Cleaning Your Dryer Vent - A Basic Clothes Dryer Troubleshooting

The clothes dryer is a very important appliance to have around the house, especially during the rainy season, when it's wet and rainy for days on end and the clothes will just not dry in good time. When you got your dryer installed, a vent that goes to the outside of the house should be installed along with it. This is not only mandatory but is also a safety requirement for all homeowners.

Unvented equipments can trap all kinds of lint and fibers in the house, and the buildup of lint can be harmful for the body, most specifically for the lungs. Also, the hot air that the appliance emits might have gases in them like carbon monoxide which are hazardous to humans when inhaled.

Just in case your clothes dryer conks out, there are many ways to troubleshoot it and they are pretty easy ways, even though the idea of repairing the whole machine can be an intimidating thought. Most of the time, a clothes dryer stops working efficiently when the vent is already full of lint and other kinds of dirt. This is where dryer vent cleaning is important so you can bring back the machine to its optimum efficiency.

You can purchase a dryer vent brush for your clothes dryer to remove all the lint that has accumulated in the vent exhaust pipe. This is the first step to dryer vent cleaning. The brush has a handle that can extend up to 10 inches long which you can slinky up the clothes dryer vent. This way, the air flow is smooth and not impeded by the trapped lint. As an effect, clothes will be dried properly, fast and efficiently. For the vent cleaning, you can also use a lint trap and a lint trap brush to make sure that your machine and the vent are as clean as possible. A clean appliance will help it last longer and work more efficiently in the long run.

If you're not sure whether you need to clean your equipment, make a check list and see how many of the below you can tick. These are sure signs that you need to clean your dryer's vent right away to prevent not only damaging to your machine but also avoid any fire hazards of any kinds.

Hot clothes when dried
The machine works longer than usual to dry your clothes
Your clothes have a smoky smell when dried- They can also have a light musty smell
There is lots of lint that comes from the back of the machine
The cover is full of lint that needs proper removing

How to Make Your Clothes Dryer More Efficient

How To Make Your Dryer More Efficient and the Star Rated Energy Appliance Rebate Program.

The Energy Star program is a government funded program that helps individuals and businesses protect the environment through energy efficiency. It is a mail in rebate program that helps replace old inefficient appliances with new energy star qualified appliances. In order for an appliance to receive this rating they have to be able to save energy and money in the years to come.

The State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate program is also known as the cash for clunkers for appliances. All appliances must be energy star qualified to receive the rebate. So if you don't know already, clothes dryers are not included in the program. Dryers are not efficient enough to be star rated.

There are many reasons why dryers not considered efficient. The main problem is that dryers use a lot of energy. It takes lots of energy to heat, evaporate, and dry water from the clothes inside a dryer.

But there are ways to make sure your dryer is running as efficiently as possible. First of all, make sure vents are properly cleaned. Always clean the lint screen before each use. Not only can lint make the dryer less efficient, but it is also a fire hazard. Never overload your dryer. Another problem is if the vent hose is too long it can take longer and use more energy to dry clothes. You can also run your clothes through the spin cycle a second time. Too much moisture makes the dryer work harder. Make sure the outside vent is not covered by shrubs or plants. You also need to clean the outside duct by moving the grill cover and vacuuming out the duct.

You can also shop around for a more efficient dryer. These are the things to look for when purchasing a more energy saving dryer. You should check the EnerGuide ratings on the dryer. The most efficient will have a rating of 898KWh per year, and the lowest efficient is 950KWh per year. Choose a dryer that shuts off automatically as soon as the clothes are dry. Look for a dryer with a cool down cycle. No heat is applied during the last few minutes, so cool air is blown through the clothes. The drying continues and you save energy. Also buying a compact dryer uses less energy per load than a full size dryer.

Natural gas is an economical alternative to electric dryers. So if you live in an area where purchasing natural gas is lower than electricity, then this may be the best solution for you.

Here are a few tips for using your dryer.

Just remember to never dry anything that had wax or solvents because of the fire hazard.

Clean the filter before every load.

Clean vent to the outside.

Avoid over drying.

Avoid partial loads whenever you can.

Remember the most efficient stand by is hanging out clothes on a clothesline. Hanging out clothes saves our home $40.00 a month on our electricity bill. Well, I hope I have been helpful and enjoy your more efficient laundry day.

Home Maintenance Checklist for Fall and Winter

This morning, we were surprised to find seven inches of fresh snow. It is much too early for all of this, and my heart rate is still coming down from the struggle of finding hats, snowpants, and matching mittens for each of my children before sending them out the door for school. As much as I would like to deny it, winter is on its way.

Here is a checklist of fall and winter home maintenance tasks to prepare your home (and your family) for the colder temperatures ahead.

Outdoors:

Scrape peeling paint, and apply touch up paint to your siding, trim, and fences.

Check the condition of your deck and apply a waterproofing sealer if necessary.

Check weatherstripping on doors. Repair.

Check caulk on windows. Repair.

Clean and store patio furniture.

Clean and store bicycles, tricycles, and outdoor toys.

Wash all windows, inside and out.

Remove, clean, and store summertime screens.

Install storm windows and doors.

Check roof for damaged or missing shingles or problems with flashing. Repair.

Clear gutters and inspect downspouts.

Check sidewalks and driveways for cracks or other damage. Repair.

Locate your snow removal tools: snow shovel, plows, and snow blowers. Make sure they are ready to go.

Lawn and Garden:

Blow out sprinkler systems and winterize or insulate exterior faucets and water lines.

Drain and store garden hoses.

Fertilize and reseed your lawn.

Prune trees and shrubs.

Remove annuals.

Cut back perennials.

Rake leaves.

Indoors:

Schedule a cleaning and inspection of your heating system.

Inspect your fireplace and chimney. Call a professional chimney sweep if necessary.

Perform seasonal maintenance on your hot water heater.

Schedule a professional carpet cleaning.

Clean and inspect dryer hoses and exterior dryer vents.

Change furnace filter, and plan to change your filter every month during the winter. Monthly filter changes can really help reduce energy costs.

Check your air ducts. Call a duct cleaning service if it has been a few years since your ducts have been professionally cleaned. If you have been changing your furnace filter frequently and your ducts have been cleaned recently, simply take off the register covers and vacuum inside.

Switch to warmer bedding. Replace cotton sheets with flannels. Add warmer layers to beds.

Make sure your family members are outfitted with everything they need for the cold winter months: Gloves, hats, boots, snowpants, warm socks, and coats.

Check the batteries in your carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors.

Check your fire extinguishers.

Talk about family safety plans and escape routes. Review your "meeting place" in the event of a home fire to ensure that everyone knows what to do and where to go.

Inspect your attic to make sure it is getting cool, fresh air and that there is no evidence of condensation.

Check attic fans.

Prepare your home for a power outage. Check the batteries in your flashlights and make sure they are easily accessible. Also, make sure to have a supply of nonperishable foods, a manual can opener, and a traditional corded phone or cell phone available.

Automobile:

Make sure your tires are adequate for the winter weather in your area.

Check your car battery.

Check antifreeze levels.

Make sure you have extra windshield wiper fluid in your car, as well as a brush and ice scraper, blanket, jumper cables, and first aid kit. If you live in an area where you expect extreme winter conditions, you will also want to keep a tow rope, shovel, and a bag of sand or kitty litter to help your tires gain traction on icy roads.

How to Protect Your Electronics From Heat

1.0 INTRODUCTION
In our modern society, we have become very dependent upon our electronic gadgets and appliances. Most households (in the U.S) have Personal Computers with an Internet Connection. If we solely looked at the Personal Computer, we do a lot of thing with this product.

We communicate with our friends, family members and business associates.
We conduct financial transactions (e.g., buy or sell products on line)
We create all kinds of documents (which are very important to our personal and business finances/operations)
We store and play music (in the form of *.mp3 files)
We (increasingly) store pictures that have sentimental value (and could be tough to replace if lost).

For many people, anytime their "computer dies", it becomes a major inconvenience in their lives. If you were to look at some other electronic systems that we typically have in our homes, such as

DVD Players
Gaming Systems (e.g., Playstation, X-Box, Nintendo, Wii, etc.)
Audio Entertainment Equipment
Video Recording Equipment (for you people that like to post videos on YouTube.
Appliances (such as Central Air Conditioning Systems, Heat Pumps, Microwave Ovens, etc.)
HDTVs (e.g., LCD or Plasma)

All of these items entertain us, enlighten us and provide us with comfort. These products each require a considerable amount of money to purchase. Further, repairing and/or replacing these products is also quite expensive. Hence, I am quite amazed that people do not do more to protect their investment (in these electronic systems) and do whatever they can to extend the operating life time of these products.

In general, there are three (3) different destructive mechanisms that will either destroy or greatly reduce the operational life-time of your electronics. These three destructive mechanisms are

Heat
Electrical Surge/Spike Events, and
Electrical Noise

In this article, we are going to talk about HEAT. As we discuss Heat, we will cover the following topics.

How is Heat destructive to your electronics?
What can we do about heat - How to Protect Your Electronics from Heat and Extend the Operating Life of our Electronics?

2.0 HOW IS HEAT DESTRUCTIVE TO YOUR ELECTRONICS
Heat is an artifact of electronics. All electronic systems generate heat. Electronic systems accept electrical power (current and voltage) from the power line (via the electrical outlet). The electronic system uses a portion of this electrical power to perform work (e.g., the function that you want it to perform, e.g., play a DVD, cook a bag of popcorn, etc). The remaining portion of this electrical power is converted into heat.

However, heat is also an enemy of electronic systems. Few things are more effective in reducing the operating life-time of an electronic system, than raising the operating temperature of the electronic circuitry within your electronic system. If you were to speak with an Electronics Device Reliability expert, he/she would tell you that for every 10 degrees (Celsius) that you raise the operating temperature of an electrical device; you reduce the operating lifetime of that device by 50%. The impact of heat (in shortening the operating life) of your electronics is "huge".

3.0 WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT HEAT?
As I mentioned earlier, all electronics generates heat. There is no way to prevent electronics from generating the very thing that can destroy it. However, there are a couple of things that you can do to prevent this heat from doing so much damage.

1. You can work to remove this heat from the electronics (as quickly as it generates it), or
2. You can do things to try to help the electronics to not generate so much heat in the first place.

I will address each of these approaches below.

3.1. REMOVING HEAT FROM THE ELECTRONICS
Many consumer electronic systems were designed with "Heat Removal" in mind. Some of these electronic systems (like desktop computers) contain "internal fans". These fans were designed into these systems so that they could blow air through the area in which the system electronics resides. The intent behind having these fans to is blow the heat away from these electronics and to help keep them cool.

Other electronic systems contain "vents" (in their outer case) to provide an "escape path" for heat. Many of these vents are located at the top or in the "back-end" of the electrical system. On this basis, I have the following recommendations to permit the removal of heat from your electronics.

Make sure and keep papers, books, dust and other items from "blocking" the vents of these systems.
Leaving these items on top of your (DVD Player for example) will block the vents, and will not allow for heat to escape from your DVD Player. This will cause the temperature (surrounding the electronics) within your DVD player to rise; which will (in-turn) reduce the operating lifetime of your DVD player.

Make sure that the "back-end" of the electronic system is not "butt-up" against the wall or an entertainment cabinet.
It is important to make sure that there is sufficient air/ventilation space between the vents (in the back end) and the wall/cabinet to allow for Heat Removal.

Make sure and have your appliances (like your Central Air Conditioning system or Heat Pump) serviced.
Whenever these appliances are serviced, the service professional will do various things (like clean out dust and debris from ventilation path), therefore maintaining an unobstructed path for heat to escape from these systems.

Make sure that the fan (inside some of your systems) is working.
If this fan stops working, then you need to get it repaired quickly. Failure to do this will result in your electronic system having an early meeting with the "grim reaper" or an electronic waste disposal site.

3.2 REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF HEAT THAT THE ELECTRONICS GENERATE IN THE FIRST PLACE
Another approach to protecting your electronics from heat is to take steps to try to prevent your electronics from generating excessive heat in the first place. The amount of heat that is generated within an electronic system is often referred to as being related to the following expression for resistive loss: I^2XR, where:

I represents the amount of current flowing through an electronic system and
R represents the load impedance (or resistance) within this electronic system; and
I^2 denotes " I being raised to the 2nd Power, or "I-squared"

From this mathematical expression, you can see that if we were able to reduce the amount of current flowing through an electrical system, this would certainly help to reduce the amount of heat generated within this electrical system.

QUESTION: How can you reduce the current that an electrical system uses? Doesn't it require a certain amount of current to do its job? The answer to this question is "Yes", an electrical system does require a certain amount of current and voltage (electrical power) to do its job. However, it doesn't need to use anymore current than that. Hence, we recommend that you use TVSS (Transient Voltage Surge Suppressors) components in order to reduce the current level (flowing into your electrical system).

Now, I know that some of you may be "scratching your heads" and wondering, "How in the world will this reduce the amount of current flowing into my electronic system" and (in turn reduce the amount of heat that it generates)? The answer is this: Anytime there is a large amount of electrical noise or spikes, or other forms of distortion in the electrical voltage and current in the power line, this also results in the flow of additional current into your electrical system. By using the TVSS components, you are eliminating this excessive current (due to noise, glitches, etc.) from the "power line" current, flowing into your electronic system.

In this case, you have now accomplished the following:

1. You have decreased the amount of current flowing into your electronic system, (which is the "I" in the expression "I^2 X R") - which helps a lot to reduce the amount of heat that the system generates.
2. By reducing the heat that the electrical system generates, you are now lowering the ambient (or surrounding) temperature in which your electronics operates.
3. Lowering the ambient temperature will often times also reduce the load impedance/resistance in your electronic system (e.g., the "R" in this expression) as well.

QUESTION: How can you reduce the load impedance/resistance in an electronic system? Isn't that a design feature of the electronic system? The answer to this question is "Yes it is". You cannot change the load impedance/resistance by very much. But, the reason why lowering the ambient temperature will also reduce the load impedance/resistance is that many resistors have (what is called) a positive temperature coefficient. This means that as the ambient temperature goes up, does the resistor value of this particular resistor.

However, the converse is also true. If you were to lower the ambient (or surrounding) temperature, then you would also lower the resistor value as well.

SO LET'S RECAP THE BENEFITS OF USING TVSS COMPONENTS:

Using TVSS components lower the amount of current flowing through your electronic system.
Lowering this current reduces the amount of heat that the electronic system generates.
This lowers the ambient temperature for the system electronics.
Lowering the ambient temperature also lowers the load impedance/resistance (R) within the electronic system.

Both the reduction of current (and the resulting reduction of the load impedance) would serve to significantly reduce the amount of heat that the electronics system will generates.

4.0 OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES
Other articles in this series are listed below.

How to Protect Your Electronics from Electrical Surge/Spike Events
How to Protect Your Electronics from Electrical Noise

5.0 CONCLUSIONS
In this article, we spoke about "heat" and how effective it is in reducing the operating life-time of your electronics. Heat is one of the three (3) destructive mechanisms that will either destroy or shorten the operational life-time of your electronics. The remaining two mechanisms are

Electrical Surge/Spike Events, and
Electrical Noise

We have also described some guidelines on how to protect your electronics from heat, and to extend the operating life-time of your electronics. In particular, we mentioned the following approaches:

1. Use (and do not thwart) the "Heat Removal" features of your electronic systems
Make sure that Internal Fans are working and
Make sure that vents are not blocks and that there is plenty of air space around the Electronic system to allow for the escape of heat.
2. Use TVSS (Transient Voltage Surge Suppressor) components to regulate the amount of voltage (and in turn) current that is flowing into your electronic systems: Minimizes heat generation due to resistive loss.

How to Clean Attic Mold, Kill It, Or Maybe Forget Attic Mold Remediation - It Could Be Cheaper

House attic mold is one of the most "popular" items in my property inspection reports. And now is time for an explanation of how to kill mold and / or how to clean mold in the attic. But before I do that, let me give you a little advice, something to consider before you sign a few (if you're lucky) thousand dollars contract agreement with a mold remediation company.

Attic mold remediation TIP - an alternative (to consider):

Let us assume that you are in the middle of a real-estate transaction, and the home inspector just revealed to you, that your entire house attic is contaminated with mold.

If you have a brand new roof, you can only blame yourself or try to blame the roofing contractor for not checking the attic before replacing the roof (he will laugh at you unless you've actually asked the guy to check the attic before the roof replacement). If you have an older roof, the importance of this advice is even greater.

Call at least 2-3 mold remediation companies for an estimate - specify to the representatives, that you not only want to have the mold removed, but also attic ventilation system corrected / installed if necessary / ask if the attic insulation requires replacement.

With the numbers from the mold remediation contractors, call 2-3 roofing contractors, and ask them for a quote on the roof replacement cost including decking boards / plywood (ask the roofer to check the attic area), attic ventilation improvement, and insulation if necessary.

Be cautious if they only suggest humidistat controlled power vent installation - without properly functioning soffit vents or any type of vents along the lower portion of the roof this might not be an adequate solution.

If the attic insulation replacement is not required (it most cases it will not be possible to tell without laboratory testing), make sure it's sealed with plastic foil before the roof and its decking replacement. Fold the foil sealing its contents after the contaminated decking has been removed, and dispose of as a regular waste (EPA recommendation).

If you only have a small area of attic contaminated with mold, the roof replacement option would be more expensive. But with an entire attic that needs mold remediation, it might be cheaper (or even much cheaper) to remove all contaminated decking, install completely new roof and correct ventilation issues.

I have seen $3,000.00 - $10,000.00 invoices for the attic mold remediation process in approximately 1000 square feet of attic area.

Benefits of the roof / decking replacement over the mold removal:

roof and decking replacement might be cheaper than cleaning of an entire attic contaminated with mold
the real-estate transaction killing mold is gone
attic ventilation improvement is much easier during the roof replacement and often handled with no significant / additional cost
the buyer gets a brand new roof

Even if the roof replacement price is slightly higher than the mold remediation process, it is still worth to take it under the consideration because you are gaining a valuable house update (new roof), that will be disclosed on a real-estate listing.

In some cases, the roof decking and framing are contaminated, and replacement of the decking only would not entirely solve the problem. In such case, you'd have to clean contaminated joist or trusses.

How to kill mold and how to clean mold in the attic.

This is not a mold killing or mold cleaning case study, it is just an explanation based on my observations and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) recommendations.

Even if you are dealing with a small contaminated attic area - 10' x 10' is the maximum area recommended by the EPA to be treated by non-professionals, forget about killing mold with spraying it with bleach or other disinfectants. It 's been confirmed by laboratory testing that it does not kill all of the spores and in most cases you'll be just making a mess.

The best way to kill the attic mold (just like any other mold) is to remove it from the surface it's growing on, or remove the contaminated surface!

EPA recommends four mold cleanup methods and all of them can be applied in the attic, assuming that it is a small area (up to 10 sq. feet).

You can clean the surface by using a wet vacuum - the type you can fill its tank partially with water to contain mold residue from the contaminated surface
Wipe the surface with a damp sponge or rag - use clean water or wood cleaner
Use high efficiency HEPA vacuum cleaner on thoroughly dried surfaces, and dispose of the picked-up contents in well-sealed plastic bags
Remove all contaminated material, seal it in plastic and dispose of as a regular waste. They recommend using HEPA vacuum after this, but in the attic you'd most likely have to remove the floor insulation (if contaminated). You can also cover the insulation with plastic foil, and fold the foil sealing its contents after the cleaning process.

You may or may not have any allergic reactions to mold. However, always use protective equipment, especially in the attic area where you are exposed to the insulation fibers and dust.

As a minimum protection during the mold removing procedure EPA recommends: Gloves, N-95 respirator and eye protection (preferably fully enclosed goggles). As an additional protection you can add half face respirator or full face respirator with HEPA filter, disposable full body clothing, head gear, and foot coverings.

How to clean mold if large section or an entire attic is contaminated

I personally wouldn't even attempt to do it myself, so my suggestion is:

Use a professional mold remediation company:

check their background and check it manually by calling their clients
ask for clients who had their attic mold remediated approximately 1 year ago - it usually takes a winter for the mold to start growing again if the job wasn't fully completed
Insist on removing the mold completely instead of encapsulating it (Media Blasting methods give the best results).

Encapsulation is simply a process of covering the mold contaminated surface with paint (paint like product) that contains (or at least some of them do) mold killing chemicals

If your attic mold is properly removed and all of the issues responsible for its growth corrected, which is even more important than mold removing, it will not re-grow / no need for encapsulating.

Hire a different contractor for mold testing and mold remediation to eliminate conflict of interest.
Make sure that you perform an independent clearance test after the mold remediation process completion.

Clearance test is to determine if there are any mold spores remaining in the previously contaminated area

Extremely important - examine the attic (or have somebody do it for you) after the mold cleaning procedure is finished.

All wood (framing and decking) surfaces should be perfectly clean (like brand new), unless there was some rotting that resulted from leaking roof or extremely humid conditions in the attic - those sections of wood should be either replaced or reinforced from underneath. You don't want anyone to fall through the roof while servicing it or just inspecting.

Project Management - Tips For Helping You Adopt A Process

The Rational Unified Process, Enterprise Unified Process, Agile Development Methodologies,
Unified Modeling Languages. They come in many names, complexities and sizes but following one will help ensure success on your next project.

This article is not a detailed overview of a formal process. Instead it provides an overview of the most critical components common to each, as well as some tips on successfully deploying them. Although many process descriptions do an excellent job of breaking down the various components of the process they rarely cover areas like how this affects your team, how much process to use or offer practical advice on issues encountered in the real world when trying to deploy one.

It can be very helpful as a beginner's introduction to process and can help you more easily grasp some of the concepts you will be introduced to. For the more experienced process guru it should have some helpful tips on smoothing over some of the rough edges we all deal with from time to time.

The information here is based on experiences and lessons learned in over 15 years of developing and managing over 100 complex project releases.

Following these fundamentals will improve your chances of success in any process you adopt and provide a solid foundation for maturing it.

What's a Process and why do I need one?

Regardless of what business we are in, software, web site design or retail clothing, we all have a process we follow to complete a given project. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not, often with costly results. When we talk about adopting a process we are talking about a more formal process. A process is essentially an integrated set of roles, methods and techniques to in part, help achieve the following:

Minimize risk.
More accurately estimate your project schedule and budget.
Detect problems early (upstream) instead of later (downstream) when they are much more expensive to fix, if they can be fixed at all.
Better communication among team members regarding project scope, requirements and status.
More accurately track the progress of the project and detect slippage early.
Accomplish the project's goals as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.

Formal processes are often created and refined over years of trial and error to attempt to create an ideal "recipe" for having an optimal chance at successfully completing any project. While they were developed for and commonly used in Software Development, Aerospace and engineering, most of the core concepts are not specific to these or any industry and anyone can benefit from using them.

How much Process is enough?
It is critical to the success of any process to understand how much you initially need to bite off. The risk of trying to do too much too soon with a process can be as risky as not doing anything at all, especially if you are a more agile company trying to make the transition to being more process oriented. Overloading your team with a new set of responsibilities and methods they are not accustomed to or ready for can easily derail you. However if you don't start changing you will continue to have the same problems. Here are some tips of finding the right balance.

Risk Factor. What is the project's risk factor? Obviously making software for an artificial heart is much more risky than deploying the third generation of a web site and the process, initially anyway, should match the risk. The former would need extensive, redundant and exhaustive QA checks and balances where the latter can be easily adjusted on the fly after deployment with no loss of life. Be realistic about what your risks are, how expensive they will be to address downstream, and use this as a basis for deciding how much is required. No one knows your environment, project and team better
than you, so use some common sense in deciding what feels right.



How much can your team handle and what does it need most? The impact on the team is often overlooked. Any process is only as good as what your team can manage and regardless of the ultimate benefits, initially it will cause additional effort in training and new tasks your team is not accustomed to managing. To be successful you must achieve buy in and commitment to the process from everyone. If you don't your team will simply go through the motions and roll their collective eyes in project meetings. To overcome this find their pain points in how they work now and start with the areas of the process that directly address these.



Start Small. Start with a few areas that you feel are critical, again including pain points so your team sees immediate benefits. It will be easier to add more process layers later when they see it as a benefit and not simply extra layers of bureaucracy. Gaining buy in is critical and if you start small your team will have a chance to get their collective heads around this as well as see the benefits, making more maturation downstream easier.

Team and Environment

One of the most commonly overlooked elements of employing or maturing a process is the team itself. Each team has a different dynamic and will respond very differently to various aspects of what you are trying to do. Too often, out of frustration with problems new process is forced on a team. This does not mean your team should dictate your process, but as mentioned above your team's buy in to what you are doing is essential for your success. I have never seen a process successfully steamrolled over a team. So tread carefully, get your team involved in discussions about what you are doing and why, it will pay dividends.

Roles and Responsibilities. Any process will have roles defined for each individual and it is critical that each person clearly understands the role they will be playing and feel they are comfortable in that role. Spend some time here and ask people if they are comfortable in their role, ask questions and listen! Once your team is set, make sure they are empowered to do what they need to do and make sure everyone on the team is aware of who has a gun and a badge. If your developers refuse to tell your project manager the information they need you will have a problem. If the project manager reacts by dropping soft milestones into your project plan you have a problem you won't even know about until it is too late. So make sure roles are clearly defined for everyone and that everyone knows who has power on the team.



Full Disclosure. Enough cannot be said about this. The purpose of any process is to address problems as early (cheaply) as possible and this can only be done with visibility at every stage to accurately assess the status of the project. Developer egos, team infighting, and defensive posturing all create an environment where no process can be effective. It is critical that team members are willing to admit mistakes, call out problems and do so in a way that does not create a hostile environment. To do this you must bring the parties together and openly discuss this issue. Address the
fact that issues are brought up for the overall good of the project and organization. Reward those who find fault in themselves and point out mistakes. Often the tension can be cleared by starting with admitting your own mistakes first, others will follow, so lead by example and you will see that you can create an open environment were people feel free to view mistakes and even criticism constructively.



Visibility. Similar to the above, visibility is all about people feeling comfortable disclosing information to the group. Developers will want to sit on code until the last minute because they know it is not ready, designers hate people seeing unfinished work. So understand why your developer or designer may be twitching as their early work is paraded in front of a group and tread lightly at first with criticism until they become more comfortable with this. Phrases like; "This is really great but how about..." are invaluable, use them! The fundamental goal of any good process is catching issues as early in the process as possible. So you must discuss this with your team and make sure everyone understands that this can only be done with full visibility on all aspects of the project.

The Proper Tools

You can't control what you can't measure. So make sure you have the proper tools in place for both managing the process and being able to track and communicate about your project.

Managing the Process. There are many excellent tools available for managing requirements, QA, and Development. As with the process itself make a call on how much you need before you dive in and start buying. Shore up critical parts of the process. Requirements management often gets the most attention but requirements can be easily managed in a word document while QA is often overlooked. A solid database that allows QA to track features from implementation to completion and any bugs that result will be invaluable for QA and development and the project as a whole.



Tracking the Project. It is essential that your project manager is armed with a tool that can be used to show the progress of the project and its various comments. Look for tools that allow the right level of detail (high level for management) and more detailed for individual departments and the project manager themselves. For example Microsoft Project for example is an excellent tool for managing very strict rules driven projects. However many projects are exception driven, making strict project management tools difficult to use in a fluid changing environment. A great alternative is scheduling calendar software like The Calendar Planner which provides the ability to manage various levels of detail in an easy to use calendar format. Allowing project status to be easily communicated among the team.

Scope

Next to the Team environment this is probably the most critical aspect of any project. You absolutely must focus on clearly defining scope at the earliest stages of development. The biggest mistake is usually trying to do too much on too short a schedule or budget or defining the scope and then not adhering to it. This frustrates developers and ultimately throws the project into chaos.

Be realistic. Everyone wants everything right now, especially Sales and Marketing. Ask tough questions early of these departments about what features your customers MUST have versus what they WANT to have. Sometimes you will find marketers have made promises to a single client and are trying to save face when in the grand scheme the feature is not as important to the company's goals. Focus on what you truly must do, let them know they can't have everything and force them to choose. Make sure the company's goals are represented at all times in requirements. This is where the Vision document below comes in.



Vision document. These may have various names for different methodologies but a vision document is essentially a high level overview of your project. Think of it as a mission statement for the project itself. This is where the company can clearly define what the goals are for the project. Who the stakeholders are and what the high level requirements are. This will be your primary document for setting the scope of the project. Keep it HIGH level, details can come elsewhere. Make sure the requirements map to the goals and that as you move forward the work being done remains true to these goals and requirements. That can change but only when the stakeholders agree and sign off on the changes.



Don't increase scope without adjusting your schedule and budget! Seems simple enough but probably the single most common mistake. People always try to add "small" things that involve "minimal effort". These add up and the impact is often not addressed, which ultimately leads to a failure in schedule and budget. The change board is your main defense against this, see change board below.

Requirements

Requirements in any project are tricky and many excellent books are dedicated to this subject alone. It is true that of the projects that fail most issues can be traced back to requirements. Strange how this continues to be the case when requirements are the easiest and cheapest way to find and fix problems.

A problem will never be cheaper than it is right now. When you review your requirements, you need to really review them, don't just scan them. Think about and try to visualize what they are saying. You will often find problems are apparent at the surface. Take the time to do thoughtful reviews and continue to refine the requirements until everyone feels they are correct. Compare the expense of re-writing a sentence in a word processor to re-writing hundreds of lines of code, re-testing and re-deploying and you'll see these are the last chances you have at a cheap fix.



Get your customers involved, early! Make sure customers are involved in the earliest stages of requirements and keep them involved. Often a customer requests something and then developers disappear to figure it out. Big mistake! Come back to your clients with explanations of how you envision the feature and use mockups whenever possible so they can visualize it. You will find that making even a simple drawing of something will not only allow the customer to grasp it more easily but you will quickly spot problems you haven't considered.



QA starts at requirements. QA should be involved at the beginning not just the end of the project as is so often the case. Let them freely review Vision documents and requirements. They will often view potential issues that other departments may miss.

Change Boards

When done properly Change Boards can almost single-handedly manage even the most challenging projects. However if you don't have the correct team environment in place as mentioned above, they will be ineffective at best and at worst will create more animosity.

What it is. Very simply the change board is a meeting where each of the key departments and sometimes clients are represented and have a chance to discuss the project from every angle. The idea is to make sure everyone is aware of the status and is able to speak to the impact any change in requirements or schedule will have on their respective department.



Who is there? Generally the list consists of the following: Marketing, Sales, QA, Operations, Development, IT, Project management, Clients. Essentially everyone who has a stake in or is affected by the project. Depending on the nature of the project Marketing or Sales will often represent the client. The most important rule here is, if someone is identified as a stakeholder in the project, do not have a meeting without them. If they can't be there, reschedule.



Where to start? A great way to start is usually to have everyone provide a brief update on what they are doing regarding the project. This helps remove the dark corners, often points out areas of disconnect and helps ease the tension of these sometimes contentious meetings by giving everyone an easy topic to cover and maybe brag a bit to start.



Where to focus? The key issue in early change board meetings is scope. What is in and what is out? This will be a push and pull between what Sales and Marketing want and what those responsible for delivering can handle. After the scope settles down it is about status. Are the Requirements still correct? Have priorities adjusted? Are we on target? Most importantly each group is represented so if Marketing says: "I must have this", Development is there to speak to the impact of this on the schedule, in real time. Again it promotes visibility and keeps things from being changed without everyone being able to speak to the ramifications. It simultaneously controls and informs.



How often? They are very useful so have them as often as you need. This will depend on the nature of the project but every 1-2 weeks is best. Longer and you start to have too little communication and too many potential areas for slippage, any more frequent and you eat into too much work time.



What not to do. Do not allow the meeting to descend into arguments and finger pointing. The change board is a tool that serves all departments. It is essential it remains a place where people can talk openly about issues. It is a place for reality, not spin. This will be harder than it sounds at times but resist the temptation to avoid them. There is no meeting more important to the success of a project than these.

Post Mortem

The Post Mortem is a meeting to get together after the project has completed. This is not a post release party although depending on the success it may have that atmosphere. It is a chance for some straight talk on what went wrong and more importantly how to address that in the future. Everyone lines up for Post Mortems when things went well but you can learn more from you failures than your successes. So if you had a lot of problems don't miss this opportunity to address them when they are still fresh in everyone's mind! Also, Teams need a sense of closure and this helps them do that as well as vent so you can clear the air before you next project starts.

Leave your ego at the door. No where are straight talk and the ability to provide and accept constructive criticism more critical. This meeting cannot be about egos, or CYA, it has to a frank discussion about the mistakes made by everyone (we all make them) or areas in the process that need to be improved. Again to set the tone try leading off the meeting by the most senior person in the room discussing mistakes they made or things they learned. It really helps set the right tone and ease the tension.



Take Notes, Then Action. This is the time to learn and too often people discuss the issues then go off and do nothing. This is the chance to take corrective action to save you time and money on the next project. So take copious notes and put them into action while the iron is hot.

Follow these steps in any process you adopt or any project you manage and you should find it really will improve your chances at success.

Water in the Basement

As many as seven out of ten homes in New England have some degree of a problem with water in the basement or the crawl space. This article is designed to educate homeowners and home buyers about the various types of water problems and their causes and cures.

The impact of excessive basement or crawl space moisture in a home is wide-ranging, from severe, long-term problems such as dry rot in major structural members to fewer serious problems like mildew, peeling paint, warped paneling and generally unusable space.

The first thing to understand about water problems is that there are no truly waterproof houses. Any house can and will leak given the proper conditions, but uncovering signs of past leakage can be challenging. Every leaky basement or crawl space is a unique problem and must be studied individually to determine possible causes and corrective measures.

In general, all water problems can be traced to one of three causes:
1. leakage of water through walls and cracks,
2. seepage of moisture from the exterior walls to the interior, or
3. condensation of atmospheric moisture on interior walls.

The most serious is number one - leakage, because this can involve a substantial amount of water. It is normally very obvious and occurs during a heavy rainfall or when snow is melting. An excessive amount of water builds up in the soil around the foundation walls, forcing its way through cracks or other defects in poured concrete walls - such as small holes around form wires or through mortar joints in concrete block walls.

Leakage occurs in homes built on sites that have high ground water level, dense clay or other subterranean conditions, which inhibit adequate drainage of water away from the foundation. Leakage may occur in any soil type, but is more likely in areas near marshes or hills. If the area around the foundation has been improperly backfilled or graded, the situation can be even worse. During extremely wet periods, considerable flooding may result.

Note: if you are considering buying a home, you can identify areas with a high water table or impervious soils by contacting the local soil conservation service or the state department of agriculture.

Seepage of moisture from the exterior walls is similar to leakage but usually is not as serious. It is evidenced by large areas of dampness on the foundation walls, rather than by water leaking through a particular spot. It will normally be greatest at the base of the wall.

Active leakage or seepage is caused by excessive water pressure that builds up on the outside of the basement walls when the soil around the foundation becomes saturated. The lack of positive grade (ground level running away from the foundation) or the accumulation of rainwater around the foundation or in window/vent wells will also contribute to the problem. The seepage problem may be compounded by porous masonry walls, deteriorated joints, or cracks that allow easy entry of water into the basement or crawl space.

Condensation can look a lot like seepage, but here moisture comes from air inside the basement or crawl space, not from an outside source though seepage can be a contributing factor to a condensation problem. During warm, humid weather, the moisture in the warm air inside the basement changes to a liquid state when it comes into contact with the cool masonry walls, which then seem to "sweat." It can also happen during colder months when warm air is discharged by a clothes dryer or similar appliance. Moisture from this air condenses on the cooler walls in the form of droplets, which may be mistaken for seepage from outside.

Condensation is the most easily corrected moisture problem in basements or crawl spaces. The most important aspect of dealing with a condensation problem is adequate ventilation.

In cool dry weather, keep the basement windows open whenever possible. On hot, humid days, keep them closed. In crawl spaces, make sure there is adequate cross ventilation to keep the area dry.

In some cases you may wish to consider installing temperature control vents that are designed to open and close automatically according to the outside temperature. These vents have a spring that opens the vents gradually starting at 40 degrees until they are completely open at 70 degrees. In addition, every crawl space should have a good vapor barrier on the ground in order to keep moisture in the ground and not on the structural members.

Another source of condensation moisture is air-conditioning duct work. During warm weather a tremendous amount of moisture forms on these ducts in basements and crawl spaces and contributes to the overall moisture problem. To correct this, the homeowner should wrap these ducts with insulation to keep the warm air from the cold metal. Finally, for condensation the homeowners may wish to install a dehumidifier that will help maintain a constant humidity at all times.

Correcting seepage and leakage can range from fairly inexpensive to very expensive depending on the cause. The homeowner should begin at the least expensive corrections and move to the more expensive corrections only if the problem persists. The possible corrections are:

1. Install, extend, or repair gutters and down spouts. 90% of all seepage and leakage have its source right here. If the gutters and down spouts are not performing their intended function, they will allow huge amounts of water to pour next to the foundation. We recommend that the homeowner extend down spouts a minimum of five feet from the foundation using black corrugated extension pipes that are available at most home improvement stores.

2. If needed, install clear plastic window vent well covers to keep water from leaking through these areas.

3. Check adjacent driveways, walkways, patios, etc., to be sure there is positive drainage away from the house.

4. If seepage is occurring through the concrete block walls, test two coats of waterproofing paint or compound on a basement wall problem area. If the test is successful after several weeks of trial, cover the entire problem area.

5. If seepage or leakage is occurring through holes or cracks larger than 1/8 inch, these holes must be cleaned out and patched. For small cracks or holes, simply wire brush the blemish and fill completely (do not leave air pockets) with hydraulic cement or silicon masonry caulking that is designed for use on masonry materials. For larger cracks or holes with considerable seepage a dovetail groove (wider inside the material than at the surface) must be chiseled out before patching.

More extensive leakage solutions, which can be expensive and time consuming, are as follows:
1. Install a "weep pipe" baseboard and sump pump system for moderately severe situations caused by a high water table.

2. Use a combination of drain tiles installed under the floor at the perimeter of the interior foundation wall with weep pipes and then install a sump pit. To install this type of system, the floor must be broken up and then repaired appropriately.

3. Excavation of the exterior foundation may be necessary in extremely severe situations in order to seal the exterior foundation wall with a continuous waterproof membrane as well as to install exterior drain tiles to a dry well or drainage area. The homeowner should also consider insulating the exterior of the foundation wall before backfilling. If this does not correct the problem, the floor may need to be jack hammered and re-poured over a continuous waterproof membrane.

The winter and mid summer months are the best times to track down and solve minor leaks. With this in mind arm yourself with a piece of chalk to mark wet areas during spring and fall rains for future repair. If you have water in your basement, you're not alone and there are solutions.