How Easy is Your House to Find ?

By Paul Bianchina

It's not something a person wants to think about, but what if an emergency were to occur at your house, and an ambulance, police car or fire truck needed to get to you in a hurry?

Or, on a more mundane and everyday note, what if UPS or the pizza delivery guy is looking for you. Just how easy is it for a stranger to locate your house?

A house that is easy to identify is a convenience for anyone who's trying to find you, and in an emergency it could quite literally be the difference between life and death.

And the nice thing is, it's a simple matter to accomplish just a single Saturday's work and a very minor amount of expense, and you've made a big and important difference in your home.

For starters, take a look at your house from a stranger's point of view. We all know how to locate our own home, and we don't even notice things like street signs and address numbers.

But if you've ever tried to find someone's house who doesn't have an address out front, or whose driveway is overgrown and invisible from the road, you understand how frustrating and potentially dangerous - it can be.

This home improvement project begins with a pencil, a tablet and a drive to the nearest major cross street leading to your home. Slowly work your way back to your house by the most direct route, taking note of the following:

Are the streets that lead to your house clearly marked, and are the street signs visible?

As familiar as we are with the roads in our own neighborhood, we often fail to notice a sign that's missing, or one that kids have found dubious humor in turning to face the wrong way. Trees often grow to obscure street signs, especially in full summer foliage.

If you note any of these conditions, call your city or county public works department and discuss how to remedy things.

Approaching your house, are additional house numbers or directional signs needed to point the way?

It may be that you've been good about putting the numbers on your house, but if you live at the end of a long private road or even just at the end of a long driveway, your house is often not visible from the road.

You may need to add an address sign at the entrance to your driveway, and, in the case of long road, maybe even at different forks, curves or intersections in the road.

Again, look at it through a stranger's eyes and visualize the places where a person could get confused and take a wrong turn.

Many fire departments, especially in rural areas, can provide you with reflective address signs for roads and driveways at a very minimal cost.

If there are several houses down a private road, you might consider getting together with neighbors to erect a directional sign with an arrow and everyone's address on it.

These can be made up quite inexpensively at a local one-day sign shop, and you can then place reflective address signs in front of each individual driveway.

Is your house number visible?

This is extremely important, and it's something that's easy to take care of. Place your house numbers on the front of your house or garage where they are clearly visible.

The numbers should be large enough to be easily seen from the street, and should be of a color that contrasts with the color of the siding or trim that they're attached to.

For example, if you have a dark brown house, black numbers will not be visible until you're right up on them - use white, silver or gold numbers instead.

The house numbers also need to be visible at night. You might consider placing them below a porch light or garage light, or use a back-lighted address sign if they are allowed in your area.

Finally, take a close look at nearby foliage - you may have done everything correctly as far as the location and color of the numbers, only to have them totally obscured from the street by an overhanging tree.

House numbers come in a wide variety of sizes, colors and styles, and can be purchased at home centers, hardware stores, lumber yards, department and discount stores, and a variety of other retailers.

You can select individual numbers, or many stores can special order very attractive, custom made address signs in wood, metal, ceramic tile and a variety of other materials.

Also, a reminder. Address numbers are not only a simple, common sense thing you should do to protect your home and your family, they are also a building code requirement. In most areas, you will not be able to get final inspections on your new house or remodeling project until you have house numbers clearly posted.

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