The brightness of the holidays can also carry hidden dangers, as shown by the National Fire Protection Association's famously terrifying video here on just how quickly a dried-out Christmas tree fire burns. Tips for added holiday fire safety as noted by the NFPA include keeping your live Christmas tree well-hydrated, choosing decorations that are flame-resistant or flame-retardant, turning off seasonal lights when leaving the room, and upgrading to LED lights, which are far safer than the old incandescent lights (a dangerous heat source). Always blow out candles when leaving the room, as 2 of every 5 home decoration fires are started by candles!
When it comes to holiday home safety, crime prevention is just as critical. This is why SERVIZ suggests several steps recommended by the National Crime Prevention Council, like installing internal or external cameras, installing window stops and better locks as well as flood and motion sensor lights outside the home. The NCPC also recommends using timers on lights for when you're away, and taking a video inventory of your home and its valuables for future reference (also compiling and maintaining a list of item descriptions and serial numbers).
Mold. So colorful, so dangerous. No matter what color it is—black, green orange or red—mold can be harmful to home and health. Black mold can be especially
dangerous, with exposure symptoms that can include nausea, vomiting and bleeding in the lungs and nose.
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Your home is filled with hidden dangers, and some of them can kill. First off, make sure you have carbon monoxide and smoke detectors installed in your home
and tested regularly—fire injures or kills more than 20,000 every year, so this is a vital step to maintain the safety of your loved ones.
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Sometimes things go wrong, and if it's not a switch in the circuit breaker or the power company at fault, you may find yourself with an electrical
issue on your hands. Changing a burned-out light bulb is easy, but dealing with wiring or an exposed socket can be tricky—and, worse, a hazard to your safety.
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After helping our customers complete hundreds of thousands of home improvement jobs across the country, from carpet cleaning to plumbing, SERVIZ created its Home Safety Rankings Index, covering over 100 major metropolitan areas. What we have learned over the years is that customers, more than anything, want to ensure they maintain a healthy and safe home. Home safety is not just about adding an alarm system or having smoke detectors, it is also about keeping your home well maintained.
Homeowners increasingly want to keep up with their home maintenance to reduce the risk of fires, floods, earthquake damage, and even break-ins. The independent professionals in the SERVIZ network have helped thousands of customers reduce fire risks in their homes by replacing dirty vents and identifying improperly installed electrical switches and outlets. They have also reduced flood and earthquake risks by inspecting and repairing broken water pipes, sewer mains, and making sure water heaters are earthquake strapped and have properly installed overflow vents.
Consumers are also rightly concerned about who is coming inside their home. With that in mind, we created our Home Safety Rankings Index to help all homeowners understand how their city and state ranks for home safety.
Our methodology was as follows: We sent out a survey to 65,000 of our customers asking them how safe they feel in their homes, how they protect their homes, and what their biggest concerns were regarding safety in their homes and neighborhoods. We took our survey responses and used the U.S. Census data that ranks each city on a crime index of 1-100 (100 being the safest). The two data points were then combined to determine our own proprietary safety grade for each city.
Our Home Safety Rankings Index includes actual survey results, quotes from our customers, and the percentage of professionals who sought to join our network that have failed our background check.
We understand how important it is to trust someone who is working to make your home safer. Which is why our standards for accepting professionals into our network are high. Since 2015, we have rejected over 15% of professionals seeking to join the SERVIZ network.
We hope that by providing this level of detail for each city we serve, we are helping communities better understand how they can keep their homes, family, and friends safe.
SERVIZ cares about your home safety, so book one of our independent Handyman Pros today to accomplish such vital home safety tasks as checking your water heater's venting and security (making sure it's secured with an earthquake strap), air duct and dryer vent cleanings, and other home inspection and safety evaluations (all available for a free estimate).
When it comes to our network of independent Pros, SERVIZ further offers a level of safety and confidence that can't be matched by local service directories or online searches, with stringent criminal background checks and mandated maintenance of positive online reviews from all Pros who participate.