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Homeownership is always something to be proud of, but it also comes with a lot of responsibility. You’ll need to actually look after your house, which is where home maintenance comes in. You’ll already know that, but you might believe it’ll be an overwhelming process.
On the other hand, it can be easy to forget a few essentials, despite how important they might be. Thankfully, there are more than a few ways to avoid this.
By making sure a few home maintenance tasks are done, you shouldn’t have much to worry about. It’ll help you look after your house without needing to put constant time and effort into it. It’s worth diving into everything you need to know about home maintenance.
What is Home Maintenance? How is it Different From Home Improvement?
First, it’s worth diving into what home maintenance is. Many people confuse it with home improvements, though there are some noticeable differences between them. Both are essential parts of owning a house, but they address different areas.
Home maintenance focuses on the tasks and repairs needed to keep your house running properly. It helps you make sure your house doesn’t deteriorate and become unlivable. Proactive home maintenance offers more than a few benefits, like:
- Letting you prevent large and expensive repairs in the future.
- Keeping your property value at the level you bought it at.
- Helping improve its energy efficiency and functionality.
- Extending the lifespan of major home systems.
- Making sure your home is safe and comfortable to live in.
Home improvement, on the other hand, focuses on making additions or changes to your house. It adds more functionality, aesthetic appeal, and similar changes to your property. Usually, this means taking on some major work to alter how your house looks and feels.
Both home maintenance and home improvement are vital to owning a house. You’ll have to put time and effort into both.
While home improvements are normally done every once in a while, home maintenance is usually an ongoing process. That’s why it often feels overwhelming. It’s even easy to overlook a few areas when you’re doing it. Your house could suffer because of that.
By putting the time and effort into home maintenance, though, you’ll avoid many issues. Taking the right steps is a large part of this, with seven of them standing out.
Home Maintenance: 7 Steps to Take Regularly
1. Protect Against Pests & Insects
Nobody wants to deal with pests and insects in their home. They’re a nuisance, aren’t healthy to be around, and can even cause damage to your home. It’s worth making sure you don’t have to deal with them. A preventative approach is recommended, like properly cleaning your home and taking out the trash regularly.
If you end up finding a few around your home, make sure you know what to do. Knowing how to get rid of mosquitoes and other pests is always helpful, even if you don’t have to do it a lot. The more prepared you are, the better off it’ll be for you and your home.
2. Keep Up With Landscaping
Most people focus on the house itself when they think of home maintenance tasks. It’s easy to overlook the garden, despite the fact this needs a lot of attention, too. Without it, your garden could get overgrown and wouldn’t look nice. Pests could even move into it.
By keeping up with the landscaping, you shouldn’t have to worry about that. Tending to your flower beds and cutting the grass are the best areas to focus on. This is especially true during the summer months, when everything will grow faster. Don’t forget to put in some work during the winter months, too.
3. Clean Humid Areas
Nobody wants to find mold in their homes. It’s not healthy, and can lead to medical issues for you or your family if not dealt with. Naturally, that means getting rid of any mold as soon as you can. It’s also worth taking the time to prevent mold in the first place.
Focus on humid areas, as this is usually where mold grows. The kitchen and bathroom will be the most obvious areas to focus on. By cleaning these regularly, you don’t give mold the chance to grow. At least one cleaning a week is recommended.
4. Pay Attention to Your Plumbing
Your plumbing is one of the more important systems in your home. You’ll use it almost constantly, and it’ll put up with a lot of wear and tear because of that. Make sure you keep this in mind when you’re doing any home maintenance. That way, you’re much less likely to deal with large repairs later on.
Be on the lookout for any potential problems. Even something minor is worth being on the lookout for, like discoloration, rust, and small cracks. These can quickly turn into large problems, and they’ll usually be expensive to deal with. Save yourself the hassle by keeping an eye out for them early.
Stress the importance of regular callouts to assess the state of your appliances and any repairs or fixes that might need doing. Servicing is important too, so get your water heater serviced regularly to avoid any problems.
5. Check the Gutters
The gutters can often be one of the more overlooked parts of the home, but they need some TLC just as much as everything else. During the autumn and winter months, they’ll put up with a lot of wear and tear, and they can often get clogged up. If this happens, it could lead to water damage in various parts of your home.
Take the time to clean them out regularly and check for any other signs of damage. Once everything’s sorted out, there shouldn’t be anything else to worry about. If needed, consider hiring a professional for this so you don’t need to worry about any safety risks.
6. Double-Check the Roof
Speaking of checking the gutters, it can always be worth checking out the roof while you’re up there. This always puts up with a decent bit of wear and tear, and it’ll get worn down because of that. In time, this leads to bigger and bigger problems, which will often be quite expensive to deal with.
Even something as small as a broken shingle can turn into a large problem later on. Check out the roof every so often to see if any repairs need to be done. Even if they’re relatively small repairs, it’s still worth getting them out of the way as soon as you can.
7. Don’t Overlook Fire & Security Devices
Any responsible homeowner will install fire and security devices around your home. The most basic of these are alarms, and they’re always worth investing in from the start. Once you’ve installed them, make sure you don’t forget about them. You’ll have to make sure they’re still working long-term.
Depending on the devices you have, this should only take a few seconds. It should just be a matter of pressing a specific button to test them. If they don’t react when you’re testing them, you could need to replace the batteries. This only takes a few minutes in total, so there’s no reason not to get it done.
How Much Does Home Maintenance Cost?
Many people think home maintenance costs quite a bit of money. The reality is it usually doesn’t. People often think otherwise because they’re confusing it with home improvements. These are usually large projects that cost quite a bit of money.
As mentioned above, though, home maintenance and home improvement are different areas. Thankfully, you shouldn’t have to spend too much on maintaining your home.
But, how much does home maintenance actually cost? While there’s no set answer for this, there are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind. Usually, you’ll spend about 1% of your property value on home maintenance. This should be enough to cover most of the maintenance you need to do.
This can depend on multiple factors, though. The age of your home is one of the more notable of these. The older it is, the more you could need to spend.
Then there’s whether you’re hiring professionals to help or if you’re doing all of your home maintenance yourself. Hiring a professional naturally adds to the cost, but it makes the process easier and makes sure everything’s done well. If you’re not, then learning a few basic home maintenance skills could be worth investing in.
Home Maintenance: Wrapping Up
Your home is usually the most expensive asset you’ll ever buy, and you’ll want to take pride in it. You’ll have countless responsibilities from the second you own it. Most of this revolves around home maintenance and actually taking care of your house. This can often seem overwhelming.
At the same time, it’s easy to forget more than a few home maintenance tasks. This shouldn’t have to be as complicated as it seems. A home maintenance guide helps more than you’d think.
By putting the time and effort into the right areas, and making sure certain areas are sorted, there’ll be nothing to worry about. You’ll end up taking proper care of your home, and you’ll have no reason not to be proud of it.
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