Servicing Ottawa (Ontario), GTA (Toronto), Kitchener/Waterloo (Ontario), Montreal and Halifax
Here you’ll find answers to the questions we get asked the most about our services and many other topics.
Our services include Attic Insulation, Mold Remediation and Mold Prevention. We also provide basic maintenance such as Gutter Guard sales and installation,Window/Door installation, and more. We provide the highest quality of service while focusing on attention to detail as well as safety.
We’re closely monitoring the ongoing outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) to ensure we do all we can to help to keep both you and our workers happy and safe.
It depends. If you are someone who is generally successful with DIY home improvement projects, then you may have the ability to take on a project of this magnitude and importance (for your home’s health).
However, if you are someone who is generally NOT successful with DIY home improvement projects, then this is definitely not the time to be bold and “give it a shot.”
Your roof is vital to the health of your home’s structure and internal condition. To botch repairs or wing a full replacement can lead to serious damages.
Even more, you will end up spending both the time and money in performing the DIY roof project and then spend more time and money later on when you need to hire a professional to do it right.
Insulation is measured in R-values and the higher the R-value, the more resistant it is to heat flow (and therefore the more efficient it is.) In order to know how much insulation you need to add, you should first determine the R-value of the insulation currently in your attic.
Determine the type of insulation in your attic. The most common types are cellulose, loose-fill fiberglass, and fiberglass batt (pictured above).
Measure the depth of your insulation in several places and take an average.
Multiply that number by the R-value per inch for the type of insulation you have. Cellulose is about R3.5, loose-fill fiberglass is R2.5, and fiberglass batt is R3.5
This will give you your attic insulation’s current R-value. For example, if there is an average of 4 inches of cellulose insulation throughout your attic, your current R-value is about R14.
Department of Energy Recommended for Ontario:
Zone 1 and Zone 2: R-Value recommended from R60 to R80.
Making the decision to do-it-yourself or hire a professional can be difficult. Remember to consider how much time you have to devote to the project.
An experienced professional will save you time and the need to acquire large equipment and insulation.
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Now that you have determined how much insulation you need and if you will be doing the installation yourself, the next step is to decide on the type of insulation you will install.
Below are the three most common attic insulation types for DIY projects:
Once you have answered these three questions, you are now ready to install or purchase Attic Insulation for your home.
It depends. If you are someone who is generally successful with DIY home improvement projects, then you may have the ability to take on a project of this magnitude and importance (for your home’s health).
However, if you are someone who is generally NOT successful with DIY home improvement projects, then this is definitely not the time to be bold and “give it a shot.”
Your roof is vital to the health of your home’s structure and internal condition. To botch repairs or wing a full replacement can lead to serious damages.
Even more, you will end up spending both the time and money in performing the DIY roof project and then spend more time and money later on when you need to hire a professional to do it right.
Mold grows in attics due to four main reasons:
Common signs of attic mold
Have an expert Spray/Fog your attic with Mold Control solution. When conditions promote mold growth in the attic, a antimicrobial film “opens”, exposing the active ingredients to kill off fungus and bacteria. As moisture decreases, the surface film then reseals, locking the mold eliminating ingredients back in. Antimicrobial Technology is used to prevent mold in spaces like the attic.
Insulation is measured in R-values and the higher the R-value, the more resistant it is to heat flow (and therefore the more efficient it is.) In order to know how much insulation you need to add, you should first determine the R-value of the insulation currently in your attic.
We are available in the Ottawa area, GTA and Kitchener/Waterloo area.
Check our contact page for more information about our offices and available locations.
Windows come in all different shapes, styles and sizes, so this question can only be answered with an estimate in person either via phone, email, or at your home or business.
We use the latest in water fed pole technology to professionally and efficiently clean windows to a very high standard.
When pure water is used for window cleaning, the impurities on your glass are held in the water, as the pure water strives to return to its impure state. Your glass is then given a final rinse with the water fed poles to leave the glass totally sterile.
RPM @ Home Team use water fed poles that produce a high level of Pure water : from 1 to 60 ppm after the reverse osmosis purification stage (depending of the hardness of your water), and 0-1 ppm after the final stage which is the Deioniser. Pure water (0 ppm) leaves your window neat and clean. With spot free water, your windows dry spotless without the need of wiping the contaminates off.
No detergent residue means that windows do not get dirty so quickly, your windows inevitably stay cleaner… longer.
Because we use 100% pure water to clean, the windows dry spotless.
When we use the pure water fed poles we clean all the window, including frames and ledges.
Should the skies open up on the day we are scheduled to work at your house, we will still want to come. A light drizzle doesn’t really affect the job. However, if it is raining hard enough to hit the windows our efforts to provide the best in window cleaning may well be compromised.
This is a matter of preference. Most of our clients choose to in the spring and fall.
We have got the latest window cleaning equipment in Canada. The Water fed pole system eliminates the need for ladder ties so our work is 100% satisfied to the Health and Safety legislation in Canada.
There are two schools of thought; before the predominant leaf and needle fall for your area or immediately afterwards. Which works for your house has as much as to do with past practices as it does the composition of the debris and environment surrounding your home.
If leaf fall is very little but it has been years since last cleaned and your gutters are already overflowing before the primary debris fall has even started, you might want to consider cleaning prior to the fall so that they have capacity for new debris.
However, if your yearly debris fall is high and a single season fills up the full capacity of the gutters, then it is best to wait for the entire debris drop before cleaning.
This answer also depends on what type of trees are in your yard. If your yard is surrounded by deciduous trees, which lose most of their leaves over a few week period, cleaning after the drop might work best. If your yard has a lot of evergreen trees, which lose needles regularly throughout the entire year, you might want clean them out as soon as there is clogging, regardless of when that is.
There are other less common, reasons for the timing of cleaning. On occasion, gutter cleaning is done during the spring or summer as a result of unsightly weeds literally growing out of dirty gutters.
Regardless of all of these scenarios, cleaning gutters after the autumn leaf fall is the most common practice.
Unfortunately, this is one of those questions that depend on the specific location. Many residences can suffice with a yearly gutter cleaning. Some, without many nearby tall trees, can go longer, possibly two to four years between cleanings. Others, in more densely treed areas, require multiple cleaning per year, ranging from two to four or five.
Aside from the gutters capacity to hold debris as mentioned above, there is still the corrosive, rusting, aspect of leaving gutters filled with decaying organic matter. Additionally, very full and overflowing gutters increase the risk of roof and window leaks. In light of this, unless your house has extenuating circumstances, yearly cleaning is the best bet and a good starting interval.
Again, this is another question that depends on the location. Size, difficulty, location, and desired method are the greatest influences on price.
Bigger houses, steeper and taller roofs, sloped property, and slippery or fragile roof material all factor into increasing the cost of a job. The structure’s location, in regards to the surrounding environment and how many trees are present, affects price as well.
Finally, the method of cleaning affects the price. Methods vary from power washing the gutter debris out (very messy – we never use this method) to air blowing (not near as messy but ultimately dependant on good ground cleanup up) to hand cleaning (the tidiest.)
All of these factors considered, common gutter cleaning prices can range from just over a hundred dollars to over three or four hundred.
There is one last pricing factor to consider. Seeing that almost any one with a truck and ladder can fancy themselves as a gutter cleaner, there are a lot of uninsured and unlicensed folks who offer the service.
Aside from the quality, reliability, and warranty issues involved, there is always a big risk to allowing uninsured, un-bonded and unlicensed people to work on your property, particularly where ladders and roof top work are involved.
Properly licensed companies will cost a little more than a weekend warrior earning some fun money but it is well worth it.
I alluded to this above when discussing what can happen when debris is left inside of a gutter for too long. Rusting and corrosion can start.
This will shorten the life of gutter system. Holes can eventually start appearing in rusted areas. Roof leaks or leaks at the exterior walls and windows can also occur when gutters are left clogged.
Clogged gutters also become very heavy and will eventually pull away from either the fascia board or rafter tails behind them. Pulled out gutters tend to twist, further damaging the gutter systems seams.
Another problem from full and overflowing gutters is that the fascia boards, rafter tails and even roof sheathing can start to rot. These can all be quite involved and expensive to repair.
Even aluminum gutters, purchased because of their rustproof nature but still subject to corrosion, are subject to many of the other types of damage listed here as a result of not being cleaned.
While most folks understand that gutter cleaning refers to removing the debris that collects inside of the gutters, there still can be confusion. The actual interior walls of the gutter are not scrubbed clean with an “interior gutter cleaning,” but rather just the interior cleaned of debris.
Some gutters will have a sludge type substance accumulate at the bottom of the gutters too, often the decomposed organic matter that has fallen. This sludge can often cause more blockage than the debris itself. While some of it can be removed by hand, most of it can be flushed down the downspout.
Just ensure that it is flushed adequately long so that you can see water coming out from the drain exhaust point (often in the street next to the driveway or if you live in on a slope with undeveloped land behind you, sometime an exposed pipe that shoots out to the undeveloped area.)
SMART SCREEN guards have been on the market for many years. we have sold millions upon millions of feet. They can take large volumes of water, yet prevent leaves, needles and other debris from entering. We also stand by our product with a warranty
There is no such thing as a maintenance-free gutter guard. If a representative from any gutter guard company in the world makes such a claim, second guess. Your gutters are the defense against water damage. Above all, RPM’s job is to protect your home from having clogged gutters and to prevent you from having to clean the muck from the interior. Mostly, the product will self-shed with the wind, but on some homes, you may need to easily brush the debris off from the surface.
SMART SCREEN guards help to prevent the gutter from filling up with snow and ice and becoming extremely heavy. We use a guard product constructed with an under structure 4x stronger than any other guard on the market. This creates an ability to significantly increase the strength of your gutter system, allowing it to withstand the weight of the snow and ice.
If a home is experiencing ice damming, it is typically the result of poor attic insulation. A home with asphalt shingles will have ice dams even without gutters. It is important to properly insulate the home before looking at your guards. If you have insulated the attic space and are still experiencing ice damming, we offer a heated gutter option to help deal with the challenges of ice damming. Contact RPM for a free attic inspection to top up your attic insulation.
Our guards are available for both 4″ and 5″ gutters.
The SMART SCREEN guard we use are designed to overlap, preventing the gaps found in some alternative guards products. The front of the guard is zip screwed into the lip of the gutter and the back is zip screwed to the fascia of the house under the drip edge. This prevents water from dripping behind the gutter.
Fogging is the application of our Permethrin solution to an area to reduce adult mosquito populations. It involves cold or ultra-low volume (ULV) foggers. The careful calibration of the insecticide flow-rate on the ULV foggers, plus droplet size analysis helps to ensure accurate application rates and optimum droplet size for controlling adult mosquitoes and ticks.
We use Permethrin. Permethrin is an insecticide in the pyrethroid family. Pyrethroids are synthetic chemicals that act like natural extracts from the chrysanthemum flower. This synthetic product is used in tick shampoos and dogs tick control collars.
It is approved by the PMRA (pest management Regulatory Agency) department of Health Canada. Our teams follow all the laws and guidelines set by Environment Canada. Our Technicians are trained and apply it properly according to label specification. This product assures you a huge reduction in the mosquito population. It will kill the existing mosquitoes. RPM just asks the customer to stay off the lawn for at least 1 hour.
Once it dries up completely safe for humans and pets. We provide season-long protection from May until October (weather permitting). We spray the trees 12 feet high and 12 ft deep(if possible), foliage, hedges, deck, under the deck, cedar or wooden fences. It is completely safe for kids and pets after 30 minutes of application.
Yes. The new solution does not cause disease, harm or death to mammals, fish, livestock, birds, frogs, bees, lake shore amphibians, reptiles, shellfish or poultry.
No service can offer 100% protection from every mosquito and tick. As you can imagine, a mosquito from a neighboring property can wander into your yard and bite you before landing on the treated foliage. However, you’ll find that the presence of mosquitoes and ticks is enormously reduced.
The short answer is yes, mosquito foggers do work. Foggers work by putting out a small amount of insecticide that is designed to kill airborne mosquitoes. While fogging is considered an extremely effective means of killing mosquitos, however it is not a 100% fix for the problem. This is why we will return every 21 days to retreat to insure you are benefitting for the entire summer.
Yes. We have special event spraying available for everything from a back yard birthday party to a large wedding reception. Special event treatments are provided prior to your event and will remain effective even if it rains.
In addition to controlling mosquitos as described, our fogging delivers the added benefit of repelling flies, wasps, ticks and other annoying insects.
Our entire Ottawa Home Services team is committed to the health and safety of our customers and hope to continue to provide efficient work regardless of the circumstances.
Our teams are required to check and record temperature every day.
We complete a comprehensive survey each morning to screen anyone with any potential contact to COVID-19.
We discuss and train on maintaining social distancing daily.
Our teams where masks when speaking with clients.
Yes we are are, we do take precautions dealing with clients (add from paragraph before).
Our teams are required to check and record temperature every day.
We take cash, cheque, and credit/debit cards as payment. After registering your debit or credit card details, members can instantly and securely send money. Its safe, free and easy to use and only takes a few minutes to sign up.
Yes, we offer financing for up to $100.000 in monthly installments.
RPM @ Home Team Ltd has partnered with Financeit to offer fast, easy financing for your purchase. We offer:
Check our financing page for more information.
RPM is fully insured for both workers compensation and general liability coverage. What this means to you is that you will never be responsible for any liability for claims in the event of an accident on your project. We will be happy to provide certificates of insurance for you.
Yes. We believe in our service, our products and our value to earn you business.
About 24 hours maximum.
Yes, we require for you to be at home.
Yes, of course. We always leave our work spaces clean.
We will work through most weather unless its dangerous for our teams.