Getting a Jump on Summer Time Chores: Maintenance Tips for your New Home

Get To Know Your Home 
Keep an eye on the kinds of deficiencies that can cause real trouble - things like water in the wrong place or sudden power surges or outages. Fire and moisture are your worst enemies.

If you still have the original architectural blueprints, or can get a set from the builder, review them. Find out where the main plumbing valves are and which electrical breakers control which devices or lights. Keep these drawings in a safe place. They will not only inform you, they will inform a contractor who needs to do a repair, and that will save you some money - the cost of the time it would take him to figure out how your house works.  

If you don't have the blueprints, inspect your home or have a professional do it for you. Ask him to identify all of the essential control points and draw a rough, dimensioned floor plan that indicates where these points are. You only have to do this one time, and it will pay you back handsomely the whole time you occupy the home.  

Have your home inspected by a professional when it's about 5 years old, then every 3 years or so as it ages, then every year after it reaches its 25th birthday. Think of this inspection just the way you would think about your annual physical. It's always nice to get that clean bill of health, but it's also a very good idea to catch your problems early, when they're easiest  to cure. To find a good home inspector, call the  North Carolina Licensed Home Inspectors Association in Chapel Hill at 919-662-4480 and find out who has a good reputation and works in your area. 

Understand The Natural Life-Cycle Of Your Home's Components 
Nothing lasts forever. Your refrigerator probably has a useful life of 12-15 years; your water heater, 10-12. Your roof shingles ought to last 20 years. Carpeting will probably need replacing after about 7-8 years, and paint after 3-4. Plumbing systems may last about 25 years before corrosion rots the connectors or the seals begin to go. Electrical wiring will probably be safe for about 15-20 years before connections begin to wear. Your furnace may function efficiently for 15-20 years if you change the filter each month and have it serviced every year.

Your home inspector can provide you with more information about the life expectancy of every element in your home. Ask him or her for that information the first time you have an inspection.

Set Aside A Fund For Home Maintenance Costs 
Professional property managers estimate that setting aside about  15-cents per square foot of heated space per month, for the first 20-25 years of the life of a home, will give you a maintenance fund adequate to replace the roof and major appliances when you need to, without having to take out a loan or pillage your retirement account. 
If you do the math, and use the life cycles mentioned earlier, you'll see that this fund will hit somewhere close to zero in the 20th year, but be sufficient to maintain the home throughout that cycle. 

 Add a few extra pennies per foot to that pot if you live in an older home, or if you plan to do any small remodeling projects.   Invest the money. In the first 12 years, you'll be saving much more than you use, but when the whopping expenses hit, you'll be happy you were disciplined ? and meanwhile, you can take little vacations on the dividends. 

Buy A Good Home Warranty 
To keep your costs under control, consider buying a home warranty policy. There are companies that offer a sort of insurance policy that will help you monitor and maintain your home. For a fixed price they will inspect and service all of the major appliances and systems on a regular basis. They charge only a small additional fee for repairs. Consider purchasing one of these warranty policies once your contractor's warranty has expired. The older your home, the more value these policies will have to you. 

Be Prepared To Do The Little Chores Yourself 
How big a chore is too big for you? Plumbers, electricians and HVAC contractors are required to be licensed by the state for a reason. They do work that can be difficult or dangerous,  and they have special training and experience.  Don't try to work on your furnace, don't try to replace a backed-up waste line, and don't try to re-wire the house if you are not a licensed contractor.  Call in the professionals.  
Write down the name and 24-hour telephone number of a handyman service, a plumber, an electrician,  and an HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Air-Conditioning) contractor, and keep this list firmly affixed to the refrigerator. Be sure to pick contractors with great references and lots of experience. Consider these your on-call guys. They're the Mounties; this is the big stuff.  But you may want to tackle the small stuff yourself. 

 
Put together a tool box that includes: 
- Two screwdrivers; a flat-head and a Phillips o A light-weight claw hammer
- Two pairs of pliers; one small enough to fit in tight spaces and a larger one with a lock that can double as a clamp 
- A small hand saw with an edge that will cut plastic pipe and small pieces of wood
- A pair of wire cutters
- Picture wire, twine, duct tape, wood glue and a tube or two of caulk
- A 12" level
- A stud-finder
- An electrical outlet tester
- A 3-foot long, straight edge with ruler 

You ought to be able to replace damaged window screens, stop a toilet from running, replace caulk around the bathtub, clean the gutters (if you live in a single-story home), shut off main plumbing valves if you find a leak, and flip off the right breaker if you have an electrical problem. Take a few classes at the local home improvement store or the community college, so that you have some of the basic skills.   

What's Your Home Maintenance Philosophy?

Keeping your home in good shape is as important as keeping yourself healthy: upkeep is not an option, it's a necessity. One in four U.S. homeowners will experience some type of home-related damage, but only half will be equipped to handle it, according to a home emergency survey conducted in July 2005 by the Ketchum Global Research Network. This same study also targeted the five most common areas causing home-related damages.
They are: 
- Electrical surges
- Standing water (as a result of rain)
- Mold
- Sewage backup
- Standing water (as a result of broken   appliances and plumbing).  
With that in mind, recognize the importance of your responsibility for home maintenance, and keep an eye on things. Do, in a timely manner, everything necessary to keep your home in good condition. It will pay you back handsomely. 

Make Everybody Safe
- Check your smoke detector batteries from time to time. There's a little button on the face of the detector that ought to set off the alarm when you punch it. Punch it a second time to turn off the alarm. If the alarm doesn't sound, ask an electrician to check the wiring or replace the unit.
- Keep fire extinguishers near the kitchen and bedrooms. Make sure that everyone in the house knows how to use them. 
- Windows should be fully operable and weather tight. These openings provide an emergency exit in case of trouble, and ought to keep bad weather, bugs and burglars out.
- If your home was built before 1978, hire a hazardous materials inspector to check for asbestos, lead-based paint, mold and mildew and other health hazards.

You can get more information about this from the Department of Health & Human Services. Call the North Carolina Health Hazard Control Unit's information line in Raleigh at 919-733-0820.