Edward D. Warren Benefit Fund

Our friend Ed Warren has brain cancer.

You may have met Ed; he has worked for Siegel Landscape & Drainage for years and has been at thousands of homes over those years. Along with Siegel owner, Bill Miller, Ed has been an annual fixture in Siegel's booth at the Buffalo Home & Garden Show as well.

Ed had brain surgery on March 31st but only 40% of the mass could be removed and the remaining mass is entangled in his optic nerve; additional surgery will result in blindness and possibly diminished higher functions. Ed is now undergoing a year of radiation and chemo to try to stop the growth of the cancer. Ed's family, including wife, Jen, sons, Josh, 8, and Jake, 6, are doing their best to help support Ed through the treatments.

Please visit Ed's support website, www.edwarrencancerfund.com (or click the post title above to visit) for more information.

A group of Ed's closest friends are organizing a benefit for Ed and his family at the Polish Falcons Club (www.polishfalconsdepew.com), located at 445 Columbia Avenue in Depew, NY, on Sunday, August 29, 2010. This location was just decided two weeks ago. The website will communicate information on the benefit as it becomes available. Tickets will be available to purchase in advance and will include soft drinks, draught beer and food, which is being donated by local restaurants. There will be a basket auction as well as a live auction. If you would like to donate anything to include in a a basket or a big-ticket item for the live auction, please contact Joe Makowski at joe@edwarrencancerfund.com.

A PayPal donate button on the website links to a benefit fund set up by Ed's father, Dave Warren, who works for Lake Shore Savings Bank. Donations are also being accepted at any Lake Shore Savings Bank branch location. This money is being used to pay for medical expenses which are not covered by insurance (already thousands of $$$) and for basic needs for his family including mortgage, utilities and food.

Please donate if you can! Your help is much appreciated.

2010 Buffalo Home & Garden Show Testimonials

At the 2010 Buffalo Home & Garden Show, we had a few customers who were kind enough to let us video their testimonials. We raised Lorraine's patio in 2009, Gary's entry in 2007, Elaine's garage in 2007 and Nelson's driveway in 2007. Click on the post title to view the video on YouTube. Hope you enjoy watching!

How Long Will Concrete Leveling Last? Check Out Our Pic Below: Before ~ After ~ Now!

People often ask how long concrete leveling will last and the answer is, well, it depends... Corporate A-1 Concrete Leveling was born almost 30 years ago and has over 50 franchises nationally making A-1 America's largest concrete leveler.

So, A-1 Concrete Leveling has been around almost 30 years but could concrete leveling last 30 years? Sure, in an ideal situation. But, then, a new pour wouldn't sink if it existed in ideal conditions and no one would need us! The fact is that the ground moves. There are a variety of factors which affect the sub-surface support of a slab and every situation is different.

According to the USGS earthquake website (www.earthquake.usgs.gov), as of today, there have already been almost 7,000 earthquakes worldwide in 2010 with almost 2200 of them occurring in the US; while that may not affect us on a daily basis, it is having a constant effect deep below the surface.

Erosion may be accelerated if there is a poor drainage situation which contributes to greater slab movement during freeze/thaw cycles; when water freezes it increases in size by 9% so if it is in a void under a concrete slab, it results in the slab heaving (www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/122Adensityice.html).

Another situation which may compromise the sub-surface is if a utility line or drainage is installed underneath the slab; if it is an original installation and the slab has sunken, leveling is a great option to return it to original position as all the initial settling will have occurred, but if you have a new utility line or drainage installed, be prepared to see some shifting of the slab...then call us and we can help!

Whether you have your existing concrete leveled or have newly poured slabs, as in life, the only true constant is that everything is changing.

We wanted to share a recent picture of a project we completed in 2007 (our first year as a member of the A-1 family); this is the first in what will be an ongoing series of "Before ~ After ~ Now!" project recaps.




Thanks for checking us out!

Check Out This Fun Commercial from the A-1 Franchise in Akron, Ohio

Check out this commercial from Rob Keith in Akron, Ohio. Rob is the franchisee of the original A-1 Concrete Leveling location which is near Peninsula, OH, where Grover Miller, the inventor of our equipment lives. Click the title of the post to view Rob's video. Enjoy!

A Slight Variation on Catch & Release...

Yesterday Pete was at an estimate for MJ Peterson in the City of Buffalo and some tenants approached the property manager he was with to ask for assistance helping an animal who had gotten his head stuck in a plastic jar. Looking at the video below, I am not sure what this animal is (it kind of looks like a groundhog?), but I am sure he was just looking for some food and maybe there was a bit left at the bottom of the empty jar, and, voila, stuck! The tenants said that the animal had been running in the street and they were concerned that he would get hit by a car. The property manager got his employee to use a tool to hold the animal while they pulled the container off his head to set him free. A-1 Concrete Leveling is not just helping raise Buffalo to higher ground, we are also, in conjunction with our friends at MJ Peterson, helping save animals from food-search related injuries.

Green Rock, well...rocks!

Check out this article from This Old House which talks about Green Rock, which is made from recycled concrete. What a great way to reuse old concrete when the only option is replacement!

http://hardwareaisle.thisoldhouse.com/2010/05/green-rock-new-life-for-old-concrete.html

Or just visit the Green Rock website directly.

www.greenrock.us.com/

Oh, My! Check out the Wonder How To Website...

I have recently discovered www.wonderhowto.com (you can click the post title above to check it out for yourself). If you are looking for a how-to video, this is the place to go. It picks through thousands of websites to find the best instructional videos to help you do whatever it is you need to do. Embarrassingly enough, I stumbled across it looking for instructions on how to dance the paso doble, but you can look up how to make a delicious crepe, how to align your feet for a kickflip, how to chill a beer instantly or how to build a bat house for bats in your barn (not really sure I can think of who would need this?). Anyway, suffice it to say that this is a functional and fun site that might help you if you are looking to learn something new! Good luck!