Maintenance to Your Home
Maintenance to Your Home
The right time to do maintenance to your home is now, and tomorrow and the next day. When you own a home you can’t just “set it and forget it”. There is always a maintenance task at hand. Some maintenance tasks require attention in the short term. Other maintenance tasks are more long-term in nature and fit more correctly in the capital expense line item. Let’s take a look at the difference.
If your roof is leaking then it needs attention right now. A repair would be on the order of replacing some shingles or maybe patching a hole in the roof where a limb fell through. A repair is a short-term fix to a problem. A bigger project and one that would require a lot more cash is to replace the roof. Having a roofer come in, tear off the old shingles, replace rotten plywood, then put down felt and new roofing is going to cost $8,000 and up. This type project is a long term expense and we call it a capital expense.
As a rule of thumb you should tackle at least one major “capital expense” or “long-term repair” for each year you own a home. Some of the annual maintenance to your home major projects you should tackle include:
- Replacing your roof
- Exterior paint
- Interior paint
- HVAC system
- Water Heater
- Exterior doors
- Garage door and motor
- Chimney Cap and/or liner
- Refinish hardwood floors
- Update kitchen (stone countertops, sink, faucet)
- Kitchen appliances (range, cooktop, oven, microwave oven, dishwasher)
- Waterproofing basement
- Light fixtures and fans
- Cut back or remove trees near house
While you are taking care of the long-term stuff you also need to deal with short-term repairs that pop up. We are talking plumbing leaks, sewage line blockage, electrical issues, leaky toilets and water faucets, frozen pipes, rats and squirrel invasions, HVAC maintenance, drainage around the exterior of the house, termite treatments, gutters that fill up with leaves and much more.
Owning a house is not a passive activity. Owning a home requires having funds on hand to do maintenance to your home, for emergency repairs and also budgeting money for an annual big project.
Tackle at least one of the big projects every year and you can stay ahead of the curve.
