The benefits of installing storm doors on your home today are much greater than they use to be. Older homes were usually automatically equipped with them. This door was really a second outside door that included two glass panels and a screen. They were routinely installed on the outside of all exit doors in a home. The main objective was to protect the inside door from the damaging elements of nature. In addition to this, a resident of the home could confidently open the inside door while still being guarded from any driving rain, damaging hail and gusty winds that might be occurring outside at that time.

With the energy crises in full bloom, energy efficient storm doors not only act as a barrier between the inside and the outside, but they also are available with fully sealed insulated tempered glass. This insulated glass minimizes the transfer of hot air to cold or cold air to hot; thus saving on your heating and cooling energy costs.

Perhaps most importantly, storm doors give the homeowner an extra measure of security. Today, substantial dead bolt locks are usually installed on nearly all good storm doors during the manufacturing process. The tempered glass panels render the glass almost unbreakable under ordinary circumstances. Its’ ability to be locked adds another measure of safety to the homeowner against any would-be intruders, especially at night. As an added benefit, small children will have a more difficult time running out of the house without their parents knowing it.

Therefore, installing an energy efficient storm door on your home will keep you and your family safer while lowering your utility bills.

Sash windows are sliding windows, which usually slide vertically, but which can slide horizontally and which are normally in pairs.

The original design of the sash window is attributed to the English inventor, Robert Hooke (1635 -1703) and these windows were, since the 18th century, a very common type of window, especially in Georgian and Victorian houses. In these residences, the most common sash window used was and is the classical style, that being of two frames, each with six panels. This however, was a style particular to those types of residence and is not a fixed rule - many different styles of sashes survive and are in use today.

Sash windows have an advantage that allows them to be partially opened without the window falling back into the closed position, as would be expected of a heavy vertical frame. This can be achieved in different ways. Earlier types of these windows had ropes and counter weights (or sash weights) that were set into the window frame. More modern types of sash windows use friction tracks to achieve the same result. This is a preferable method in the construction of modern houses with thinner outer walls.

Other types of sashes can have hinges on one side, which, when the counter balance is disconnected on the other side, allows the window to be swung open. This can be used as a safety measure or for cleaning purposes.

In the past the materials used in the construction of these window frames was entirely of timber. With the development of new products, it is quite usual to see metal (particularly aluminium) and uPVC being used. In a further development with regard to the ‘evolution’ of sashes , many modern windows are double glazed or triple glazed, and there has been a reversion to traditional sash timber windows, which can be painted or stained, according to the owner’s wishes.

Sash windows have contributed in a major way to architecture, and the evolution in design of these windows show the changes in architectural and social history over several centuries.

There are window companies which specialise in the restoration of old timber sash windows - some of these older windows can have quite a complicated counter weight system. If at all possible, it is in the future interest of our architectural heritage that every effort be made to retain these fantastic windows for future generations.

In mid-June, I had a major fire at one of my complexes. Fortunately, it only burned out one unit. I got very lucky because a chain of circumstances led to unusually rapid response from both Police and Fire departments.

It seems that the fire started in the vent fan in one of the bathrooms. According to my service records, that fan was cleaned and lubed about two years prior, before the current tenant moved in. According to the tenant, it had been working normally the night before the fire. According to the tenant’s son, it began making a grinding noise minutes before the fire started.

Now, I have been scratching my head over how a vent fan could start such a fire. The fan housing was plastic, so it burned and the fire was quickly in the attic. Fires tend to destroy a lot of clues, so we never figured this one out.

We pulled sample inspections on vent fans in the rest of the complex, and did not find anything unusual. We inspected about a third of the fans in the place.

Today, since I am very shorthanded right now, I was running service calls. I was working for awhile in an apartment in that complex that came open last weekend; we have someone waiting for it so we have to turn it immediately. While I was working in there, I took the cover off the vent fan in the bathroom.

Bingo! This fan was covered with lint, probably as much as a quarter inch all over the motor and inside the housing. I have no clue where the lint came from; this is an upscale property in an upscale neighborhood, and we seldom have sanitation problems with our people, and in the majority of cases we return at least part of the deposit (meaning cleaning, damage and repair expense due to tenant negligence is minimal).

However it got there, it was there - and in quantity. The fan motor (which ordinarily should be at most very slightly warm to the touch, after extended running time) was almost too hot to handle. I took it down, disassembled it, cleaned it out, lubed it, and put it back. Then it ran cool.

So, what caused the fire in June is this: for some reason, a lot of lint and dust gets into the environment in the apartment. The vent fan is run a lot, and it pulls this lint/dust in. Some deposits on the fan. Eventually the fan overheats, blows a spark as the motor fails, and ignites the lint.

This idea had never occurred to me before, the more so because I cannot account for where the lint came from.

As soon as I have enough staff back in place (next week, I hope), I’m going to start an inspection program for all our vent fans in every location.

I’m also going to pull all the vent fans in my house and look at them.

I’ve never heard of this problem before, but it bit me hard, and I found another situation that was developing.

Now, later model vent fans have a thermal fuse in them; if that motor gets too hot the fuse blows. However, I do not know if ALL vent fans have this feature; the complex I have been discussing was built in the mid ’70s and it does not have them, and my house was built in 1992 and IT does not have them in the vent fans. So, I do not know if these fuses are common or not.