Maintenance Inspections

Thinking about home maintenance might remind you of changing air filters and cleaning your gutters. But when is the last time you took a good look at your water heater or explored the furthest reaches of your crawl space or attic? It's okay if you haven't done this in a while, or maybe never at all. I don't look under the hood of my car, because I'm not sure it would mean anything to me if I did. There is also the possibility that if it did mean anything to me, part of me wouldn't even want to know if there was a problem... unless it was an issue better dealt with sooner than later.

The ability to understand how homes work and the complexity of what a home accomplishes when they perform well is fascinating. Especially when you consider the variety of weather we can experience from one season to the next, much less in a 24 hour period. Heat, moisture, gravity, air movement, water, and pests are constantly shifting, moving, traveling, flowing, rising, falling, etc. This means that just like nature, the only constant that a home can look forward to is constant change. Depending on the rate of change and the perceived outcomes, it could be the kind of changes in your home you want to avoid.

I used to look at cracks around my home and wonder, how long have you been there? Was the crack that big the last time I looked at it? When was the last time I noticed this crack? So I started taking pictures to keep track. Fortunately, most of the cracks have stayed the same from year to year. But if this changes, I'll know.

Consider developing your own annual maintenance inspection routine. If you'd rather not visit the places in your home you've been successfully avoiding, give me a call. I love exploring places homeowners don't want to go!