When most people think of wood flooring, the old tried-and-true standbys like oak, maple and cherry usually come to mind. But bamboo and cork floors are getting a lot of attention nowadays because of their environmentally friendly qualities.

They both come from quick-growing sustainable resources and are available in a variety of colors and patterns. Unlike traditional wood flooring, both products are grown and harvested abroadAsia for bamboo and Mediterranean countries for cork. The need to transport them long distances add to their overall carbon footprint, but they have other attributes that outweigh their transportation and make them eco-friendly flooring choices.

Bamboo is not actually woodits a grass that reaches maturity in about six years. There are three types of bamboo flooring: vertical grain, horizontal grain and woven. Each provides a distinctive look that ranges from a traditional-looking wood floor to one that displays distinctive bamboo-type markings, such as the knuckles, or growth rings, of the bamboo stalks. Other characteristics include:

Cork flooring absorbs sound and is warm to the touch underfoot.

Cork comes from a species of oak that after it grows for about 25 years. Its bark is carefully removed without hurting the tree. New bark is harvested every nine years after that. The cork used in flooring is waste from the cork stopper industry. The product is not only sustainably harvested, but it is a recycled material as well.

Although it may seem like cork flooring is a new product, it has been around since the end of the nineteenth century. Natural cork has a distinctive look that is different from those found on wood flooring. Some products are digitally altered to give the appearance of stone, similar to the technique used on laminate flooring. Other characteristics include:

When it comes time for new flooring, both bamboo and cork flooring are good eco-friendly options.

Fran Donegan is a longtime DIY author who also writes for The Home Depot. He covers a variety of topics, including the best eco-friendly hardwood flooring options and how to build a home with sustainable materials. To see more ideas on green hardwood options, click here.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Bamboo and Cork: The Alternative Wood Flooring Products - Care2.com

Speed is of the essence when youre upgrading your kitchen, considering that youre likely to be spending more money on takeout and dinners out during the renovation.

Consumer Reports offers advice.

Design

To limit costs, leave the layout alone. If that wont do, consider moving only the fridge, because it requires just a standard 120-volt outlet (and access to a cold-water supply line, if it has an icemaker). Moving a range requires altering gas or electric lines, which adds a day or two of labor from an electrician, a plumber or both at anywhere from $45 to $145 per hour apiece. Likewise, moving a sink requires a days worth of plumbing work.

Dont skimp on cabinet quality. Remodelers that Consumer Reports surveyed said cabinetry was a top spot where they wished theyd spent more. To make room in the budget for high-quality cabinets, skip the uppers altogether and use open shelving to showcase pretty items. If youre adding an island, work in any storage space youve lost to stash anything you dont want on display.

Materials

Before knocking down a wall to create an open-concept kitchen, consider how youll marry the flooring in the two spaces. To extend hardwood throughout, install unfinished planks parallel to the old, and either get a pro to match the existing finish or have him sand the old boards and stain everything at once about $3.50 to $4 per square foot.

If your kitchen will stay sealed off, porcelain tile is probably your best bet, says Joan Muratore, Consumer Reports test engineer for flooring. Its excellent at resisting stains, dents or scratches. And it holds up well under heavy foot traffic. Youll find options from about $3.60 per square foot, plus $1,200 or so for installation.

When it comes to counters, granite and quartz top Consumer Reports tests, thanks to their ability to resist staining and stand up to abrasion and heat. Installing these workhorses in the average kitchen could save between $500 and $1,000 over higher-end marble or soapstone.

Appliances

Consumer Reports reveals that you can skip pro-style appliances. Youll pay $15,000 to $20,000 on a full kitchen suite, when $5,000 would get you better-performing models from mass-market brands, says Tara Casaregola, Consumer Reports kitchen test engineer. Adam DeSanctis of the National Association of Realtors adds, pro-style appliances wont necessarily boost the resale value of your home, beyond the bump youd get from having any new appliances in place.

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Upgrading kitchens - Virgin Islands Daily News

HELENA Glenn A. Benton, 82, loving husband, father, and grandfather, passed away at his home on Friday, June 23, 2017, surrounded by his family and faithful caregiver, Justin Giddings. Glenn was born in Lewistown, Montana, on Jan. 3, 1935, to Florence (Barney) and Rodney Benton. He was the sixth of seven children.

Glenn grew up in and around Lewistown where he began his life-long love of horses, the mountains, and hunting. He left high school at 17 to join the Air Force, serving as an airplane mechanic during the Korean War and ultimately was stationed at Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls. During his service, he married and had three children, Rick, Cindy, and Bryce. The marriage ended in divorce, and in 1971 Glenn married his wife of 46 years, Wanda Webb, of Stanford. They had two children, Kimberly and Miles.

After leaving the service, Glenn worked at various jobs in Lewistown and the surrounding area, often holding down 2 or 3 jobs to support his family, from logging, to beekeeping, to bartending, to ranching, and finally working in the construction industry. His work with Morgan & Oswood Construction and Volk Construction found him working on various projects in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. Glenn also served as Commander of American Legion Post 16, donated time to the Boy Scouts of America, and served as a deputy sheriff while in Lewistown. Despite his love of Lewistown, Glenn never returned to live there. Glenn settled in Helena where for the better part of a decade he worked on restoring a mansion on the upper West side of Helena, as well as working on the same familys Holland Lake cabin. When the work was completed and Glenn needed a new challenge, he and Wanda started a hardwood flooring installation and restoration business until his health forced his retirement.

In the early 80s, while living in Deer Lodge, Glenn and Wanda traded a bus that Glenn had converted into a motor home for an unfinished cabin above the Nevada Creek Reservoir outside of Helmville where the family spent a great deal of time and labor creating a family retreat where wonderful memories were created.

Glenn never gave up the joy of learning and mastered what he put his mind to. He dabbled with beekeeping, cooking (he especially loved his Dutch ovens and pie making), and greatly enjoyed time in his wood working shop making many beautiful pieces of furniture and keepsakes for his family.

First, last, and always, Glenn loved his familyhis face lit up with a smile when he saw themespecially his grandchildren. Glenn will be dearly missed by Wanda, his wife of 46 years; his son, Rick Benton, of Lewistown; his daughter, Cindy Thiel, of Missoula; his son, Bryce Benton, wife Debbie, and their daughter Chloe, of Helena; his daughter, Kimberly Hooper, husband Troy, and their children, Brandon Cerise and Shelby Hooper, of Helena; his son Miles Benton, wife Colleen, and their daughter, McKenzie, of Helena; and his sister, Dolly Poser, of Lewistown. He was preceded in death by his parents, five siblings, and his daughter-in-law, Debbie Sue Benton, of Lewistown.

The family extends its deepest gratitude to Glenns caregivers this past year: Justin Giddings, Brenda Pineiro, and Melinda Herron. They enriched Glenns life every day. We will be eternally grateful for the kindness and care they extended to Glenn, as well as to Miles, Colleen, and McKenzie who moved in with Glenn and Wanda so Glenn could spend the remaining months of his life in his home. The family also thanks Compasuss (formerly Rocky Mountain) Hospice.

A graveside service with military honors will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, July 3, 2017 at Montana State Veterans Cemetery. A reception following the graveside will be in the social hall of Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home, 3750 N. Montana Ave., Helena, MT 59602. In lieu of flowers the family request memorials in Glenns name may be made to Compassus Hospice, 1075 N. Rodney St., Helena, MT 59601. Please visit http://www.aswfuneralhome.com to offer a condolence to the family or share a memory of Glenn.

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Benton, Glenn A. - Helena Independent Record

Who wants to live in a slammer? Home security has never been an artful enterprise few choices exist outside jailhouse grills that seem to incarcerate homeowners rather than block intruders.

Enter sculptor David Hollen, who creates nature-inspired gate and window screen designs that may have thieves snapping photos instead of latches. Built primarily from three-sixteenths-inch plate steel, the structures riff on nature found in homeowners own backyards.

Hollen works from his HollenArt Studio in downtown Los Angeles and has built nearly a dozen security projects, priced from $2,000 for small window screens to more than $12,000 for larger gates, not including outsourced installation costs.

Pasadena homeowner Doug Hammett has commissioned six projects. The most striking is a side tree gate topped with a tumble of sharply pointed maple leaves that are both beautiful and dangerous.

There had been some theft in the neighborhood, and instead of just getting a gate from Home Depot, I thought, how can I do this aesthetically? said Hammett, 53, an artist.

David Hollen

Sharp-edged steel maple leaves top a steel gate.

Sharp-edged steel maple leaves top a steel gate. (David Hollen)

Hollen designed the $5,000 gate 15 years ago and recently added the steely maple leaves on top ($1,800) and along an adjacent fence ($3,500) which reference Hammetts backyard Chinese maples.

I got the idea by looking at dried fallen leaves and the tips that get rather pointy, said Hollen, 56, whos also working on an oak leaf design.

He designed a variety of leaf shapes and sizes and welded them onto the gate and onto a metal strip bolted to the side fence. The artist primes and then paints his work with the industrial finish architectural bronze, a warmer alternative to stark black.

A water theme permeates other works in Hammetts home: a $5,000 wave gate references artist Katsushika Hokusais turbulent wave motifs, and a $7,000 Dutch door pays homage to another Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama, and her passion for polka dots, circles and bubble-like forms.

A slim 7-foot-tall window screen resembles a rippled pond struck with pebbles ($3,500). Monkey silhouettes play among concentric whirls on two kitchen window grates ($3,500 total). The overlapping rings are designed to prevent hands from reaching through the screens.

The bane of this kind of work are 5-year-olds who jump up and climb on it, said Hollen, whos also designing back-patio features for Union Stations Traxx restaurant. A gate has to bear weight and stay within code so kids cant stick their heads through and get stuck.

David Hollen

A silhouetted monkey plays among concentric steel rings.

A silhouetted monkey plays among concentric steel rings. (David Hollen)

Other work is more decoratively functional: A $12,500 gate resembles a tree flanked by meadow grasses and flowers. The structure hems in a West Hollywood couples front-entrance patio (it keeps their cat inside).

Hollen hand-draws his designs in a raster program, converting them to a vector, a kind of blueprint read by an outsourced laser cutter that cuts the patterns. Both the design work and its execution are exacting.

Im working within intolerances of 5,000ths of an inch, about the thickness of a piece of paper, he said.

hotproperty@latimes.com

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Home security gets arty with nature-inspired gate and window designs - Los Angeles Times

Ive never understood the fascination with connected home cameras, such as Canary, the Nest Cam, and others. Theyve always been a gimmick in my experience: not reliable enough for a proper security system, not practical enough to be a baby monitor. But a lot of people really like them, so I spent the last week with the new Nest Cam IQ to see if it could change my opinion.

The $299 Nest Cam IQs big pitch is intelligence. It has a higher-resolution camera than prior Nest Cam models, but it doesnt use that to output a larger video feed. Instead, it combines that high resolution with smart people tracking to automatically zoom in on a subject when it sees a person in the frame and still maintain good image quality. It can see friendly faces that you identify in the Nest app, and it can alert you when it sees a person that it doesnt recognize.

To make this work, you need to subscribe to the Nest Aware service, which is available with 10 days of rolling backups for $10 per month or $100 per year, or 30 days of rolling backups for $30 per month or $300 per year. Adding a camera to the 10-day plan is $5 per month; additional cameras on the 30-day plan are $15 each per month. Without the subscription service, the Cam IQ will still provide push alerts to your phone for motion, sound, and people, but its Familiar Faces feature will not work and it will only be able to rewind the last three hours of footage.

Between the cost of the camera itself and the fees for its service, the Cam IQs intelligence has a lot to prove.

Nest advertises the Cam IQ as a security device, so I set it up in my front window, pointed toward my front door. (Note that this is inside the house: the Cam IQ is not designed to be used outdoors.) I thought it would be able to alert me to visitors and delivery people like a doorbell, in effect which it did do. But it also alerted me whenever one of my neighbors was walking their dog on my street, which grew tiresome quickly.

The Nest Cam IQ also had both false positives (alerting me to something when there was nothing) and false negatives (failing to alert me when someone was actually there), which make me really hesitant to rely on it for any actual security needs. Combined with the fact that the only thing the Cam IQ can do when it detects an intruder is send my phone a push notification (which I may or may not see immediately), it doesnt seem like a great solution if you really want to secure your home. It cant call authorities or ask for help the way a proper home security system can.

Video captured by the Cam IQ is saved in 1080p resolution instead of the 4K that the sensor is capable of. Image quality is fine, but its nothing compared to a high-end smartphone. There are also three microphones and a speaker on the Cam IQ, so if you have it set up in the right place, you can talk to a person through it. Or yell at your kid when they are refusing to go to sleep.

Supersight is a very cool feature, but only visible within the Nest app

The Supersight feature, which zooms in on a person it detects in frame, is very cool to see in action. The camera will automatically zoom in the image and pan it to track the person while they move in frame, ostensibly so you can identify them easier. But the only way to view the Supersight feature is within the apps timeline mode, and shared or saved video clips will only show the full wide view of the camera.

Still, after having the Nest Cam IQ in my front window for a week, I started to understand a little bit why people like these things in their homes. They may not be great security systems, but they are good at capturing serendipitous moments throughout the day. That might be my two-year-old walking her play lawnmower around the yard or my father-in-law finding yet another thing to fix on the front of the house when he comes to visit.

Some people like to use these cameras as baby monitors, but Ive found them to be too slow and not immediate enough for that. A push notification isnt going to wake me up, but a proper baby monitor will. My colleague Ben Popper uses a similar camera in his boys bedroom to monitor them when its time for bed, but even he said that the cost of the Nest Cams service would not be worth it.

And thats the real issue: the Nest Cam IQ is basically an expensive toy. Even with its people-tracking intelligence and high-resolution image quality, Im not convinced its worth the price.

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Nest's new home camera is an interesting toy - The Verge - The Verge

A new home security survey by Schlage found that three out of four Americans have doubted whether they locked their door.

CARMEL, Ind. Schlage, an Allegion brand ofadvanced lock products, has released a nationwide home security survey revealing that the majority of Americans have doubted whether they locked their door.

Released in tandem with Wakefield Research, the survey of an estimated 1,000 U.S. adults 18 and older showed 75% of Americans have felt uncertain about whether or not they locked their doors.

That statistic jumpsto nearly 83% among millennials and 81% among parents.

The survey also revealed that 43% of consumers have experienced or know someone who has experienced a break-in when they were not home.

As technology evolves, locking devices will continue to advance and offer additional capabilities, saysAnn Matheis, marketing director at Allegion.

Security dealers and integrators should take heed of this new information. As the popularity of smart home devices continues to increase, there are a number of solutions available to ease end users fears.

Solutions like the August Smart Lock Pro and Schlage Sense Smart Deadbolt allow end users to control and check the status of their locks from anywhere with their mobile devices.

Smart home technologies like the Schlage Sense can help put renters and homeowners minds at ease, knowing that no matter where they are they can check on the security of their single-family home through a simple app, says Matheis.

READ NEXT: Electronic Locks Market on Pace to Grow 13.9% Annually, Report Says

Steven A. Karantzoulidis is the Web Editor for Security Sales & Integration. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in Communication and has a background in Film, A/V and Social Media.

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Top Home Security Concern Is Second-Guessing if Door Is Locked ... - Security Sales & Integration

By Matthew Nash

Olympic Peninsula News Group

CARLSBORG After more than a year under construction, the Carlsborg Sewer Project is wrapping up, Clallam County staff report.

Meggan Uecker, solid waste coordinator for Clallam County, said crews with contractor Pacific Civil and Infrastructure are striping the roads including Carlsborg Road and Business Park Loop, paving the pump station, rerouting the Olympic Discovery Trail and paving a portion of Hooker Road south of U.S. Highway 101.

About 85 sites, Uecker said, can begin connecting to the system starting this coming Wednesday.

They have until December to connect to the system, she said, but county staff are available to help people through the process. If residents do not finish their sewers by December, theyll have to renew their application and pay the current connection fee of $1,500.

Physical work on the $9.22 million project began in April last year and was deemed substantially complete prior to an April 1 deadline this year to obtain a 0.25 percent interest rate on the $10 million state Public Works Trust Fund loan.

The completion means water can travel through piping from the Carlsborg pump station to the city of Sequim via the Dungeness River Bridge over Highway 101 to a collection system at Grant Road and be sent to Sequims Water Reclamation Facility.

Uecker said staff members are holding off on saying just how well the project went because they are in the assessment process.

Were excited its done and ready to move into this phase [of completion], she said.

With the project nearly complete, Uecker said traveling should be easier following the cleanup and a new center turn lane being painted along Carlsborg Road.

With it being unmarked, people were complaining of other folks not knowing where to drive, she said.

Late last year, several Carlsborg businesses reported having a hard time with the construction detouring traffic away from the area, leading some to cut back on staff hours and days of operation.

Lisa Deese, owner of the Old Post Office Sweets & Gifts, 751 Carlsborg Road, said her business has been night and day and really close to not surviving.

It was so dead during the construction, but now Im going to have to kick it into high gear, she said.

Now that the construction is over, its been amazing. All of my customers are thrilled.

Val Culp, co-owner of the Old Mill Cafe, 721 Carlsborg Road, previously said it was one of the businesses to cut back on staff hours but its now returned to pre-construction operations.

Its definitely a lot better since the road was finished, she said. Now that its picked up, weve got our regular schedule again.

Michael Dew, owner/general manager of Pioneer Propane, 931 Carlsborg Road, said in the winter, construction made it difficult to get in and out of his business. However, his sales representative Stephanie Segle came up with the idea to introduce a loyalty card with which, after customers buy 50 gallons of propane in a canister for barbecues/RVs, theyll receive 5 gallons free.

Dew, who opened Pioneer Propane in 2009, said Segles idea helped his business stay proactive and the idea was a boost for the business.

Uecker said residents who signed up before March 31 paid $500 to connect to the sewer and those who sign up before April 1, 2019, will pay $1,500. Residents who sign up after that will pay $8,000.

A lot of sites can still connect, and with a change in zoning, many properties can subdivide, which may create more hookups, she said.

Carlsborg sewer customers will pay a $26 base rate per residential unit, and those with meters will pay $8.66 per 100 cubic feet of water used per month, with non-metered customers paying a flat monthly fee of $78.80 per unit.

County officials estimate the average sewer bill will be about $70.

Dew, whose business is right next to the pump station, said he was a supporter of the system early on and signed up when it first became available.

It worked for the Romans and it certainly can work for us, he said.

Culp said she and her husband, Larry, opted not to connect to the sewer because they spent $40,000 in June 2015 to install new septic tanks at the prompting of the Department of Health.

I cant see paying the [connection fee] and paying to decommission the tanks, she said.

Were going to ride it out.

If the Culps or any homeowners/business owners with functioning septic systems not connected to the sewer system were to sell, thed have to connect within a year. Newly constructed homes also must connect to the system within a year because new septic tanks are not allowed in the Carlsborg Urban Growth Area.

For more information on the project, contact Uecker at 360-417-2441 or muecker@co.clallam.wa.us, or visit http://www.clallam.net/PublicWorks/CarlsborgSewer.html.

________

Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.

A recently paved section of the Olympic Discovery Trail now loops around the Carlsborg Sewer Projects pump station north of Savannah and Village lanes. Its one of the final pieces for the project, which finishes this week. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

Crews recently painted new lines on Carlsborg Road, including a center turn lane, following the completion of the Carlsborg Sewer Project. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

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Crews finishing Carlsborg sewer project; residents can connect to system starting Wednesday - Peninsula Daily News

In the June 23 edition, there was an article about the planning board's discussion of changing the zoning maps for the Coastal Pond Overlay District for their determination of who should be required to install septic systems with denitrification capabilities ("denite systems").

However, in practice, the planning board hasn't used the maps to determine septic requirements. Instead, the planning board abused its authority and strong-armed developers to accept denite system requirements for subdivisions located beyond the areas delineated by the regulation, particularly in East Falmouth north of route 28.

Furthermore, the regulation, which only applies to five-plus lot subdivisions and commercial properties, has been completely ineffective because it does not apply to most of the new construction throughout town and in nitrogen sensitive areas. This is because the sensitive areas are already densely populated, so there is hardly any land available for larger subdivisions. In fact only 10-15 percent of new homes built in the entire town over the past decade were in subdivisions of five or more lots.

The other issue is that the planning board has been completely arbitrary, inconsistent, and unfair when setting denite system requirements, but thats a story for another day.

The reality is that the regulation and the denite systems have proven to be a huge waste of money because theyve done nothing to alleviate the nitrogen overload in our coastal ponds. There's been approximately 275 such systems required by the planning board, but the majority of the town's 10,000-plus homes not on sewer would need to have these systems to potentially see a measurable nitrogen reduction.

In addition to the initial expense of installing the system, these systems costs homeowners upwards of $2,000 per year in excessive maintenance contract requirements, operating costs, and testing requirements. For the affected homeowners, this is literally "flushing money down the toilet" and impossible to rationalize when they know its a matter of form over substance and the large annual expenditure will make zero difference toward resolving the nitrogen overload.

Most importantly, the fact is that the town established a Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan (CWWP) approved by the board of selectman in September 2013, with input from the Water Quality Management Committee. (This committee is made of folks with sufficient levels of expertise and understanding of the nitrogen issue.) The CWWP clearly defines the town's long-term strategy for cleaning up the waterways. The present version of the CWWP includes the Little Pond sewer service area project, inlet widening at Bourne's Pond, and other measures, and the plan is set to be reassessed in the near future. This is the official plan that was submitted to state and federal authorities, so its the only plan that counts.

The coastal overlay zone regulation and the involvement of the planning board are clearly not part of the plan. The planning board doesnt even have a representative on the Water Quality Management Committee.

The regulation should be abolished because its proven to be totally ineffective and not part of the master CWWP. Furthermore, there is no need to have inconsistent and conflicting regulatory overlap at town hall, all septic matters should be handled by the board of health, which would coordinate the requirements of the CWWP, as applicable, in conjunction with Mass Title V septic requirements.

Chris Shanahan, Eagle Drive, East Falmouth

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Regulation Ineffective - Letter - CapeNews.net

Hope Street, Bossier city. It's a one street-subdivision with only 14 homes.

The street was built 30 years ago.

It's been annexed into the city and its residents pay city taxes, get city water, and trash pick-up, but they aren't connected to the city's sewer system.

After requests from residents tired of maintaining and repairing outdated septic tanks--the city is now considering hooking them up.

City Councilman Scott Irwin gives them his full support.

"Septic tanks are not ideal when you have houses that are that close in proximity," Irwin said. "You can have mosquito problems and other issues, and so they think that it's time for them to tie into the sewer, and I agree."

In their most recent meetin, the Bossier City Council went over a proposed ordinance that will allocate $350-thousand to extend sewer lines to this subdivision.

Most were in favor, but an old ordinance was brought up in the meeting, it states the city can only fund half of the cost to hook up homes on annexed property.

So will this prevent the new ordinance from going through? Councilman Scott Irwin says he doesn't think so.

"The intent of that ordinance was really concerning new development and annexing land into the city. So if we have a new development come in, we want to make sure it has city water and sewer put in by the developer, but this problem on Hope Street is a long standing problem and the city has fixed problems like this in the past."

If the new ordinance passes, the city will install sewer lines close to the subdivision, however, residents will still be responsible for connecting their homes to the line.

Five residents told KTBS 3 they are thrilled for the possible change to come and will be glad to get rid of their septic tanks that they say can be a pain to maintain, repair, or replace.

More:
Bossier City Council works on residents' request to be included in sewer system - KTBS

OMAHA, Neb.

Thursday's hail storm left car windows bashed in and dents on hoods. The baseball-sized stones also did a number to roofs, and while that damage isn't as noticeable, it's not something to ignore.

Looking from the ground up, it can be difficult to tell which houses have roof damage. Todd Tevelde, project manager for Xcel Roofing, said if you look from the top of some roofs, it offers a revealing perspective of the damage the hail storm left behind.

Tevelde has been busy inspecting dozens of roofs since Friday morning.

"It's been crazy," Tevelde said. "There's a lot of houses that have holes in them, so the first people that called were people that want to make sure that the leaking gets stopped. We try to prioritize those first."

Tevelde said he's finding marks, dents and holes in shingles. Some damage isn't as apparent, but as hail hits a roof, it wears the shingles down.

"You can't see it from the ground, it's not like the shingles just fall off, but it makes a black mark basically and you can feel that it's bruised the matting," Tevelde said. "Now it has no more UV protection, so over a short period of time, that will turn into a hole and then you have water inside."

Tony Johnson owns a home in southwest Omaha and is now one of Xcel Roofing's customers after Thursday's storm.

"Our roof was damaged significantly, so we'll be getting a new roof pretty soon," Johnson said.

Now he's waiting on his insurance adjuster to come look at the damage before repairs are made. Before a person files a claim with their insurance company, Tevelde said they should call a contractor first. Johnson said his insurance company recommended that as well.

"You don't know if you even have damage. I mean, hail is a weird thing," Tevelde said.

Contractors are trying to keep up with all the homes that need to be inspected. Tevelde said Xcel Roofing's wait is around a week.

Johnson knows it may be awhile before his roof is fixed, but he has a positive perspective.

"It's a nuisance, but you know, comparing to what Bellevue went through a couple of weeks ago, I feel very fortunate," Johnson said. "It could have been a lot worse."

When it comes to picking a contractor, Tevelde said the most important thing is making sure they're local. He said many companies come into town after storms hit just to get work.

Tevelde said good companies will offer a free inspection and a five-year workmanship warranty.

He also recommended checking the Better Business Bureau, Angie's List and the Next Door app for reviews and ratings.

See more here:
Roofing contractors assess damage after hail storm - KETV.com - KETV Omaha