Lake Houston - Humble - Kingwood Edition | July 2021

GUIDE

Local businesses oer home improvement tips

2 0 2 1 R E A L E S T A T E E D I T I O N

HOME IMPROVEMENT

COMPILED BY BROOKE ONTIVEROS

ASKA GARAGE DOOR TECHNICIAN

ASKA FLOORING SPECIALIST

For homeowners wanting to upgrade their garage doors, ProLift Garage Doors provides service to customers across North Houston and the surrounding area.

IONE Flooring oers a wide selection of ooring materials ranging from vinyl planking to carpet with installation complete in two to three business days for in-stock products.

HOW LOUD SHOULD A GARAGE SOUND? They should be pretty whisper quiet, especially [if] the functionality of the opener [is good], as well as better rollers, better hinges, proper lubrication, proper maintenance, all those things. If the [homeowner] is leaving at 5 a.m., they [shouldn’t] wake up the rest of the home. HOW OFTEN SHOULD PROFESSIONALS CONDUCT MAINTENANCE CHECKS ON GARAGE DOORS? Ten thousand cycles is all those springs are designed to last, so a lot of times it’s a seven-year last for any garage door springs.

CAN GARAGE DOORS USE SMART HOUSING TECHNOLOGY? You can get all kinds of technology on them. It’ll connect to your smart devices, your smart home features, and you can open it and close it from anywhere in the world. Your kids can open and close it if they’re coming home from school to an empty house. The other one is the myQ app, which is an app that LiftMaster has, and that actually connects to Amazon. So if you have a bunch of Amazon deliveries ... the Amazon driver can actually open your garage door if you have a delivery registered through Prime. The Amazon thing is great to eliminate people from stealing your items o your porch like they do nowadays.

WHAT FLOORING IS BEST FOR HOMEOWNERS WORRIED ABOUT FLOOD DAMAGE? Tile is great as far as being able to withstand [ooding]. Say your house oods. OK, your tile is ne, your oors survived the ood. But now let’s see the other side of the spectrum. Say you were to drop something heavy ... and you broke one of your tiles in the middle of your living room. You have [to have] extra [tiles] on the side. Even if you have extra, if you don’t have the right installer to actually be able to perform a very good, very discreet kind of repair, you are forever stuck with that problem. With the [vinyl planking] click-and-lock option, you can ... unclick everything, set

it outside, let it dry and then put it right back inside. WHAT FLOORING INCREASES HOME SALE VALUES THE MOST? Hardwood is generally the best return you can get on the ooring, but it’s also the most investment. It’s kind of a double-edged sword on that. ... Honestly, if you’re not looking at a house that’s going to be at least a half a million dollars, putting hardwood in it is not something that the next homeowner is necessarily [going to] worry themselves with too much. [Average homeowners should have] hard surfaces in all your common places and just carpet in the bedrooms.

Oscar Solorzano Owner, IONE Flooring 1424 Northpark Drive, Ste. D, Kingwood 713-484-9975 www.ioneooring.com

John Ramoin Owner, ProLift Garage Doors 281-609-2231 www.proliftdoors.com/the-woodlands

NORTHPARK DR.

WOODLAND HILLS DR.

494

A & K Mortgage is dedicated to providing a streamlined, prompt loan closing process for client purchases and refinances. One Application. Multiple Lenders. There’s A Way with A & K! Kristen T. Bradley, CPA, MBS, MLO President | Mortgage Broker 525 N. Sam Houston Pkwy East, Suite 460 Houston, TX 77060 (833) 425-6678 akmortgage.net | info@akmortgage.net Loan Types: • FHA • Conventional • USDA • VA • Construction Loans • Bank Statement Loans • DACA & ITIN Borrowers

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12310 W. Lake Houston Pkwy. Houston, TX 77044 713.852.6700 TexasBayCU.org

NMLS: #280545

This credit union is federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration.

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