7 Steps to Prepare your Home for Summer
February 19, 2010
Spring is just about here and it’s time to shake off the winter woolies and start getting our homes ready for the summer months. The following are simple steps to take to minimize unnecessary maintenance and damage around your home. So, let’s start from the top.
- Remove any debris left on your roof like leaves, fallen branches, etc. This will inhibit any build up of moisture and mold on the shingles. Moisture is the number one reason for reducing the life of roofs.
- Blow/rake any leaves around the home to give the grass a chance to grow. Raking will be best, this will remove any thatch (dead grass) build up out of the lawn, allowing it to breath and strengthen.
- Open all the vents under the house to start circulating the air (assuming your house has a crawl space), especially in the high humidity areas of the southern states. It’s important to reduce moisture build up under the home; moisture can damage the joists under your home. In addition, reducing moisture will inhibit any mold possibility which can cause a number of allergy and respiratory ailments.
- If you don’t already have plastic under you house as a vapor barrier, now’s the time to lay it (4mil is good, 6mil is better). Moisture can migrate from the earth under your home into the sub-structure of your home causing the same problems as above.
- If you have a deck or patio, now’s the time to clean it and re-seal it. The pollen and humidity have not fallen onto the deck and it’s an ideal time to clean and re-seal it. I use a 50/50 blend of bleach to water and a stiff bristle push broom. Expensive cleaners and fancy deck brushes are really not necessary (make sure you rinse any plant life around your cleaning area with water after cleaning to keep any damage to the plants from occurring). As far as sealers are concerned, use a good quality one that does not have paraffin (wax) in it, they don’t last. Penetrating oil is the standard for this application and they come in many different finish colors.
- Trim any bushes away from the house (always leave at least 6in of space between house and bushes as well as bush and ground). Your bushes/shrubs retain moisture and encourage mold to form on your siding (vinyl, wood, brick, stone… it doesn’t matter). This will then infiltrate into your home. By allowing air to circulate between the areas of you plant growth, will save your home some headaches and help the plants grow better.
- If you use a gas barbeque, time for a cleaning and maintenance check. Spiders and insects have a tendency to create webs or nests in the ignition starter causing it not to work properly. When the gas is on and starter does not ignite it, an explosive situation may occur. Take time to take the barbeque apart and clean all the parts well.
The above is a good start and depending on your home may be enough to take you through to the autumn.
Take care!
Gene
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4 Comments
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Great list! I have already started on one of these: I cleaned up my BBQ a few weeks ago and I have been using it already! It has been gorgeous here!
Funny how we have the same priorities LOL! It was not that gorgeous out here. So, we barbecued in the snow for Valentine’s Day.
So, only 6 “chores” left on the list.
We are just coming to the end of summer, so we are actually preparing for winter in Australia. Not that it get’s cold enough too actually make to many changes!
Well Tom… We also have tips about winterizing your home. Would you like to read about those? Gene is a structural engineer, General Contractor, has been in the flipping business, real estate investment for more than 20 years. He could help you out. But as building is different in all parts of the world (I found huge differences between the US and Europe), we wouldn’t be adverse to get some tips from you.
Take care!