Conventional wisdom tells us that home maintenance is expensive. The average person spends around 1 percent of their home’s total sale price on keeping it in a good state of repair every year.
If you own a $100,000 property, that means that you’re on the hook for $1,000 per year. However, if your property is worth $800,000, then you’re looking at at least $8,000 per year.
The good news is that there are ways to lower your costs. All it requires is a little forward planning. Here’s what to do.
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Eliminate Complexity
The more features your home has, the more costly maintaining it becomes. Whenever you install a new appliance or landscaping element, you add more costs and servicing requirements onto the pile that you already have to meet.
The trick to keeping costs down is to simplify. Instead of insisting on complex landscaping, try to work more with what you already have. Maintaining a patch of lawn or a gravel driveway is much simpler and more cost-effective than fountains, pruned bushes, fruit trees and wind turbines.
You can also reduce complexity inside your home. For instance, you could remove carpets and replace them with hardwood, negating the need to vacuum so often. You could also consider removing your summer house that requires repainting every year and putting a shed in its place.
Know What Is Going To Cause You Headaches In The Future
The next step is to think about which elements of your home are going to cause you headaches in the future. What’s going to break down and lead to expensive repair bills? Can you replace it now and save yourself the hassle?
For instance, if you have an old boiler in your home, it might be worth hiring professionals to come and service it annually. They can check for wear and tear on the internal component and fix problems before they become more damaging later on.
You might also want to look at your home’s exterior fittings, particularly those vulnerable to weathering. For instance, you could replace your wooden windows with a durable, hard wearing alternative. Renewal by Andersen is an example of the state of current technology. Windows made of modern materials can withstand practically anything the weather throws at them. This way, you can avoid having to repaint them every couple of years at high expense.
There are other issues that you might want to consider as well. For instance, if your home is built on shaky foundations, you’ll want to address them now, rather than leaving them until later. Dealing with subsidence is something that you need to do immediately, instead of putting it off to the future. If you delay, costs will only rise.
Get To Know Local Contractors
Getting to know local contractors can be a great way to lower your home maintenance costs. They may give you discounts for referrals, or they may actually show you how you can carry out repairs on your own.
The more you work with someone, the more pressure they will feel to offer you a discount. Therefore, when things really do go wrong in your home, you can get cheaper quotes than you might elsewhere.
If you don’t yet have contacts established in your area, ask your friends for referrals. Alternatively, read reviews online to get a feel for a contractor’s quality.
Adjust Your Home For The Season
Homes experience different conditions throughout the year, and this affects how you look after them.
For instance, in the summer temperatures can rise to the point where some materials become damaged. Rubber, for instance, can fatigue and crack in high heat.
On long summer days when the sun is high in the sky, UV light levels also increase. If this streams through windows, it can bleach your furniture, fittings and fixtures. Therefore, in the summer, you’ll want to use blinds, draw the curtains or move at-risk items out of harm’s way.
During the winter, problems can occur too. For instance, water can freeze in pipes, leading to leaks. Therefore, it’s essential to keep your heating ticking over to prevent further damage.
You may also experience significant snow build-up on your roof, which could cause damage if there is structural integrity. You can remedy this by preemptively hiring a roofer to check yours over for problems and fix any issues.
In the fall, debris from trees and leaves are an issue. High winds can strip surrounding vegetation and deposit it in your gutters, causing damage and preventing them from working properly. To eliminate the risk of water damage, remove this immediately, particularly if there is a rainstorm forecast.
Inspect Your Home Regularly
Don’t leave issues to fester unresolved. Instead, fix problems with your home quickly, as and when they arise.
You can do this in one of two ways. Either you can go around yourself looking for problems and making a note of them. Or you can hire a professional building inspector (as you would if you were buying a house) to look for any potential issues.
When new cracks appear on your floors, walls or ceilings, it could be a sign that your home is experiencing structural damage. You’ll need to fix these problems immediately to prevent costs from getting out of control.
Carry Out Routine Maintenance
There are certain routine maintenance tasks that you’ll need to carry out on a regular basis to keep your maintenance costs down. These include:
- Changing your air filters every three months or so to increase the lifespan of your HVAC unit
- Regularly cleaning out gutters
- Resealing damaged caulk in the bathroom
- Sealing cracks around doors and windows
Carrying out all of these tasks has a protective effect.
Do It Yourself
Lastly, if you want to get costs down, you’ll need to do more jobs yourself. Labor is expensive, so if you can avoid it, you’ll bring your overall bills down. There are dozens of jobs around the house that you can do with minimal knowledge or experience.
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