My top 10 safety tips for your home you might have forgotten

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[00:00:21] Eric Goranson: Do you have an option? Do you have a a patio door to go out? Do you have a window to go out? Are you on the second or third floor? Is there a roof that you can drop down to? What is in the way of you getting outta that building? Now it's taken another notch. Your kids, how easy is it for them to get outta the building?

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[00:01:01] Eric Goranson: We've got you covered. This is around the house. Welcome to The Round the House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for tuning in today. We've got a great one here for. This is something that I want to just kind of start talking about in the springtime cause it's such a big deal.

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[00:01:40] Eric Goranson: And that's where this really plays key. So if you wanna find out more information about around the house here, just head to around the house online.com. You can find all the information there from the TV show, to the radio show, to the podcast, uh, the radio show on podcast, which you're listening to right now.

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[00:02:21] Eric Goranson: So here's the thing, first, what I want you to do, Is talk to your kids about the dangers of falling from a window. You know, it's, it's no different than telling 'em not to put their stuff in the, you know, put something metal in the outlet or play with the stove burners. This should be part of that discussion.

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[00:02:57] Eric Goranson: Where those window stops work. [00:03:00] Now, the other thing that you have to be careful with is make sure that you don't stack furniture in front of it. Some people go, oh, I just put a dresser in front of the window. They'll be fine. Now you just gave that child a ladder to be able to get up to look out because they can climb up, climb up that dresser or desk to get up over there.

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[00:03:42] Eric Goranson: And even a fall for a kid falling from a two-story window can result in serious injury or death. So make sure you get those window guards or stops in there. That's a big one. Uh, I also like the window stops for, you know, where you can open up the window and still get a little bit of a breeze, [00:04:00] open windows, and close them after.

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[00:04:30] Eric Goranson: And not on the concrete that was right next to it. Got very lucky right there. But, uh, you always, if you do have a kid that experiences a window fall, always get them checked out. You know, make sure that they're taken care of because I tell you what, um, this is such an easily preventable thing that I wanna make sure that we do it as parents, grandparents.

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[00:05:09] Eric Goranson: Uh, you know, you think about, and this is a little dark, but I'm gonna go there, you know, that, um, famous Eric Clapton. Where he is talking about his son, that is because he fell out of a window because he was going to go pick him up, uh, to go to the zoo and uh, the child had fallen. To their death out of their high rise because the window was not locked.

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[00:05:52] Eric Goranson: But, uh, the big thing with those is to make sure that the carbon monoxide detectors, I like to change those out about [00:06:00] every five years. Smoke detectors no more than 10 years. And I tell you what the, my favorite one that I'm using right now is the Google Nest Protect. None of these things are sponsored here, guys, but, uh, that's the one I use, uh, because I tell you what, that was worth the a hundred dollars purchase because I can now control it with my phone and if, uh, something sets it off, it texts me on my phone and gives me an alert that something's going on.

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[00:06:43] Eric Goranson: Steam can sometimes set these off, so make sure that you have them in the right spot. I have, uh, when I was testing my steam shower, I set mine off in the hallway because I had steam pouring outta the open door. When I was testing my steam shower and, uh, yeah, I'd set mine off because I had steam [00:07:00] coming from that, but it was a lot of steam from the steam shower.

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[00:07:16] Eric Goranson: But, uh, having those dialed in is really important. And, uh, I'll be honest, you can't have too many of those around there. So when a doubt, install another one. Now here's the next one. That is, um, tough for some people and that's even tougher for people that are experiencing, you know, the troubles of hoarding disorder, where you've got some mental illness that has too many things in your life as far as products, but eliminating clutter.

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[00:08:17] Eric Goranson: And this happens to people of all incomes, all walks of life. It can happen this way where people collect too many things and that can end up being a very big health hazard because many times at that point they'll have pets that are not taken care of. Uh, if you've got a family member that deals with this, um, I have a family member that deals with this that we haven't addressed.

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[00:09:06] Eric Goranson: I get it. But make sure you have clear walking paths. Make sure that, uh, in that clutter that you've got good transitions and floors, things like that. But, uh, clutter can be a huge one, especially that garage that's piled full of stuff and, um, You could have stuff in there that could catch fire and uh, that could be a whole other issue.

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[00:09:40] Eric Goranson: What's up, Mrs. Stick and Satchel. Diehl Panther and you are listening to Around The House with Eric G. Yeah. We love Eric G and you should too.[00:10:00]

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[00:10:18] Eric Goranson: Great people. Well, today we've been talking about our top 10 safety tips. You might have forgotten. For your home, and this is important stuff here and uh, I wanna make sure that you've got these kind of dialed in so you are safe around your house. Last segment we talked about child window locks, making sure those are dialed in and straightened up the smoke detectors, making sure they're updated with your carbon monoxide detectors.

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[00:11:01] Eric Goranson: Here's the thing, power strips generally are not meant to run heaters. Air conditioners, refrigerators, anything with a high amperage of pull. That's how you start a fire, and I te can't tell you how many little fires I see in offices and things like that for somebody having the space heater plugged into their power strip for their computer under the desk just to keep their feet warm during the winter.

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[00:11:54] Eric Goranson: You know, power strips are one thing, extension cord. You know, the, the more expensive, [00:12:00] the extension cord, generally the better gauge of wire you have. Like if you are gonna use a table saw way out in the backyard and you've got a hundred feet to run power out to, and now today they have plenty of cordless, you know, table saw.

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[00:12:40] Eric Goranson: It's gonna keep you from burning up a power tool. Now, many things like air conditioners and uh, even space heaters will tell you do not plug into an extension. Refrigerators, same kind of thing. Do not plug into an extension cord. The power loss is too much, [00:13:00] and uh, you can end up burning up compressors and other pieces, heating elements, things like that.

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[00:13:24] Eric Goranson: It pinched it, shorted it out, and they had a fire. So make sure that you've got the. Extension cords for what you're doing and make sure you're good that way. That's gonna leave for a safer home. Next one, fireplace cleaning and tuning up. If you've got a gas fireplace, make sure that thing is tuned up, working correctly, have it maintained.

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[00:13:59] Eric Goranson: [00:14:00] Get the fireplace inspected, looking for cracks. Make sure the crea soaps out of there. Make sure that's dialed in and make sure that you don't have any issues. You know, we've got homes now that had stainless steel linings on 'em. Sometimes the people are running hot fires in there. Those can create a whole other issue, so make sure.

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[00:14:41] Eric Goranson: Natural gas discussion about banning gas stoves because of particulate matter. And many times that particulate matter is because people were not running their ven hoods. But you can have a gas stove, a gas water heater. A gas fireplace, uh, you could have any of those things, [00:15:00] furnace, dryer even that are not working correctly.

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[00:15:29] Eric Goranson: Now, they might look at you and say, Hey, your range has got a problem. You need to get that fixed. That's broken. They might turn the gas off to that appliance and say, Hey, you got a problem there. This is unhealthy. But now you've found it, right? So make sure that you've got all those things working correctly and that you don't have something that's not working, and that's a free fix.

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[00:16:09] Eric Goranson: 70 years old and I don't feel comfortable getting up on the second story of my foyer to change that smoke detector up there and swap it out. I haven't touched it in years. I bet to those fine ladies and gentlemen will show up and help you do that. Um, I haven't seen it not happen before. There's always, always something, but uh, Uh, they will l happily come out and make sure that you are safe and dialed in.

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[00:16:54] Eric Goranson: Think about turning the hood on no matter what you're cooking, even boiling water. Let's, hey, let's [00:17:00] get the, uh, if it's gas, let's get that outta there. If you're boiling water in an electric or an induction, you wanna get that, um, a steam outta there anyway. Get outta your house. So it's a good time to, uh, turn that ventilation fan and get that outside.

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[00:17:35] Eric Goranson: You're just putting that, uh, mixing that air that's coming off your stove. That's bad. With the carbon monoxide and the particulate matter and carbon dioxide, all that stuff that's coming off there, you're just circling on the house. That really doesn't do much. You can put a little charcoal filter in there, but I'll be honest, they're fairly worthless.

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[00:18:08] Eric Goranson: And more, we'd love to hear you, um, comment and get some feedback from you guys. Head over to around the house on social media. We'd love to hear your feedback or ideas for a subject for an upcoming show Round the House, be right back after these important messages. Don't.

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[00:18:42] Eric Goranson: Hey, this is Ron Keel, the metal cowboy from Keel, the Ron Keel Band and Steeler. We are rocking around the house with Eric G. Ray is your first welcome back to The Round the House. Show us where we helped get the most outta your home through information at education. Thanks [00:19:00] for joining us today. We've been talking about the top 10 safety.

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[00:19:20] Eric Goranson: Trying to get rid of that hoarding situation or getting close to that. Power strips and extension cords, how those love to create fires, fireplace cleaning, and then checking out your gas appliances for leaks. Now the next one is a big one here, and I, I know that there are some people out there that don't believe this and, uh, everyone is entitled to their opinion and here is mine, radon.

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[00:20:06] Eric Goranson: And many times, like in my area, for instance, if I buy a house, that house has to have a rate on test before the sale goes through. It's part of the deal. Now I love that safety, but here's the thing, if you have an earthquake or something in your area or other things like that, like rock plaing or something like that, that can actually change the radar level.

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[00:20:56] Eric Goranson: So I always wanna make sure that you're testing. [00:21:00] That radon level. Now, here's one thing that we had happen as well. I had somebody from a well, and they were getting radon through the water, so there was radon in the water that was coming in. So when they were taking showers, they were getting high levels of radon from that.

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[00:21:37] Eric Goranson: And, um, The EPA recommends installing a system if your radon level is at or above four picocuries per liter of air. So I'll be honest, if you're at four, I would be doing it anyway. Um, I think if you're a lot lower than that, I would spend the money. Uh, because you know, you haven't, and, uh, who says it couldn't [00:22:00] increase, obviously it's in the area.

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[00:22:27] Eric Goranson: It is a very small thing, so you can reduce that stuff. But really, if you're buying a new home, make sure that they're doing radon resistant construction techniques. And, um, you know, that's, uh, one other thing and there's a multiplier on this as well that I don't have to tell you. People that smoke and have radon are much more likelier to have lung cancer than just if they had radon.

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[00:23:13] Eric Goranson: So just because I can walk down my street and see them all over the place that, uh, in my area we have got 'em. And, uh, there have been some very cases, even in my city here where people died from lung cancer that were not smokers that had no other known exposure or anything like that, but the rayon in their house got 'em.

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[00:23:52] Eric Goranson: So think about that. Do you have an option? Do you have a, uh, a patio door to go out? Do you have a window to go out? Are you on [00:24:00] the second or third floor? Is there a roof that you can drop down to? What is in the way of you getting outta that building? Now it's taken another notch. Your kids, how easy is it for them to get outta the building?

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[00:24:34] Eric Goranson: So that is not a safe bedroom. So make sure that you've got an escape plan on how to get out. Now here's my concern, um, that you need to be careful with. If you have solar panels on the roof or things like that, you need to be very careful that you are escaping to an area that doesn't have those solar panels.

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[00:25:12] Eric Goranson: When those clips get hot and they roll out, the truss fails and, uh, they do not last long if there's no other fasteners in them. So something to think about when you're escaping outta that. So make sure you've got a plan. Where are you gonna meet up? Where are you gonna meet up with those kids? Are you gonna be in and outta the building?

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[00:25:52] Eric Goranson: Where is that location? Where is it? Do you have some supplies there? Do you have ways to communicate in [00:26:00] there? Do you have any way to get out of that location? So just think about that. If you've got that room that's, you know, maybe under the stairs, cuz the stairs are strong in the basement, that's a great place to be.

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[00:26:30] Eric Goranson: So think that out, plan it out. Work it out with the kids. I'm not saying they need to jump out the window, but have them understand if there's a rope type safety ladder, they need to throw out, do they know how to operate it? Do they know where they're gonna meet you? That can be a good way to go. They're gonna get out the window if you give 'em the opportunity.

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[00:27:08] Eric Goranson: Or you can find me at the TV page, which is around the House Northwest, and you can find that there. Love to hear your feedback. If there's a subject that you want to hear me talk about, I do take requests. So if it's something that we haven't talked about in a while or it's a new topic, I would love to hear from you and you can message us over there.

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[00:27:43] Eric Goranson: You can find us over there and you can find, uh, all the videos over there. We've got a lot of great DIY projects. We've got some features, uh, what I call Maiden Northwest, which is our. Basically made an America segment that we're doing of all these great products that you can find out there [00:28:00] that are sold across the United States.

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[00:28:44] Eric Goranson: Gets the end of the show now. Drinking down people, it's time to go. It's that time again, it's last call. Welcome back to. A house show where we help you get the most outta your home through information and education. Hey, make sure you're following us on all our social media channels. We've got around the [00:29:00] House Show on Facebook, Instagram, and uh, you can find me Eric Corson on Twitter as well as the Around The House Show over on Instagram.

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[00:29:30] Eric Goranson: They have a, a, basically a saying, which is close before you doze this. This is about closing that door before you go to sleep, making sure that everyone is closing that. And this is interesting. It is very interesting to see from fire safety research, what a difference it is to have a door shut and a door open.

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[00:30:22] Eric Goranson: So that gives you a, a remarkable difference in a room of trying to last longer. I mean, that is huge. Gas, uh, concentrations were marked differently as well. The open door bedroom nearly measured, uh, it had a, a very toxic 10,000 ppm, which is the parts per million of carbon monoxide while the closed door had a hundred.

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[00:31:14] Eric Goranson: Unfortunately, now many of those products in our houses don't have that, so things become toxic, faster things burn faster. And so the advice always is sleep with the bedroom door closed. If there's a fire, there's no time to act, and uh, that will give you time to make it happen. If you're a parent with children in the home, as soon as that smoke alarm goes off, you know, maybe you can't get to the room because a smoke, if you've closed your door before they go to bed, it gives you that time to get outside and get into that window and help save them.

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[00:32:12] Eric Goranson: They have some amazing videos over there. That is a big deal. To make sure that you're doing that safely. So that's a big one. Now here's another one that's really important. Um, and it's good for kids and for earthquakes, tying down all that furniture. Now, if it's tall or it could fall over like a dresser or a bureau or any of those tall things, even when you're getting into.

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[00:33:02] Eric Goranson: That ends up being the first two drawers into being steps and they climb up and it falls over. Uh, I know of many people as kids that have been hurt that way, and then if you have an earthquake or something like that, or a natural disaster, you don't want those things flying around. You want that attached to the wall.

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[00:33:38] Eric Goranson: Simple patch. It's not gonna be something destructive, but attaching everything down and making sure that's good. Another tip that I have as well is, They make the sticky stuff, which is basically, it's a museum wax. I have a couple cool rock and roll figurines that are on my bar in my, in my living room, and I don't want 'em to get knocked off.

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[00:34:16] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. So using things like that to help keep yourself kind of dialed in is gonna be better for you and it's safer and you don't ruin stuff. I mean, it's amazing what can move around. When I was in an earthquake, we ended up having, um, I had a picture that was on, you know, a little floating shelf. It was touching between the floating shelf and the wall.

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[00:34:59] Eric Goranson: I don't want those to [00:35:00] come off of a nail or a hook and come falling down, especially stuff that's over couches and things like that, and hallways and uh, places like that. So make sure you got that stuff dialed in. Make sure that stuff is tied down and you're good to go for safety. And that's a great one.

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[00:35:33] Eric Goranson: And these are those things that get forgotten. So make sure that you've got a way to. Water that is filtered. So having some water stored, if you've got a body water near you, you might be able to use a filter and take it outta there. I have a huge lake that's not going anywhere and some rivers, so I have water that's around me, so I have ways to grab water and carry it cuz it's within, you know, quarter of a mile that I can carry water back if I had to.

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[00:36:32] Eric Goranson: It could take a week. It could take 10 days for the somebody to show up to help you, and it could be overwhelming a system. So make sure that you've got that ready to go. You want to have that life sustaining stuff. So you want to have food, water. You wanna have a couple tarps for shelter duct tape in case you have the tap tape up stuff around your house.

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[00:37:23] Eric Goranson: So make sure you've got that. Some of these new electric vehicles out there have got. Ways to power up as well that you can use that if you've got solar, it's something that you can use. But again, making sure that you've got that and as well as your pets. Don't forget those. If you've got dogs, if you've got cats, if you've got those kind of pets around the house, make sure you've got food for a few weeks for 'em.

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[00:38:01] Eric Goranson: Make sure that you're good there and, uh, as long as you've got some light flashlights. Uh, I'm a big proponent of having tool batteries with lights because usually you've got those charged up if you're taking care of your tools and you've got those things charged up. So, You've got other sources of light.

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[00:38:31] Eric Goranson: And, uh, you know, I, I, it's one thing to have extra food in the pantry. I know food's expensive, but you can buy some of those freed freeze-dried packets to put in your, uh, in the top of the closet or something that you have access to, and you'll be good to go. And those things last for decades. So you buy it once, forget about it.

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