“It’s been a great year for our Giants, and I’d say a great year for Diamond Certified. In my book, Diamond Certified makes the postseason, too!”—Dave Flemming during a recent Giants playoff game on KNBR

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning the National League Championship last night and advancing to their second World Series in 3 years!

This is exciting news for Bay Area sports fans, but it’s also exciting for another reason: Our media partnership with KNBR includes radio spots for all Giants’ broadcasts, which means our Diamond Certified commercials (starring Giants play-by-play announcer Dave Flemming) will be heard during every game of the World Series! Read more

Many people don’t address the erosion problems on their properties. Either they don’t see them, or they don’t understand the process, according to Mark Soiland, President of Soiland Co., Inc., a Diamond certified company. “Erosion is simply water that picks up volume, and therefore velocity, in storm events. It can cause major property damage.” Adding rocks is a good solution for many situations. Rocks of different sizes can slow down the erosive nature of water, as it picks up both volume and velocity. The rocks will also help stabilize the ground underneath. “In order to prevent erosion, you have to stop the water at its starting point,” says Mr. Soiland. “It’s a function of channeling or dissipating the water and getting it to not cause any damage while it moves to where it needs to go to get into our streams.” Read more

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, wants consumers to beware of telephone sales pitches for magazine subscriptions. While some offers may be legitimate, many are not. Agreeing to buy could result in years of monthly bills for magazines you don’t want, or you could end up paying for a magazine you never even receive.

Solicitors may try to lower your guard by saying they’re just calling to conduct a survey. To protect yourself, don’t ever give your credit card or other personal information to any caller. Don’t agree to anything you don’t receive in writing first. Before you accept an offer to renew a subscription, check the expiration date to determine if it’s really coming up. Read more

Do you know what the #1 reason is that cars don’t pass their smog check? According to Diamond Certified smog check experts, a “check engine” / “service engine soon” light ON and/or high tail pipe emissions are the main reasons. The state sets the maximum allowed limits for hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, referred to as “NOX”. A worn out catalytic converter can also be one of the many causes for not passing.

Each smog check station has its own policy as to whether they charge you for a failure. The state does not regulate that. In general, shops set their own prices for all smog checks, other than the state regulated $8.25 for the Smog Certificate.  Read more

This is a question sometimes heard by carpet cleaning companies from customers after cleaning their carpets. They have to explain that buckling occurs either because the polypropylene backing on the carpeting is defective or, more commonly, the original installation was not done properly.

Sometimes installers don’t take the time to stretch wall-to-wall carpeting (they are often paid per house, not by the hour). The slack can be up to 1%, or an inch for every 100 inches of carpeting.  Without stretching, buckling or bunching usually shows up around the edges and heavy furniture. It may appear after a few months or after a visit from your carpet cleaner.  If you’re having carpeting installed soon, make sure the installers don’t just “knee kick” the floor covering into place. Read more

Have you ever come back home after a long vacation to just find ugly rings in your toilet bowls just below water lines? You’re tidy and you left everything immaculate as usual. What happened while you and the family were away?

You should not blame your toilet flushing system, its valves and flappers, or anyone else for that matter. The culprit is evaporation. When water evaporates, it leaves these unsightly discolored rings. How can you prevent this from happening next time? Before going away, if you know the toilets will not be used, lift the toilet seat and cover the bowl tightly with a plastic wrap like Saran Wrap. This way, you can avoid the hassle of having to scrub off theses ugly water spots when you get back home. Read more

Choosing the least expensive bid from a contractor is not always a wise strategy. You could end up being the star of a contractor horror story. Matthew Johnson of Matthew W. Johnson, General Contractor, a Diamond Certified company, hears these sad stories all the time and says you can usually avoid big problems by looking for red flags.

Some low-balling contractors bid jobs lower than their cost. You might be tempted by the price. Once they get into the job, they start adding on the extras, hire unskilled labor, take their sweet time completing the job (because they’re taking a loss) or simply walk away from a partially completed job. Diamond Certified contractors have had their licenses checked and credentials verified by American Ratings Corporation. Read more