The best way to keep your home valuable and comfortable is to be able to tell what to prioritize when it’s time for maintenance. Some tasks are easy to remember, especially those that have to be done every single season without fail. Others, however, need to be thought about as they’re either minor or they only need to be done once a year. Regardless of this, ignoring them can leave you with more work on your hands than you bargained for when a lot of damage occurs as a result of ignoring them. Here are 10 of those home maintenance tasks that get overlooked most often. Keep them in mind and try to remember them so that you can keep your home in great shape throughout.
1. Inspect Your Garage Door
When it’s time for maintenance, you need to inspect your garage door. This is a crucial home maintenance task because the garage door is one of your home’s points of entry. This means that if it’s left in a poor state, it’s prone to damage and it can leave your home at risk of burglary and other instances of insecurity. While you can do a visual inspection yourself, this may not always be adequate, especially if something’s amiss but you can’t quite tell what.
This makes it a great idea for you to call a professional to inspect every single part of your garage door. They should check every element and make sure that everything is in good shape. If you need something like garage door spring repair, don’t hesitate to have it worked on as soon as possible. When this is done, you can enjoy having a safe and reliable garage door that will also give your home great curb appeal if it’s in great shape.
2. Check Your Gutters
Another task that you have to work on when it’s time for maintenance is your gutters. These serve an important role alongside your roof and can impact many elements of your home. They help make sure that any water that ends up on your roof drains off well and fast, and goes to the right place which is the drainage. If the gutters are damaged, rainwater could end up landing on your home’s foundation and leaving you with a lot of extensive damage to deal with.
Failure of the gutters to direct rainwater to your drains could also see this water ending up on your driveway. Once there, it will lead to rapid corrosion of the driveway and may cause trouble for you. You may end up having to repair the driveway in a shorter time than you’d otherwise have needed to. Call a professional to inspect your gutters alongside the roof. This way, you can take the necessary steps to make sure that you secure the safety of your home. This may call for you to get a gutter installation done if the current gutters are worn out.
3. Inspect Your Furnace
Don’t forget to look into furnace install and repair when it’s time for maintenance. This may be in any season, but it’s crucial to do before the cold sets in. That’s because if you wait to check and repair your furnace in the colder seasons, you may be under pressure to get it done and therefore won’t be in a state to shop around for the right professional. You may also find that it will cost a bit more for you to do since you’re in urgent need for the repairs.
Even if your furnace doesn’t need any repairs, you can have it maintained and serviced. Regular preventative maintenance can help you avoid sudden issues and frequent complications. Any issues that are caught in good time can be remedied faster and more affordably than they would be if you let them get out of hand. Get into the habit of calling a professional the moment you suspect something is out of place with your furnace, and you’ll be one step ahead of expensive failures.
4. Inspect Your Wiring
The other item to add to this list is electrical services. When it’s time for maintenance, you have to make sure that your home’s wiring and electrical system in general are in a good state. Doing this will help you ensure that your home is presentable at all times as any wires that are hanging around can be taken care of by a professional. They’re going to help you with cabling solutions that can save you a lot of unnecessary hassle.
An electrician should also help you make the most of your home’s electrical consumption. They can do an energy audit to make sure that your electrical systems are up to date and you’re not losing energy that you could be conserving. They can let you know whether you need to make any upgrades to your appliances so that you can get more efficiency and better functionality in your home.
5. Repair Masonry
Another task that may be easy to overlook when it’s time for maintenance is your home’s masonry. This is because it typically stays in the background of your home and you may not notice when things start to get out of hand. That said, it’s a good idea to have a schedule for calling masonry contractors as often as is necessary. This may cost you less money to do over time than it would cost to work on massive masonry repairs.
Don’t forget the risk that comes with masonry that’s not in the best shape. It could fail at any time unexpectedly, and this could leave you and your family at risk of danger. Masonry that’s less than secure could also leak energy out of your home and leave you with issues like higher energy bills than you need to pay. You could also get water damage as a result of water leaking into your
house.
6. Check for Mold
Mold is a silent criminal that you need to remember to check for whenever it’s time for maintenance. It can develop and spread surprisingly fast, and this is the main reason why you have to make sure that it’s nowhere to be found in your home. To check for mold, look in wet and humid areas such as nooks and crannies in the bathroom, your kitchen, and under sinks and faucets throughout your home.
If you spot any mold in the house, call for mold remediation services right away. This can save you a lot of damage because mold can rot soft furnishings and leave permanent stains on practically all surfaces it grows on. Its spores are light and can be blown throughout the house, even ending up in your air conditioner and ducts. Since it can trigger allergies and even lead to respiratory issues, it’s going to leave your family uncomfortable and unable to breathe freely.
7. Inspect Your Water Heater
Add a thorough water heater inspection to your list of tasks to work on when it’s time for maintenance. This is one of the appliances of your home that works in the background, and so it’s very easy to ignore it. Keep in mind that regular inspection and frequent maintenance is an important part of keeping it in great shape for a majority of its lifespan. Call your local water heater service to have a look at your water heater and make sure that it’s in great shape.
The last thing you want is to be unable to heat water for use in the house in the middle of a cold winter. The peace of mind that you stand to get from maintaining your water heater is worth sparing a few moments to have it inspected by a professional. Make any repairs or replacements that the experts suggest, and remember that you ought to have it replaced if it’s reached the end of its lifespan. This way, you can be sure that your home’s energy-use as far as heating water goes is remarkably efficient.
8. Clean and Pump Your Septic System
Your septic system plays a very important role in your home, and this is the reason why you need to get septic system service regularly. This may not always be in your list of tasks to work on when it’s time for maintenance when there are no major issues, but this shouldn’t be the case. Keep in mind that its best to have it cleaned and pumped as regularly as is necessary in order to keep it functioning optimally.
A failed septic system could pose a major risk to health, in addition to being a massive issue to deal with. Clogged drains, backed-up toilets, and other details like these are all things that no one wants to come home to after a long day elsewhere. This is the reason why you have to prioritize servicing your septic system with the help of a professional. They should also let you know how often you need to call them for servicing so that you know the length of time that you shouldn’t let pass without having the system cleaned and pumped.
9. Get Your Water Tested
If you have a well or get your home’s water from a source whose standards can change, it’s a great idea to get your water tested periodically. Water conditioning services in your area should be easy enough to find since you can either ask friends and neighbors or do an online search. Don’t neglect this task when it’s time for maintenance because doing so may put you and your family at risk of consuming water that isn’t safe.
The water conditioning services that you call should be in a position to help you understand some danger signs that should alert you to a possible issue. They should also let you know when to have your water checked even if nothing seems to be off. When you do this, you’re going to be sure that the water your family uses is safe and isn’t likely to cause you any illnesses or other trouble,
10. Clean Your Chimney
Last but not least, remember to call a chimney cleaning and sweeping company to help you get your chimney in good shape. Soot and other particles can accumulate in the chimney, and this is something that can cause serious issues and even fatalities if it’s not addressed in time. That’s the reason why you must include this task when it’s time for maintenance. Look for trusted professionals and ask them to do a thorough inspection of your chimney and alert you if they find anything that needs attention.
If left unused for a long time, it’s not surprising to even find rodents or birds living in the chimney as they may be attracted to build their nests in the shelter that the chimney provides. You can find out the necessary measures that you can put in place to minimize the chances of this happening. A cover of some kind that can be placed over the chimney when it’s not in use will not only help with this, but it’s also going to help you keep your home energy-efficient. This is because the treated air in your home won’t escape to the outdoors through the open chimney, inflating your energy bills. Make sure that you know the best way to keep your chimney in good shape, such as how often to open and close the covers and doors that you may install.
Keep these home maintenance tasks in mind the next time you’re working on home improvements. Write them down somewhere and ask the relevant professionals who can help you with them to remind you when it’s time for maintenance. This way, you may not forget to get the tasks done on time. Even if you do, the professional services you’ve entrusted with the tasks will remind you about them. In the end, you can keep your home safe and comfortable, ensuring that there’s nothing about to go wrong and cause you unnecessary expenses and discomfort.