DIY

  • The ONE Simple Trick to Extend Your Garage Door’s Life!

    Do you know how to treat your garage door right? The garage door is often a mysterious part of the home to homeowners who have never seriously examined their garage door, but to the informed and vigilant homeowner, the garage door can actually be a mark of pride. Charlotte, North Carolina is home to a range of beautiful doors, but many homeowners never think to dream beyond the simple door that their home originally came with. The garage door remains an eyesore for many homeowners, who prefer to put it out-of-sight and out-of-mind rather than tend to it. Today, we’re going to tell you an insanely simple tip to extend the life of your garage door AND keep pests out of your garage. This tip is so simple that you might already be doing it and just not know how much good you’re doing, but some of you might be accidentally making this mistake and not be aware of all the potential downsides!

  • The Most Common Garage Door DIY Mistakes!

    Hello! DIY enthusiasm is at an all-time high, with sources like Pinterest and Youtube letting homeowners learn any skill they want and attempt any number of repairs or installations in their home, without the trouble and cost of hiring a professional. In many cases, a DIY approach can be just as good as the real thing – there are still, however, things that you should trust an expert to do. Not only is it safer to hire an expert, but it saves you trouble and time. There are kinds of costs besides money, after all, and if you want to avoid the DIY stress that can come with a major home project, consider hiring a professional instead of attempting to handle the job yourself. In the Charlotte area, we have responded to several homes where homeowners have tried to fix things themselves, and just as often as not homeowners end up injuring themselves or damaging their home. There is no substitute for the kind of long-term experience that we bring to the job!

  • Save Money Year Round with Insulation

    Summer is quick approaching, and soon homeowners will be back in their yards and garages, exploring their hobbies or playing with their kids. But summer brings more than just free time – it also bring sweltering heat. If you have any hobbies that you practice inside your garage, you already know how important the temperature of the garage is to your happiness. Some garages aren’t built to the same standards as normal rooms, so the walls may not be insulated, and this can easily lead to garage being freezing in the winter and burning up in the summer. No matter how much insulation the walls have, the garage door itself is a common problem point for insulation systems – the temperature outside can seep through an uninsulated door, making it impossible to spend time in the garage comfortably. An insulated residential garage door is a simple upgrade that can not only improve your quality of life, but also save you money year round!

  • Garage Door Safety: Keypad

    Does your garage door have a keypad? The keypad is one of the most convenient and most common ways for homeowners to open their garage door. It saves you the trouble of having to carry a remote, it is perfect if you have children that play outside, and it can even save you some humiliation if you end up locked out of your home! What most people don’t think about, however, is that fact that a keypad introduces some new security risks into your system. Older keypads in particular can be very dangerous to use, because tech-savvy thieves will sometimes target the garage door opener as the best mechanism for gaining access to your home. Luckily, there are a couple simple steps that anyone can take to make sure that their family stays safe!

  • How to: Check your Garage Door’s Safety Features

    Do you know what would happen if you stepped underneath your garage door? Homeowners rarely think about the true power of their garage door, but consider this – not only is the garage door the largest moving appliance in the home, but it is also extremely heavy. A two-car garage door could weigh over three hundred pounds easily! Think about that every time that you or your children run underneath the door while its opening or closing, and it might give you reason to examine the safety features of your door and make sure that they are functioning properly. Luckily, the two most basic safety features of the door are easy enough to check, and we’ll explain just what you should do now!

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    Mold Monster! What’s Lurking in your Walls?

    Is there a nasty surprise lurking in your home, hidden but threatening your family’s safety? Every homeowner knows the dangers of mold, but oftentimes mold goes unseen until it has already taken a firm hold. An improperly built garage presents a perfect environment for mold to take hold, so we’ve gathered some information that every homeowner should know – why mold will grow in your home, what you can do to prevent it before it ever appears, and how to get rid of it if you do find some! Like garage doors, homeowners can do some of the simpler preventative measures and fixes, but for more serious problems it is always better to call a professional!

  • Batcave Garage Makeover!

    We’ve worked on some wonderful homes with gorgeous garages, but this custom garage added to a Melbourne estate by Molecule architectural firm is way crazier than anything we’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever wanted to live like millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne (of Batman fame), this garage may just make you envious…

  • Radio Interference and Your Garage Door Opener

    Tis the season to decorate! Many of our festive customers are decorating their homes inside and out in time for the holiday season, but what you might not have heard is that decorating your home can actually impact the function of your garage door opener! Although many homeowners won’t have any problem, certain brands and models of garage door openers can be interfered with by LED lights nearby. This might sound crazy, but the radio frequency that your garage door opener uses may be shared by some other electronics in your home, including holiday lights, and this radio wave interference can cause your opener to not operate correctly! Fortunately for you, we’ve got the scoop about what you should do to ensure that your opener is still functioning as intended.

  • Etch A Sketch: The Timeless Toy

    There are certain timeless toys that are universally associated with childhood – dolls, action figures, building blocks, and so on – but there is one common toy that very few users understand. The enigmatic Etch A Sketch has an elegant design and has remained mostly unchanged for over fifty years, but the simple secret behind its magical erasable screen is not the ultimate reason for the toy’s success. The real reason that the Etch A Sketch has remained an unchanging cultural icon for the better part of a century is that it appeals to children of every background, of every level of artistic aptitude. The Etch A Sketch is an icon, and like many other great icons that we’ve explored on Garage Greatness, it was first invented in a garage.

  • Richest Man Alive

    There are only a few names that are as synonymous with an industry as Microsoft is with personal use software. Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office are two of the most widely used pieces of software in the world, and for years Windows was the undisputed king of operating systems – Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and other Office softwares are still the most widely-used solution in their respective fields, with consistent usage by school-aged children and business owners alike. But Microsoft, like many other great companies, comes from humble origins. Bill Gates, the single man most responsible for Microsoft’s success and the wealthiest person in the world, built Microsoft to capitalize upon the success of his early forays into software development. Today, Microsoft is a household name across the world, but at the beginning of this story, Microsoft’s founders were meeting in a California garage for the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club.

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    Fall DIY Crafts!

    It is the season for pumpkins and apple cider, scary story and monsters, and also the season for a whole bushel of simple craft projects! We’ve created a list of some of our favorites over on our pintrest page, and if you’re looking for a way to decorate your home on a budget or just a way to stretch your creative muscles with a little project, we’ve got something perfect for you!

  • Doggy Garage: How to Keep Your Pet Safe!

    For many homeowners, our pets are just as much a part of our family as any of the humans in our lives. Pets can always cheer up someone going through a hard time, or comfort someone who just needs to be loved. Most pet owners love and care for their animals, but unfortunately some are either uninformed or neglectful, and pets suffer because of their lack of care. One common way that dogs especially are mistreated is by being left locked up in the garage, and given our line of work this is a particularly concerning issue for all of us at A Plus. We love our pets and know that our readers do as well, so today we’re going to educate you about why you shouldn’t leave your dog in the garage if it can be avoided, and if you have to leave your dog in the garage, what you should do to protect them.