Home Improvement Twice a Year Maintenance Project

To keep your house looking good and to keep it in the best condition you should plan on doing some regular home improvement maintenance twice a year. For those who live in places that have all four seasons you should do this in the Fall and Spring. If you live in a place that doesn’t experience an extreme cold period then you should simply plan to do maintenance around April and October.

One of the reasons for this regular maintenance is to repair any damages caused by weather. Extreme weather conditions can really do some damage to a house. By doing regular maintenance twice a year you will catch damage before it snowballs into an extreme problem. So, in the end, twice a year maintenance will save you money.

The following list explains the projects you should include in your twice a year maintenance schedule.

• Clean the yard of debris. Leaves and other debris should be bagged up and disposed of so it does not damage the lawn, house or other structures.
• Clean gutters. Dirty gutters can lead to water damage for your roof, walls, windows and basement.
• Treat all wood on the exterior of the home. This includes gutters, trims and decks. You should only have to treat once a year and it should be done prior to winter or, if you do not get snow, the season you get the most precipitation.
• Look for foundation or wall damage. Caulk any cracks you see and make plans to repair any foundation problems once good weather comes.
• Trim trees or shrubbery away form house. Tree limbs hanging onto a roof are the main source for all kinds of bugs in the home. By simply cutting back the limbs you can avoid large problems with many household bugs.
• Repair screens and storm windows, if needed. You should also give all windows and screens a good exterior cleaning.
  

These simple tasks will probably take a couple days, so be sure to plan ahead. It is a labor intensive project, so recruit the family to help out. Everyone will benefit from this preventative maintenance and you will be thrilled at how many problems you can avoid by sticking to a twice a year routine.

Home Improvement Money Saving Tips

Most people have a tight budget for home improvement projects. When you have to watch every penny, you can easily become frustrated. It is so easy to go over budget on home improvement projects, but you can help to keep things in check with the following tips.

1. Plan, plan, plan. The biggest mistake you can make is just to jump into a home improvement project without planning first. By having a plan you can map out the project from start to finish with the budget under control. You can price items and make sure that the budget fit’s the project. You may even be able to discover some things that could have caused major problems if they were not discovered until halfway through the project. Planning is essential to making a budget work.
2. Think smaller. Many times a homeowner will think too big for their budget. Once you go through and price all the supplies and other costs you may find hat your project and budget just do not match. You should consider scaling back the project. This could mean choosing cheaper supplies or even changing the main project idea to something equally functional, but less expensive.
3. Consider the payoff. As a homeowner your goal is to build equity in your investment. Some repairs will really boost the value of your home while others may not effect it at all. Consider everything before deciding on a project, so you can actually earn from your home improvement efforts.
4. Work with what you have. Try to avoid any major structural changes. Work with the house you have instead of trying to completely change it. Moving walls or altering any structural object will cost a lot more than simply working with them.
5. Shop around. This is perhaps the most important tip. You should price everything from supplies to contractors. Look around at different stores and get quotes from different companies. You need to find the lowest price and this is the only way to do it. By shopping around you will get the best deal and save the most money.