City of Virginia Beach Pattern Book
Home Repair and Maintenance Why is Home Maintenance So Important?
Reason #1: Money!
Regular home maintenance activities may seem like a pain, but staying on top of these responsibilities can save you headaches and major expenses down the road. Prolonged water infiltration is one of the most frequent culprits of costly home repairs and is easily preventable in many cases. Think about a strip of caulk that has come lose from around an exterior window. The crack beside the window can allow moisture to sneak under the siding, which will likely lead to mold and wood-rot. Rotten wood is also an inviting target for termites and other wood-damaging insects.
If this problem is left
unattended for months or years, it may result in the need to replace a large segment of beams and framing in that wall. And all it would have taken to fix the problem in the first place was a tube of caulk and a few minutes of your time.
If you allow too many of these small maintenance items to go unchecked, it can mean serious consequences for the value of your home. Purchasing a home may be the biggest investment you will ever make. In order to realize a profit on your investment, you have to take care of it. When it comes time to sell your home, an accumulation of delayed maintenance items will be obvious potential buyers.
to If you have not kept up with your home
maintenance check list, it may take much longer to sell your home than you expected.
Pattern Book Chapter 4: Home Improvements
Reason #3: Neighborhood Quality!
Properties that are not well maintained detract from the vitality of the entire neighborhood. When each resident makes a genuine effort
Page | 62 Reason #2: Safety!
If there are smoke or carbon monoxide detectors in your home that don’t function properly or need a battery replacement, they will not protect your household in the case of an emergency. How about that section of the kitchen floor that creaks? There may be structural degradation underneath that makes the floor unsafe to walk on. Any creaks, squeaks, cracks, or softness in the floor system should be inspected which may detect potential or existing moisture, termite or structural damage.
Inspections may reveal environmental hazards that you were not even aware of, such as radon gas in the basement or water supply, friable asbestos materials (both of which can cause lung cancer), and peeling or disturbed lead paint (a risk to children and pregnant women). Did you know that certain types of mold and mildew can be hazardous to your health? If there are in-ground heating oil tanks on your property, it is possible they may be contaminating the ground water.
Performing routine maintenance on your home professional to conduct an annual and hiring a inspection should allow you to
identify potential safety hazards and correct them. An entire industry of environmental remediation contractors has developed to help home owners resolve these types of problems.
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