Summer Home Maintenance Checklist
Summer is here, and it is essential to maintain your home to ensure everything is running correctly. Even if your home is brand new or a few years old, it’s vital to check up on it to make sure you and your family can enjoy a safe and stress-free summer.
Start with an Inspection
The first thing you should do when summer begins is inspect the inside and outside of your home. You should start with the outside by checking for any damage to the structure of your home. Next, check out the plumbing in your home and make sure there aren’t any leaks and everything is draining properly.
Once you’re done with the outside, head inside and inspect there. First, check the electrical system by ensuring everything turns off and on and checking on the outlets in your home. If you have a basement, now would be an excellent time to ensure there isn’t any water damage.
Finally, check your HVAC system and ensure that your home is cooling correctly. If anything you have inspected has any damage or is not working properly, contact a professional to ensure your home is in the best condition. Sometimes it’s best to leave some things to the professionals, but there’s some maintenance you can do inside and outside your home.
Outside Maintenance
Even though it is hot outside, it’s still important to do maintenance to keep your house in pristine condition all summer long for you and your family to enjoy.
Preparing for bad weather
One of the first things you should do when it comes to maintaining the outside of your home is to determine whether your weather screens need to be replaced and if so, replace them. This becomes essential because certain parts of the United States experience more storms than others.
Next, you should make a list of all of your outside furniture so you know what must be put away before a bad storm. You should also talk to your insurance agent about what kind of coverage you have if you experience any weather damage. After the first summer storm rolls through, take time and walk through your property to see if there are any leaks or mold. Make sure to check your gutters and downspouts to ensure that they are draining correctly. By finding any leaks or damage early on, you can fix them before they get worse, preventing further damage and saving you money.
Examine your home
After preparing your home for bad weather, it is essential to go outside and examine the exterior of your home. Start by seeing if there’s any loose or rotten wood; next, check if there’s any chipped or cracked paint. Finally, check your windows for any leaks. Depending on the extent of the damage to the exterior of your home, you may have to contact a contractor; but remember, it’s cheaper to fix it now than later.
Cleaning and preparing your pool
Finally, if you have a pool, getting that pool open is at the top of your to-do list when summer first starts. But it is essential to inspect your pool and determine if any maintenance needs to be done before you can open it. The first important thing to note is that you don’t have to empty the pool. In fact, if you decide to drain your pool, this could lead to the pool coming out of the ground due to its high-water table. Therefore, you should only empty your pool if there needs to be structural work done.
Next, you should start cleaning up your pool by working on the filtration system, cleaning out the baskets, and removing the plugs you put in when closing last year. As you do this process, you can leave the pool cover on. Fill your pool with more water if the water levels have fallen but clean the filter before doing so. Once this is done, have a professional come to your home and test the water or bring a sample of your water to the pool store. They will be able to tell you what chemicals need to be adjusted and how much. After this, you should balance your chemicals according to what the professional told you.
Once all of this is complete, you cannot remove the cover until the water is clear. You may have to add more chlorine in order to achieve a clear pool. When you see that the water is clear, you can remove the cover and vacuum all the debris in the pool. When all the debris is gone, your pool is finally ready to be opened for the summer. But be sure to maintain your pool for the rest of the season by keeping the pool and filter clean, along with testing your chemicals every day and getting the pool professionally tested at least once a month.
Inside Maintenance
While maintaining the outside of the home is important, it’s also essential to maintain the inside of your house during the summer to ensure your family stays cool, safe, and comfortable.
Maintaining safety
One of the first things you should do is check the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. You should replace the old batteries with new ones to make sure they’re working. If either of these detectors have batteries inside that are dead, your family will not be alerted in an emergency. So be sure to check all the detectors in your home to keep your family safe.
The cleaning you haven’t thought of
You likely do cleaning once or twice a week, but there are plenty of places homeowners forget to clean, like your appliances that clean items for you. It’s important to clean your appliances to keep them in good shape. You should clean your garbage disposal by flushing it out with hot water and dish soap. Then you should clean your dishwasher with one cup of vinegar. Place it in the bottom of your empty dishwasher, and run the dishwasher with hot water. You should also remove your dishwasher filter and clean it in your sink with dish soap.
While cleaning these appliances, you should go ahead and clean your washing machine and dryer. You can clean your washing machine by running an empty cycle of vinegar and hot water. Finally, you can clean your dryer by vacuuming the inside of it and emptying the dryer vent and exhaust duct. Once you’re done cleaning your appliances, it’s time for them to return to the cleaning.
Staying Cool
Even though summer comes with beautiful sunny weather, it also brings high temperatures. Therefore, you must inspect and maintain your HVAC to keep you and your family nice and cool. But sometimes your HVAC isn’t enough to keep your house cool or your HVAC needs some help.
Fans
Try portable fans or ceiling fans if you still have issues staying cool after checking on your HVAC. Buying and installing fans is a more affordable option, especially portable fans, since you could freeze a container of water and place a fan on top of it to blow cold air constantly.
Renovations
If your HVAC and fans still aren’t keeping you cool, it may be time to consider what kind of renovations you should do to your house. For example, if your home is constantly too hot, you may not have enough insulation, or it may be too old. Insulation is not only crucial in the winter to maintain warmth, but it’s essential for the summer because it keeps the cold air from escaping. Easy and affordable ways to improve the insulation on your own would be sealing windows and door frames that are drafty. You could also buy some shutters and install them on your windows to keep the air inside the home. If you have tried all these solutions or think your home needs a more significant solution, you should reach out to an HVAC professional to do an inspection of your home where they can decide what your home needs for it to stay cool for many summers to come.
Even though summer is the perfect time for family fun inside and outside of the home, you must complete some maintenance every summer, not only to keep your home in pristine shape, but also to keep you and your family safe so everyone can enjoy the fun for years to come!
