Green Your Home's Value with Sustainable Upgrades

We recently read a report in Plumbing & Mechanical that we thought was good news for all the people taking the plunge and investing in energy and water saving upgrades to their homes. It seems the investments are well worth it in terms of their impact on the resale price of your home, and the time it takes to recover the cost of your investment could be shorter than you expect.

P&M was reporting on a Washington Post article looks at the findings of two studies regarding the sales prices of sustainable homes in selected markets. The nonprofit Earth Advantage Institute found that newly constructed homes with third-party certifications for sustainability and energy efficiency sold for 8 percent more on average than noncertified homes in the six-county Portland metropolitan area. Existing houses with certifications sold for 30 percent more.

Meanwhile, a recent study of houses in San Diego and Sacramento, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, looked at the resale value of homes with solar PV panels installed. Researchers found that, on average, installing solar panels costs owners $35,967 in a sample of homes in the $500,000 range. But with federal and state subsidies, the net average cost came down to $20,892. This net expenditure, in turn, yielded an increase in appraised value of $20,194, a 97 percent rate of recovery on the investment.

You can read the entire article in the Washington Post Real Estate section.

Sunflowers being used to rid water of radioactivity

Did you know?:

Scientists have discovered that sunflowers can pull radioactive contaminants out of the soil and the water. The technique was used after the Chernobyl disaster in Russia, and researchers working to clean up the Fukushima site in Japan are now putting the flowers to the test there.

Read more at:
Sunflowers used to clean up radiation

Roots in a Sewer Line? There's a Solution for that..

Here at Boden Plumbing, mainline stoppages - or sewer line backups - are one of the most common service calls we get. Oftentimes it is a straightforward stoppage and the location has a sewer clean out, which makes accessing the pipe pretty simple, so we can rooter the drain and have everything running smoothly again in short order. However, sometimes it's not a simple clog: our customer has roots in their sewer line.

Clearing a clog is one thing. Cleaning the sewer line of obstructions that will cause chronic clogging is something else again.

If you have roots in your sewer line, our big heavy duty snaking equipment can get the line open and even pull out a good portion of the roots so your line will function again. But the snake can not clean the line of roots completely and what roots are left behind will regrow and cause another clog. (Just so you know.)

Really cleaning a line takes a different type of equipment. We use what we call our "scorpion cutter", which has a rotating cutting head that spins inside the pipe cutting off the root intrusions essentially flush with the surface of the pipe.

That's the mechanical solution. It's a much better solution when you have roots in the line that repeatedly dealing with clogs. But the integrity of your sewer line is still compromised. The roots will be slower to grow back, but they will grow back.

We recommend following a scorpion cleaning with a treatment of Root-X, a herbicide product that really knocks the roots back. And then every six to nine months treating the line again with Root-X to keep those roots at bay.

If your pipe is really broken badly or very large roots have compromised the line, you might want to to ahead and replace some or all of the line. That's the final or ultimate solution - and the best choice in some instances.

The good thing is that if you do have roots in your sewer line, you also have options. And better still, we can inspect the line using a camera, which makes is super easy to decide on the best option for your particular situation.

Have questions? Just give us a call. We're here to help.

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More info from Boden Plumbing on 'Roots in Your Sewer?':
Cameras help pinpoint sewer line problems - big time
Roots in the sewer line
5 tips for maintaining clear drains
Got clogs? Clear drain lines naturally

Safe Medicine Drop Off Day Scheduled for Sonoma area

You knew you're not supposed to flush old, out-dated or unwanted medicine down the toilet right? It's important to get un-needed meds out of the house, but depositing them into the communal water supply is definitely not the way to go about it. (See Drugs in Your Drinking Water? on this blog.)

By properly disposing of medication, we keep our environment and waterways clean, and reduce safety and health risks associated with children or adults taking non-prescribed medications. Fortunately, the Safe Medicine Disposal Program offers a way to properly and safely dispose of unwanted medication.

Beginning on September 19 through September 23, the public can drop off unwanted medicine at six locations throughout Sonoma County. The free “Safe Medicine Round Up Week” is part of the Safe Medicine Disposal Program’s ongoing public outreach efforts to raise awareness on how to properly dispose of unwanted medicine.

As part of the "Round Up", two locations in Sonoma Valley will be accepting drop offs between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., on Friday, September 23, 2011.

Date: Friday, September 23
Location: Vintage House
264 1st Street East, Sonoma

Date: Friday, September 23
Location: Oakmont Village, Berger Center (Parking Lot)
6633 Oakmont Drive, Santa Rosa

Note: Used sharps in secure FDA-approved sharps containers will be accepted ONLY
at the Oakmont site on Friday, September 23, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

How to participate:

1. Arrive at drop off location and remove unwanted medication from containers


2. Put all pills together in a zip lock bag (available at the drop off site), liquids and creams must remain in sealed containers.


3. Remove labels or mark out personal information.


4. Deposit the empty containers in the provided disposal bin or recycle empty medication containers in your home curbside blue recycling cart.

Items accepted at the drop off locations include:

• Prescription and over-the-counter -pills and capsules


• Liquid medications, including ointments, lotions and creams (in sealed containers please!)


• Veterinary medications


• Vitamins, supplements, homeopathic remedies


• Medical patches


• Inhalers (empty)


• Medical samples


• Used sharps in secure FDA-approved sharps containers will be accepted ONLY at the Oakmont site on Friday, September 23.

Items not accepted:

• Controlled substances


• IV bags


• Bloody or infectious waste


• Personal care products (body lotion, shampoo etc.)


• Aerosol cans


• Thermometers


• Illegal drugs


• Medical marijuana


• Any other waste or medication not listed under “items accepted”

The “Safe Medicine Round Up Week” is sponsored by the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, the Sonoma County Water Agency, the Russian River Watershed Association, the City of Santa Rosa Environmental Services, the City of Petaluma Environmental Services, the Cotati Police Department; the Oakmont Village Association, Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa, and Sonoma Senior Center Vintage House.

More than 600 pounds of unwanted medicine and approximately 212 pounds of sharps were collected throughout Sonoma County as a part of the Safe Medicine Disposal Program’s “Safe Medicine Round Up Day” held on April 29, 2011.

Residents can also visit a participating year round drop-off location. A list of participating locations may be viewed online at www.safemedicinedisposal.org. There is no charge to participants returning medicine. Funding for this year round program has been provided by the City of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County Water Agency and Russian River Watershed Association.

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Drugs in Your Drinking Water?
Clean Drinking Water a Major Concern
What You Can Do to Protect Drinking Water

September is National Preparedness Month: Are You Ready for an Emergency?

The recent earthquake on the East Coast, followed by the first couple of big storms of the season, hopefully has reminded everyone that it's important to be prepared for emergencies. And it's not only the natural disasters that can disrupt services and catch us off guard, this week also marks the anniversaries of the San Bruno pipeline explosion here in the Bay Area and the 9/11 attacks ten years ago.

With the memories of these events fresh in our minds, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has declared September National Preparedness Month (NPM) and the perfect opportunity for everyone to take stock of their ability to respond if the unexpected happens.

Here in California, the most common risks are from earthquakes, wildfires, extreme heat and flooding. It's perhaps not so easy to anticipate havoc from human-caused disasters, but being prepared for the likely disruption of basic services and possible injury and isolation is basically the same, and simple steps can be taken now to mitigate dangers later.

1. Get a kit together: Keep enough emergency supplies on hand for you and those in your care - water, non-perishable food, first aid, prescriptions, flashlight, battery-powered radio. For a complete checklist, visit ready.gov.


2. Make a plan: Discuss, agree on, and document an emergency plan with those in your care. Work together with neighbors, colleagues and others to help build community resilience.


3. Be informed: Free information is available to assist you from government resources.

One thing we recommend to our customers is an automatic gas shut-off valve. (see: Reduce the Danger of a Gas-Line Fire to Your House on this blog) It is important to know where all of your shut-offs are anyway (see In Case of a Plumbing Emergency...), but gas line leaks in particular pose a serious threat after an earthquake when you might not be home - or able - to get the gas supply shut off. It is also very important that your water heater is secured to the wall and floor.

If you have any questions about how Boden Plumbing can help you get ready for an emergency, just give us a call. We're here to help.

Napa: 707-255-8155 / Sonoma: 707-996-8683