As a homeowner, your priority should be ensuring that your home is in perfect condition. Assuming you realize that your home is in good shape wouldn’t help as parts of your home might require some once-a-year upkeep, and some need regular maintenance. You also have to thoroughly check every part of your house to keep it in top shape. If any parts need repair or maintenance, it will help make a huge difference for you to know immediately before a corner of your house deteriorates.
Home Upkeep Checklist
Keeping an eye on your home routinely can forestall any property damages and costly fixes later on. By having routine maintenance, you can be sure that your property is in mint condition. Here are some of the vital parts of your house that you need to look at during these routine maintenances:
- Heating, ventilation, and cooling system
It’s crucial to routinely check your HVAC as it can hold onto soil, dust, molds, dust, pet hide, spores, microscopic organisms, and different kinds of foreign substances that cause severe health problems. The air pipes can be tough to clean without the proper equipment, so you can get a vent cleaner or service to ensure it is done professionally. During the hot and cold days of the year when your HVAC will be on for extended hours, you must ensure that it’s in perfect working condition.
- Plumbing
Your house’s plumbing is another part of your house that you need to check regularly. By plumbing, it means you need to inspect the ones connected to your sinks, tubs, toilets, and faucets. Doing so would help you identify any seepage issues and save your property from any major damage. If you ignore these, it wouldn’t be cheap to pay for the water you’re not using and are causing some leaks in some corners of your house that would even cause it to decay from continually getting wet.
- Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
Carbon monoxide is a gas with no odor, so it would be hard to detect if you have any leaks. It is also colorless and tasteless dull, and it is dangerous if it gets released into your house. This type of gas usually comes from your vehicles, ovens, grills, and heaters.
On the off chance it develops inside, you might suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning, making you lose balance, memory, vision, and even consciousness. If this problem continues without you realizing it, it would have long-term adverse effects on your health, giving you difficulty in concentrating.
Of course, the smoke alarms or smoke detectors are also important for obvious reasons that it lets you know if there is smoke in your house, which can help you prevent fires. It is important that these life-saving devices are maintained regularly and fully functional by changing their batteries at regular intervals – every six months would be recommended.
- Roof
When winter has arrived, quite possibly, your rooftop might be harmed by snow and ice that could cause leaks which damages your property in different ways. Try not to go up the roof to inspect it yourself because it’s risky and is a leading cause of accidents at home. What you can do is examine your rooftop from a far distance and see if anything needs repair. If you have a drone or an attic that can give you a better view of your rooftop, it will help you inspect it better.
- Gutters
Constantly checking your house’s gutters or drainage and cleaning them to keep objects like leaves, plastic objects, and small branches would help you ensure this part of your house is doing its job, especially during the rainy season. If they are left uncleaned for quite a while, it wouldn’t be able to perform their purpose and could even cause water to stay on your rooftop and cause some damages. Additionally, these can also invite some rodents and other pests to live in, and that would also be another problem you wouldn’t want to have.
Your House Is Your Home, So Take Care Of It
It only takes a few hours of your time to make sure your house is in top condition. If there are any problems, then you would know right away to deal with them before it becomes a bigger and more expensive problem to take care of. You have to remember that your house is your safe space, so you need to make sure you’re doing your job and maintain it regularly.