Home maintenance tips
that you may want to consider checking or installing in or on your home for the new year heading into Spring!
“Houses are like humans in a way; they need general home maintenance just like we need good nutrition! Keeping up on home maintenance has proven to be less costly in the short and long term. Just like ourselves. Real Estate is suppose to be a growing return on investment, right?”
Many times your home is not “screaming” fix me-fix me. It is our responsibility to do home maintenance inspections on certain areas of our homes and catch things before they happen (or get worse.) Here is a list of some things you may care to pay attention to on your home.
- Gutters – Clean them out. If you can, try using one of these. Make sure the gutters are solidly fastened to the fascia boards. Down spouts are not clogged and draining away from the foundation. These can help divert water away. Having cleaned gutters can also reduce ice dams in the winter and is a huge home maintenance area overlooked. If you are going to use a ladder, be careful. You may be able to attach one of these ladder stabilizers for additional safety.
- Furnace filters – Check yours! Replace yours! A suggestion would be to replace 3-4 times a year and get a top of the line (high quality) filter that has a high microscopic performance rating. Be sure to write down the filter you need because there are many sizes. Click here for some help once you know your filter size. Of course this is a good time to have your furnace inspected by a professional to make sure it is running as efficiently as it can. Not only is this good home maintenance but a safety inspection as well. Oh, and please be sure you have a Carbon Monoxide Alarm on each floor of your home regardless what type of furnace you have. Click here to check several models out that can save you or others lives.
- Digital Furnace Thermostat – If you have one, great! If you have one and it’s not very user friendly and you don’t use all the features, a suggestion would be to replace it. For heat or AC, they are worth the money. Click here to understand them better.
- Hardwood Floor – If you life in areas where winter snow & ice comes annually. You probably carry in residue of salt or ice-melt on your shoes. A good thorough cleaning of the floors throughout the season can save your floors. Check these floor cleaners out.
- Foundation, Driveways & Sidewalks – Home maintenance is very important here. Houses settle, cement settles, sidewalks settle. “We all settle…LOL.” Cracks develop, leaks start, ice expands and creates cracks. Every year closely look over the house foundation walls from the outside and certainly from the inside if they are not covered with sheet rock or wood. If you find cracks especially wider than the thickness of a pencil you may want to call an inspector or if you feel it is serious don’t wait, but call a structural engineer. If you notice that doors or windows that never stuck before are beginning to stick. This could indicate some sort of settling. Walls, driveways & sidewalk cracks can be sealed (this does not mean problem solved.) This is just slowing or maybe stopping other problems. For your Foundation, here are some ideas on products that may help for your foundation. For your Driveway, here are some ideas on products that may help here. And for sidewalks, check these helpful products out.
- Caulking & keeping the elements out – Walk around your home very slowly. Become the perfect inspector! Look for any small cracks in the weather sealing or caulking around windows, doors, dryer vents, water spigots, cable wires, electrical boxes, outside chimney chase brick going up the exterior siding of the house. Look where the house settles onto the cement foundation for gaps (be careful of spiders too.) You will want to use an exterior caulk and will need a caulking gun…yes you can do it! Get a good quality gun so check these out to aid in your decision and get to work! Be diligent on your home maintenance here and reap the energy saving rewards.
- Security of Patio Sliding Doors, Storm Doors & Security Doors – If you have them now, do they work well? Are they dragging on the threshold? Do they lock, are the screens ripped? Do they actually provide bug protection? What about intrusion protection? Here are a few examples of intrusion protection that you may like rather than the “old wooden dowel.” If your comfortable with ALL your doors, great. This is a gentle reminder to be proactive when you are looking at all the entry points of your home. Not only will you feel safer if these areas are solidly protected but done right, could add value to your home as well! Call this home security but also consider the inspection of all your doors and window openings part of your home maintenance requirements.
- Pressure Washing – Washing away the dust on the outside of your home can certainly make it look better, but can also remove certain acid-rain-by-products from the year that can AND does deteriorate many home exterior surfaces. Want to know more about acid rain? Just be careful when you are pressure washing because depending on the exterior surface material of your home. You could cause some damage by water being sprayed at a way that forces high pressure water into your home through the sides of windows, doors, screens, gable vents, lapped siding or peeling the paint right off your home. Be careful! This is why we believe strongly in Vinyl Siding and have installed it for over 50 years in Spokane. With Vinyl siding you can “gently” spray down your entire house and should not have to worry about water getting inside if you do it correctly. Siding your home with Vinyl Siding reduces your home maintenance too. Here are some pressure washers to consider.
- Roofing Inspections – This is such an important part of your home maintenance process. So many people neglect it because they can’t see way up there. Rather than going into any detail whatsoever, just remember that if you see any granules of roofing (like sand) on the ground, especially at the bottom of your rain gutters, call for a roofing inspection. Valleys need to be checked, end wall flashing, chimney flashing, skylight flashing and venting. They all have a life expectancy. They are are ticking away. They all should be inspected every 3-5 years (or sooner.) Here in Spokane, at Inland Roofing & Supply, we have been inspecting and installing roofing for over three quarters of a century. Protect your home investment. Practice home maintenance each Spring.
