4 Steps to Ensure Your Home is Well-Maintained

In order to live in a clean, safe and healthy environment, it’s important to perform routine house maintenance. If your home isn’t properly maintained, a whole slew of issues can occur ranging from poor air quality to even radon poisoning.

Read on to learn a few steps on how to maintain your home:

Inspect the Area

The first rule of thumb when maintaining your house is to inspect it from top to bottom. If this is your first time, it may be confusing on what to look for when inspecting a home.

Here is a brief list of what to look for:

– Mold on the walls, ceiling or even curtains
– Walls that have the paint or plaster peeling off of them
– Gutters that are filled with rain water
– Floors, specifically wood, that are softer and risen
– Discolored grout in tiled flooring

There are a lot of things to go over other than this, so be sure to take your time going over your entire house. And don’t just briefly gaze at something. There’s more to inspecting your house than you might think.

Your smell and hearing can help as well. For example, if you have any problems with the pipes, it may produce an odd sound.

As for the smell, it’s not uncommon to have a musty odor. In fact, a musty odor is one of the most common signs of a mold infestation. Mold, in addition to being unsightly, can cause a variety of health issues including allergy-like symptoms and asthma.

Lastly, make sure to take a look at your utility bills.

An Australian reader sent us a tip the other day with the comment “If I ever notice a significant increase in my utility bill, I always compare the bill to the electricity prices in Alberta. If the price is higher than the average price, there may be a problem with home appliances.”

Keep The Dust At Bay

Dust is one of those things that you can never truly get rid of. No matter how much you dust or vacuum, there’s always going to be a few specks floating in the air. In small quantities, dust won’t have any effect on the air quality of your house or your overall health.

However, if too much dust accumulates, it can cause a variety of health issues. It’s also worth pointing out that dust can harbor dust mite skeletons and feces, which are two potential asthma triggers.

What’s worse is that dust can also carry particles from chemicals such as cleaning products or pesticides. Luckily, dust is one of the easiest things to get rid of. Make sure to use a cloth that can properly pick it up such as a dry pad or a wet cloth.

Change Your Air Filters

One of the most overlooked aspects when it comes to maintaining a house are the air filters in your HVAC unit.

These filters are what traps all of the dirt, dust and dander. Most HVAC units take in air from outside of the house and convert into either heat or air conditioning. However, that’s not all it takes from the outside. It also takes the contaminates from the outside as well.

Air filters can only trap so much before your HVAC unit starts blowing the contaminants into your home. If these contaminants linger in your home for too long, it can cause an allergy flare up or an asthma attack. It’s recommended by HVAC professionals that you change your air filters every one to three months.

Control The Moisture

Moisture is another leading cause of having a mold infestation. Moisture can be caused by a number of things whether it’s from having too much humidity or a simple puddle on the floor. To make matters worse, many types of rodents and pests thrive in areas that have a lot of moisture.

Check all of your pipes to make sure they’re not leaking. In some cases, you may not notice that the pipes within the walls may be leaking. If you start noticing large, wet stains on the walls, you’ll need to call a professional to keep the issue from getting worse.