“The Nest at its Best” is a weekly column by our area expert & Realtor, Amanda Rickman. This column features helpful home tips, some DIY tutorials, and interesting info about the area! So whether you are looking to sell your home, moving, or just trying to make your home a home, this is surely a column you’ll want to follow!
I think we can all agree that whether you getting your home ready to sell or if you plan to stay in your home, home maintenance is important. If you are selling, you want to gain as much money for your home as possible. If you plan to stay in your home, you want to gain as much satisfaction out of your home as possible. Am I right? Although the word “maintain” points a flashing arrow to the word “work”, you’ve heard the saying, “no pain, no gain”! Or should I say no maintain, no gain? So, here are a few tips on maintaining your home so you are less likely to be surprised with a fat bill from a repair man.
Filters
I am guilty as charged on this one, I’m terrible at changing out my air filters! Your air systems are working very hard to push air in and throughout your house. Cake is usually good unless it’s dust caked onto your air filters. This makes your air system work even harder and liable to shut down much earlier than it should, and those air units aren’t cheap to replace especially compared to a $3 air filter.
Clothes Dryer Exhaust Duct
Vacuum your exhaust duct that connects to your clothes dryer. Dust accumulates causing the appliance to work harder to dry your clothes. If you have plastic ducts, it is best to replace them with the aluminum duct. Plastic ducts are more of a fire hazard and nobody has time for that!
Air Conditioner Unit
It is important to spray off the coils and clean leaves and other debris from the condenser of the unit seasonally. Again, all the dirty stuff can shorten the life of your unit. It is even a good idea to have your unit checked up each year.
Pests
Pests are exactly what they sound like, pests. It’s important to have your home inspected and serviced by a pest control service on a regular basis. Rats are just gross and termites can do some very expensive damage to your home.
Detectors
Checking smoke and carbon monoxide detectors aren’t only for the safety of your home, but the safety of your family as well. It is very important to maintain their batteries and make sure they are working properly.
Windows and Doors
Inspect window and door caulking and weather stripping yearly. First of all, you don’t want unwanted critters in your home. Second, you don’t want to pay more to heat and cool your home as you need to.
Refrigerator Coils
There’s that word again, coils. They always need to be cleaned even on your refrigerator! The dust takes away from it’s work capacity and I think we can all agree that food in the fridge is important so we need that thing to keep working!
Water Heater
Talk about an expensive item to replace, that’s this guy. A yearly check-up on your water heater is never a bad idea. Depending on what type of water you have, there could be major build up in the pipes. Not only is a failed water heater expensive to replace, but coming home to a flooded house doesn’t sound cheap either.
Toilets and Faucets
Maintaining toilets and faucets are an easy task, just make sure all the seals are working on them. Toilet and faucet parts can be found at the local hardware store and easily fixed even by someone like me.
Water Softener
If you have hard water and don’t have a water softener, I recommend you spend the money to get one. Having a water softener unit can extend the life of your pipes and things that the pipes lead to. Always keep salt in your softener to the recommended level.
Exhaust Hood
This is something most people just don’t think about, but all the grease that gets sucked up into your exhaust hood could be a major fire hazard. Wipe it down every so often to ensure you aren’t going to have bigger problems.
All of these are great tips to prevent problems from happening. I am a big fan of home warranties and recommend them to all my clients. They typically cost around $5-600 for the year but cover multiple things that could break and best of all you only pay a trip charge even if they have to replace something brand new!
Hope you enjoyed, until next time!