Home maintenance is crucial for value and condition preservation. However, there are different approaches to these. Regular upkeep prevents minor, manageable issues from snowballing into enormous challenges. Maintenance gives critical systems efficiency and longevity while promoting home safety and comfort. Proper maintenance mitigates unnecessary hazards and accidents and saves the homeowner future costly repairs while increasing the property value.
As a homeowner, knowing when to hire a home maintenance expert is a game-changer. Whereas some tasks lean towards the DIY approach, others are best handled by the relevant professionals. Don’t gamble with your home’s safety. Below are nine signs you should hire home maintenance experts.
1. Water Damage
Common signs of water damage in a home include musty odor, brown, yellow, or dark water stains, and slight color discoloration on floors, walls, ceilings, and wall and roof joints. Paint damage, like peeling paint, bubbling up wallpapers, and soft spots, such as warped floorboards, are other indicators. Others are dampness and humidity or unexplained wetness on home surfaces, strange dripping or scratching noises in the home, or the presence of mold on surfaces. A sudden onset of respiratory challenges in the home could be a major indicator of water damage.
Mold remediation is crucial in addressing mold growth in homes or buildings. Molds trigger respiratory problems, allergies, and various health issues while messing with property finishes, leading to significant structural damage. Home maintenance experts who offer comprehensive mold remediation services are well-equipped and highly trained in identifying mold sources, levels of mold infestations, and safe mold removal while minimizing further contamination.
Mold remediation services handle different aspects of mold infestation. For instance, they remove the mold and take necessary measures to prevent future mold growth by addressing underlying causes, such as moisture challenges and improved ventilation, while recommending best practices for keeping the environment dry and mold-free. Professional mold remediation experts ensure the safety and health of occupants and safeguard the property’s integrity. This, in turn, gives the homeowner peace of mind that the situation has been handled conclusively.
2. Garage Repairs
The garage is an integral part of the home. A quality garage door offers home security, safety, quick operation, and excellent curb appeal. Hence, identifying signs that indicate your garage door needs attention is critical. These include cracked, splintered, or rotting wooden doors, lack of curb appeal, a door requiring frequent repairs, and sagging or flared wooden door edges that expose your garage contents. Other signs that a door needs repair include noisy doors and failure of safety features, such as photo-eyes.
Garage door repairs are not your usual DIY tasks; hence, they should be undertaken by home maintenance experts specializing in garage door services, as they have expert skills in maintenance for electronic garage roller doors. They should also possess skills in restoring or replacing broken torsion or extension springs, jammed garage doors, extending garage door cables, sprockets, and openers, restoring damaged or bent panels, and general garage repairs. Besides, a garage door technician will only use parts with a warranty. Regular preventative maintenance maximizes the life of your garage door. However, knowing when it’s nearing its inevitable end helps you plan and make timely decisions without compromising your home’s safety. You’ll also avoid emergency garage door installations.
3. Plumbing Issues
It’s prudent to leave plumbing issues to home maintenance experts like plumbers. Unless you are good at working with your hands and have previously handled repair and maintenance tasks, leave this task to the professionals, as inexperienced plumbing repair causes more harm than good. Familiarizing yourself with the local septic companies is critical to procuring professional plumbing services.
The following plumbing issues are best left to experts: burst or frozen pipes, leaking pipes, large clogs in drains and toilets, low water pressure issues, water heater issues, and running toilets. The effects of DIY plumbing on burst or frozen pipes are ice damage, flooding, or extensive pipe bursting when the ice thaws. Potential side effects of handling leaking pipes yourself include extensive property damage to drywalls as you try to locate the leak. You may also not have insufficient equipment to tackle leaks on copper pipes, which can’t be fixed using duct tape.
You need a professional to remove mildew or mold effectively. Clogs in sinks and toilets that don’t respond to pluggers, snake drains, or drain cleaning chemicals should be handled by plumbing experts to avoid pressure damage, leaks, and pipe damage. Low water pressure resulting from leaks is another issue you should leave to professional plumbers. It would help if you let them deal with water heater issues, as they can cause an explosion, fire, or electrical problem. Relentless ‘ghost flushing’ that doesn’t respond to all DIY flush valve adjustments should be left to experts since it could be an underlying toilet design flaw.
4. Cracked Sidewalk
Concrete is durable. It’s integral to the integrity of structures. But that’s not all; its aesthetic possibilities are numerous due to its resilience and adaptability, and it can create harmony through different decorative concepts. However, like all composite materials, it’s susceptible to wear and tear. Concrete structures, such as sidewalks, slabs, pavements, or roofs, are best handled by home maintenance experts. Procuring the services of stamped concrete contractors helps you restore compromised or cracked sidewalks.
Stamped concrete is inexpensive and great on sidewalks or driveways, but don’t let that fool you into a DIY restoration project. Restoring cracked sidewalks is a time-consuming and labor-intensive endeavor. Hence, it’s best to leave the task to stamped concrete contractors with specialized tools, such as floor buffer machines with scrubbing pads. They have the expertise to identify and address the telltale signs of a compromised sidewalk before real damage sets in. They can also professionally divide the intricate labor to expedite the project.
It’s time to contact a stamped concrete contractor if you have blowouts, inconsistent concrete texture, or if your attempt to seal cracks has failed due to a missed maintenance window or color hardener mishap. Inadequate curing, chipping along the grout lines, discolorations, stamped concrete color variations, and widening minor surface cracks are other signs you should contact a stamped concrete contractor. The rule of thumb is to call the experts if you can’t visually identify the source of your concrete problem.
5. Lawn Care
If your lawn has undrained water puddles from irrigation or rainwater, patchy grass growth accompanied by hard and dry soil that won’t let a shovel trowel through, indicating a soil compaction challenge, you need professional lawn care. Also, if your lawn has heavy traffic, you’ll need mechanical lawn aerators to professionally handle the soil compaction challenge.
Keeping your lawn vibrant, green, healthy, and weed-free is a job for home maintenance experts. It’s more cost-effective to have an ongoing contract with an expert. The alternative is to risk an entire lawn replacement. A licensed lawn specialist can make your landscape look great all year round.
Services like lawn aeration require state-of-the-art equipment available from lawn maintenance experts. Keep your lawn lush green through fertilization, making it drought-resistant, inhibiting mushroom growth, enhancing insect resistance, healthy, durable grass roots, encouraging new grass growth, and breaking up highly compressed and dense soils to allow air and water flow to the soil and roots. A professional home maintenance team excavation contractor is well-equipped for this task.
6. Water Issues
If your home has water issues and breakers don’t resolve them, you most likely have a good pump challenge. Unfortunately, this can happen at the worst of times. If you notice any signs of water problems, call the experts to address the symptoms and the underlying causes.
A well pump service is not a DIY maintenance task. The following are telltale signs that your water pump needs repair. The faucets spit water, fluctuating water pressure, or a non-stop running well pump. The perks of having professional home maintenance experts, such as plumbers, is that they can clearly distinguish between pressure tank challenges and faulty well pumps, which could be clearer for non-experts.
Water issues caused by well pumps include equipment failure, well pump wear and tear, groundwater challenges, and irregular preventative well pump inspections. Generally, have the well pump inspected every year. The inspection should include the motor, bladder, pump, and pressure switch to ensure they are in tip-top shape and address any arising anomalies. Professional plumbers can advise whether to replace or repair a faulty component.
7. Roof Damage
A neglected, damaged roof can lead to major structural problems. Homeowners must procure services from professional roofing companies, especially during roofing emergencies, whether from damage from hailstorms, falling trees, or aged leaky roofs. Home maintenance experts with expertise in roofing are best placed to keep one’s home safe through preventive maintenance. They’re also critical in halting roof damage.
Leaky roofs are a good sign for hiring a professional roofing company. Generally, unaddressed leaks could lead to mold or mildew challenges, dirty, clogged soffits, discolored ceilings, damaged vent boots, broken, curled or cracked shingles, rusted gutters and chimney flashings, destroyed insulation, rotten sheathes and framings. Timely interventions coupled with regular roof inspections translate to considerable savings in the long run. Otherwise, costly roof replacements will be the alternative.
Problems such as rotting wood, mold, or damaged items in the attic are signs of hidden leaks that require an expert to locate. Shedding or missing shingles compromise your roof and should be addressed by experts who understand the extent of the damage. If items around the home are hail-damaged, it pays to have a professional inspect your roof to eliminate visible or invisible damage.
8. Heating and Air Repairs
HVAC services and HVAC maintenance are critical to your home. Although used interchangeably, HVAC services and HVAC maintenance are two different things. HVAC services refer to the need for repair, whereas HVAC maintenance refers to preventative measures that prolong the HVAC system’s lifespan. Resist the temptation to perform DIY tasks on your HVAC unit and instead get an expert to draft and implement an HVAC maintenance plan for your home.
One of the signs you need a home maintenance expert to address your HVAC systems is unjustifiably high utility bills. For instance, if you’ve been regularly paying $400 in a particular month and suddenly the bill spikes to $900 for the same month, yet nothing has changed, it’s a sign you have an energy consumption problem. Other signs include no cold air flowing indoors, lingering strange musty odors, weird sounds when the system is running, and the house temperatures not tallying with the set thermostat temperatures.
Get an expert to conduct HVAC maintenance twice a year to keep the system running efficiently and effectively and keep your energy costs low. They’ll also identify potential trouble points that need attention. HVAC routine maintenance entails thoroughly cleaning the elements, drains, and coils, lubricating moving parts, inspecting motor operations, connections, and thermostat functionality, testing safety controls, and monitoring refrigerant pressure. Consistent HVAC maintenance minimizes the need for HVAC services and prolongs your HVAC’s lifespan.
9. Energy Needs
Effectively maintaining an energy-efficient home requires the services of home maintenance experts with exposure to the HERS index, which measures a home’s energy efficiency standards. When you adopt smart home technologies, including energy-efficient lighting, water-saving measures, high-performance windows, effective insulation, energy star-certified HVAC systems, and appliances, it’s prudent to involve experts when they have issues. Signs that you have home energy efficient issues include bungled green home maintenance, such as missed HVAC system tune-ups, intermittently changed HVAC filters, and unserviced HVAC before the heating or cooling seasons. Another sign of poor maintenance is a spike in energy bills and unsealed air leaks on doors and windows during the season shifts.
To embrace energy efficiency, consider practicing green landscaping with the help of home maintenance experts. This involves using native grass lawns instead of synthetic ones, minimizing hardscapes, and having more planted areas. Avoid gravelscaping, incorporating bushy plants, and planting deciduous trees to the west or south to counter heat islands. Also, consider installing efficient irrigation systems.
Home maintenance is an intricate art that requires the services of professionals. Issues such as handling installations, molds, water damage, and pests to keep your home functional, aesthetically appealing, and habitable are best left to the experts. Besides, a well-maintained home is likely to fetch a higher price if you decide to put it on the market. Of all tasks, resist the temptation to DIY plumbing, mold remediation, gas appliance repairs, electrical installations, HVAC system repairs, and pest infestations. Let the professionals do what they’re trained to do.