Seasonal Home Maintenance Tasks That Prevent Expensive Repairs Later
PAGE
By PAGE Editor
Would you like to stop paying for repairs that never had to happen?
The most expensive home repairs rarely come out of nowhere. They creep up on you. A drip behind the wall. A clogged gutter. An unchanged filter for three years. Then one day you wake up to find they've all struck together, with a four digit repair bill.
Here's the problem:
Homeowners see maintenance as optional and repairs as something to do ASAP. The opposite should be true. Water damage/freezing accounted for 22.6% of homeowners insurance claims over a recent five-year period. The average claim cost over $15,400.
The good news?
Most of it is preventable. A seasonal checklist and a couple hours every couple of months will find the little issues while they are little.
Here's what's coming up:
Why Small Jobs Stop Big Bills
Start With Your Water Filtration System
The Season-By-Season Maintenance Plan
The Jobs Worth Handing Over
Why Small Jobs Stop Big Bills
Maintenance costs money. When you start tallying up all the things your house needs on a daily basis, regular home maintenance averages more than $8,800 annually.
That number stings. But compare it to the alternative.
Flooding can saturate a floor in minutes. FEMA estimates one inch of water in an average home will cost you about $25K. Damaged subfloor. Leaking water heater. Mold remediation. Don't choose these things. They'll choose you.
And here's the part most people miss...
Insurance covers sudden accidents. Slow leaks and neglect are usually not covered by insurers. Therefore damage caused by missed maintenance... is often left for you to pay for yourself.
Start With Your Water Filtration System
A water filtration system is one of the few upgrades that filters everything downstream of itself. Cleaner water results in less sediment, less scale and far less stress on your water heater, dishwasher, washing machine and pipes.
But a filtration system is not a set-and-forget appliance.
Cartridges get clogged. Membranes break down. Softener tanks run empty. If you haven't changed your filters out in more than a year, scheduling trusted Jackson plumbing services to maintain your water filtration system is a small price to pay compared to replacing a calcified water heater two winters from now. A professional will test your hardness level, purge your lines and let you know how often your system really needs fresh media.
Why should you care? More than you think. About 85% of homes in the United States have hard water in some capacity. All those minerals are building up inside of every pipe and appliance in your house.
Check these twice a year:
Filter cartridge age and any drop in pressure
Salt levels in the softener tank
Any change in taste, smell or colour
Leaks around the housing and fittings
Spring: Undo What Winter Did
Winter is hard on a house. Spring is when you find out how hard.
Begin outdoors. Walk around the perimeter and look for cracked caulking, lifted shingles and soil that has piled up against the foundation. Any water that pools next to your walls must go somewhere. It usually goes down.
Then, clean gutters and downspouts correctly. No peeking — an actual clean-out. Clogged gutters force water back underneath the roof edge. And roof leaks are one of the leading causes of interior water damage.
While indoors, test your sump pump before the rainy season hits. Dump a bucket of water into the pit and observe whether it turns on and pumps out the water. A sump pump that fails on the first big rainstorm can lead to a flooded basement.
Lastly, turn on all outside faucets. Weak pressure or weird spraying could mean a freeze burst a pipe this winter.
Summer: Protect What Works Hardest
Summer brings jobs best done in dry conditions with lots of patience.
Servicing your air conditioning before it gets hot can save you grief. Change the filter, flush the condensate drain, and rinse off the outdoor coils. If the drain line gets clogged, it backs up and dumps water right into a ceiling.
While you're at it:
Reseal decks, fences and exposed timber
Trim branches away from the roof and siding
Flush the water heater to clear sediment
Test the pressure relief valve
Flush your water heater. It's the maintenance item that everyone skips. Sediment accumulates on the bottom of the tank, causing the burner to work harder and the tank to fail years before it should. Twenty minutes of your time now will buy you years later.
Autumn: The Most Valuable Season Of All
If you only do one season properly, make it this one.
Fall maintenance is really winterization, and freeze damage is the costliest damage your home can sustain. Drain and disconnect all garden hoses. Turn off and drain exterior faucets from inside valve. Insulate pipes that pass through unheated crawl space, garage or attic.
Then look at the heat itself.
Change furnace filters, schedule yearly maintenance, and check thermostat settings before you need them. Clean your gutters again after leaves fall, ice dams build up where water doesn't drain.
And caulk the cracks. Cracks where pipes enter walls, dryer vents and rim joists allow cold air to access plumbing you thought was protected inside.
Winter: Watch, Listen, Check
Winter maintenance is mostly observation.
Maintain a temperature in the house above 55° F when away. Open cabinet doors under sinks on extremely cold nights to allow warm air to circulate around pipes. During a deep freeze, allow the faucet to trickle slightly. Running water won't freeze.
Walk the house once a month and look for:
Damp patches on ceilings and walls
Condensation on windows and pipes
Unusual knocking or rattling in the plumbing
A water bill that jumped for no clear reason
That last one is the cheapest leak detector you own.
The Jobs Worth Handing Over
Some tasks are genuinely DIY. Others aren't, and pretending otherwise gets expensive fast.
Leave these to a licensed professional:
Anything behind a wall or under a slab
Gas appliances and gas lines
Main shut-off valve repairs
Filtration and softener installation
Sewer line inspections
The expense of a service call is nearly always less than the price of an error. Plus, a competent technician will find the issue you didn't even know you had.
Locking In The Routine
Home maintenance is not glamorous and no one will thank you for it. However, it is the difference between predictable yearly costs and unpredictable emergencies.
Keep it simple:
Put four reminders in a calendar, one for each season
Work through the list for that season
Write down what you did and when
Fix small problems the week you find them
Your water filter system, your water heater, your roof and your pipes all fail in the same manner--gradually, and then all at once. Savvy homeowners who dodge the hefty bills aren't lucky. They simply got there first.
Start with whatever season you're in right now.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT FASHION?
COMMENT OR TAKE OUR PAGE READER SURVEY
Featured
A practical year end checklist for Putnam County small business owners covering books, taxes, and cash reserves before the calendar flips.