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Prevent Summer Storm Damage to Your Roof

Severe summer thunderstorms can damage your home
with hail, wind or flooding.  While some
damage may be unavoidable if you plan well you can reduce the chance that you
experience disastrous damage during a storm.

In every state this summer storm season there will
be damage to homes.  Wind, hail, lightning,
and flooding that comes with severe thunderstorms is responsible for much of
the damage.  Much of the structural
damage will be minimal, but a few homeowners will experience large amounts of
damage.  If you want to avoid being one
of the homeowners that has serious damage to their home plan ahead and you’ll
have a better chance of escaping the summer storm season with serious damage.

 

Thunderstorms can all cause damage, but severe
storms are the biggest concern.  Severe
thunderstorms are to blame for most of the property damage they are dangerous
storms.  Around 10,000 thunderstorms are labeled
by the National Weather service as severe every storm season. Tornados, large
hail, high wind, and lightning can all be produced during these storms.

 

Hail is the largest
cause of damage.  The most damage during
severe storms is caused by hail this damage includes structures, vehicles, and
crops.  More than a billion dollars in
cost every year is estimated caused by hail. 
On the bright side your home can withstand smaller hail many times
without sustaining damage.  The larger
the hail is the harder the hail stone is. 
Hail that is as large as 1” in diameter can cause damage to your
home.  Vehicles are not as strong and can
be damaged by hail only .75” in diameter. Crops are the most easily affected,
and may possibly be damaged by hail as small as .25”.

 

You have to plan for
prevention well before you hear the patter of hail on your roof.  Your roof is the structure most likely to be
damaged in the hail.  Quality roofing
materials are important in standing up against storms.  Minneapolis roofing companies can tell you
what materials are you best bet in surviving the storms.  Maintenance of your roof is as important as
the materials you start with.  Regular,
yearly maintenance must be done on your roof.

 

 After hail
straight-line wind is the next most frequent cause of summer storm damage.   Severe wind is at least 60 miles per
hour, though some windstorms can get as fast as 100 miles per hour!  Winds ranging from 60 mph and up lead to
damage of your home and be incredibly dangerous. 

 

Tornados are severe
rotating columns of wind as oppose to straight line winds.  About 1200 tornados take place every year
according to the National Weather Service. Most of these tornados have winds of
less than 110 miles per hour and are labeled as “weak tornados”.  These “weak tornados” luckily don’t cause
many deaths.  What they do is cause a ton
of structural damage. 

 

Severe wind  has the greatest effect on roofs and siding.   The damage to both of these areas can
be reduced if extra effort is put in during the construction phase.  When deciding between Minneapolis roofing
companies remember this decision will affect you and your roof for many storm
seasons to come!  Your decking should be strongly
anchored to your walls and foundation, this comes with a well designed roof.  This anchoring will stop your entire roof
from being physically removed in a big storm! 
Attaching your shingles to your roof is also important.  The best quality shingle poorly attached will
still come up in a severe wind. 

 

 Maintaining the trees on your property is very
important.  Dead and weak limbs could
fall and cause damage to your roof in the next windstorm so they should be
removed.  Removing these bad branches
will bring down the chance your roof sustains damage in a summer storm.

 

Hail, straight-line
windsPsychology Articles, and tornados are all possible in a summer storm.  Minneapolis roofing companies can help you to
find the materials that will best handle these storms.  Quality materials and a reliable roofer will
best prepare your home to handle a storm. 
Practicing regular maintenance of both your roof AND surrounding trees
will also save you from the stress of storm damage.

Advantages Galore: Kaiser and PacifiCare Insurance

 Two up and coming health insurance companies are Kaiser Insurance and PacifiCare. Both of them are relatively new to the insurance industry, with PacifiCare being more well known. Both of these insurance companies offer health insurance for individuals who may not have health insurance provided to them through their employer. The cost for both Kaiser and PacifiCare premiums depend on the number of people in the family,

Two up and coming health insurance companies are Kaiser Insurance and PacifiCare. Both of them are relatively new to the insurance industry, with PacifiCare being more well known. Both of these insurance companies offer health insurance for individuals who may not have health insurance provided to them through their employer. The cost for both Kaiser and PacifiCare premiums depend on the number of people in the family, pre-existing conditions, if any, and the age of those insured.

Going through Insurance Brokers: Pacificare

PacifiCare requires that you get a health check up before you get insurance through them. You can generally get health insurance through this company by going to an insurance broker. An insurance broker offers health insurance for a variety of different underwriters, many of whom are not well known to the public. PacifiCare is one of the insurance companies that offers health insurance through insurance brokers.

Some small businesses have also used PacifiCare as their health insurance provider, although most of the larger companies prefer to use Aetna, Blue Cross or Humana as their insurer of choice. Of these two insurance companies – Kaiser and PacifiCare, PacifiCare offers lower premiums for self insured individuals.

The Kaiser Advantage

Kaiser insurance is a good insurance company to go to if you have pre-existing conditions as they cover more of these conditions than other insurance companies that insure those who are not insured through regular means. Self insured individuals who are looking for a deal on health insurance are often better off to use Kaiser Insurance than other insurance companies if they have family members with a pre-existing condition.

The PacifiCare Advantage

PacifiCare is accepted at more hospitals and clinics than Kaiser Insurance. With both of these insurance companies, however, you will have to mail in claims. Unlike larger insurance companies that use automatic claim processing through the computer, these insurance companies still rely on claim forms. This can be a hassle for anyone who is trying to get urgent care, is insured but may be tight on money. Many urgent care facilities that are non-emergency will ask that you pay up front for the care, even if you have insurance, if you do not have an insurance provider that they can automatically submit a claim to online.

The Kaiser and PacifiCare Advantage

Both Kaiser Insurance and PacifiCare Insurance are good options for someone who wants to have health insurance but cannot afford to carry insurance from one of the larger companies such as Humana or Aetna. This gives someone a blanket of comfort that they do have health insurance, although they may have a bit more difficulty when it comes to processing claims as far as paperwork and red tape than they would if they used a more well known carrier.

Improve your complaints handling performance

This article is one of a series about how to improve your
complaints handling.  It will be especially useful to call handlers and
customer service personnel.  It is written by an expert trainer in the
field who runs a specialist complaints handling training business as well as a
leading corporate training company in the UK.

If you do some reading on complaints handling
you must be thinking of improving your complaints handling skills or those of
your team.  Most writers on the subject
focus on the need to approach the customer who is complaining with
empathy. 

What is empathy?

Empathy
is a word often used but I wonder how well understood it is.  At a recent course we were running on
complaints handling we posed this question. 
Asking delegates to define empathy proved interesting.  It was clear to me that the word sympathy and
empathy were being confused.

So
before I can establish empathy with you, I need to know what empathy is.  The dictionary definitions vary but touch
upon:   understanding of another’s situation and feelings.  This is different to sympathy which is more about
feelings of pity or sorrow for the distress of another.  Definitions also mention compassion.

So
when dealing with complaints I am aiming to be empathetic to understand and
anticipate the behaviour of the customer. It is in effect standing in the shows
of the customer.  So much for the
conceptual discussion. How does that work in practice?

How does empathy work?

Take
a complaint about some flowers not being delivered by a florist.  The customer plucks up courage to complain.  He is stressed by the simple process of
calling. He does not know how the call will be received and naturally expects
the worst. He has complained before to other shops and been fobbed off. The customer swallows hard
and calls the shop to say the bouquet has not arrived. 

The
untrained inexperienced call handler might say: Thank you for telling me about
this.  What can I do to put this right?

The
call handler is trying to be helpful and resolve the situation.  However, the result from the customer is to
raise their voice, their heart beats faster, they are getting angry.  This call is off to a bad start.  The problem cannot be made right. The flowers were not delivered and a anniversary celebration diminished by it. 

Picture
this as an alternative this response:

I’m
sorry that we haven’t delivered the bouquet as we expected.  I understand that must be difficult for you, embarrassing
and annoying, let me try and do something about that right now.  To do that may I have your name and the
delivery address please?

This
is more likely to strike a chord with the customer.  Did you spot the:

·       
empathy?

·       
identification with the distress of the
customer?

·       
apology too?

What about the control of the call?  I mean that in the sense that the call
handler was leading the conversation towards resolution.  This was helped by asking a closed question
to gain control.  All this was done in a
helpful, assertive but friendly way. Clearly there is more to do, but this positive approach will send the message to the customer that the call handler wants to try and resolve the complaint and understands their emotions.

So
you can see a dose of empathy is good news for complaints handlingFind Article, but there
is more to it.  I’ll be tackling another
aspect of complaints handling soon.

At
Reduce Complaints training people to handle complaints well is our business so
we are not short of material to help the complaint handler.

Happy
complaints handling

Alison Miles-Jenkins

Fire Risk Assessment Lowers Risk of Fire Damage

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It is cost-effective, smart and overall a good plan to safely maintain your house against calamities that might hit. So the best thing to do is to get all the bases covered.So how do you go about doing a fire risk assessment?1.    First and foremost, you need an expert who can make a smart assessment.  This person should have the necessary training with which he can make a thorough check and point out the five main points.2.    The first point your assessor should do is identify the potential areas of risk. This he can do by surveying the house, taking an assessment of the materials used to make it, the components, and potential areas that can cause fire, like electrical outlets, and open fire areas like hearths and gas ovens, which are causes.3.    The second important thing that your assessor should do is locate the people at risk. He should understand the position of the people in the house/building, and understand who stands to be in the higher risk zone and for how long. This is important to note so that the next stage can be brought in.4.    The risks are to be then carefully evaluated and excavated to the minute details, and the little propensities are to be fished out and elaborated upon. This way, your assessor has a clear view of the threats and the dangers, and the major areas that can suffer damage. That way, they can easily dissect and analyze. For example, if you are a smoker, you would be considered to be more risky in the evaluation sector.5.    After evaluation, the findings are then recorded and noted down, so that the major areas of concern are found out and assessed properly.6.    After the recording, the assessor would carefully note and review his findings, making sure he is absolutely right in collecting and preserving the data.After this procedure, your house would be assessed correctly, and that would prevent confusion and make way for a fire safety plan, following which would ensure your house being completely secure and free of any sort of fire-related issues in the future.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RBs provides fire marshal, fire extinguisher training and >fire risk assessment.

Know About Pine Tree Stump Removal

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While the general process regarding of a pine tree stump removal is somewhat similar to that of other stumps, there is a difference in the root system that requires addressing. That is to say, these stumps tend to have much larger, flatter root networks than that of other types. That being said, the most effective techniques with pine may not necessarily be the best idea when dealing with oak or spruce. Taking the time to do this task yourself can save hundreds of dollars. In this article, we will outline the necessary steps to doing just that.Tools:1. Shovel2. Black Plastic Sheet3. Axe4. Loppers5. Handsaw6. Drill7. Nitrogen-Rich FertilizerIn cases involving a smaller one, simply digging around and cutting will likely do the trick. Dig around the area until the root system is almost completely uncovered. Roots can be severed by a saw or axe, but loppers may be more appropriate depending on the root system. All severed roots should be disposed of in the trash or through burning.For larger trees, the same general idea applies, however the tools used and the overall labor required are a bit different. As with the smaller pines, you should dig around the area to expose the roots. The larger the pine, the more digging there’ll be. An axe or handsaw is preferable to loppers and required to sever the larger root systems. Prepare yourself for a good day or two of constant chopping. If it is heavy, wrap the chain around it and pull it out by hitching the other end of the chain to a tow hitch. Be sure that the pine is severed completely and that the truck pulls it out slowly.Another option for removal is to hasten the biodegrading process. Keep in mind that this option can take months. Just as with the manual process outlined above, reduce it to the smallest height possible before hitting the ground. Proceed by boring a rash of holes around 2 inches deep into the top. Add water to each hole and follow it up with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Cover the surrounding area with the same mixture. Next, cover the stump with organic compost and place a black plastic sheet over it, making sure to add a weight to it doesn’t blow away. The plastic absorbs sunlight, which heats the compost, thus speeding up the decay process. Repeat the process every couple weeks until the pine is completely decomposed.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In San Rafael tree stump removal is performed by experts who are experienced in all aspects of tree care and removal. Their services include tree removal, assessment, maintenance and disease control. To know more, visit http://mandmtreeservices.com/