Maintaining Your Home
PROTECT YOUR HOME'S VALUE
Being proactive with your home maintenance is always cheaper and safer!
Regular, proactive maintenance of your home goes a long way in preventing costly issues. There are countless examples of this, such as touching up peeling exterior paint to avoid wood rot issues that could cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars to repair. Cleaning out rain gutters to prevent the clogging and overflow that could rot the fascia trim is another common example. Having the septic tank pumped regularly prevents costly damage to the distribution field. I could go on and on. And some items are safety related, such as changing the smoke alarm batteries, making sure the fire extinguisher is still good and having the fireplace chimney swept. Feel free to view and download the handy checklists and guides below. If you don’t know what to look for, or need advice on what to prioritize, we do offer Homeowner Maintenance Inspections. Just ask!
Seasonal Maintenance Checklists
Septic System Maintenance
Well Water Treatment Guide
Safety and Energy Savings
The Safe Home Book
Rain gutters - you need them!
One of the most common questions I get is “Does the house need gutters?”. The answer is yes! Many of the defects found on and in a home during a home inspection have to do with water intrusion or settling caused by erosion – with the absence of rain gutters often being a contributing factor. An inch of rain running off the roof of an average-size house is over 1,000 gallons of water. Don’t believe that number? Here’s the math:
1 cubic inch = 0.004329 U.S. gallons. One square foot = 144 square inches. At one inch deep, this becomes 144 cubic inches of water. 144 multiplied by 0.004329 is 0.623376. This is how many gallons of water per square foot, per inch of rain. Multiply this by the average house footprint (we’ll say 1700 square feet), and you get 1059.74 gallons of water.
(Footprint Square Feet) x 0.623376 = Volume In U.S. Gallons Per Inch of Rain
Now imagine that much water running down the face of your foundation, or splashing up onto the house at driveways, patios and steps, and it’s easy to see how damage can occur. Poorly managed runoff water can also cause erosion beneath the building’s foundation, driveways, walkways, patios and garage floors. Properly installed and maintained rain gutters, with downspout extensions that get the water away from your house, really are necessary for the long-term health of the building.