We continue to work our way through the Top 10 items on your Honey-Do list that might help you avoid a homeowner’s claim. This week’s suggestions all are water related tasks that will help protect your home from both the inside & outside. Let’s get started – some will be fall related tasks, so have that maintenance calendar handy. Schedule them now & get these tasks off your plate as soon as possible.

#7. Paint – It’s not just for an art gallery canvas!
Sun, wind, & rain normally erode away paint on exterior wood over a period of 8 to 10 years. Take a walk around your home. Be vigilant in looking for wear spots on your paint. Remember Henry Landau’s words, “Your house is not a boat – keep water out!” Exterior bare wood is screaming for your help. Also, look for signs of blistering and peeling paint – signs that moisture may have already penetrated behind your paint and need your immediate attention! Think scraping, sanding, priming, & painting – all necessary steps to give your home the protection it needs.

#6. Show your sump pump some love!
If you have a sump pump it may be a little easier to sleep at night – it almost feels like an extra insurance policy, doesn’t it? Perhaps you’ve added a back up sump to your sump after last summer’s floods? Well, just to let you know, you can get a back up to your back up insurance policy – there’s now an alarm system than can be installed to your sump and is perhaps also offered through your home’s alarm system company. Private residential alarm companies now offer alerts should flooding be detected. If you’re not aware of that option you may want to discuss it with the company monitoring your home.
A couple quick checks for you to maintain your sump:

• Clean the pump inlet screen.
• Check your power cord to make sure it’s connected to power.
• Dump a bucket of water into the sump to raise the float and make sure the pump turns on.

#5. Gutters – clean ones are a house’s best friend!
Moss, pine needles, and leaves can lead to clogged gutters, which in heavy rains can cause a gutter failure. Water that’s normally directed to drain away from your home finds alternate paths often into your interior, sometimes leading to roof, fascia, foundation, and basement damage.

Home maintenance schedules suggest cleaning gutters 2x a year. Clean gutters in the fall, naturally. Some trees, like oaks, will drop their leaves when first buds appear in the spring, surprisingly! Another option you may be interested in looking into are gutter guards, which may reduce down the amount of time you spend with this task!
I know you’ll be working hard over the next few weeks and months to knock some of these tasks off your list. Just relax & enjoy that satisfying feeling of a job well done & the knowledge you’re doing all you can to follow Henry Landau’s suggestion to “Keep water out!”
Click here to read Laura Spensley’s first guest blog post in this three part series.