DAYTON, Ohio — We’ve all heard the old adage, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
It’s Murphy’s Law.
When it comes to essential home appliances breaking, it always seems to happen when cold, snowy weather shows up during winter.
During the cold weather months, it’s important to not only stay up on your own home maintenance, but also check on your neighbors and other people who need a little extra help.
Mark McKinney is a service manager with Five Star Home Services.
“From Columbus to Cincinnati, we make our way to Chillicothe, Kentucky from time to time, we’ve even been to Indiana a couple of times,” he said.
For electrical, plumbing and HVAC repairs, this time of year is busy.
“When we have increased weather like this, the call volume comes up to a thousand, maybe 2,000 calls in a day,” said McKinney.
During this type of weather, it’s crucial to have HVAC experts like Ben Reed ready to go.
He’s been working in the industry since he graduated high school.
Fast forward almost a decade, and the Ohio native spends hours a day driving the highways, going from home to home to help turn the heat back on.
“The first snow was a very heavy snow, but not too much ice. The road patrol was pretty good,” he said.
Reed said small things can turn into big things really fast.
Pipes freeze and furnaces fail from lack of maintenance, age, or parts wearing out.
“Snow has a factor on some things. We’ve got flue pipes getting covered up, stuff starting to freeze up outside blocking vents,” he explained.
Reed says it’s important to stay on top of home maintenance, but also to keep an eye on those who can’t, like senior citizens.
“Helping them is the best part of the job. I do everything I can to give them heat. Sometimes if I see their trash cans are in the driveway we try to pull it up to them so they don’t get out in this weather,” Reed said.
“It seems like they’re more interested the most in doing preventative maintenance. We just know naturally that’s the way aging goes. You just naturally want a warmer house so they do like warmer temps, they like to add accessories like humidifiers to make the air more comfortable and make them just feel better in their home,” said McKinney.
Some senior citizens might not go down the stairs into their basement for months at a time.
Reed said not every repair is easy and this is time of year when people notice — often when it’s too late.
“Gas furnaces are very important to keep clean and then the flame sensor needs to be cleaned yearly as well,” Reed said.
While he’s never quite sure what to expect when he heads from home to home, he knows he’s making a difference.
“I’ve had customers cry tear of joy, hug me, make me dinner, make me breakfast. If you’re elderly and you can’t carry heaters, live all by yourself, it makes a huge difference to have a responsive professional company come out and take care of you,” he said.