4 Reasons to Invest in Your Seattle Home’s Maintenance and Upkeep

At a point, your home starts showing signs of deterioration, like chipped paint, clogged pipes, and a damaged HVAC system. When you start noticing these signs, it means your house needs some serious fixing up and maintenance. In places like Seattle, numerous factors like the age of your home, construction quality, and weather conditions impact the rate at which your home starts to crumble.

Seattle’s climate, known to be cold, wet, and mild, can accelerate deterioration. As a result, you may end up with problems like water damage or mold. As a homeowner, you should never let your house get to this point; instead, become proactive about looking after your home and maintaining it well. Here’s how you do this:

Boosts Your Home’s Value

Houses are an investment; with time, if maintained properly, the value of your house will increase, which means you may end up with a high return on investment. But you will lose big money if you neglect your space, don’t care for it on time, and allow calamities like climate change to impact the infrastructure. For instance, features like your house’s siding protect your home from harsh weather changes.

During the summers, the sidings shield your house from intense UV radiation, while in the winters, it keeps your place safe from rain and wetness. But constantly being exposed to abrasive weather causes the sidings to wear down and collapse. As a result, your home may no longer be protected against the weather and suffer from intense structural damage, which can downgrade your resale value.

You can avoid this problem by contacting a local Seattle siding replacement company and allowing these professionals to repair your house’s exterior. As a result, you increase your curb appeal and ensure that your house is no longer in a vulnerable position despite the severe weather, which down the line, translates into more money for you.

Ensures You Can Still Access Your Insurance

Home insurance is a valuable asset to have. It gives you access to funds that allow you to maintain your space after it has been through a calamity or disaster. Recovering a house is expensive; if you fall victim to a natural disaster like a flood, there’s a minimal chance that you can restore your space and reclaim your home from this predicament. In such cases, your insurance comes in handy, and depending on the type of crisis you’re facing, the insurance company adjusts the amount of monetary support you receive.

There are certain areas where an insurance company may not help you. You are not eligible for insurance if your house gets wrecked because of poor upkeep, as insurance companies aren’t responsible for damages that arise because you weren’t proactive with maintaining your space. For instance, if your pipes break down because you didn’t serve them often, left them clogged, or didn’t insulate them against severe weather patterns, you’re responsible for this damage and need to shoulder the responsibility of repairing your pipes.

Insurance companies in Seattle are upfront about their home insurance policies, which include stating factors that make you eligible for compensation.

Reduces Your Energy Consumption

According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2021, the average annual electricity consumption for a US residential utility customer was roughly 10,632kWh, which is approximately 886kWh per month. In Seattle, utility bills for essential services like energy and telecommunication were about $188 per month. If your appliances and house get worn down, it may require tremendous energy to function and consume more power.

Consequently, you may end up paying more than you anticipated, resulting in a serious hit to your budget. If this issue of consuming more energy than you need persists, you may eventually hit a point where you can no longer pay for your expenses. Hence, the best way to avoid this situation and control the energy your appliances and house consumes is by maintaining your space well.

Appliances like heating, ventilating, and air conditioning consume a lot of energy. Therefore you get them inspected and cleaned regularly for maximum efficiency. These units get choked because of dust and small debris, which causes their system to malfunction and requires more energy. Likewise, if you use furnace filters, you should look into changing them regularly so they don’t get clogged. If you fail to maintain your appliances before they malfunction, you’re forcing them to consume more energy.

Furthermore, you should keep your appliances clean by dusting them, ensuring they’re ventilated and have no visible dirt on them. Appliances like your dryer should also be inspected for lint to avoid short-circuiting when they become too old and cannot function as they once could; time to change the machine.

Minimizes Rodents

Animals enjoy cozying up in houses that aren’t maintained properly. Your appliances, such as improperly used dryers and fridges, make for an ideal home for them. Insects also start breeding in damp and moist places. As a result, your house may have a massive cockroach infestation or a swarm of flies in your home. They may require a professional exterminator to examine and remove them.

If you have a yard that has been unkempt for years, there’s a chance there may be weed growing there. This vegetation type serves no purpose apart from competing with the grass for nutrients, which effectively destroys the greenery. It is also home to rodents like mice that can easily sneak into your house and ruin your furniture while contaminating your space. Fixing your space is the most effective way to eliminate insects and rodents.

You need to revisit your garden and carefully remove all traces of weeds before replanting fresh grass. If your house has cracks, damp spaces, or old furniture that haven’t been cleaned in ages, you need to address these issues and eliminate the problem immediately. Reclaim your space steadily, become regular at cleaning, hire professionals anytime you need something related, and maintain your home often.

Final Thoughts

You must look after your house well. Factors like the environment, climate, and weather can cause your house to wear down. This will lead to apparent cracks and flaws in the infrastructure that can gradually damage your home.

This reduces the resale value and exposes you to all sorts of natural calamities and problems like a rodent infestation that is a nuisance. Hence, take control, manage your space to make the most of your investment, and continue adding value to your home until you’re ready to sell it.