A home is a capital asset, the value of which may not decrease due to a lack of necessary periodic maintenance. Proper maintenance obviously costs time and money. But the price to be paid is higher if you do not spend timely preventive maintenance on your own real estate. Therefore, some important tips for maintaining your own home.
Prevention is better than cure
In a sense, you can compare a home with a car in terms of maintenance. If you do not check on time and carry out necessary (worse) repairs, it can also be at the expense of safety and reliability. Nobody wants a roof leak or a central heating boiler that no longer supplies heat. Prevention is better than cure.
A number of maintenance points that require attention from time to time:
Central heating system
As soon as the pressure of the heating installation approaches 1 bar, the system must be topped up. The filling valve is usually installed in the vicinity of the boiler. Try to fill the filling hose with water before connecting to the filling valve. This prevents air from entering the system. If you have to top up more than twice a year, there is probably a leak somewhere.
Extractor hood
Do not forget to clean or replace the filter of the extractor hood from time to time. The maxim is every three months, of course the cooking frequency does play a role in this. Remember that a contaminated filter poses a risk of fire.
Electric cords
If you install or replace lighting etc., make sure that the electrical cables are not hidden under the carpet. Ultimately, they are constantly being walked over, which can damage the wiring and thus create an unsafe situation
The crawl space
In many low-lying areas, such as polders, moisture can accumulate in the crawl spaces during wet periods. Not infrequently there is a layer of water of approximately 10 to 20 cm under such houses for about 6 months a year. Although the thought is not pleasant, it does not have to be a problem, as long as the existing pipes are not damaged. In that respect, inspection from time to time cannot hurt. Suppose the gas pipe is located under the house, you can have the gas pipes in your house tested under pressure (pressure testing) for leaks by a plumber or installer.
Exterior painting
You don’t have to worry about forgetting the paintwork on your home, because when the weather is necessary, it can usually be seen from the outside. When choosing the color, realize that dark colors attract heat, and light shades of course do not. This means that from the point of view of energy saving it may be beneficial to use slightly darker shades, but that the woodwork etc. will suffer from the strong shrinkage and expansion. As a result, you have to work with the brush earlier.
Remove mold
Unfortunately, it is not enough to remove mold on the wall by cleaning well with a brush and detergent. Since traces always remain, the fungus should really be killed. For this purpose, agents such as mold cleaner or fungus eater are suitable, while a plant sprayer filled with water and chlorine also works fine.
Wood rot
Wood rot can occur anywhere and often remains hidden under the paint layer. Cuff panels on the eaves and door sills of the doorways and window frames are risky places. Remove the soft wood as much as possible in areas that are difficult to repair and then first pre-treat the spot with wood rot stop (such as Albastine) and then with wood rot filler. Of course this only works in smaller places, otherwise a new piece of wood has to be mounted. And you can replace the wood with plastic material if necessary.
