Hello darlings! When you enter a new home, it is understandable if you want everything in the house to remain perfect. However, as many people soon find out, a neat look doesn’t just happen. It takes a lot of home maintenance and repairs to sustain it. A majority of first-time homeowners, however, find such tasks overwhelming for several reasons. Some honestly do not know what maintenance issues are likely to crop up. While for others, it could be that they do not know how to either prevent the unforeseen emergency or how to handle it when it occurs. So, how can a homeowner stay on top of his or her home maintenance? Here are some inspirational pointers.
Inspect the property for potential signs
Even if you had conducted a thorough property inspection before purchasing the property, it is prudent to re-examine it once you occupy it. In this instance, however, you will be on the prowl for signs of potential damage or wear. Find out what features or areas of the home are more likely to break down. While at it, also consider the geographical location of your asset, as that will significantly influence the type and frequency of maintenance activities to conduct. If you are in an area prone to heavy wind or storms, for instance, roof repairs are something that you might have to contend with frequently.
Make a list of places that need maintenance
If you desire to stay on top of your home maintenance exercise, craft a list of all areas that need attention. It should include fire, smoke, and carbon monoxide sensors, plumbing, electrical circuits, HVAC systems, water heaters, roof, gutters, crawlspace, attic, door, windows, and chimneys. You should also examine the yard to determine the kind of maintenance it requires. For instance, weeding, mowing and pruning overgrown bushes. With such a list in place, it becomes easy for you to source for whatever maintenance tool or equipment you might need.
Determine which areas you can handle
The good thing about home maintenance is that most of the activities involved are relatively easy to handle. Excellent examples are cleaning the property, discarding the trash, doing laundry, carpet cleaning and much more. Still, others like roof repairs, servicing the HVAC systems and fixing the electricity require expert skills. Dawson PM warns to always hire a professional for such tasks. It is not a good idea to play around and possibly make more damage than there already was or harm yourself or the others. Take an objective assessment of your skills and determine which among the items on your list you can handle. Moreover, make sure that you have adequate time and resources to complete the task satisfactorily.
Learn how to inspect and service the home
If after the above assessment you discover that you lack some essential home maintenance skills, consider acquiring those skills. Thankfully, there are many offline and online platforms from which you can learn how to tackle various household repairs and maintenance. These include practical lessons and DIY videos tutorials on how to test GFCI receptacles, change batteries in a fire or smoke detector, fix a leaky tap, change a worn out or dirty AC filter, unclog the gutters, remove stubborn stains on the upholstery and much more. Armed with such knowledge, it becomes relatively easy for you to tackle those pesky repairs.
Get suitable tools
Have you ever watched a home improvement episode on TV and wondered how they manage to make the maintenance exercise look so smooth and effortless? Well, the secret is that they have the tools and supplies appropriate for the job. Do yourself a favor by sourcing the right maintenance equipment and supplies such as vacuum cleaners, pressure washers, cleaning detergents, dishwashing machines, shovels, aprons, hand gloves and any other relevant tool. Such equipping will give you an easy time when handling the repairs and maintenance exercises.
Identify reliable service contractors
If you are prudent, look for qualified professional service and maintenance contractors for your home. Go for the ones who have excellent reputations, great customer reviews and are affordable. Thanks to their background, your home will always enjoy impeccable service. It is equally important if they offer twenty-four hours emergency services. After all, you rarely know when you might need their services. It can be disastrous if a technician is unreachable when you are suffering a bathroom emergency.
Develop a maintenance schedule
At times the only reason you find property maintenance a daunting task is that you do not have a particular routine of handling it. As such, you might end up overlooking the “boring stuff “and only concentrate on the easy-to-do fun activities. The only problem is that the tasks that you ignored will eventually catch up with you in the form of breakdowns or high energy bills. Avoid such a predicament by developing a practical home maintenance and cleaning schedule and stick to it. Soon enough the entire exercise will seem effortless and natural to you.
