SAN JOSE — Everyone knows it’s a bad idea to wait until the last minute, and roof replacement is no exception. Most homeowners go through spring and summer not giving their roofs a second thought, followed by a mad dash in the fall to get them repaired or replaced before the rain hits. That’s why autumn is typically the busiest time of year for roofers.
By waiting until late summer or fall to schedule your roofing project, you put yourself at a major disadvantage. Since most roofing contractors’ calendars fill up by this time, you may not be able to get the contractor of your choice, and even if you do, you may have to schedule the job weeks later than you’d hoped. You’re also likely to pay a higher price, due to the rate increases that typically occur in conjunction with increased demand. What’s worse, even though you’re paying more, you’re less likely to receive good service, as your swamped contractor and crew will be hurrying to finish your project so they can move on to the next.
So, rather than waiting until the busy season, a better option is to plan ahead and have your roof replaced in the spring. Since contractors aren’t as busy during this time, you’re more likely to get the contractor you want, as well as a lower price and better service.

The Best Time to Replace Your Roof

Get essential tips on determining the optimal time to replace your roof. Learn how seasonal factors and material conditions can impact your decision.

The Best Time to Replace Your Roof by Darryl Simon

by Darryl Simon, a Diamond Certified Expert Contributor

Dealing With Clay Soil for Paver Installation

Geotextile Fabric in Paver Installation

How to Maintain a Water Heater

Maintain the Exterior Finish of Your Car

Safety Requirements for Water Heater Installation

Video: Amending Soil for a Paver Feature



Before installing a paver feature on your property, you'll need to assess the underlying soil and make any necessary amendments. Today, we're in Concord with diamond-certified expert contributor Itamar M Jr. of Atlas Pavers Company to learn more. What to do when you find clay soil or spongy soil during paver installation?

First thing you need to do is remove that soil. That it's bad and it's moving, it's shifting completely until you find a really good soil. That means when you step on it, it's not going to move. So, after you remove all that old soil, we have to do a lime stabilization treatment. Lime, sorry, stabilization treatment will help absorb all the moisture and will also increase the flowability in that particular area. 24 hours later, you can basically start your base preparation, which means putting in your geotextile, your base rock, and your sand, and you're done.

To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our diamond-certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org. 

Video: Ceramic Magnet Systems For Hard Water

Video: The Best Time to Replace Your Roof

If you're anticipating a roof replacement, make sure you plan it for the right season. Otherwise, you'll end up paying more than necessary. Today, we're in San Jose with Diamond Certified expert contributor Darryl Simon, who specializes in roofing.

To learn more, if you know you need some sort of roof work done, the worst thing you can do is wait until late fall or winter time to get it done. If you wait, you usually pay a larger price because most roofing contractors are very busy at that time. Or you might not get the contractor of your choice or get the work done in the time that matters.

If you get the work done in early spring, which is the best time to get it done, you will pay a cheaper price because most contractors aren't that busy. And you will get better service as well.

To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Video: The Role of Geotextile Fabric


When installing pavers, the application of a geotextile fabric will help ensure a firm foundation. To learn more, we're in Mill Valley with Diamond Certified expert contributor Itamar M Jr. of Atlas Pavers CO. To learn more, today I'm here to talk about the importance of geotextile on driveways, walkways, and patios.

The first question that comes when you're installing pavers is, do I need geotextile under my driveway, patio, or walkway? Sure, the question. The answer is absolutely yes because the geotextile is a fabric, a membrane that goes in between the excavated area, between the dirt, the soil, and the base rock. So, that will basically prevent from the base rock mixing into the third and causing a feature failure. That's what you don't want. That's why geotextile fabric is highly recommended.

To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org. 

Video: Understanding Water Heater Maintenance

 Like most home appliances, a water heater needs to be regularly maintained. But in the case of an older unit, this may not be such a good idea. Today, we're in San Jose with Diamond Certified expert contributor Yousef Nesi of Rain Plumbing and Sewer Service to learn more. Today, we're going to be going over water heaters and how to maintain them. 

We often get calls from customers and friends who ask about water heater maintenance and things that they could do to get a little bit more lifespan out of their water heater. The tricky part is when to do the maintenance and if it's okay for your system to try a maintenance program. The reason I say that is if you've had your water heater for more than five or six years, we usually don't recommend trying to do any type of maintenance. There's probably already so much calcium buildup and so many mineral deposits in the water heater that if you try doing some of the maintenance programs that we're going to go over today, it might open up a can of worms. 

The first thing we'll go over is about flushing the water heater. So, we go down here, you'll see there's a drain valve. When you flush your water heater, what you want to do is attach a hose to the valve, open it up, and let the water heater drain. One thing that I do is I attach the hose, and then I run the hose out to my yard. I make sure that I water my plants, water my lawn with the water that's in the tank. That way, it doesn't waste the water. I do that once a year, sometimes two times a year, but any more than that is just kind of overkill. 

Now, one thing that I recommend if you are going to do this: you got to understand that if it's been five or seven years, there is a good chance that there's a lot of calcium and mineral deposits that will be coming out from there. So, if you had an older system and you try to open this up, you might get a piece of mineral deposit in the valve where it's not going to close again. And that's where I said you might open a can of worms. That's why if it's been five or seven years, I would just let it go. But if it's a newer water heater, I definitely recommend attaching a hose, draining it once or twice a year.

Now, another thing that I recommend is what we have here is a ball valve. A ball valve is not what comes with a standard water heater. But what we recommend is as soon as you get a new water heater, have a plumber go ahead and put one of these in. They work a lot better, and nothing is going to get stuck in there. Even if it does, the ball valve has a component if you look inside, it's going to close no matter what, as opposed to a gate valve that comes standard with a water heater. It's often that mineral deposits or debris get stuck inside the valve, and all of a sudden, you can't close it. 

The next thing we're going to go over are anode rods. Not every water heater has accessibility to the anode rod, but inside every tank, there's an anode rod. What the anode rod does is a sacrificial piece of metal that they put inside of the water heater in order for it to absorb all the minerals, all the calcium buildup. So, it eats away at this rod instead of eating away at your water heater. Now, what some people will do is after four or five years, they replace the rod because once the minerals have eaten it up so much, there's no more that it could eat, and it'll start eating at your tank. 

But if you replace this and you put a new one in, it's going to attract all the mineral deposits and all the calcium, and it'll eat away at your anode rod instead of your tank. Those are the two things that pretty much you can do to flush your water heater. There's not really any chemicals or anything like that that you can use to flush it. We just go ahead and recommend doing a regular flush. Make sure that your water is shut off, and yeah, that's pretty much what we recommend doing for a water heater maintenance. 

To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts. Diamond Certified.

Video: Water Heater Safety Codes

Prior to replacing a water heater in your home, you'll need to be aware of safety code requirements. Today, we're in San Jose with diamond certified expert contributor, Usaf Nesmé, of Rain Plumbing and Sewer Service, to learn more.

So, it's often that we get asked by homeowners, "I'm replacing my water heater, do I need a pool permit?" The answer is yes. They recommend that you pull a permit any time you touch your water heater, even if it's just removing it for a little bit and then putting it back in. But if it's a new one, the cities do want you to pull a permit. The cost depends on the city, but it's usually under two hundred dollars. Sometimes it's a little bit more, depending on your city. Again, something you would want to inquire with them.

But one thing I want to go over to is code. Whether you get a permit or you don't get a permit, you should know about the code. Because whether you're going to sell your home or for your own safety, it's tough enough, you need to know about. First, we're going to go over strapping, which I think is the most important. Your water heater needs to be strapped. It doesn't matter where it is. It needs to be strapped in case of an earthquake. These are what the scraps look like. And the way you're going to want to put the straps on is you're going to put one on top, and it's got to be nine inches below the water heater. So maybe that's a little too much, that's about nine inches right there. And you're going to want to strap it to something behind. So it could be, and again, the city, it depends on the city, but you would want to strap it to something where it's either a two-by-four connected to the wall. Sometimes there's not really like a flat surface in the back. But what they really want you to do is make sure that the water heater cannot move left to right. So, you're going to be, like I said, you might want to have to put two by fours back there or a lot of the times they recommend that you do plumbers tape to anchor it to a different part of the wall to where it's steady and it's not going to move left and right should an earthquake happen. And then the bottom strap needs to be about four inches above the gas controls right here. And that is going to be coding. So, you would strap both of them to something in the back. It's sometimes you could get tricky depending on where the water heater is placed. But at all times, the water heater does need to be strapped.

The other thing that is HUGE with code is having a water heater pan and I'm draining it out. So, if it's inside of the house, you're going to need to have a water heater pan that goes under the water heater. You're going to have to connect some PVC piping and run it out to an open space somewhere outside of your home or into the crawlspace or something like that. But it does need to drain out. The reason they do this is if, for whatever reason, your water heater starts leaking, you're not going to damage the inside of your house. So, that's one thing that is a must also for complying with the codes, and that's in most cities in California now. One thing you should think, keep in mind if it's, if this is in your garage, if the water heater is in the garage, you should still have the pan, and depending on the city, they would still want you to run it out. But we recommend go ahead and run out the drain line to outside just because a lot of people have good possessions inside of their garage. And if your water heater is leaking and you just have the pan and it doesn't have any piping draining out, all the water is just going to spill out in your garage and it's going to be full of water. So, we recommend doing it. It's really inexpensive to do and it's fairly easy to do as well. But these two things are a must. The other thing is if your water heater is in a garage, it is mandatory to have a water heater stand. So the water heater stands you could get at Nemo's supply houses and stuff like that. And the reason that they want it elevated is because of emissions. There's a gas opening right here and they worry that with the gas emissions from the car and all that, it could combust and it can blow up your water heater. So that's the reason that they wanted on stand. and that is also water heater code for most cities in the Bay Area. To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our diamond certified expert reports at experts Diamond Certified org.

Darryl Simon: From the Rooftops

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