It's the Little Things, Part 1

            Hi my name is Matt Nevala.  I joined the TLC team last spring as Office Assistant and Field Inspector, but I do a little bit of everything.  I take care of the little things and TLC is about being a master of the little things.  One of those little things is our blog…  

Sometimes the little things are those things we never think about…  Home owners worry about a leaky roof or water seeping around our foundation. Is that tree leaning too close to the house?   But it is much more common to have a little thing like a valve under the sink leak and a small drip begin to soften up the base of your cabinets. 

Sometimes hidden little things like a toilet wax ring (the seal between a toilet and the pipes in the floor) without warning fail and create big messes.  In fact a bad wax ring woke my wife and me up one night, we thought at first we were hearing rain. Then our son, who has a basement room told us, it was raining! In the laundry room… Unfortunately it meant a middle of the night clean up, yuck toilet water all over our laundry room.  But it would have been much worse if we had been at work or on vacation.  A toilet with a bad wax ring will not stop running until the water is shut off.  Could you imagine if the flooding would have gone on for 8 hours or more?

In the news lately we saw the fires out in California and flooding in Texas.  Here in Wisconsin we had flooding this summer, and normally ice storms every winter.  We see this type of damage from natural disasters and fear these large dangers looming over our home. But more than likely it is the little things that we find on a regular basis that can sneak up and cause the big problems.  

              For Example, Every winter we at TLC discover gas leaks, normally they show up when a house has been closed up for a while and the gas has not had a chance to escape.  Luckily we have stopped in for a check and our nose knows the truth. We contact the gas company and get it fixed right away. Normally it is just a bad connector hose between the house and appliance like the stove or dryer.  A small gas leak undiscovered can lead to a huge fire later.

               Our noses have also found animals that decided to have their final resting place under the front porch.  We made this kind of discovery 3 times this year alone plus another one just yesterday.  We even had one chewed its way into the house then once trapped inside, never made it back out.  These smells can be hard to get out of house especially if the go undiscovered.

              Our property service caretakers specialize in the little things!  To allow us to manage your little things email us: support@cleantlc.com or call 262-245-8828

Best off all TLC will make sure that everything is cleaned up and repaired before you return to your summer or weekend retreat.  Let TLC be your eyes and ears protecting your home!

The Blaming of the Shrew!

As I check on homes each week I am finding a new pest this year—shrews.

At first I mistook them for a mouse, which we find coming in homes every year. But unlike mice, they have a long snout and long teeth. They are actually not rodents at all, but related to moles. They eat insects, worms, and seeds and have a very high metabolism, requiring them to feed constantly. I have found them in Lake Geneva, Elkhorn, Williams Bay and Fontana; so it is not just an isolated incident.

How do they get in your home?

They normally live outside unnoticed. However, they can find their way into a home through any small opening. The most common access point I have seen on homes is where the electric service enters the house.

A hole is drilled through the wall and the wire is fed through it, but it is not always sealed up with a filler.  It may not be easy to tell if this is the case in your home because the electric meter box often covers the hole outside, and interior walls may cover it inside. But mice and shrews can sense the warmth and get behind the meter box and get in. If walls are unfinished, place your hand near any hole that was drilled through the wall and see if you can feel cold air entering. If so, look for droppings or torn insulation—evidence that this is the access point.

What to do if they are already in?

The best method is placing traps (e.g glue boards or snap traps) along runways such as along the base of walls. Snap traps should be placed perpendicular to the wall; i.e. with the bait toward the wall. Peanut butter is an effective bait.  If one is caught, put your hand inside a plastic bag, pick up the trap and turn the bag inside out around it; seal the bag and discard it in the trash. Avoid handling directly due to the potential for disease transmission. Never handle a live shrew as they can be aggressive.

If you have problems with pest invasions and need someone to manage the situation, call us at TLC Property Services at (262) 245-8828 and we can take it from there.


John