Our house turns 10 years old this coming spring. Like any property, the house has had its share of maintenance issues. Every fall and spring, we survey the house and look for issues that could cause problems such as water damage or foundation issues. Listed below are five home maintenance items that we tackled this year.
Don’t. I mean DON’T ignore these home maintenance tips. You could pay dearly emotionally and physically for failing to routinely fix the following exterior maintenance.
#1 Re-point your brick.
Our house is part siding and part brick. Last year, we had water leaks in the basement. I was dumbfounded where the water was coming from.
Water seems to find its way.
I traced the water backwards, and realized that the brick ledges surrounding the first floor needed re-pointing. Many of the joints had cracks in them or were missing grout all together. Those tiny holes were allowing water to run down the wall and bubble the paint or seep through the baseboards.
I even found mold behind one of the baseboards.
So, if your house has brick, take time and inspect the grout lines of your brick.
See the below video on how to re-point brick.
#2 Fix the grout in your walkways and patios
Freezing then thawing can cause your walkways to have cracks in them. Water again seeps through and causes the grout line to crack. Cracked walkways can become a tripping hazard.
In fact, last year’s winter caused one of my steps to crack in two which was a hazard to anyone walking up to my front door. Last thing you need is for someone to hurt themselves on your property!
So, be sure to get those grout lines fixed before winter approaches. See HERE on how to repair your walkways.
#3 Inspect your gutters and down spouts
Rain can be your friend. When it rains, I check my gutters and roof for leaks. The harder the rain, the greater likelihood that you will find leaks.
If you are finding puddles near your gutters or rain spilling out of your gutters, you could have:
- clogged gutter
- incorrectly sloped gutter
- or sagging gutter
This year, we found leaks in a couple of downspouts as well as a sagging gutter.
Why is it so important to inspect and clean your gutters? The main role of gutters is to keep water away from your foundation. Gutters that fail to do their jobs can cause the fascia boards that hold up the gutters to deteriorate, water leakage into your home, and sometimes, damage to the foundation.
When it rains again, take an umbrella and walk around your property.
#4. Remove leaves away from your house
In both the fall and spring, I remove leaves around the house. In the winter, leaf debris is a great place for rodents to hide. In fact, years past, they would hide near my pool equipment and chew on the wires.
Those “wire chews” can be very costly.
#5 Check for holes that invite rodents
Mice can fit through a hole the size of a diameter of a pencil. According to the Fairfax County, Virginia more than 200 germs can be transmitted by rodents from their saliva, urine, and fecal droppings.
Common entries are:
- “gaps under doors
- pipe and wire chases
- cracks in foundations
- crawl space doors and vents
- vents or other holes without screens
- holes that have been chewed in plastic, wood, drywall
- holes that have been dug in the dirt or grass”
We found a gap in a gas pipe fitting where the mice were coming into our basement. I was shocked that they could fit. We temporarily put metal around the gap and are in the process of fixing it.
Make sure in you install weatherstripping around your doors and a sweep under the door. In addition, use foam to seal up any holes.
Finding mice in your house is distressing. {Okay, it is downright upsetting.}
Join the Conversation:
What are your must do household maintenance items during the year?
Small Footprints says
November 6, 2014 at 6:48 pmExcellent tips! Usually we think of Fall/Winter maintenance as fixing leaky faucets and insulating windows. Not many people talk about fixing one’s siding or looking for mice entrances. Thanks so much! You’ve given me a lot to think about!
Betsy (Eco-novice) says
November 6, 2014 at 8:14 pmOh man, we’ve had rats and mice, so I definitely believe in maintaining that rodent mesh.
Green Bean says
November 6, 2014 at 8:46 pmAfter having rats get into the garage (no thank you!!), we do the last one on the list religiously.
Suzanne says
November 6, 2014 at 11:30 pmThank you for these tips! Sometimes life gets so busy, I forget to notice my aging home. I especially appreciate your advice about common mouse entry points!
Karen says
November 7, 2014 at 10:30 pmGreat points! Don’t have bricks but when I lived in a Co-Op building, they spent oodles of money re-pointing the bricks due to leaks. Glad I don’t have to worry about that now.
Lisa @Retro Housewife Goes Green says
November 10, 2014 at 6:52 pmGreat tips! We need to get the leaves around our home mulched soon. It also really helps keep insect populations down.
David Guion says
November 11, 2014 at 12:26 pmIn that picture of the downspout, is rainwater flowing into some kind of underground storage? What a great idea! I’ll bet it costs a bundle, though.
I haven’t noticed any rodents in the house, but between my feet and my dogs I’ve found critter holes. I’ll have to look for that rodent mesh.
Anna@Green Talk says
November 14, 2014 at 3:01 amThat mesh is temporary. We need to fix the opening. The downspout goes into an underground tank which slowly sends the water back to the ground. Our town requires this type of storm water improvement. Anna
Aby from Hammersmith says
November 12, 2014 at 5:04 amGreat tips and excellent point of view. We have to maintain our homes and keep the good condition because, most of the cases, it is related to our health. Thanks for the list of common mice entries, I have to check this out.
Greg says
November 13, 2014 at 6:37 pmSome great tips for homeowners. I would add two points: 1. inspect/replace weather stripping around windows and doors. 2. cover your air conditioner if you live in a climate that gets ice and snow.
Anna@Green Talk says
November 14, 2014 at 2:56 amGreg, great tips. I have a 3 part series just on weatherstripping and insulation. Anna
Tracie says
November 14, 2014 at 5:12 pmIf you don’t want mice, rats or snakes in your home find the entry points and stuff some steel wool in there. Mice and rats will eat through all caulking and spray foam but not steel wool. It scratches their eyes. If the entry spot is outside where pipes or wires come in, first stuff and wrap with steel wool and then some kind of concrete.
Anna@Green Talk says
November 19, 2014 at 4:13 pmThanks Tracie for the pointers. Anna
Dennis says
December 19, 2014 at 3:28 pmGreat Article! Sorry to hear you had some water and mold problems but you are spot on with the regular maintenance checklist. This will help a lot of people if they follow it.
Frank Covert says
January 11, 2015 at 9:11 pmIn my own experience, its the leaks that really do the small but costly damages. And the thing about it though is that we often get to know that they exist only when we notice changes specially in our water bills and unusual flooding.
AS much as possible, always check on the gutters and pipes, or have experts constantly do some maintenance work to make sure no water is put to waste.
Adelaide says
February 14, 2015 at 7:32 amGutter cleaning is always an important home maintenance task to be done on a regular basis. A lot of water damage can be prevented by simply looking after your roofing and guttering.
Natalie Darcy says
July 17, 2015 at 1:35 pmMy home is part brick and part stucco. I have been having trouble maintenance trouble with my brick, and I wasn’t sure if there was specific things to do to keep it looking well. I appreciate your tip about fixing the grout in walkways and patios, I can see that would help with my problem quite a bit. Thank you for a thoroughly helpful article and for the maintenance tips!
Anna@Green Talk says
July 18, 2015 at 4:33 pmNatalie, you have to repoint the brick every couple of years. We just did this in certain areas. Anna
Casey Ferguson says
August 28, 2015 at 10:19 amWe used to have very serious problems with leaks and moisture in our house and sometimes still have issues with the water. That made us very cautious and careful with the leaves and debris that can block the drains and gutters of the house. Cleaning them regularly prevents many water related problems and also keep the mold and bugs out of the house. I am cleaning all the time in order to have these things away from our home. Rodents are definitely a serious problem so thanks for the tips! I will keep them in mind! Greets!
Cindy Hoffman says
January 26, 2016 at 7:10 amNice tips there as always. I always thought we have faced the worst to have molds in our basement but it seems there are many of us 🙂 We had some expert look into and they did an amazing job adding some water proof and some finish. I love these tips, and will surely keep them in mind in our next maintenance.
Cindy
Hazel Owens says
April 5, 2016 at 10:40 amI like your tip to check your gutters for leaks when it rains. Like you said, the point of gutters is to keep water away from your home. If they’re not doing their job, you can end up with water damage in your foundation. Thanks for all the home maintenance tips.
Silas Knight says
May 3, 2016 at 3:37 pmIt is very important to keep clean gutters. If you don’t, like you said, the foundation of your home could become damaged. When this happens, there is nothing to be done but repair the foundation.
Tara Allen says
May 26, 2016 at 5:38 pmWorking on any maintenance problems buildings may have, seems like a great way to keep your structure stable. That is smart to look for sagging gutters to understand if your gutters are in need of a cleaning. Removing any leaves from your home, I think can really add to the appearance of your home on the outside.
Silas Knight says
June 6, 2016 at 2:36 pmThese are some great tips for keeping water damage away. Our home is made from bricks, but I had never thought they would let water seep through. However, after reading about the water leaking into your basement through the bricks, we decided to look around ours as well, in case we needed to re-point the brick.
Silas Knight says
July 6, 2016 at 8:17 pmYou have some great home maintenance tips here. I have never thought to use rain to find roof leaks before, but that is a good idea! It’s also important to maintain the gutters, like you mentioned.
Faylinn says
July 12, 2016 at 12:43 pmNext week, I am planning on having a home inspection done on my house and I don’t think that I would have ever thought to check for holes that invite rodents. I never realized that vents or pipes could be places where mice would want to crawl into and so I am going to go check for anything like that that might be around my house. However, I wouldn’t want to use foam to seal up pipes and so what would you suggest that I do in the situation of a pipe?
Anna@Green Talk says
July 13, 2016 at 12:36 amFaylinn, you can insert metal around the holes so they can’t get in. Alternatively, I have inserted a wire sponge around pipes in the kitchen so that mice can’t run up a pipe into the kitchen. Anna
Anthony Smith says
June 20, 2017 at 2:43 amIt is quite unfortunate to say that home maintenance is something that we often neglect. Cooking, cleaning, laundry are some of our daily responsibilities. Between these daily and weekly responsibilities home maintenance is something that often fall a wayside. But it is very important for everyone to keep in mind that our home is almost similar to our vehicle and our body which needs some kinds of tune ups which ultimately makes the homeowner beneficial. Thus, here I would like to say that one should follow the tips that have mentioned in the blog which will definitely guide an individual during his home maintenance. I genuinely like to say thank you for sharing such lovely and informative tips.
Penelope Smith says
August 22, 2018 at 11:51 pmThis is some really good information about taking care of a home. I liked that you talked about how it would be smart to keep your gutters in shape. That is good for me to know because I just bought my first home.