With Fall approaching, so are cooler temperatures and even the dreaded first freeze. Get your home ready for cold weather by winterizing your outdoor spigots, sealing concrete driveways, walkways and paver patios and trimming trees/branches close to your home. Your home may also benefit from replacing window sashes with broken seals. Call Mr. Fix It today for a free winterizing estimate.
There is a lot of prep you can get out of the way now, so you don’t have to worry about it as Winter bears down on us. A few more of the simpler Winter prep tasks include: changing smoke detector batteries, detaching hoses from outdoor spouts and installing new furnace filters, to help them run more efficiently.
As the cold weather starts to set in, you may also notice that your furnace or water heater just isn’t quite kicking out the same amount of heat or hot water you’re used to, which might mean you need a replacement. Mr. Fix It can help you install a new furnace or water heater at a significant cost savings.
If your furnace is still doing the trick, but you don’t think your home stays as warm as you would like, or maybe you’ve noticed that your Columbia gas bill says your home isn’t as efficient as it could be, maybe it’s time for some upgraded insulation and that’s another item on Mr. Fix It’s list of services. If it’s time for any of these upgrades, or any other home improvement projects you might have in mind, visit our website atwww.jasonkingmrfixit.com, give us a call at 614-596-8396 or email us at jasonking7700@gmail.com and let us know how we can make your Fall a little more comfortable.
The Chamberlain My-Q Smart garage door opener explains itself with the name. For $29.98, it sets out to be a catchall solution for remote access to a garage door complete with intelligent features. By definition, it’s an entry-level smart home gadget — and not one that requires you to jump into the deep end of the smart home world. With just two pieces of hardware, a Wi-Fi connection and the app on your phone, you’ll be able to see the status of your garage door, remotely open or close it and even add household members as users. For $29.98, it’s practically a steal. And after a few weeks of testing, it’s safe to say that it works as promised. Let’s unpack it. Prime Early Access Deal Chamberlain MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener A plug and play setup for remote access Chamberlain The Chamberlain MyQ is truly a no-brainer. It can make nearly any garage door smart and give you the benefits of opening or closing it from anywhere. Today, it’s down to an all-time low price. $29.98 $16.98 at Amazon The who, what and how Who this is for: The Chamberlain MyQ is for someone who wants to control or keep tabs on their garage door from near or afar. What you need to know: Setting up this gadget took about 15 minutes, and it’s quite intuitive. Chamberlain says the MyQ supports most garage door openers made after 1993, but mileage could potentially vary. It also doesn’t support Amazon Alexa or Apple HomeKit integrations. How it compares: For $29.98 (when it’s not on sale), the Chamberlain MyQ is a no-brainer addition to a home with a garage door. It doesn’t require the long install or cost of a new garage door opener with a smart hub built in and supports a long list of openers. Chances are that includes the one in your home. The mandatory app for setup and control is intuitive and less cluttered than other smart options on the market. It doesn’t feature support for core smart home ecosystems like Amazon Alexa or Apple HomeKit. BeamUp is a similar solution that’s more expensive at $77 but supports Alexa out of the box. Those looking for HomeKit integration can look at the $119 iSmartGate. The MyQ and the alternatives all use similar tech to get online, though, and work with most openers made after 1993. An intuitive setup that requires Wi-Fi
In the Chamberlain MyQ Smart Garage Control box, you’ll find two main pieces of hardware and some extras. What you won’t find is a garage door opener, though — the MyQ system works alongside your current garage door to make it smart. The smart hub, which we’ve been affectionately calling the brain, gets mounted on the ceiling, close to the actual garage door motor. It’s a square piece of plastic with technology inside to connect with your garage door, along with some buttons and a power port. Chamberlain didn’t hold back on branding with two big logos. The other piece to the puzzle is a door sensor that will live in the bottom corner of the physical garage door. It’s much smaller in comparison to the hub and opts for a battery. It’s all pretty simple, and Chamberlain includes some mounting tools (a frame and screws) for an easy installation. Alongside the physical hardware, you’ll need the MyQ Garage & Access Control app — it’s available for Android and iOS. The app is the main control panel for both setup and using the MyQ. You’ll also need to create an account, and fair warning, it can take a bit to get the confirmation email. That delay in creating our account was the only delay we experienced. Once you’re in, the MyQ app does an excellent job of providing clear instructions to get you through the process. It took us between 10 and 15 minutes to get the whole system working. And it essentially works by the smart hub acting as a remote control opener. It can send and receive signals with your garage door opener. Chamberlain says the MyQ system should work most garage door openers made after 1993 — some of the big names include Chamberlain, LiftMaster, Craftsman, Genie, Linear and Raynor. A good tell is a “learn button” on your garage door opener, as this is used to send out a signal for pairing with controllers or devices like the MyQ. Modern garage door openers made by Chamberlain even feature the MyQ hub built in. The smart hub also features Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz connectivity for connecting to your home’s Wi-Fi network. Garages can sometimes be a dead zone, especially if they feature concrete walls or are detached from the house. In either of those scenarios, you may need to boost your Wi-Fi’s range, and a solution could be a Wi-Fi extender. If you have a mesh Wi-Fi system, like Eero, you could purchase another node or point to extend your network. There is no way to get around the Wi-Fi requirement, though. And during setup, get ready to see your garage door make some sudden movements. In our experience, it will raise and lower a few times throughout the process. And when it’s done, you’ll be able to control, see a status and even link it with other smart home systems through the app. Open or close with a tap Jacob Krol/CNN The setup process is the only heavy lifting you’ll have to do with the Chamberlain MyQ Smart Garage Controller. You’ll see the garage door status and how long it’s been in that state front and center. For instance, if you closed 40 minutes ago, it will show just that. You can easily tap the garage door to open it as well. You can also view a timeline of sorts that shows you when the door was opened or closed. It’s all quite handy. From a security standpoint, you’ll need to be actively signed in and authenticated to launch the app. You can opt for a passcode on your mobile device or use the built-in authentication method, such as unlocking with a fingerprint or your face. The app at this time doesn’t offer a two-factor authentication solution, but we’re hopeful it could be supported in the future. You can also share access to your home and the garage door (or doors, if you have a multi-car garage) through the Users tab. They’ll need to create a MyQ account and authenticate. And the common theme here is that Chamberlain isn’t adding complex interfaces to access information or functionality. It’s all front and center with menus at the bottom. The Schedules field lets you select predetermined times for actions to happen. It’s an excellent way to make sure the door is closed at night. In terms of compatible systems, you’ll find most of the major players here: Google Assistant, IFTT, Alarm.com, Residio Total Connect and Vivint, among others. The big two that you won’t find support for are Amazon’s Alexa and Apple HomeKit. The former is a big surprise, considering this supports Key by Amazon — the brand’s service that lets delivery drivers open the garage door to leave the package in a secure spot. It’s just strange that you can’t tie this into Alexa. HomeKit is a bit trickier to integrate with, but both would be nice to see in the future. The simple solution here is to use the app; you’ll need it for setup after all. Bottom line At under $30, the Chamberlain MyQ is the easy way to gain remote access for your garage door and make it smart. You don’t need to rush out and spend hundreds on a new opener or opt for a specific brand. It brings a tremendous amount of value, and while it’s not perfect with some missing smart partners, it still offers plenty of functionality. Whether you’re interested in starting a smart home or just want an easier way to control your garage door, the Chamberlain MyQ can stand on its own as a terrific gadget to add to your home. Just keep in mind that you need an opener made after 1993 and will need Wi-Fi in the garage. Otherwise, you’re set up for success.
Today I spent about an hour repairing holes in the tires of two of our service vehicles. Being on various job sites and making runs to the city dump our vehicles pick up their fair share of nails, screws and other pointy objects. These obstructions cause slow leaks that must be taken care of to avoid the dreaded flat tire the morning of a big project or blowout on the highway. The process is fairly simple and once you have done it a few times it is like riding a bike, you can add this easy repair process to your repertoire.
Step 1 – buy a tire repair kit from the local auto repair store. The repair kit will come with a tire reaming tool, the tire implant repair tool and several strips of what looks like black liquorice dipped in tar.
Step 2 – get all tools ready along with an air compressor or the Dewalt 2o Volt cordless inflator if you have one.
Step 3 – can be done with the tire on the car or if you have time can be done after taking the tire off the car. Doing a visual inspection you can normally find the cause of the leak. Using a flat head screw driver or pair of plyers to remove the obstruction. This can take some effort as the head of the screw or other item may have been ground off during driving. Once the object is removed you will know if you found the culprit as air will begin shooting out of the hole left behind.
Step 4 – Using the reaming tool poke the tool into the tire. Push and pull five or six times until there is far less friction than the first insertion. It seems counter productive to repair a hole by making a bigger hole however if you do not enlarge the hole you will not be able to get the repair plug properly inserted into the hole.
Step 5 – Using the plug insertion tool drive the plug into the hole until 2/3 of the repair plug is inserted into the hole. Once fully inserted pull the insertion tool out in one quick motion. The plug will remain in place and will create a permanent seal in the tire.
Step 6 – Using a razor knife cut the excess repair material off flush with the tire.
Step 7 – Use the inflation tool to re-inflate the tire to the proper psi listed on the tire.
We suggest the Dewalt 20 volt cordless inflator. It is small enough to store in any vehicle and yet provides the power of an air compressor two to three times it’s size. We recommend Dewalt tools as the batteries are interchangeable and provide excellent performance and reliability at an affordable price. The Dewalt 20 Volt cordless inflator gets our top 5 hammer rating for performance, ease of use, functionality and at a reasonable price. At $131 this is a tool that every diy and contractor should have on hand for any tire repair and or other inflation needs. I have included the link to the product on Amazon.
Many homeowners start out with the standard laminate backsplash that was installed when the home was built, but for most of us that just doesn’t quite cut it. We would like something more distinctive and unique. A custom tile backsplash might be the perfect solution.
Mr. Fix It can help you find the perfect tile at Floor & Decor, Home Depot, or any other tile store. From there, we will work with you to make sure you select the grout that best fits your style, whether it’s something understated or like in the above image, deep black that provides some contrast to the white subway tile. For this project, we used Mapei Ultra Color Plus Jet Black .
You can find it at Floor & Decor, Home Depot or Amazon. If this is a project you might be interested in, reach out to Mr. Fix It today for a free estimate. We can help you every step of the way.
Did your home come complete with those worthless wire shelves in your pantry and other closets? The ones that seem like they have no other purpose than to allow everything you put on them to fall over five seconds after you turn your back. Replace them with solid wooden shelves and metal brackets. If you have all of the food and containers out of the pantry, it may take Mr. Fix It less a day to have your new shelves installed and ready for use. You can find the shelves and brackets at Home Depot or Amazon. The below image links directly to them.
Try to ignore the massive amount of food, sauces, and snacks contained in this (our) pantry, but rather pay attention to the new shelves and slightly more organized structure of the contents of the pantry. If you would like to upgrade your old wire shelves to something closer to these wooden shelves, give Mr. Fix It a call or shoot us an email today for your FREE estimate.
Mr. Fix It helped these homeowners remove old carpet and laminate, and installed new laminate, baseboards, a pantry and backsplash. We can help you completely refresh your home. Take a look at the before and after photos below to see the difference.
If you’re in the market for new flooring, a custom tile backsplash or possibly adding a new pantry, Mr. Fix It can help and it may cost you a lot less than you think. Call or email Mr. Fix It today to get an estimate to upgrade and refresh elements of your home. If you’re interested in how we completed this renovation, some of the tools and materials we used for this project include:
It seems like an unimportant, mundane part of homeownership, but make sure you clean out your gutters, or hire someone to do it, each fall after the leaves come down. You don’t want to have to hire Mr. Fix It to come out to take care of them in December, when any water that is stuck in your gutters is frozen. It makes is much harder and more expensive. If you have dandelions growing in your gutters in December, that is a bad sign. This is a service Mr. Fix It provides, but when the weather is freezing and it’s snowing, it’s going to come at a premium. Mr. Fix It’s fingers are still frozen.
Mr. Fix It can help you improve the view from inside your home today with the installation of new blinds or curtains. One of our clients recently bought a new home, but the previous owners removed almost all of the blinds, leaving only a few mismatched sets. Over the course of two days, we installed 26 sets of blinds. Check out the transformation below.
Find the perfect blinds for your home at Amazon or Home Depot. Whether you’re looking for standard blinds, roller shades, or electric blinds, Mr. Fix It can install them all. You can find links to several options on Amazon below. As an Amazon affiliate, Mr. Fix It earns commissions from any qualifying purchases.
It seems like flat screen TVs are always on sale on Amazon, Best Buy or Target. There is always a bigger, higher res 4K UHC version available as soon as you bought the latest and greatest on the market. This time of year, with all of the Prime Time games and championships, you might find yourself with just such a TV, or maybe you got one over the holidays and haven’t had it mounted yet. Mr. Fix It can help you take care of that before its too late.
We’ve helped many clients transform their living room, bedroom or basement by mounting their latest TV on the wall, freeing up space and protecting those expensive purchases from potentially getting knocked over by roughhousing kids or some other random accident. Amazon has a wide variety of TV mounts, anything from the simple flush mount, to rotating wall mounts with articulating arms.
We can also run the electrical cords inside the wall, if that’s what you’re looking for. See a few examples of previously mentioned TV mounts below availabe on Amazon. Keep in mind that Mr. Fix It is an Amazon affiliate and receives a commission for sales generated from the below links.
