repair

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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!

  • 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.

  • Inventing the Cat Flap: Newton or Not?

    Hello readers! On this installment of Garage Greatness, we’re going to be exploring the dubious claim that Isaac Newton himself invented the cat door while in the garage! Although this claim is interesting and would certainly make for a good story, many people doubt that it is true, so we will also be discussing the other potential origins of the cat door. Having specialized doors for your pets is a very old idea, and tracking the exact origin is difficult, but we have done our best to verify the information we’re bringing you. We bring the same reliable and dependable service to our blog that we bring to our residential and commercial garage door installation and repair services.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Harley-Davidson: American Excellence

    Garages are notoriously loud, since hobbyist mechanics and garage bands tend to use the garage specifically for making noise. With a private workshop sectioned off from the rest of the house, these backyard innovators had all the space (and muffling walls) they needed to practice their craft without disturbing their family. Of course, some garage inventors want to make noise, like the Davidson brothers and their friend William S. Harvey. These four inventors, all born before 1882, tinkered in a shed behind their friend’s property and ended up inventing a product that would revolutionize American roads and become one of the most iconic examples of any industry – The Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

  • Garage Greatness: Building Your Own Nest

    How often do you adjust your home thermostat? Many thermostats are outdated eyesores, installed by contractors who are more interested in getting the lowest possible bid than they are in the comfort of their home’s future inhabitants. Also, most homeowners use their thermostat in an inefficient way, and since home temperature control accounts for as much as 10% of total energy usage in the US, even just slightly wasteful habits can mean hundreds of dollars of cost for each household – hundreds of millions, across the country. Tony Fadell is the man behind Nest, the smart thermostat that is designed to solve these problems, and he is more qualified than anyone to create cutting edge technology: before he was prototyping a thermostat in a Palo Alto garage, he was creating the iPod and iPhone at his previous executive position with Apple.

  • Pay It Forward

    This is a touching story that every parent and child can relate to, a story about how one man’s love for his family was larger than his love for any possession, and a story about how his kindness was repaid by the very people he made his sacrifice to help: his children. Like many great stories, this one begins and ends in a garage. Rich Tipton sold his Corvette in 1989 for the sake of his family, and when it was returned to him this year, he was reduced to tears instantly.

  • Garage Project: Hot Rod Fever!

    People use their garages for all kinds of things, but consistently we see two uses that stand out as the most common. Many people store things in the garage, and many (although perhaps fewer than you’d expert!) also keep their cars there. For some people, however, they can practice their hobby and keep their cars indoors at the same time. For anyone who collects hot rods or considers themselves a hobbyist mechanic, the thought of leaving their beautiful custom car outside, exposed to the elements, is unthinkable. The garage has always been home to tinkerers and auto experts, but some modern chop shops take this fascination to a whole new level.

  • Ring a Bell: Alexander Graham Bell Invents the Telephone

    Alexander Graham Bell lived from 1847 until 1922, and in those years he had a remarkable life of innovation and advocacy. He is best known for being the first person to patent a practical telephone, one of the greatest innovations to human communication of all time, but in his life Bell also addressed many other areas of interest to him, mostly regarding deafness and elocution. Bell’s legacy shaped human history and his inventions were critical to the continuing progress of technology, but what is commonly forgotten about his work is that he got his start in the garage – or, to be more accurate, the carriage house!

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    Shut The (Garage) Door on Burglars!

    We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – the most important step a homeowner can take to protecting the contents of their garage is to close the garage door! Although that might sound obvious, everyone can remember a time that they left their garage door open. Maybe, some of you reading this routinely leave your door open. Or maybe, you were doing some yard work in the backyard and left the door open on the front of your home so you could put your tools away. The simple convenience of not having to worry about the door is appealing, but ask yourself if it is worth risking a break in – or worse – and you might reconsider.

  • Garage Door Magic

    How many times a day do you use your garage door? Let’s all admit it: by this point, the magic has worn off. When you take a step back and think about how much easier your door makes your life, you can probably appreciate how revolutionary this innovation was, but any homeowner with a garage door likely takes it for granted. The technology involved might not be as cutting-edge as the iPhone 6S, but it can still amaze people who haven’t seen it before – like this adorable baby.