Every Home Needs a Little Attention

Even a dream home will turn into a nightmare if regular maintenance is not part of your standard routine.

In your home, as in life, few things are maintenance free. Despite the time and money it consumes, preventive home maintenance is far more cost effective than the crisis management approach of waiting until something breaks and then scrambling to have it repaired.

So, maintain your home for the same reasons that you maintain your health, because without regular attention both you and your home are headed for trouble and costly repairs down the road.

Like a visit to the dentist, your home preventive maintenance plan really needs two components. Routine upkeep is similar to the cleaning your hygienist provides. And a monitoring plan that covers structural, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems, as well as appliances is like the diagnostic exam the dentist provides.

There are so many home maintenance and repair items that are important it can be hard to decide which are most critical. At Hey Handyman we emphasize preventive maintenance as a factor in a safe home environment. We recommend that you start by testing or installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and at least two multipurpose fire extinguishers. Find and correct electrical hazards, remove or correct trip hazards, and finally locate and mark the shut offs for gas, electric, plumbing and heating systems.

Next, establish a maintenance schedule. Some routine upkeep chores like testing ground fault interrupters should be carried out monthly. Others, like servicing the furnace or cleaning out gutters, might be performed semiannually.

Ideally, preventive maintenance inspections should be performed semiannually in the spring and fall, but some areas are easier to monitor in the spring, some in summer, and others in the fall or winter. Assign each area for a particular month to break the job into manageable size and ensure regular inspection of each area.

Everything wears out eventually. That’s why housing experts recommend budgeting between one and three percent of the market value of the house each year for maintenance and repair costs. But the news isn’t all bad.

An investment in a scheduled home maintenance program will reduce your total cost of home ownership. For example, a study, Determining the Economic Value of Preventive Maintenance, showed that more than $5 in repair costs are saved for every $1 spent on routine preventive maintenance.

Article by Jamie Wyant, Owner
Hey Handyman.
or (503) 910-7290. CCB# 190148
www. heyhandy.com