Or Your House is Plant Food…
Neglect maintenance at your peril!
It’s not paranoia if it’s true, and believe me, mother nature is out to get your stuff. It wants to turn it into plant food and it’ll succeed unless you stop it with regular maintenance.
For example, three weeks ago I received a call from a regular client who wanted me to look at the trims around the balcony on his house. They need painting he said.
Fast forward three weeks and I’ve replaced 5 of the structural beams, all the decking, all the balustrade and all the aforementioned trims (that just needed painting…..). And why I hear you ask? Because no one had looked at this balcony twice since 1968 (apart from some bad tradesmen who covered part of it up at some point) and guess what, the design was poor and water was getting past the flat covering and into the structure… from day one. Not a good situation after 47 years and as you might imagine the damage was absolute. Total devastation. Take a look….
Small leaks add up to big damage over time.
Supporting beam that sits on top of column virtually all gone.
Straight away I’d noticed that the bitumen felt covering the deck was badly sealed at the edges and more importantly not making any kind of seal around the metal bars they’d used to hold up the balustrade. These two small things meant that water was getting into the woodwork underneath, allowing rot to go about it’s business unseen over decades.
All this might have been avoided if the balcony had just been inspected from time to time and some simple corrective sealing done around the edges and posts.
So what can you do to maintain your stuff?
For a brief introduction to maintenance; you can boil it down to two things…
- Keeping water out.
- Preserving the status quo.
Lets look at each one in a little more detail…
Keeping water out
Water might be the stuff of life for all living things, but it’s the number one enemy for everything else. Water (plus air) creates ideal conditions for all sorts of reactions to take place…
- Water sustains organisms that cause decay and rot in timber.
- Water sustains organisms like mould.
- Water damages internal surface finishes like paintwork and plaster.
- Water corrodes steel causing it to rust away.
- Water can erode soils causing settlement.
- Water can dilute and degrade chemicals like fuel or brake fluid.
To avoid the damage caused by water getting past your defences, carry out regular checks on, in and around all your stuff. Take a torch into the attic and look for tell tale streaks on chimneys or crawl under the car looking for rust. Look for things that are out of place such as…
- Discolouration on finishes or walls/ceilings etc.
- Damp patches (darker looking) on walls or ceilings.
- Rust or corrosion on parts or fittings, especially around the edges or parts just out of obvious sight.
- Take a deep breath when you first walk into your home, notice new smells that may be damp related, (it’s not always the dog…).
- Gaps or damage to sealants (windows, doors, bath tubs, shower trays.
- Missing things from the roof (take binoculars outside and look) such as chimney flashing or a missing/broken roof tile.
Preserving the status quo
Preserving the status quo means keeping everything exactly as it is, in a perfect equilibrium. No change, no anomalies, no problem. This means noticing any change, anything new or unusual and then taking steps to reverse it. In practice this means…
- Using lubricants to stop noise and wear (eg: oiling squeaking hinges).
- Repairing finishes when they wear through or become damaged (eg: running a tiny blob of paint on the end of a cocktail stick into a stone chip on paintwork).
- Tightening anything loose (eg: screws in hinges, bolts on lawn mowers etc.)
- Loosening or adjusting anything tight (eg: catching doors).
There is a grain or two of truth in the old ‘duffers toolkit’ which consisted of a roll of duct tape and a can of WD40. The theory being that you’d tape up anything loose that should be tight and spray WD40 on anything tight that should be loose.
I’ve expanded this brief introduction on maintenance in this PDF (Homeowners Maintenance Guide) which you’re more than welcome to download to print out for your reference (feel free to share it!).
Stay well and on top of your maintenance!
Ian
p.s keep reading if you don’t want to download the file….
https://handycrowd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Maintenance-schedule-PDF-vers.pdf
