Depending on how hard your winter is, spring can be a very welcome season once it arrives. Longer days mean more sunlight, the birds migrate back and start chirping, and eventually, plants start to flower, bud, and bloom. Nature comes alive again, and so should your home. If you want to make your seasonal maintenance matter for more than one year, however, then you should consider long-lasting home repairs.
Check the Doors and Windows
Even if your entry points did wonders in keeping the heat in during the winter, you now want to make sure they can keep the heat out when summer rolls in. Summer heat often has something that winter cold doesn’t, and that’s humidity. Inspect the borders of all windows and doors, and give extra caulk to anything that needs it. If need be, replace or upgrade with energy-efficient models.
Test and Upgrade Electrical Components
From the circuit breaker and every outlet to the wires in between, have a qualified electrician check out every part of this subsystem in your home. Upgrades you do here will give you better peace of mind at night in knowing your home is safer, but you’ll also enjoy the improved performance when using appliances and electronics. You might even get a discount on your homeowner’s insurance.
Fixing the Roof
Contacting a residential roofing contractor is a must in the spring and fall for routine semi-annual maintenance. Anytime your contractor finds issues that need to be dealt with, have them do so promptly. Regular maintenance can make your current roof last a lot longer than it would otherwise, and that makes the average annual price of a roof go down every year.
If having your roof fixed or replaced by a professional isn’t quite in the budget yet, then you may want to consider having it at least sealed from the inside. There are many ways to do this, but common practice is using waterproof caulking of your choice. You may need to clear out the area of any mold or soggy plywood while in the attic.
Repair Your Gutters and Downspouts
If you had a dry winter, your water drainage system might not be ready for spring showers. If your winter was heavy on snow and ice, then this part of your home might have taken a beating. Make sure your home can get water off the roof and away from the foundation. This might extend to adding a French drain to your landscaping and even checking the foundation for current issues. If your yard does have an issue with standing water in your yard you would definitely benefit from some landscaping done, either by yourself or by a professional. Typically, standing water can mean that settling has occurred and further investigation is needed.
Protect the Foundation
Water will follow the path of least resistance and often seeps into your basement before anything else, which can be a bit tricky. Often the best way to prevent this from happening is to waterproof the exterior of your home, which can be a bit difficult to tackle. In order to do this, the outside of your home’s foundation will have to be dug out with an excavator. This will remove the dirt to expose the foundation walls. If you are able to hire a contractor to do this, they will apply a waterproof sealant that acts as a barrier between your cement foundation and the water outside or reapply what they can.
Resealing Your Basement
If you live in a part of the country where you get hit with a lot of rainfall and moisture, you may run into a flooded basement more than a few times a year. The problem with flooding is that it’s really hard to clean up and if you get a lot of it, it can lead to a variety of different things like mold growth inside of your basement. Rather than just deal with the fact that your basement will flood regularly, why not take matters into your own hands and waterproof it?
For starters, go around all of your basement windows and make sure none of the current seals is cracked or chipping in any way. The easiest way to get started is to go to a hardware store and purchase a caulking gun and a couple of tubes of silicone caulk. There are lots of How-To tutorials online that show easy ways to do this. It is best to have a wet rag with you for easy cleanup. Doing this one simple thing could save you from leaks into your home.
Water damage can be really obnoxious to deal with and expensive at the same time. To help keep your basement sealed and protected from any damage, keep these two options in mind. To learn a little bit more, reach out to a basement waterproofing company near you today and have them come out and give you a bid and inspection.
Prepare for Years of Success
Spring is a season known for cleaning a home. Home improvement projects are also great ideas in this part of the year, but you should also choose repairs that will prove their value long after spring is over. There are lots of things you can likely do for yourself without the need for professional help, but do be careful. Before taking on some bigger projects, it might be wise to get a bid or quote to see if it is something you can have someone else take care of for you. Otherwise, check out some other home improvement tips that you may benefit from for years to come.