When buying a home, you may find the ideal location and style of home, but the structure needs a little work. Some homes for sale need minor roof repairs or plumbing fixes. Experienced do-it-yourselfers (DIYers) might make small roofing repairs themselves, but for roof improvements like a new roof or adding roofing gutters, hire a professional roofing contractor. How do you tell the difference between a repair that requires a professional and one that an experienced DIYer can handle?
Professional or DIY?
Typically, small repairs or patches on the interior of a home make good DIY projects. Painting a small interior room or changing the washers on a sink faucet also offers DIYers an opportunity. If the repair doesn’t require mounting a ladder or mucking around in the home’s crawlspace, it can probably qualify as a DIY project. Matters concerning foundations, house lifting, installing new roofs, or making a large repair to a roof require a professional, so if water drips into the home from the roof, call a leaking roof repair service.
Homeowners and Home Upkeep
Once you’ve got your home in an optimum state of repair, create a checklist of items you need to do each week or month to maintain the home and avoid “trials and tribulations.” Since every home differs, your list and your neighbors’ list might not include all the same tasks. For example, if your home features a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, you’ll need to change the air filter each month. Every homeowner should examine the perimeter of their home’s foundation and roof each month.
Many first time homeowners have done everything they can to prepare themselves for the trials and tribulations of homeownership. They have saved diligently for their down payment, put money aside for all of the closing costs, saved for all of the furniture they will need to furnish the house in a stylish and cozy way. But, not many new homeowners are fully prepared for what it will take financially to keep up the home as the years go by.
For many, the kinds of expenses that show up as time goes by can catch them off guard, throwing the family budget into all kinds of disarray. From roof service due to unexpected storm damage to gutter repairs to vinyl siding repair, expenses can creep up suddenly or hit all at once.
Whne it comes to the roof, many homeowners might night be prepared for what is right over their own heads. It can be tricky to tell if you need to have roof service done or not. Here are three things every homeowner should know about roof service and repair.
1.)Make sure you have your roof inspected once a year.
Because it is out of sight, our roofs are usually not on our minds. We tend to not think about them until a leak occurs and we have to call a roof service to come and either replace some part of it or redo the thing altogether. If you have your roof inspected on an annual basis, you will reduce the chances of having an emergency repair because potential problems might be caught before they get to be too terrible.
2) Put repair money aside from the get go.
If you take the numbers from all around the country, you find that the average homeowner will spend somewhere between one and four percent of their home’s value on repairs every year. So, for a home worth $300,000, at the very least $3,000 will be spent fixing things that go wrong. Obviously, when you have accidents or storms damage your home, the expenses go up. Start with putting at least 1% of your home’s values aside.
3.) Fix the small problems before they become big ones.
The typical annual heating and cool budget for most families is somewhere around $350 per year. Most of this is on air that leaks out of the house, through unintended gaps and cracks. If you will be vigilant about checking the windows, doors, and any cracks you find, you will be able to seal off a great deal of the hot and cool air that is escaping.
One of these places is the roof. From time to time, you can check for yourself–either from the attic, inside, or from the roof, itself, outside–to determine if you need any maintenance done to the roof. If you can seal off the leaks, you can tighten your wallet.