As a homeowner, taking care of your home’s exterior is a necessity for many reasons. The most important being protecting the structural components of your home and keeping its aesthetically-pleasing appeal. To ensure your home’s exterior stays in excellent condition, here are five common mistakes that you’ll want to avoid making.
Using a Pressure Washer on Sensitive Areas
It’s recommended to have your home pressure washed every two years to remove excess debris that can damage your home’s exterior components. To save some money, many homeowners will rent or borrow a pressure washer and do the job themselves. This can lead to some unnecessary damage to your home. You should avoid sensitive areas, like wood and windows.
Thinking Gutter Guards Are Maintenance-Free
Gutter guards are a great way to prevent clogging of your gutters. However, most of them aren’t maintenance-free. The most popular screen version of gutter guards allows for the accumulation of debris on top of the screen. This needs to be removed regularly to prevent clogging of the screen. Otherwise, the water will simply run over the debris and drip down the side of your home.
Not Checking for Roof Damage After Finding Loose Shingles
Most of us have experienced finding a shingle or two coming off of our roof after a nasty windstorm. The wind is a great way to showcase vulnerabilities in your roof. While your first instinct is likely to climb up on the roof and put those shingles back on, you don’t want to stop there. Have a residential roofing expert assess the area for any potential water damage.
Not Fixing Dented Gutters
Gutters can be dented for a number of reasons. A tree limb could’ve came down on it. You could’ve accidentally hit it with the lawnmower. The list goes on and on. Regardless of how your gutter got damaged, it’s important that you fix it right away. Even a slight dent in a gutter can allow water to easily stream over the edge of the gutter lip, which can end up leading to structural damage to your home over time.
Nailing Siding Too Tight
When those nasty windstorms rip through, they can pull off loose pieces of your home’s siding. As long as the siding is not bent, you can put it back up. However, it’s important that you don’t nail it on too tight. Lack of a little wiggle room will result in warping of the siding throughout the seasons due to expansion and contractions.
When it comes to taking care of your home’s exterior, there are a lot of maintenance requirements. The best way to understand how to properly maintain the outside of your home is to understand the common mistakes that people make. Hopefully, our list has given you some necessary insight into how to properly maintain your home’s exterior.