When the Polar Vortex attacks without mercy, à la  The Day After Tomorrow , a swift but harsh cold front can cause a drastic change in temperature and major problems for your home – icicles running down your walls, lumpy carpets, and mold, to name a few. If your home's pipes burst, you will need to take immediate steps to stop the leakage and ...

When was the last time you checked your smoke detectors? Made sure you have GFCI outlets installed where they are required? Replaced the hose to your washer? (And it's a braided metal hose, right? Not rubber?) There is a lot to track inside your home, and vipHomeLink can help. Enter the Home Fitness Index (HFI). The HFI tells you how "in shape" you...

What do you do the moment you see water streaking down your walls? We talked to Don Joyner, Founder and President of Great Lakes Waterproofing, to learn immediate steps you need to take to save your home. After the break ​   Find the main water valve, which is usually in your basement. It's most likely a round or oblong red handle. Turn i...

Thanksgiving is both delicious and dangerous, so we've found tips and tricks to help you cook your Thanksgiving bird to scrumptious perfection safely. ​ Thanksgiving is one of the best days of the year. There's food and drink, then even more food and more drink, and just when you think you're full, you somehow find room for pie. But Thanksgiving ca...

More home cooking fires occur on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year, and most can be prevented by following these simple safety tips.   ​ It's not surprising that most home cooking fires occur on Thanksgiving, followed closely by Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, and the day before Thanksgiving. In fact, the National Fire Prevention Assoc...

Saving lives from house fires is as simple as a few batteries, a handful of alarms, and some metaphorical elbow grease. Here's what you need to know. Firefighters, Smokey the Bear, and Sparky the Fire Dog all tell you the same thing: Most house fires are preventable. Not to put you in the hot seat when it comes to the "only you can...." messag...

Santa's annual rooftop adventure will be here before we know it, so keep your roof in tip-top condition with these helpful tips. ​If completing maintenance on your roof isn't a priority, it should be. A new roof can cost as much as $40,000 , and insurance companies may refuse to honor a damage claim if your roof was not well-maintained in the first...

Fire, home invasions, floods, and other disasters threaten your precious (and not-so-precious) possessions. Reclaim them with the help of a home inventory.   ​ Close your eyes. Now, can you name every valuable item in your home? Our guess is - probably not. While no one expects their home to be involved in a fire, home invasion, flood, or othe...

Chills, thrills, and spills. These homeowners walked into their slightly-used digs and walked out - or fled  after their houses turned on them. ​Every new homeowner has at least one horror story. From collapsing floors to ants in the bed, these frights can keep you up at night, but many of these stories could have been prevented if the ow...

We all know the importance of having smoke detectors, but who among us has not disconnected one due to that low battery chirping or because it went off while you were cooking? Temporarily disconnecting your smoke detector may not seem like a big deal at the time, but often those low batteries won't get replaced or reconnected after the smoke-filled...

Think you're living in a haunted house? We'll help you find out and deal with the ghost making your home their life-after-death nest.  So you have a ghost living in your house. Congratulations! First, that means your house is way cooler than your next door neighbor's, and second, you should have some awesome ghost stories for your Halloween pa...