dishes or taking a shower. Fortunately, there are several ways to increase water pressure in your home.

Are you concerned about the security of your home? Have you ever wished that you could make your home as burglar-proof as possible? If so, you’re not alone. Home security is a top priority for many people, and it’s important to take the necessary steps to ensure your home is as secure as possible.

Keeping your home safe and secure is a top priority for every homeowner. Unfortunately, burglaries and break-ins are all too common, and the impact of a home invasion can be devastating. With the rising rates of home burglaries and break-ins, it's more important than ever to take proactive measures to secure your home and deter potential burglars. Fortunately, there are many simple steps you can take to deter burglars and protect your home from theft and damage.

A significant portion of the average American homeowner’s budget is allocated for home heating costs. According to recent data from the United States Department of Energy (DOE),heating and cooling account for approximately 55% of the energy usage in single-family homes. Energy costs—particularly oil costs—ramped up in the winter of 2021–2022, and prices remain elevated as this winter sets in.

Maintaining your home’s central vacuum system is essential for keeping your home clean and healthy. Regular maintenance keeps your system running smoothly and efficiently, better enabling it to keep your home free of dirt, dust, and airborne contaminants. Periodic service of your central vacuum system can also extend its lifespan and reduce the likelihood of costly malfunctions, saving you money in the long run. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of maintaining your home’s central vacuum system and discuss some easy ways to keep your system in top condition.

When it comes to home improvement projects, most homeowners want to know which projects will give them the best return on their investment. Renovating and furnishing even a single room is an expensive undertaking. If you’re trying to increase the value of your home on a reasonable budget, it pays—literally—to be choosy about which home improvement project you take on.

So where to start? A modernized kitchen? A refreshed patio? A new roof? Below is Liberty Home Guard’s list of the top ten home improvement projects that offer the biggest returns on investment. 

Roof repair is an important part of maintaining a safe and sound living environment. Without a watertight roof, it’s impossible to ensure that the interior of your home is safe from the elements. Additionally, if the roof of your home is in a state of disrepair, it can lead to costly, time-consuming repairs in the future. Fortunately, homeowners can take advantage of Liberty Home Guard’s home warranty coverage to keep their roofs in good condition and save money on otherwise costly repairs.

When it comes to the security of your home, there are two main options for securing your locks: rekeying and changing. Simply put, lock rekeying involves resetting the pins in the lock to a different combination. Changing a lock entails replacing the existing lock with a new one. Deciding between these two options might be difficult and can depend on a variety of factors. In this article, we’ll look at the pros and cons of each option and give advice on how to go about both rekeying and changing a lock.

Having a sewer or plumbing line blocked by tree roots can be a frustrating and potentially expensive
problem. You can avoid the problem by clearing your property of problem trees, but few of us want to
sacrifice the shade and aesthetics that trees provide. Fortunately, there are a few ways to prevent tree
roots from obstructing underground pipes without harming the tree in the process.

In this article, the Liberty Home Guard team will share some of our best tips for avoiding tree roots in
sewer line segments. We’ll discuss how to use physical barriers, chemical barriers, and other techniques
to keep your pipes free from tree roots. We’ll also cover the potential consequences of ignoring tree
root intrusion.

A CRM in real estate is a Customer Relationship Management system, which is used to help manage and increase relationships between real estate agents and their clients. It is used to store and track customer information and interactions, providing agents with a comprehensive view of their clients and their activities.

When you purchase a new appliance, you want it to last for years to come. Knowing how long your appliances will last is essential for budgeting and maintenance. While all appliances have a different lifespan, there are some general rules of thumb to follow. Generally speaking, most appliances last between 10-15 years, depending on the type and how well you maintain it. In this article, we’ll discuss how long your appliances typically last, plus some tips on extending their life.

People try to avoid frustrating home repairs because they can be time-consuming, costly, and difficult to deal with. Home repairs can also be dangerous and require specialized tools, knowledge, and experience. It's often easier and less stressful to hire a professional to complete the repairs.

Sometimes it seems like dealing with a malfunctioning central air conditioning system is worse than having no air conditioning at all. If your home doesn’t have built-in cooling, you’re mentally prepared to endure the heat and humidity. You probably already have standing fans or other inexpensive cooling devices at the ready. But if your central air is on the fritz when the mercury is rising? It’s maddening, and you want it fixed quickly.

Some cooling problems will call for central air repair from a professional, but others you may be able to sort out on your own. Liberty Home Guard’s central air troubleshooting guide will help you get your bearings.

A working range hood vent is a kitchen essential. If yours isn’t working properly, don’t delay in troubleshooting the issue. Beyond being an inconvenience, a kitchen hood not working as it’s supposed to can cause a number of other problems in your home.

Some appliance problems demand the care of a professional, but others are easy enough for the average homeowner to personally remedy. If you’re dealing with a kitchen hood vent not working, read on for Liberty Home Guard’s troubleshooting tips.

The moment you buy your home, insurance will one of the first concerns you’ll have. Most likely, your mortgage holder will require it in fact. But that is homeowner’s insurance, not home warranty insurance. You really can’t afford to be without homeowner’s insurance.

Antique and vintage kitchen appliances can lend a unique aesthetic to your home. A free-standing farmhouse stove or seafoam refrigerator with chrome accents evoke a nostalgic, retro quality that modern appliances can rarely replicate.

Some homeowners are content to use vintage electric stoves, refrigerators, iceboxes, and so on as decorative statement pieces. They use modern appliances for the actual cooking and cooling. But others are interested instead in vintage equipment that serves a functional purpose. If you count yourself among those in this latter camp, be aware that vintage stoves, ovens and refrigerators often require special care—both for your own safety and for the continued functionality of the appliance.

A home warranty can be a wise investment that saves homeowners money on home maintenance and repair, but consumers need to find the right plan to maximize their savings. Part of determining the best plan is having a thorough understanding of all the costs associated with a given policy.

Home maintenance before the holidays is important because it ensures that your home is a safe and comfortable place to be during the festive period. This includes things like checking smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, making sure all doors and windows are secure, and ensuring that all appliances are in working order. 

Struggling with your refrigerator ice maker not working? Don’t lose your cool. While there are several potential causes for an out-of-order ice machine, many are easy to troubleshoot and can be resolved by yourself.

Liberty Home Guard’s team compiled a troubleshooting guide to help you get to the root of your ice maker problems. We’ll have your machine back up and running in no time.

A small town hardware store may not carry the exact parts you need to repair your home appliance, but you can find virtually all appliance replacement parts online. In this post, we’ll take a look at where you can buy new and used appliance parts on the web.

It’s been a long, cold winter. Some fine weather finally arrives. You decide to fire up the outdoor grill and enjoy the hint of the approaching summer, but something’s wrong. The grill won’t ignite, and you’re back in the kitchen again.

This scenario is unfortunately quite common. After several months of disuse, gas grills can develop one issue or another that impairs its functionality. But there's no need to run out and buy a new grill just yet. With a few adjustments and maybe a spare part or two, you’ll be cooking in no time.

Liberty Home Guard can help you sort out the problem with your grill. Below is our guide for troubleshooting gas grill issues.

Looking for the best home warranty plan that will give you the most bang for your buck? Home warranty prices vary depending on the provider and the plan. They cost more depending on the amount of coverage you get. This doesn’t mean, though, that a new home warranty cost will break the bank. There are affordable plans out there.

Well-maintained plumbing is essential to having a happy home. Nobody wants to deal with the mess and headache that a leaky pipe or a clogged toilet can cause. Never mind the smell. Unexpected breakdowns will occur, but there are ways to prevent the need for frequent, costly repairs to your plumbing if you maintain it. 

Regular plumbing maintenance is easy to do if you know the right signs to look for. Right before winter begins is a crucial time to check and make sure everything is in working order with your home’s major systems, especially its plumbing. Here’s a plumbing maintenance checklist to use before the snow hits and the freezing begins. If you follow these simple steps, your pipes will thank you.

Millions of American homes on the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast are at risk of hurricanes. Are you prepared?

Hurricane recovery time is of course dependent on the severity of the storm and its associated consequences, but the extent of your preparation is a factor as well. In this post, Liberty Home Guard will share how to prepare your home and family from a hurricane or similarly destructive storm. We’ll also describe what to do to recover in the storm’s wake.

Buying a new home is one of the most exciting and important life events. Navigating all the available real estate and potential neighborhoods to live in can feel like an overwhelming task, though. That’s why we have compiled this list of best real estate apps for homebuyers. We know how crucial it is for potential buyers to have access to property details and the basic information they need to begin their search for a new home.Here’s our selection of the top real estate apps in no particular order. 

Carpeting sets the tone of a room. A clean carpet in a neutral or soothing color lends a comfortable and tidy air to a space. Conversely, a warped, matted, discolored, or otherwise dingy carpet makes an otherwise neat room appear unkempt.

If your carpet is a little worse for wear, it’s not always immediately clear how you can bring it back to its original condition. The pros at Liberty Home Guard have some answers for you. Here are common carpet problems and what to do to resolve them.

Renovating a home can be both exciting and a headache. Luckily there are plenty of apps for remodeling your home that can make managing the process easier and even fun. From the dream phase all the way to execution, apps to renovate your house can help with nearly everything you need to do in order to successfully renovate and remodel your home. Here’s our selection of the 10 best home renovation apps in no particular order.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of the smoke detector in modern homes. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA),nearly 60% of fire-related deaths in American residences were in homes with smoke alarms that were missing or not working.

Sometimes smoke alarms act up. They chirp, beep, or go off while you’re cooking. It’s tempting to disconnect them to get a reprieve from the high-pitched noise, but that’s a mistake. You should always leave a smoke alarm connected to a power source. If you have a smoke alarm not working properly or acting up when it shouldn’t be, take the time to identify the problem and resolve it appropriately. Our smoke detector troubleshooting tips below will help you. 

Potable water is not as abundant as we might think. Of all the water on Earth, only about 3% is freshwater. Of that, scarcely more than 1% is available for us to drink. Certain locations are prone to greater stress on water reserves, largely because of drought, high temperatures, agriculture, and threatened reservoirs and aquifers. 

“I have a great home in a nice area, but my house is not selling. What gives?”

If you’re a homeowner or realtor struggling to sell a property, you’re not alone in feeling frustrated. Home prices have soared over the last two years, and stories abound of prospective buyers making offers well above the seller’s asking price. But housing markets are complex, and a variety of factors can make it difficult to sell a home even in a seller’s market.

Glass and ceramic electric cooktops are increasingly popular in American homes. They’re safe, quick to heat up and cool down, and easy to clean. They look sleek in a modern kitchen too. But today’s electric cooktops can develop problems just as our parents’ did. 

A leaking faucet is one of the most common problems that homeowners encounter, but it being commonplace doesn’t make it any less annoying. The constant drip drip drip of a leaking bathtub faucet, showerhead, or sink tap can disturb your home’s serenity. Left neglected, a dripping faucet can also result in higher water bills and discoloration or mold growth in your sink or plumbing fixtures.

With inflation, rising interest rates, and other economic woes, many Americans are asking themselves, “How can I protect my budget?” There are some standard answers to this question: Eat out less, avoid unnecessary travel, and delay purchasing big-ticket and luxury items. Heeding this advice will result in increased savings, but what about those unforeseen expenses that arise when something in your home needs to be repaired or replaced?

Cold temperatures will be here soon, and energy prices are up. Homeowners across the nation are eager for ways to make their homes more energy efficient and less prone to cold drafts. The best way to resolve a drafty window is to replace it entirely, but this is an expensive undertaking—especially with inflation and ongoing supply chain issues.

Black Friday often conjures up images of long lines and unruly crowds, but the annual sales event has changed substantially in recent years. Today, shoppers can skip the brick-and-mortar stores and shop in the serenity of their own homes, and many retailers offer great deals in the days leading up to Black Friday. These changes have made for a more enjoyable shopping experience, but the sheer volume of sales and advertisements both online and in physical stores can make it challenging to find the exceptionally good deals.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are often the best times to buy new appliances. Everything from clothes washers, dryers, and televisions will see their prices slashed over Thanksgiving weekend.

Some home appliance breakdowns are obvious, but others can sneak up on you. If your water softener starts to malfunction, for instance, you may not notice the problem right away. After all, it’s easy to neglect an appliance in the basement or other infrequently visited space.

Every home has a few outstanding small repair jobs. Maybe there’s that loose door on the kitchen cabinet, the stubborn bathroom sink that drains too slowly, or the gutter that was damaged in a bad storm. You can always shell out for a small repairs service, but many improvement projects are perfectly manageable for the average homeowner. Save your money for the most expensive home repairs and tackle the smaller jobs on your own.

Seasonal checklists make it easy to stay on top of all your home maintenance needs. As the year winds to a close, it is especially important to prepare your home for cold temperatures, snow, and ice. Knowing exactly what to do and when to do it can be overwhelming, but Liberty Home Guard—as always—has your back.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) maintains minimum energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial appliances. Every six years, the agency reevaluates its standards and releases new guidelines that appliance manufacturers, homebuilders, and homeowners must follow.

Most people think of a ceiling fan as a useful tool for cooling down a room on a moderately warm day, but a ceiling fan can also serve to make a room feel warmer when the weather turns chilly. If you change the spin direction of your ceiling fan, winter days and nights will feel a little more comfortable—and you’ll save some money on heating costs in the process.

If you live an area prone to flooding, a basement sump pump is essential. Like your water heater or HVAC system, your sump pump is a workhorse, but it’s susceptible to malfunctions and breakdowns just the same. Some malfunctions may call for the help of a professional, but there are several common sump pump problems that you can diagnose and even resolve by yourself. 

You can find extended warranty coverage for virtually any consumer product these days, from cell phones to cars. Guaranteed repair is a nice perk, but for most people, purchasing a warranty policy for everything in the home is not realistic. Multiple policies can be cumbersome to juggle—not to mention expensive.

Microwaves are handy home devices, but they can get filthy awfully quick. It’s easy to overestimate the power required to heat up some leftovers for a quick bite, and too much power leads to splashes and splatters before you know it.

Don’t let food residue sit in your microwave. It will create smells, attract insects, and become more of a pain to clean as it dries and hardens on the microwave’s inner walls. A simple sponge can sop up a mess, but additional products are required to effectively kill bacteria and other germs.

A backed-up toilet is one of those nightmare scenarios. Homeowners who have flushed the toilet only to watch the water rise understand what true panic feels like. Even if you’re spared the horror of an overflow, having an unusable toilet in the house is a major inconvenience.

GE, or General Electric, has been a familiar name in American households for well over a century. Given the company’s longevity and the breadth of their line of products, it’s likely that you have a GE appliance somewhere in your home.

When the lights go dark, it may not be the result of a total power outage. A tripped breaker can cut the power to a lone circuit. This isn’t usually a big deal. Simply reset the breaker and move on. If your power breaker keeps tripping, however, there could be a lurking problem to get to the bottom of.

There are three primary reasons for a nuisance circuit breaker. This article will cover all three—and what you can do about it.

Termites are among the most unwanted home invaders. Any insect or rodent infestation can make for a headache, but termites can cause significant and lasting damage to your home. Depending on the extent and location of the infestation, termites can create problems that cost tens of thousands of dollars to adequately resolve.

Buying a home is a serious undertaking. It’s a complex process, and many people—even supposed experts—repeat clichéd advice for the sake of simplicity. This has led to some enduring myths about buying a home that mislead first-time home buyers.

A home warranty has the potential for significant savings on appliance repair and maintenance costs, but homeowners must account for the cost of the warranty itself. A policy is only worth the expense if the total costs are less than what a homeowner would have otherwise paid to fix or replace faulty equipment.

It’s hot and humid, and you’ve been working outside. You take a break and pour yourself a tall glass of ice water. You take a long gulp, but something’s off. The water tastes stale and smells of the freezer. Shouldn’t you be able to enjoy fresher tasting ice and water from your refrigerator?