Menards®

According to the New Mover Trends Report, 84% of millennial new movers tackle a home improvement project after settling in. Let's take a look at the early checks that catch problems while they're still simple to fix. TL;DR:  A few safety and function checks are worth doing before the boxes get unpacked. A bathroom floor often reveals problems first, since it's exposed to water daily. A vanity built for the last household's habits may not suit a new one. Central heat rarely reaches every room evenly, and that gap often surfaces slowly. Before You Unpack a Single Box Before arranging furniture, a few checks pay off. Locate the main water shutoff and the breaker box. Test every outlet, run each faucet, and flush every toilet to catch a slow leak early. Check smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as well, so you can have peace of mind.  Why the Bathroom Floor Is Worth a Second Look The bathroom is usually the next place to reveal issues, since it deals with water daily instea...

Most home equipment doesn't fail on a convenient day. It usually shows up dead, jammed, or missing a part at the exact moment it's needed, whether that's the first cold snap or the first heat wave of the year.  A quick seasonal check-in on the gear sitting in a garage or shed is a small habit that saves a real scramble later. Fall: Getting Ahead of the First Snow Fall is the easiest time to find out whether a gas snow blower actually starts, long before the first real snowfall makes that answer urgent. A quick test run, with fresh gas if it's been sitting since last winter, beats finding out during an actual storm. Winter: The One Thing Worth Testing Before It's Actually Cold Along with scheduling a furnace tune-up, it’s worth checking whether your portable electrical space heater still works as it did last year. A plug-in check on a mild day beats finding out a unit's dead during the one week it's needed. Spring: The Reset Nobody Puts on the Calendar Spri...

A snow day sounds simple until the whole family is suddenly home at once, the driveway is buried, and you need to keep everyone entertained. A heavy duty gas snow blower makes quick work of the one task that can't just wait. The rest of the day gets easier once that part's handled. Here’s what you should know.  Plan on Clearing the Driveway More Than Once A snow day rarely means one clean pass over the driveway. Cars come and go for errands, kids head out to sled, and the mail still needs somewhere to land. A heavy duty gas snow blower handles repeat trips through heavy, wet snow without bogging down. This matters when the driveway gets used all day instead of just once before work.  Keep the Room Everyone Piles Into Actually Warm Once everyone's home and the day slows down, one room usually becomes the default gathering spot, and that's the room a furnace struggles to keep comfortable on a genuinely cold day. An electrical space heater adds quick, supplemental warmth...

Once the weather turns, a shed or garage tends to become overflow storage instead of a space you can actually use. That doesn't have to be the case. A few key pieces of equipment are usually what stand between a garage you avoid all winter and one that’s fully functional.  Heat It Like You Actually Use It If you're planning to spend any real time in your garage or shed, whether it's finishing a project or just organizing gear, the space needs to actually hold heat. A large room space heater is designed to warm up large areas, so you're not standing around in a coat while you work. It's the difference between a usable garage and one that's just heated enough to keep the pipes from freezing through the coldest stretch of the year.   Choose Power Over Convenience When the driveway is long, or the snow's heavy, a lightweight blower doesn't cut it. A high-performance heavy duty gas snow blower is built for exactly that kind of job, clearing th...