New “My Healthy House” logo

We have created a new logo for our company “My Healthy House”. You can see it at http://doylewilliamson.wordpress.com/my-healthy-house/ where we would love to hear any comments you may have.

Water conservation made simple

Ah water. It makes up most of our human body so without it, we die. Drought and contamination are serious considerations when it comes to thinking about water and how we will use it in the future. This year in Austin, rainfall has been very low. Area lakes like Lake Travis provide very important power, recreation and water to our community.

To put rainfall into perspective, Austin’s total rainfall for 2007 was around 43 inches or almost 11 inches over the annual average. Our average rainfall for Austin is 31.88 inches. To the date (11-01-08) the total rainfall for 2008 has only been 12.94 inches or almost 18.95 inches below the annual average. In 2006 our beloved Lake Travis was at a 42 year low of 25 feet below normal levels. The last time it was this low was 1964. At the time of this post the level of Lake Travis is 23.92 feet below the full level.

The importance of the low modern-day levels is the simple fact that the local population today is substantially greater than 1964. In addition, this natural resource has been in an emergency state two of the last three years.

Any of the following things can be done to contribute to conservation of this precious and limited resource:

• Low flow or dual flush commodes
• Low flow shower heads – available from the City of Austin
• Turn off your lawn irrigation system till springtime
• Turn off the water as your brush your teeth or shave
• Hand wash dishes
• Monitor your laundry load and wash only what is necessary

Conserve water now and lower your household cost of this resource. You will also reduce the enormous amount of green house gases and the chemical additives that go into the production of our water supply.

For more information click on the LCRA site

Pest Lock is simply logical.

The methodology behind Pest Lock is to mechanically control structural invading pests from entering a house or building. This is done through the installation of the Pest Lock exclusion system. A properly installed Pest Lock system physically prevents pests from accessing to the structure. With Pest Lock installed, exterior control of pests becomes easier and requires dramatically less pesticide application. Pest Lock will accomplish the same goal as conventional pest control but in a much safer way.

Structural pest control has historically been accomplished by the application of toxic pesticides. Generally, these pesticides are broadcast over large areas around the exterior as well as target areas of the interior of a home. In some cases, broad application of pesticides are done on the interior of the home. Ultimately, toxic pesticides are being continually applied where we sleep, eat and raise our families increasing health concerns by increasing the frequency of exposure.

Pesticides work as toxins. As pests come in contact with the applied products, they die. However, due to products designed to rapidly degrade, newly hatched eggs may not be effected by products applied on the last quarterly application. Ongoing application of pesticides is usually required to kill the young larva as well as adult insects that live & breed in the walls or find there way into the structure from the outside. At best, pesticides can be used to control infestations by limiting colony sizes in a structure but an ongoing application schedule is necessary. The problem with ongoing application is the potential for pests to become resistance to products. More importantly, there is a growing concern regarding the overall environmental impact that pesticides have on our home, neighborhood and our world.

Over the history of pest control, few solutions have been developed to control pests from entering a structure. Unfortunately, homes are build with openings and gaps. Some of these openings are on purpose but most are not. Construction practices do not focus on preventing pest access. When a Pest Lock system is properly evaluated and installed on new or older houses, openings in the building perimeter envelope are narrowed down no larger than 1/8th inch. The primary concern is to create obstructions where systems of the house must breath and seal areas that do not require ventilation. Weep holes, or the gaps between the bricks that sit on the slab, are a good example of a system that should not be sealed and must ventilate.

See pest lock for more details.