Did you know that 80% of American homes are over 20 years old?
As homes get older, they need more careful maintenance and care. However, if you can perform some basic maintenance, you can have peace of mind that your home is safe and retaining its value.
Whether the maintenance will include plumbing or roofing Idaho Falls is a great place to find the experts you need. If you are interested in improving the maintenance of your house, what do you need to know?
Why not check out our in-depth guide to find out.
Roof Checks
Roof checks are one of the most important annual checks that you can do. Your roof is the most exposed location on your house and is constantly battered by wind, rain, and snow in winter.
Should damage start to occur, you could suffer water entry and moisture damage including mold. Holes in roofs are a favorite entry point for bugs to enter and nest.
Avoid all of these scenarios with a routine annual thorough check. If you detect problems have them addressed immediately. Whether the problem is your guttering or roofing Idaho Falls has professional maintenance contractors who can handle the problem efficiently.
Exterior Drainage
Whether on your roof or elsewhere, water needs to be controlled and channeled away from your house. Detecting inefficient or blocked drainage pathways are an important part of your maintenance routine before winter arrives.
Start at the top and address the tiles or shingles on your roof. Next, check your downpipes for blockages such as birds nests. As you work progressively down, you may find that moss or sediments have built up around ground exits.
If you spot this, call a professional team show that can remove them quickly and restore your drainage capability.
Clean Gutters
Particularly due to their dimensions you should inspect the gutters separately to other drainage sections.
Gutters are often in difficult to reach places. If you do not have ladders and other safety equipment to reach and clean them, it may be advisable to contact a professional cleaner.
If you can reach your gutters, you may find that they have filled up with sediment from your roof and leaves from nearby trees. If you are able to work safely around the gutters you should be able to clean the gutters by hand.
Air Conditioning Checks
If you are performing checks in springtime, it is the perfect time to inspect your AC units. If you live in a location that has particularly hot summers, this is a real priority.
You should check to see that water is not dripping from any of the pipework. Following this, after switching off the power, you may be able to open the front of the unit. From there you can access the filters. You can generally wash these with cold water.
Performing these checks will ensure that you have a working AC unit during the summer months when you need it the most.
Clear Plants
This might not immediately come to mind as maintenance task, however, think of it as preventative maintenance.
There may be trees and large plants in the vicinity of your house. If these are not well maintained, they will be more likely to fall in the event of a storm. Even swaying branches that could impact walls or windows should be removed.
Test Detectors
Each quarter, you should test the carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in your house. This is one of the easiest yet most important maintenance tasks you can perform.
The detector should come with a “test” button. When you press this button you should hear the alarm sound. If you do not, it means that there is a problem.
You should consider changing these batteries twice each year. True they may still have some residual charge. However, changing them before they become weak means that you always have fully functioning batteries in your life-saving detectors.
Test Garage Doors
Do you have a garage with doors that automatically close? If so there is a simple test that you can perform to ensure that it is safe.
Place a piece of 2 x 4 timber in the location where the door closes. Next, try to close the door. When the garage door impacts the timber, it should immediately start to reopen. This is a simulation of the door impacting a human being.
If the door does not immediately reverse its course it is important that you arrange for a professional to check it out and repair it.
Run Water in Unused Rooms
During certain seasons you may not use guest rooms or bathrooms and any water in the water there may remain still. Still water that sits in warm pipes is the perfect breeding ground for Legionnaires disease.
Avoid this by running the water in these locations for 3-5 minutes once each month. This is also the perfect opportunity to ensure that no pipes have sprung a leak.
Vacuum Your Refrigerator Coils
You may know that your refrigerator has coils that it uses in the cooling process. These are often located in the rear or underneath the unit.
Refrigerators use up a famously large amount of power. The cleanliness of the refrigerator coils is directly related to the efficiency of the unit. Keeping them clean means a more efficient machine and a lower consumption rate.
Roofing Idaho Falls: Your Best Maintenance Providers and More
If you are a homeowner, you no doubt want to protect the safety, security, and the value of your home.
Whether you are looking to protect your windows, plumbing, or roofing Idaho Falls is a great place to find maintenance contractors that can help you.
If you are interested in learning more about maintenance and lifestyle topics, then we are here to help. We gather the latest information about these subjects and bring it to you via our feed. Why not take a minute to look at our blog to find out.
