If you’re renting or living with your parents, you generally live in this bubble where homeownership is easy and doesn’t require a lot of work. If you’re at your family home, everyday living is seamless, with your parents overlooking the homes’ stewardship. When renting, you’re likely not keeping tabs on all the issues that come up, them being taken care of by the property manager, often without your knowledge. However, once you take on homeownership, you quickly realize that running a house involves a lot of maintenance and repairs. Calling a handyman every time you need to execute a home maintenance task is not practical, there are tasks every homeowner should know.
It’s also important to recognize that not all home maintenance tasks are apparent. Many home maintenance tasks can’t be identified by the naked eye, you need to be aware of time limitations to ensure safety or efficiency. Once you’re up to date on what needs to be looked after, it’s vital to take on as many of those tasks as you can to mitigate expenses incurred from hiring professionals. Follow this useful guide for some home maintenance tasks all homeowners should know:
1) Cleaning The Dryer Vent
We’re not referring to the little filter inside your machine, that’s obvious. What many people aren’t aware of is that the main vent that leads outside gets a lot of lint build up too. In fact, ignorance of this important home maintenance task is dangerous, it being one of the leading causes of house fires (not mention the added energy costs of your dryer not running efficiently). Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be done after every load; every 3 months, unscrew the cover of your vent and clean out the inside of the pipe with a vacuum cleaner.
2) Closing The Main Water Supply Valve
If you have a water emergency like a leak or a burst pipe, time is of the essence, which is why you need to know how to access and cut off the main water supply valve. Not shutting it off can greatly increase the damage being caused and cost you a lot of additional money to get repaired. When issues like this arise, simple access the valve and turn it off.
3) Changing Your HVAC Filter
In order to keep your HVAC system running smoothly and efficiently, you need to change the filter every 3 months. Swapping the filter is easy, first shut off your system so you don’t get electrocuted, then simply swap out the filters, ensuring that it’s not installed backward. Make sure to check what size filter you need before leaving the house to pick up new ones.
4) Resetting A Circuit Breaker
Whenever installing a lighting fixture or if lighting mysteriously gets cut off in 1 or more sections of your house, it’s important to be familiar with your circuit breaker. When installing something electrical, access your panel and simply switch off that section of the house, then switch it back on once complete. If you just need to reset it because it’s out, simply switch it off then on.
5) Unclogging Drains/Toilets
If you have to call a plumber every time you have a clogged drain, it’s going to be very expensive. For toilets, all you need to do is plunge it, for other drains, you can plunge and/or use a de-clogger like Drano or liquid plumber and plunge again if necessary. Only call a plumber if all else fails.
Original article found at http://dreamcasa.org/living/diy-inspirations/home-maintenance-tasks-homeowners-know/