How to Save Money with Preventive Home Maintenance

The economy is tough and saving money is improtant to many of us. Here are tips on saving money on home repairs with preventative home maintenance.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. First look at your waterheater. A new water heater will likely cost around $500 or more when you include installation and haul away. You can extend the life of the water heater by attaching a simple garden hose to the drain value (looks like a faucet) once a year and flushing it to get rid of the build up.

2. Next protect your home air conditioning and heating system. This should be inspected once a year. Finding problems early such as leaking refrigerant can save you a large bill later caused by a fan breaking etc. Additionally if you have central air then the coolant levels need to be checked and recharged periodically.

3. Next look at the water pipes inside your house and outside the house, especialy around the joints. Look for leaks so you can repair them early. Additionally purchase pipe insulation (this is relatively inexpensive) and wrap the insulation around your outside pipes and then secure it with duct tape. This will help prevent the water in the pipes from freezing.

4. Next look around the outside of the house near the ground to check for any signs of rotting due to high moisture in the soil. If you see such occurences repair or at a minimum consider reducing watering in that area or cementing the area near to house to eliminate risk.

5. Finally check around the house for weeks and pull. Some people like to even put an herbicide around the house. This helps prevent tough weeds such as bermuda grass from growing under your house and find a way to grow into the house through cracks.

[sonni57]

on 4/18/2009 It's always good to do preventive home maintenance.