Oct. 7—As fall begins, some people are prompted to start fall home improvement tasks all around the house.

For non-preventive work, Christian Cruz, a manager at Tahlequah Lumber, said decks are popular projects during the fall season.

“I would say right now it’s more decks because, finally, places that are going to be exposed to the sun are not going to get over 80 degrees, which is always the biggest thing if you are working out under the sun,” said Cruz.

During fall, Cruz said some customers tend to gravitate toward preventive work to ensure the safety of their homes.

Some items that are popular during the colder portion of the year include creosote sweeping logs, insulation, and heat lamps.

Cruz said faucet protectors and regular pipe insulation are common items to help keep pipes and faucets from bursting and creating more damage, especially in houses with crawl spaces. Due to the amount of individuals who use well houses, Cruz said heat lamps are sought after items used to help keep well houses above 40 degrees to ensure water flow.

For individuals who have had their fireplace out of commission for over a year, Cruz suggests getting it inspected to prevent the possibility of a fire.

Mark Sweeney, assistant manager at Hearth and Pool Services, said a lot of people this time of year tend to lean toward replacing or creating wood-burning home appliances and cleaning chimneys. He said this is due to the upcoming cold weather and the area being a big wood burning community.

“This time of year, you start seeing ads on TV that show snow or a fireplace, so I think it’s a little bit subliminal. Also, when you just get to cold weather and you get up to 40 something degrees [you’re like,] ‘Man we gotta get that new stove in or whatever,” said Sweeney.

Sweeney said while the complete replacement of wood burning stoves with newer, higher efficiency stoves is popular, it’s not ubiquitous. Some people choose to just repair their old metal flue to prevent the possibility of a fire.

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Between the two, the easiest home improvement option is installing a wood burning stove, said Sweeney. Stoves take about two to fours hours to install, while wood-burning fireplaces are completed over two to three trips of three to four hours each.

Laketown Home Remodeling Owner Bobby Belley said she mainly recieves proactive work during the fall season, which is used to keep homes safe from colder weather.

“Right now it’s mainly preventive stuff,” said Belley. “I’ll get into fixing water damage more into the wet season and into the Christmas months.”

She said most of her business takes place in the spring because a lot of people don’t want to start …….

Source: https://news.yahoo.com/fall-brings-home-improvement-projects-195700512.html