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Tips For First-Time
Homeowners
Check gutters regularly to make sure they’re properly attached and clear of sticks and leaves. Also confirm the flow of water from your gutters is away from your home to avoid damage to your foundation.
Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors monthly. Experts also recommend changing the batteries in these items as part of your routine when you change the clocks in the fall and spring.
Change filters in your home at intervals recommended by your HVAC manufacturer, especially if you have allergies or pets. A dirty filter means an inefficient system. Also arrange for seasonal checks on your heating and cooling system to avoid emergency repairs.
Hire a tree-service company to inspect trees on your property. They can give you advice on how to care for your trees and identify weak limbs that should be cut before a storm
Is your toilet running? Or your faucets? No, this isn’t a joke. Toilets that run and faucets that leak when not in use are wasting your water. Sometimes you can fix these problems yourself, but hire an expert if you’re in doubt.
Frequently check the water supply hose to your washing machine, which can leak and cause expensive damage.
Clean your dryer vent regularly. Note the dryer vent is not the lint trap (which should be cleaned often, too). Dryer vents push air outside the property through a duct, but can get filled with lint. Clogged dryer vents can be a fire hazard.
Clean around the vents and coils underneath and behind your refrigerator to support its efficiency. Also check for gaps when it’s closed to make sure your cool air isn’t being wasted.
Check your doors, garage door, windows, and any places where pipes and wires enter the structure for gaps and cracks. Replace weather-stripping that’s missing or in disrepair and add caulk where needed. This will help you keep the house insulated for all seasons and keep bugs and small creatures out.
Have a pest-control expert inspect your home, even if you don’t suspect signs of infestation, since attic and crawlspace critters are usually unwanted guests on your property.
DIY Routine Home Repairs
For Homeowners
Air Filters
- Change your air filters often.
Sinks
- Clean your faucet’s aerator — which is the spring inside the end of the faucet — every three to four months. Don’t forget about your garbage disposal, make sure you run water through it during every use.
Fireplaces
- When you’re ready to use your fireplace, be sure to build the fire on the andirons or grate, never on the fireplace floor.
- To prevent soot and to add color to the fire, throw in a handful of salt.
- Store your firewood outside, away from the house and not directly on the ground.
- Have a CSIA-Certified chimney sweep inspect your chimney and fireplace annually, especially if you build a lot of fires in the winter.
Floors
- To maintain unpainted concrete floors in your basement or garage, first apply a concrete sealer, which makes them easier to clean. When you’re ready to clean them, use a solution of four to six tablespoons of washing soda in a gallon of hot water. Add scouring powder to the solution for tough jobs.
- For hardwood, be sure the floors have a polyurethane finish before cleaning with water. Hardwood floors that do not have a polyurethane finish will need to be waxed periodically. Use liquid or paste “spirit” wax.
- The best polish for vinyl floors in water emulsion wax.
Walls
- Masonry walls sometimes develop a white powdery substance. This is called efflorescence, a crystallized soluble salt that can be removed by scrubbing with water and a stiff brush.
Safety and Security
- If you have a home security system, regularly check the alarms and circuit breakers to ensure they are in working order. Inspect the sensors one by one.
- The batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors should also be checked twice a year to ensure they are operable. Hard-wired and battery-powered detectors should be replaced every 10 years.
Windows and Doors
- Inspect exterior windows and doors yearly to see if the caulking around them has split and cracked. If so, replace the caulk and clean any mildew.
Siding
- Inspect your siding yearly to determine if your wood-sided home needs to be repainted. Trim shrubbery away so that it does not touch the siding. The exterior of your house is built to withstand exposure to the elements, but a periodic cleaning will improve the appearance and, in many instances, prolong the life of siding and other exterior products.
Garage
- The moving parts of garage doors should be oiled every three months.
Faucets, Sinks and Toilets
- If you have a water leak, the washer in your faucet usually needs to be replaced. For clogged drains, use a plunger and/or a plumber’s snake. To unclog a toilet, use a coil spring-steel auger, which can be found at hardware or home-improvement stores.
Pipes
- Noisy water pipes should be fixed promptly. The condition that causes noisy pipes may be accompanied by vibration that can cause fittings to loosen and leak. Frozen pipes should be thawed slowly to prevent the formation of steam, which could cause the pipes to burst.
Walls
- Use spackling to fill nail holes and cracks in plaster walls and gypsum wallboard.
Reference: https://www.nahb.org/Other/Consumer-Resources/Routine-Home-Maintenance
Budgeting For Home Repairs
A good rule of thumb for home maintenance is around 1%-4%. This does not apply for everyone since home maintenance varies from home to home. Therefore, your home’s age, condition, and location may require more than 1% but no more than 4%. If you’re using the 1% rule of thumb, you should budget at least 1% of the home’s purchase price for maintenance. So, if you purchased a $250,000 home, you should budget a minimum of $2,500 for upkeep and repairs using this rule.
As a general rule of thumb, you could decide whether you need to budget 1% or more with this guide:
The budget should skew toward 3% if the home is:
- Older than 30 years
- Located in a wet, humid, or stormy climate
- Built with lower-life materials like wood siding and composition shingle roofing
The budget should skew toward 2% if the home is:
- 10-20 years old
- Located in a moderate climate
- Built with moderately durable materials like stucco siding and rubber roofing
The budget should skew toward 1% if the home is:
- Less than 10 years old
- Located in a mild, dry, or temperate climate
- Built with modern, durable materials like fiber-cement siding and metal roofing
Here is a better way to calculate your home maintenance costs
A better method is to look at the major components of your house that will need replacing at some point and do the following steps for each component:
- Estimate the replacement cost
- Determine the life expectancy
- Determine the current age of each item
- Calculate the estimated remaining life expectancy
- Rank the house components in order of increasing estimated remaining life expectancy and then plan for any expenses expected in the next five years.
- Watch for any upcoming “expense clusters” – A high amount of maintenance costs in a short time period