One of the most exciting days in every man’s life is the day when he gets his own home and finally gets to move in. When this happens, the excitement is so big that you love everything about your home and you smell the freshness of its walls, floors and the paint. However if you want to keep it that way and you want your home to stay that good, you need to regularly take care of it and to get some basic maintenance down. Here are the things that should be done regularly, classified by the areas of the home.
Walls and Other Paint Work
It would be great if you could manage to paint your walls at least once a year. When the home is new and the first coat of paint is still on it, you will be able to have a new coat of paint very easily and with no plastering work necessary or anything similar. However, if the home is not entirely new, you may want to call the professional for that first paint job. Other painting that needs refreshing from time to time are wooden surfaces, doors, windows and fences. You can do that once a year for the fences and outdoor parts while indoor items may be done once on every two years or when you think it is necessary.
Floors
The maintenance of your floors depends greatly on the type of the floor that you have. Wood needs some care but it is long lasting and natural flooring. Laminate needs constant cleaning and it will last considerably long. Other types of flooring like tiles, stone and the like rarely need some maintenance but they need constant cleaning. Make sure that the dirt and dust generally don’t dwell in your home for long at it can damage the finish on your furniture, floors and other surfaces in time.
Heating and Cooling
Filters need to be taken care of and replaced at least once in very three years. Besides that, the annual checkup should be done by a professional before every cooling or heating season. For their longevity, make sure that you don’t overuse the heating and cooling systems and that you are using them according to the manual. Some of the heating systems should be turned off completely during the entire year because of the humidity that can hurt them. It is enough to leave the pilot on in order to prevent some rusting that may happen.
Paths and Driveways
These really need to be kept clean. Fall is the period when the dry leaves and other things may cover the paths and driveways. If you don’t remove those leaves, the grass underneath the layers of old leaves will begin to rot and it will not be green and fresh in the spring as it will not be able to breathe and grow under the thick layer of decomposed leaves. Also, in case of rain the leaves may block the ducts and cause the overflowing of water. Therefore, keep them clean and all your drains free from possible blockages.
Plumbing
What goes for the outside, goes for the inside as well. Be very careful and very thorough when you inspect your pipes and drains and that should be done once a month. All the leakage and all the wet spots should be determined where do they come from and how. They need to be taken care of as ignoring those causes more problems. Once a month, you may pour some boiling water down the drains to get rid of the grease and prevent it from causing blocked drains. But more serious blockage should be dealt with by a professional.
At times, it may seem that having a new house is a lot of work. The truth is that it is, but also the truth is that this work can be scheduled in a way that it isn’t too hard to be done and it also can be shared with other members of your family. Everybody can check for leaks and wet patches just like everybody can participate in cleaning the old leaves from your driveways. It can even be fun activity for the whole family if you put some imagination to it.