On Engineering
- Grab bars and handrails add safety and security, and are especially beneficial to the elderly and physically debilitated.
- Easily accessible fire extinguishers in kitchens, garages, and mechanical rooms, can avert disasters.
- There should be an outside combustion air source for fireplaces which consume significant amount of oxygen.
- Use plastic rather than glass in the bath, to reduce the event of injury in the event it gets broken.
- Guard against scalding by using mixing valves on water faucets, where temperatures are preset.
- Glass block walls provide a twofold benefit: sturdy construction and infiltration of light.
- Strategically positioned exterior lighting adds an element of visual security.
- Store combustible household items in fireproof outbuildings.
- Keep toxic substances away from children by storing them in cabinet which can be locked, and which has a door closer on it.
- Assure that trips up and down stairs are fully lighted trips, by installing three-way switches at staircase landings.
- Batteries stored for emergency purposes emit combustible gases. Therefore, make certain the room in which you store them is vented.
- Large trees positioned too close to your incoming power source or to the house itself, should be cut down.
- Lightning rods protect a structure from fire caused by lightning strikes.
- Keep window curtains away from open heaters to avoid fire.
- Dead bolts on doors and high-quality window locks provide an extra element of protection against intruders.
- A firewall between a house and a mechanical room or an attached garage slows the progress of fire.
- To stop the flow of flammable gases from an attached garage to the house, use a step-up curb at the entrance to the house.
- Install grip strips in bath and shower, and nonskid surfaces in other wet areas to enhance footing and reduce likelihood of falls.
- Make certain bathroom doors can be opened from the outside, in the event emergency access is necessary.
- An antenna, which has no lightning rod and is close to a power line, could act as a lightning rod.
- In work areas and hobby rooms, consider retractable electric cords: for easy storage and to eliminate concerns about tripping over them.
- Stairs sloped at greater or less than standard, increase potential for tripping.
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