Some home maintenance checks are harder to carry out than others. It’s usually quite easy to double check how well your front door is hanging or how warm your radiators feel. A few minutes on either job and you’re done!
However, there are a lot of deeper, more crucial jobs you’ll need to carry out that’ll require you rolling up your sleeves, getting stuck in, and spending maybe an hour or more on ensuring it’s in good condition.
It’s these kinds of jobs that we’re interested in here. They’re essential to the happiness and safety of your family while living in your home, and even though they’re harder to carry out, they need to be done at least once a year. As such, check out our little list below and take the advice on board.
How Well Your Roof is Performing
It’s hard to see what the roof is up to, even if you stand right back on street level. Sure, you can get an objective view on what’s going on up there, but you won’t be close enough to see any detail!
That’s why roof inspections require the use of a ladder. This can be intimidating for many people, so if you have to carry one out, it’s best to have someone else around to hold and/or check the ladder for you. Be sure to use the right kind of ladder as well!
Once you’re up there, look for signs of tearing, wasting, and missing material over the whole roof. You may want to take pictures for later reference as well, especially if you notice a potential issue and want to contact a professional repair service.
How Underground Pipes are Holding Up
Underground pipes can be subject to damage as well. Even though they’re under a load of foundation and soil, they can crack, burst, pop, become loose, and block up over time. The older the house, the more likely this is to happen as well.
Because of this, make sure you’re calling out for pipe inspections around once a year or every other year. If you don’t, you could need the services of a slab foundation leak repair company, what with the water that’s coming up out of the floors and leaving your concrete stained and soggy!
The more you keep an eye on your pipes, even the buried and hidden ones, the better your drainage and water flow will perform. You won’t ever have to worry about pipe pressure or what’s being flushed away down the toilet.
If Your Foundation is Moving
A moving foundation is not good news, but spotting a moving foundation is a hard task. You need to check it over and over to see if there are any differences, and even trained eyes can find it difficult to assess this.
However, there is one quick way to assess whether or not your foundation is misbehaving: the mud and soil around it. If this is cracking up, clinging to the bricks, or seeming more dry or wet than usual (and the weather has been normal), subsidence could be in your near future.
If Your Wires are in Good Condition
Wires are hard to get a hold of, simply because they’re built into walls and not meant for regular homeowners to check over themselves. Electricity is very dangerous, and even those with super DIY skills will need to call out a trained and certified professional to do any essential wire work.
You can check on your wires though. Firstly, note how the air smells. If there’s a weird fishy smell in your house at any point, but you’ve eliminated the more obvious potential causes, it could be a sign that your wires are breaking.
You may notice this or the smell of burning near to the outlets - take both as a sign that something is going wrong inside the walls and don’t hesitate to call for help.
Testing the Power of Your Alarms
Now you might see this on the list and think, ‘but that’s not all that hard to do, surely?’, and you’d be right. However, remembering to test alarms is what gets people!
So, ironically, why not set yourself an alarm every three months so you remember to press the ‘test’ button on your fire or carbon monoxide alarm? It could save your life.
The Strength of Your Emergency Fund
We all know it can be hard to take a look at your savings account. The number is usually below the one you want it to be, whether marginally or massively, and that can be a bit tricky to face.
However, when it comes to the health of your home and ensuring you’re living in a dwelling that’s functional, safe, and good for you, you’re going to need to keep a close eye on your emergency fund.
This is the pot you can dip into when something goes wrong. It’s the money you can use to repair and maintain issues when they arise. It’s really a rainy day fund that’ll keep the rain out of the house!
But that also means it needs to be well padded. Really, it needs to be included in your household’s budget breakdown for the month. You don’t have to put away every spare penny you’ve got, but make sure there’s a good amount going this way regularly.
For example, 10% of your weekly income. As long as it steadily grows, you should be in fine standing for tackling property issues that usually would be very sudden and expensive.
If you want to live peacefully in your home, make sure you’re putting in a bit of elbow grease with the checks above. The more time and energy you put into tasks like these, the easier it’ll be to ensure your home stands for another year. And remember, you can always call out a professional to get the job done for you - sometimes the limits of your DIY skills really will be stretched thin!
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