How to Inspect the Exterior of Your House

Video Transcript

"It’s important for every home owner to familiarize themselves with the exterior of their house. A lot of times people don’t check on what’s going on outside their house. Especially on the side that they rarely see - until there’s a problem. You can prevent a lot of problems by walking around and taking a look at your foundation and finding out if there are weeds or debris building up because that’s very damaging to the side of your house, especially if you have a wood-sided house. Whether or not you have wood or not, you don’t want the vines growing up the side - it’s very damaging for the mortar as well as for the wood. So you’ll want to make sure all those are cut back. A lot of people will excavate a small area around the foundation around there house and fill it with gravel so this provides a barrier for weeds and vines and the like.

Also you want to check your mortar and you do have a brick house, and make sure that it’s intact, if you have large gaps, that will allow the water to penetrate the wall, which is obviously not good, and also check around the windows. You want to make sure that you don’t have rotted window frames or large gaps. And if you do have gaps you want to make caulk that or fill it with foam so that you can reduce the air drafts in your house. Also you want to check along your roof line and make sure the branches and trees aren’t growing up onto your roof, because not only will this damage your roof, but it also provides a means for animals to get onto your roof, but possibly into your attic. So the further away the branches are from your roofline, the better. So familiarizing yourself with what’s going on the outside your house will prevent your repair bills in the future and save you a lot of potential headaches."