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Property Maintenance: Prevention or Cure

Admin / Oct 10, 2022 · 5 min read
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Renting an apartment or house, while it has headaches of its own, can frequently be at least a little less stressful than owning your own home, mainly due to maintenance issues. If something breaks, the owner is responsible for fixing it; there is no landlord to step in. This means that homeowners are responsible for keeping their homes clean and well-maintained.
Why Is Home Maintenance Important?
You've been told how crucial it is to maintain your home, as well as thousands of ways to do it, by your estate agents, mortgage lender and everyone on the Internet. But really, why is it so important?
It mainly boils down to two things – cost and warranties. It is far easier to repair something when it has been regularly maintained than if it has been let go. Additionally, most home warranty companies will help homeowners with systems or appliances that fail due to old age or 'normal' wear and tear, but that only applies to a well-maintained home. If your warranty company deems that the damage or failure is due to a lack of maintenance, then they can choose not to cover the cost of repair.
Should Homeowners Only React and Fix Issues When They Arise, or Should They Do Preventative Maintenance?
This situation comes down to two modes of maintenance and, as a homeowner, is it better to be reactive or proactive when it comes to house maintenance?
Responding to issues only as they come up is known as reactive maintenance. As the equipment or structure ages and eventually stops functioning, you repair it. Reactive maintenance frequently calls for a quick, low-cost fix but must be repeated time and time again. It also rarely fixes the problem for good. As you can imagine, avoiding reactive maintenance as much as possible is a wise financial choice.
Preventive maintenance involves performing routine inspections or repairs on your property. At the same time, everything is still in good working order to head off problems before they arise. Doing so will assist you in avoiding urgent repairs that require expensive labour as you never allow issues to grow too large.
Performing preventive maintenance is not glamorous and is typically just something that should be done. Even so, preventative maintenance will still spare you a lot of frustration, inconvenience, and, most importantly, money. After all, how much would it take to buy basic maintenance supplies such as cleaning tools, monitors, and small pieces of equipment versus having a trained professional come out, likely on an emergency basis and on emergency pay, to repair something major at the last minute?
What Are A Few Key Areas of Most Properties That Require Maintenance?
So what areas should you pay attention to the most when it comes to our house?
  • Air Conditioning and Boilers – These units, whether just cooling or heating, often require routine maintenance to keep up with outside temperatures. Regular maintenance includes replacing filters and gas leaks, and checking to ensure all plugs are intact, etc. Boilers and boiler repair or air conditioning units can be incredibly costly to replace, meaning this maintenance is essential.
  • Doors – You may not think about these areas too much, but your doors see daily, if not hourly use, and see quite a bit of wear and tear throughout the day. This fact is especially true for outwards facing doors, which can be exposed to extreme weather conditions. Checking the fit and repairing minor issues will help prevent doors from falling off their hinges or needing a complete replacement at an inopportune time.
  • Toilet, Water and Sewage – No one likes to think about their water and sewage. Until something significant disrupts the usual flow of things, this area is one of the most forgotten. Luckily it is another area where prevention can go a long, long way, and regular maintenance will help with backup issues, toilet bowl trouble and more. We can guarantee that a plumbing leak at three in the morning or sewage backing up is not something you want to deal with suddenly. You will need to set up a regular routine to check pipes and water lines and ensure all lids are closed and secured.
  • Lights and Electric – Now, we get the fact that you already know to check your lights. You probably change your lightbulbs regularly, but are you changing them all? And are you checking to make sure that the wiring to and from your lights is working correctly? Furthermore, what about the wiring throughout the rest of the house? While newer homes might not have as many issues, older models of places can have some odd wiring issues that regular maintenance can keep you abreast of. Electrical emergencies can run up the cost reasonably quickly and aren't something you want to deal with, especially if you can prevent the issue before it gets too bad.
  • Structure – Do you live somewhere where it gets cold, hot, rainy, snowy or anything in between? Then you need to provide regular maintenance to your home's structure. Wet seasons can cause many damp issues, leading to mould and mildew in walls or roofs, while hot seasons can cause cracking and pest problems. Going around your home and checking it for common issues, or even creating a checklist that you can tick off on a weekly or monthly basis, is an excellent place to start.
How Does On The House Make It Easy to Repair and Maintain Properties?
At On The House, we want to simplify property maintenance and relieve you of the burden of it. That means doing all of these smaller, routine tasks for you (and even the big ones if it comes down to it). A little bit of prevention goes a long way to ensure you don't have to shell out a lot from your pocket for emergency or immediate repair.
Regardless of our maintenance, we constantly communicate and rigorously quality-check everything before signing off. That is why we offer nationwide coverage, a singular contact for all your maintenance-related needs, and same or next-day availability.
Want more information on everything that On The House can help you with? Why not head over to our website and check our complete list of services, or reach out and contact us today!

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