Blog Posts
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Flood rate hike getting a reprieve
By KEVIN CHIRI Slidell news bureau SLIDELL – With a unified Louisiana congressional delegation pushing hard in Washington to halt the planned increases for flood insurance, St. Tammany Parish has been named one of five parishes in the state that FEMA has selected to determine flood hazards by utilizing non-accredited levee systems. Louisiana residents have…
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Termite Control in the Home
Wood-destroying insects and other organisms can cause serious problems in the wooden structural components of a house, and may go undetected for a long period of time. New Construction All chemical soil treatments, bait systems, and chemical wood treatment must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and applied in accordance with the…
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Private Water Wells
If your family gets drinking water from a private well, do you know if your water is safe to drink? What health risks could you and your family face? Where can you go for help or advice? The EPA regulates public water systems; it does not have the authority to regulate private drinking water wells.…
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Home Insurance Tips
Why You Need Homeowner’s Insurance The largest, single investment most consumers make is in their homes. The consumer can protect their home, possessions, and liability with a homeowner’s insurance policy. The homeowner’s insurance policy is a package policy that combines more than one type of insurance coverage in a single policy. There are four…
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Three Deadly Mistakes Every Home Buyer Should Avoid
Deadly Mistake #1: Thinking you can’t afford it. Many people who thought that buying the home they wanted was simply out of their reach are now enjoying a new lifestyle in their very own homes. Buying a home is the smartest financial decision you will ever make. In fact, most homeowners would be…
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Mold, Moisture and Your Home
Mold Basics The key to mold control is moisture control. If mold is a problem in your home, you should clean up the mold promptly and fix the water problem. It is important to dry water-damaged areas and items within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth. Why is mold growing in my home? Molds…
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Safety Guidelines for Home Pools
Swimming pools should always be happy places. Unfortunately, each year thousands of American families confront swimming pool tragedies, drownings and near-drownings of young children. At InterNACHI, we want to prevent these tragedies. These are guidelines for pool barriers that can help prevent most submersion incidents involving young children. These guidelines are not intended as the…
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The Duty to Warn: A Home Inspector’s and Home Seller’s Guide to Immediate Hazards
Let’s say you’re doing an inspection for a home-buying client and you find a defect that, in your opinion, is hazardous. Someone could get seriously hurt. Does a home inspector have a duty to warn not just the client, but also the occupants, real estate professional, and the owner of the property? Many inspectors…
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Fix This, Not That: 6 Tasks to Do (or Not to Do) Before You Sell
Online, you can find dozens and dozens of return-on-investment (ROI) calculators which aim to do the math on whether a given home improvement project is worth the money (or not). They tend to focus on how much of the remodeling spend will come back to you in the form of added value when the home…
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Huge crowd turns out for Slidell city flood grant discussion
Flooding in Olde Towne Slidell during Hurricane Isaac in August 2012. (James Varney/ NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune) The crush of Slidell residents that turned out for a presentation Monday night on the city’s latest flood mitigation grant program could be excused if they went home less than totally optimistic. After all, they were told, the…