3 Surprising Home Maintenance Tips That Could Save You Thousands

With the average homeowner spending between 1-4 % of the home’s value on repairs each year, it is safe to say that maintaining a home can be costly! The median home price for the U.S. hovers around $190,000. You could be spending a whopping $7,600 a year to maintain a home that size! What if there was a way to maintain your property without shelling out for huge repairs every year?

For many people, the answer to cutting back on huge annual repairs lies with simple maintenance. Unfortunately, home maintenance is often ignored until something serious has gone wrong, resulting in a repair of thousands of dollars. These surprising home maintenance tricks could have you saving thousands in the coming year!

Re-Seal Your Shower

Homeowners dread water damage. Leaky pipes, burst water lines or even poorly sealed grout can result in unbelievable damage to your home. While you may take your shower for granted, it can actually be the source of terrible water damage in your home.

As grout ages, it begins to crack and break down. In some instances, the grout between your bathroom tiles can actually seem to shrink and pull away from other tiles. Those gaps between the tile can allow water to seep straight down into your floorboards while creating mold and rot. For the low-cost of grout re-sealing, you could avoid the astronomical repair cost faced in a water damage situation.

Check Your Dirt

Surprisingly enough, the garden beds around your house could be responsible for severe damage to your home. How? Soil that slopes towards the foundation has a tendency to create pooling water. When the soil around your foundation becomes saturated it causes the foundation to settle, resulting in cracks. Foundation cracks are highly expensive to fix but must be repaired.

To avoid a settling foundation that creates cracks, take a look at your garden and flower beds around your home. Are they sloping downwards? In some instances, it can be best to install a concrete patio along the foundation of the house to prevent water seepage. If a new patio is out of the running financially, simply add enough soil that water will drain away from the foundation.

Clean And Seal the Deck

While your deck may be one of your most used home assets, it can also tend to be neglected. Performing a simple sanding on the deck and applying sealant can cost you less than $50. However, it can help you avoid dangerous wood rot and decay. Unstable deck supports will have to be replaced if they go without sealant and that can cost you a much larger amount!