3 Summer Home Maintenance Tips

The weather is warm and sunny, take advantage of the time by checking up and maintaining your home. There are a few things we should do at home while we have the warmth to both beauty up our homes and make sure they’re in good shape for when the winter season comes. Not to mention, checking up on our home after some of the summer storms.

We will cover:

• Exterior Siding/Painting
• Roofing & Gutter Maintenance
• Deck & Patio Checkup

Exterior Siding & Paint

The first thing anyone sees when looking at your home is the exterior of your house.  Is the paint peeling or fading?  Can you see wood coming through the paint anywhere?  Is there any siding damage or exposed insulation. If so, while it is warm outside, it is a great idea to choose a new color or go with the colors your house already is and get some paint on your home.  The different seasons of weather and the hot sun will do damage to your home if you do not keep it painted, it will warp and rot the wood, so check it over very carefully.

1. Using either a power washer or a garden hose with a strong nozzle on it, spray off all the dirt on the house.  Using a power washer works well only because it assists in the preparation time if the house does need to be painted.  Wash the house off thoroughly and look at it closely.  Did pain chips come off the house while spraying it?  Can you see wood through the paint?  or is it just simply faded real bad?  You will also be able to clearly see any damage that may have come to your siding if you use vinyl, which is very common.  If not, congratulations,  your house does not need any more done to it.  If the answer is yes, then go on to the next step.
2. Depending on the damage you will either need to prepare for paint your house or for repairs to your siding.
   1. If you have siding damaged on your home it can be a task to repair, in many cases it is worth getting an estimate for what it might cost for someone else to do the repairs. If you are going to take the task on yourself be sure you have the correct manufacturer and type of siding to replace the damaged portion with. Also check to make sure you do not have and damage under the siding.
   2. Preparing your home for painting  Check closely to get all the flaking, peeling, or bubbling old paint off your home, a scraper and/or a piece of sand paper on each of the areas that are flaking will help to do this.  I highly recommend putting primer over the bare areas that you have just prepared for painting.  After you have scraped (this is where the power washer helps, it scrapes a lot of the very loose paint with the power of the water saving you time with only having to scrape and sand the less loose areas). Check around your windows and doors to see if there are any gaps, if there are get some caulk and fill the gaps or holes before painting.
3. Painting or doing the exterior repairs.
   1. There are different installation instructions for replacing your siding if that is what must be done follow the manufacturer specifications. If for any reason you are not feeling confident in making the repair consult someone who is about your concerns. Making sure the repair is done correctly is important, otherwise the siding may not protect your home the way it is intended. While making the repairs ensure that the insulation is installed and everything seals up nicely.  If not you may have repairs to do next season or worse an increase in your heating and cooling bills.
   2. Chose your color(s) and paint for your home.   Latex paint is a good choice, it is much easier for clean up when you are finished.  Tape off and cover areas you do not want to get paint on (windows, doors, etc).  There are 2 ways to paint your home, 1.  brush or roll it on  2. spray it on.  Using a sprayer is very nice and a lot quicker, however, you will have to thin the paint to apply it to your home and it does not seem to last as long or protect as well as brushing it on.  When you spray your home, you also will have to do a lot more covering of the windows and doors because of the over spray.  I also recommend the blue painters tape or the frog tape (green) for your taping, these are easier to peel off once you are finished.

Roofing Maintenance and Gutter Upkeep

While it is nice out, it is a great time to check your roofing, did hail or snow do any damage to your shingles or wood?  Is there any areas that are softer than they should be, could this be rotting wood?  Are the gutters nice and tight to your roof?  Are the gutters clogged?  It is highly suggest having a professional you trust do this process for you, but if you insist on doing it yourself, please be very careful.

• 1. One of the best ways to check the gutters is to watch them when it rains, or in the winter, did ice form under them in areas it should not when the snow was melting off the roof, this could be because the gutter is coming away from the roof or it could be because the gutters are clogged.  Either way, if you are going to check your roof or gutters you will need a good strong extension ladder ( be very careful).  While checking the gutters be sure to look for asphalt or the colored grit coming off your roofing in the gutters, if you find any, you need a new roof.  You can look at your roof from the ladder looking to see if there are any bubbling, curling or buckling  areas, cracked caulk or rust on your flashing, cracked and worn rubber boots around vent pipes, or masses of moss and lichen, which could signal the roof is decaying underneath, if you find any of these continue reading about roofing/gutters.
     1. If you do find Gutter or Roof damage again be sure to consult an expert for an evaluation. In many cases you may be able to file a claim or even minimize the repair costs by getting and evaluation from someone who looks at roofs regularity. If the damage qualifies for an insurance claim we can help you through this process too.
  2. Repairing your roof can be hard or easy depending on how extensive the damage is, again, a professional is highly recommended, but if you insist on getting on your roof and doing it yourself, you need to determine what exactly your roof needs, if the shingles are coming up or curling, check to see if the nails are coming back up and nail them back down, if you have buckling, you may need to replace the wood under the shingle then replace the shingles.  If the grit, asphalt or tar is coming off the shingles, you need to replace the shingles on your roof.  When taking the old shingles off, make sure you check the tar paper to make sure it is in good shape before you put the new shingles down.  The new shingles will do no good if the tar paper is old, torn or wearing through.  Most shingles are notched for over lapping, be sure you over lap each shingle as shown on the instructions for every kind of shingle.
  3. Repairing Gutters is a little easier depending on what is wrong with them.  If while you are on your ladder looking down into your gutters, are they clogged?  this is simply fixed with a little hand shovel or scooper of some sort.  Scoop the leaves or whatever is clogging them out then using a hose and a strong nozzle, spray them out.  If you see them coming away from the house, check the hangers, are they coming off? This is usually a problem with the hangers, the hardware that secures the gutters to the fascia. They might have deteriorated over time, the fasteners may have backed out of the wood, or they’re spaced too far apart to support the weight of full gutters.  You can get new hangars from almost any hardware store to replace the ones you have.  If you have holes or gaps in your gutters that is causing them to leak, you can either caulk the gap or hole from the inside of the gutter or if it is real bad, then you can replace that section of the gutter.  ** There are mesh covers you can install on your gutters to help prevent clogging  from leaves and larger debris in the future.

Patio or Deck Inspection

Do you have a wood deck?  Did the winter take a toll on your deck, is the wood buckling, or is the stain just flaking or wearing off?  Or does it just look a little dull and need a pick-me-up? Summertime is the best time to do your deck repairs and to give it a fresh coat of deck stain to endure the rest of the year.

1. Checking your deck is relatively easy, simply walk your deck, are the loose boards?  can you see waring of the stain?  are any boards bowing?  Does it need a facial, meaning is it faded and you want it to look better, newer and refreshed?  If the answer to all of these is no, they hey, its time to hit the beach, but if the answer to any of these is yes, the fix is time consuming and will take a little elbow grease, but it is one of the easier home improvements to accomplish.  Read on to accomplish this task(s)
2. The less complicated of deck problems is to “refresh your deck”.  If the problem with your deck is fading, waring of the stain or just simply that you want it to look newer, then you need to re-stain your deck.  To prepare for this, use a pressure washer and clean the debris and old flaky stain off your deck.  If you don’t have a pressure washer or you don’t want to rent one, a little more elbow grease is involved, clean the debris off the deck with a push broom and the garden hose, rinsing as you wet the deck.  After the deck is cleaned, check for flaking areas or splintering areas, these areas need to be sanded smooth before applying the stain.  If you do need to sand the areas, make sure you clean the deck once again to get the saw dust off before you stain.  Once your preparation is done, pick out your outdoor deck stain from your favorite hardware store, and roll it on with an extended handle and a paint roller, make sure you get a thin flat roller to do this, and that is it, plain and simple, you will have a once again beautiful deck.
3. The more complex fix for your deck are replacing the boards.  First I want to suggest to look at the deck, is it wood being held down by nails or deck screws?  If it is nails and the nails are coming up, may I suggest to pull the nail out and replace with deck screws (make sure you get deck screws, they are made to with stand the weathering and won’t rust through the years)  Check for any boards that are loose or bowing, try screwing them back down, you may need to make a new hole in the wood to secure them back down, the old hole may be wallowed out.  If the board is bowing and will not stay down, or it is cracked, broken or splintering badly, you may need to replace the board.  To do this, pull up the board, hopefully it is put down with deck screws, this makes the process much easier.  Go get yourself a new board, make sure it is pressure treated or cedar, which ever your deck is made out of, these woods with stand the weathering much better(most decks are made with 2 x 6 boards).  Cut the board to the same size +  about 1/4 of an inch if possible (the new wood will shrink as it drys out and gets older), then screw it back down in place with deck screws of where the old broken board was.  When done with repairing the deck, make sure you stain the whole deck, being sure to get a good coating on the new boards. **if you are unsure whether you have cedar boards or treated boards for your deck, take a piece of one with you when you go to the lumber yard or hardware store and ask the clerk, they are trained to know which you have.  Be sure you replace with the same kind of wood or you will have boards of a different color when you stain them and as they age.

These are the main outdoor home Improvement things, there are others in the area of landscaping, filters for your air conditioning/furnace, heat ducts cleaning, weather stripping around your doors and windows that would be a great thing to check and have done before the weather turns bad.

One of the things I have always done, is pick a big project for each month.  There are 3 months of summer, and we don’t want to spend it all working around the house or on the house, we need to have fun in the sun too.  My suggestion to you is start high and work down from there, in other words, start with the roof, get it fixed if it needs it, whether you hire someone (preferred) or do it yourself.  The next month, work on painting your home, then move on to your deck the following month.