Annual home maintenance can be pretty costly. American Family Insurance researched the average cost of annual home maintenance, and they found that it would cost Americans between $1,000 to $2,000 to maintain all parts of their home. However, this can go so much higher when replacements are needed to be purchased every other year. Reducing the annual costs of maintenance is the goal of many American households. Here are some cheap and easy ways you can maintain your home without resorting to drastic and expensive measures.
Mold
Mold is one of the most common reasons your home’s interior gets damaged because aside from its disgusting looks, mold can stick into walls, eat through its wallpaper, and eventually its very foundation. This can lead to expensive maintenance costs, especially if left unchecked. Additionally, mold can trigger allergies among many people, so getting rid of them is a priority.
There are many subspecies of mold, most of which can be pretty invasive. There’s not much we can do to prevent them from entering our homes. What we can do is make our homes less survival for their kind. Mold lives and spread in humid areas. The easiest and cheapest way to prevent them from growing is by installing a dehumidifier in your home. This particular device single-handedly gets rid of molds and prevents their growth. Constant mopping and cleaning of humid areas in your home can also keep mold away.
Pests
Ticks are relatively common in homes where there are pets. They are one of the most common pests in the US, and getting rid of them is not as simple as the other home maintenance tips we have listed above. A company specializing in eliminating ticks is ultimately the best solution for maintaining your home against ticks. This is because getting rid of ticks is a complicated and challenging process, and it’s something that you shouldn’t try yourself.
Ticks can jump into your hair and make you their host. Tick bites can trigger allergies if you’re not careful. They can also complicate other medical conditions that you or your family might have. If you think that your home is getting infested by ticks, then it’s time to hire a professional. It’ll save you the trouble of doing it yourself and risking your life in the process. Furthermore, pest control services are reasonably cheap, and you only need them once every five years, so they are most certainly worth it.
Use Strainers for Sinks
Plumbing is one of the main reasons for home maintenance costs every year. The annual average expenditure can cost between $500 to $1,000 depending on the work needed to be done on the pipes and drainage of the home. You can easily avoid this cost and reduce plumber visits by more than 50% through strainers.
Debris is one of the main reasons why pipes in sinks and bathrooms tend to clog. Strainers can block debris such as food and hair from clogging your pipes. Once the strainer is full, all you have to do is throw the debris in the trash. There is still some debris that it might not be able to stop, especially very small ones. This can still lead to clogging problems, but it will ensure that it won’t happen too often, reducing costs. Strainers are particularly cheap and won’t cost you more than $20. That’s a good deal if you ask us!
Wash Your Home Sidings
Your home sidings protect the interior parts of your home from damage. It also protects you from storms, harsh winds, and nasty pests. But because of all the work it’s doing, it’s also the most vulnerable to damage. Thankfully, home sidings are resilient to damage but not so resilient against things that can deteriorate over time.
Pollen, mold, and pests sticking in your home sidings are a common occurrence. This is why you should wash them frequently with high-pressure water. Feel free to wipe your sidings with a cloth right after washing so the humidity won’t stay. As we have stated earlier, humidity makes it easy for mold to grow, and you don’t want mold to grow in your sidings.
Replacing a home siding can cost you thousands of dollars. By cleaning them occasionally, you can avoid this maintenance cost entirely.
Here are some cheap and simple ways you can prevent thousands of dollars of home maintenance annually. Make sure to do them whenever you can. By proactively working on keeping your home clean, you can avoid thousands of dollars of maintenance costs annually.
