Buying a new home can be both exhilarating and scary, especially if you have been living in rentals. Here are some useful fall maintenance tips:
Check the Weather Stripping
Unless you are moving into a new house with new weather stripping, your house could benefit from new weather stripping. An entire year of closing and opening windows and doors as well as the abuse from cold and heat will break down the soft weather stripping material and cause it to fail.
Clean and Inspect Storm Windows
Storm windows usually protect your windows from an onslaught of snow, sleet, UV rays, and rain. The tracks can be filled with debris and dirt causing the glass to wobble and air leaks to find their way into your home. To ensure proper function, you should check every storm window and clean it before winter.
Clean Out Gutters
You should make sure that your gutters are in great condition and remove any leaves that you see. Cleaning gutters is a simple job that has immense benefits. If your gutters are full, the water inside them will have nowhere to go except under the shingles and over the edge. If you end up with water damage, you should look for a website that specializes in restoration of property that has been damaged.
Order a Chimney Inspection
If your home has a working wood-burning stove or fireplace, you should order a chimney inspection. Soot can build up in the chimney and increase the risk of a chimney fire the next time you light up logs. To tell whether your chimney needs cleaning, you should use a fire poker to inspect the inside of the chimney liner. If you find more than an eighth of an inch of creosote buildup, it is time to call in a chimney cleaner.
Clean Weep Holes
Although they might be the tiniest feature on your sliding windows, weep holes serve a big role. Located on the outer bottom side of the window frame, they provide an outlet for rainwater and allow it to drain away from the house. However, when they clog up with debris, they will stop working.
To make sure that the weep holes are functioning as required, you should spray the outside of your window with a garden hose to see whether water will exit. If it does not, you can use compressed air or a wire hanger to remove the blockage. Repeat the test using fresh water to make sure that they are completely clean.
Drain Garden Hoses
Because of circumstances, you might neglect to drain your garden hoses before the winter. If you fail to do so, freezing water will solidify inside the pipe and split it open. You might lose an expensive hose this way because of neglect. To remove the water, you should blast it out with an air compressor or stretch the hose on a slanted driveway.
Call for HVAC Maintenance
Although a seasonal home inspection checks the HVAC function, your HVAC system could benefit from a thorough check before the winter. If there are any more issues, an HVAC technician will spot them and handle them before the temperatures dip. According to the owner of hvaccontractors.com, maintaining your HVAC system is cheaper than making repairs all the time.
Check Your Attic Insulation
As a new homeowner, you will not know how energy efficient your house is until you live there for a year or so. You can always increase your attic insulation by beefing it up. Unfaced insulation batts and loose insulation are the best ways to layer additional material over the existing insulation.