Looking for Home Maintenance Tips This Summer? Look no Further!

It’s important to maintain your home during all seasons so when we found this article we thought it was important to share with you. It was released by Southern Living and Allstate. We hope it helps you maintain your home this summer!

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From the article:

Home Maintenance Tips for Summer
Summer brings sunshine, green leaves, and trips to the beach. But the warm, dry season also offers the perfect chance to get some work done around the house. With just a few weekends’ worth of work, these tips can help get your home in tip-top shape and ready for the rest of the year.

Easy Home Fixes in the Summer
When it gets warm, it’s tempting to ditch any housework for the beach or the golf course. Hard as it may be, consider suppressing that urge for a few weekends, because some fairly easy work can improve the state of your home, give it an appearance makeover, and even save you some money.

Keep Your Cool With a Fan
There’s an easy trick to keeping cooler and saving money, and it’s as close as your ceiling fan. Switch the ceiling fan’s blades so the leading edge is higher as the fan turns, so you can feel the breeze from the fan as it rotates. This simple action will push cool air down, enabling you to set the air-conditioning lower and save money on energy.

Clean Your Dryer Vent
Without some maintenance, your dryer could cause a house fire. The U.S. Fire Administration reports nearly 16,000 dryer fires occur annually, which happen largely because dryers’ vents get clogged with lint and dust.

Thankfully, you can avoid any unnecessary dryer-caused danger with a few simple steps.
First, (if your dryer is on an outside wall with a short hose) you’ll need a vent-cleaning brush kit, which can clean your dryer vent tubing more thoroughly than a vacuum cleaner can. Begin by cleaning the dryer’s lint trap housing with a smaller brush to remove as much lint and dust as possible. Then disconnect the dryer duct from the dryer and the wall for a thorough cleaning. Also use a brush to clean the vent on the outside of the house to keep both ends clean and free of lint.

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Still have questions about caring for your dryer? Checkout this article about troubleshooting your dryer for homeowners that could be of interest to you.
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For more information visit: http://www.allstate.com

Know What Routine Home Maintenance Your Home Needs? Find Out Here!

Homes require TLC if they are going to continue to function to the best of their abilities. In order to help you know what your home needs we found this article with routine home maintenance. We hope it helps!

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From the article:

Your home may be the biggest investment you will ever make. Taking good care of it with regular maintenance is necessary to preserve its value and ensure it will provide a comfortable, safe shelter for you and your family for years to come.

Maintenance Inside the Home
Air Filters
Many types of heating and air conditioning systems contain filters to remove dirt and dust from the air. Check the instruction book or search online by model number: In many cases, the home owner should change filters at least every three months.

Sinks
It’s also a good idea to clean your faucet’s aerator ??? which is the spring inside the end of the faucet ??? every three to four months.
To maintain your garbage disposal, you should run cold water through it during use.

Fireplaces
When you’re ready to use your fireplace, be sure to build the fire on the andirons or grate, never on the fireplace floor.
To prevent soot and to add color to the fire, throw in a handful of salt.

Store your firewood outside, away from the house and not directly on the ground.
Have a CSIA-Certified chimney sweep inspect your chimney and fireplace annually, especially if you build a lot of fires in the winter.

Floors
To maintain unpainted concrete floors in your basement or garage, first apply a concrete sealer, which makes them easier to clean. When you’re ready to clean them, use a solution of four to six tablespoons of washing soda in a gallon of hot water. Add scouring powder to the solution for tough jobs.

For hardwood, be sure the floors have a polyurethane finish before cleaning with water. Hardwood floors that do not have a polyurethane finish will need to be waxed periodically. Use liquid or paste “spirit” wax.
The best polish for vinyl floors in water emulsion wax.

Walls
Masonry walls sometimes develop a white powdery substance. This is called efflorescence, a crystallized soluble salt that can be removed by scrubbing with water and a stiff brush.

Safety and Security
If you have a home security system, regularly check the alarms and circuit breakers to ensure they are in working order. Inspect the sensors one by one.

The batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors should also be checked twice a year to ensure they are operable. Hard-wired and battery-powered detectors should be replaced every 10 years.

Maintenance Outside the Home
Roof, Gutters and Downspouts
A qualified roofer should inspect your roof every three years. Skylights should also be inspected each time your roof is inspected so leaks don’t develop from cracks and interruptions around the seals, caulking and flashings.

Make sure that gutters and downspouts do not get clogged with leaves or other objects.

Windows and Doors
Inspect exterior windows and doors yearly to see if the caulking around them has split and cracked. If so, replace the caulk and clean any mildew.

For a simple solution to wash extremely dirty exterior windows, combine equal parts vinegar and water or three tablespoons of denatured alcohol per quart of warm water. Use a piece of crumbled newspaper to wash the glass to avoid lint left behind by paper towels.
To help a window slide easily, rub the channel with a piece of parrafin.

Siding
Inspect your siding yearly to determine if your wood-sided home needs to be repainted. Trim shrubbery away so that it does not touch the siding.

The exterior of your house is built to withstand exposure to the elements, but a periodic cleaning will improve the appearance and, in many instances, prolong the life of siding and other exterior products.

Garage
The moving parts of garage doors should be oiled every three months.

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Looking for winter home maintenance tips? Checkout this article about winter home maintenance tips that could be of interest to you.
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Read the entire article here: http://www.nahb.org/en/consumers/homeownership/homeownership-highlights/routine-home-maintenance.aspx