Ah, summer at last! Where the sun is blazing, the beach waves are roaring, the rain is pounding and the ice cream is melting. So, with all that in mind, it’s only right to start prepping your house to deal with the many forces of nature in the summer. Fortunately, we’ve put together a summer home maintenance checklist that will help you do just that.
The following summer home maintenance tips will allow you to diagnose your house, fix whatever common issues you can find so you can make the rest of your year more awesome than you can imagine:
DIY Summer Home Maintenance Checklist
Replace the Air Filters in Your House
The HVAC system in a household works by taking in the air from a space, room, or area of the house, which is later cooled or heated by the coils of the system and blown back into the household via the floor vents. The air filter of your HVAC system’s furnace acts as its lungs that prevent pollen, dust, and several other particles in the air from getting into the system and then being blown into the air around every room of the house.
So, given the imperative role of these filters, it’s highly important to either maintain or replace the filters whenever you see them dirty. And after doing that, use the time you have in your hands to check the other filters around your house and see if they need to be cleaned or replaced. This includes filters from dishwashers, hot tubs, and range hoods. In case you require air conditioning repair or installation in Phoenix, AZ, then read more here. In case you require ac installation in Richmond Hill, then search for ac installation experts in your locality.
Clean Exterior Windows
One of the other crucial summer maintenance tips for your home includes inspecting and cleaning exterior windows.
Credit: Pixabay
Of course, depending on the type of house that you have, some of these windows can be hard to access. For instance, if you own a 2-story house, some of your exterior windows could be hard to reach possibly due to them being really high or out of reach from the ground. And if that’s the case, then you’ll either need to use the right materials for the job or better yet, simply hire a true expert to get it done for you.
If you’re going to wash the exterior windows on your own, then you’ll need access to an active hose, a ladder, a particular window cleaning solution, and a rubber bladed squeegee.
Exterior Paint Touch Ups
The rain and wind can surely do a number to your exterior walls. But once it’s warm and clear outside, you can finally give the walls the proper touch up they need. If for some reason, you don’t know the precise color of your house, then you can head on down to the local paint shop and consult a legitimate paint professional to help you look for a suitable match. This is nothing more than a simplistic summer maintenance project that you can have fun with.
Deeply Clean out Your Fridge
If you have some forgotten leftover items in the fridge that have been rotting in the back for months, then it’s high time you give your fridge a nice, impeccable scrub. The best way to get rid of the trash is to take out the items in the fridge on the very day the garbage truck arrives. This way, you won’t have to deal with a six-month-old mayonnaise jar just stinking up the entire house for five more days.
And while you’re cleaning your fridge, don’t forget about the condenser coils. These coils are responsible for getting rid of the heat within the unit. And if you notice the coils getting dirty or dusty, either home maintenance tips them or change them completely or else it’ll cost you around $100 more years to run the fridge.
The coil is either at the back of the fridge or on the bottom right behind the kickplate. To clean the coils, you need to switch the power to the refrigerator off and then have the coils vacuumed using a vacuum cleaner brush attachment, or a wand made from a cardboard gift wrap tube.
Clean or Else Replace Windows Screens
It’s pointless to wash your exterior windows without paying heed to the window screens. These screens catch whatever dust or other types of filthy airborne particles into their net. If you don’t do anything about it soon, you as well as your family members will experience respiratory or allergic problems sometime later on. That’s why you should have the liberty of taking out every single one of your windows screens and give them a gentle scrub using hot water with soap.
Credit: Pixabay
Use a Hygrometer to Check Your Home’s Humidity Levels
By now, most people are aware of the effects of high humidity on the hair and skin. But besides that, high moisture and humidity levels can even negatively impact our health at home. If nothing is done to eradicate humidity and moisture from home, it could encourage the growth of mold, damage hardwood floors, and attract nasty crawlers such as silverfish, spiders, and cockroaches.
That’s why, in order to prevent this from happening, you need to measure the humidity level of your home with a device known as a hygrometer. The measurement for humidity is expressed as the percentage of water vapor or relative humidity in the air compared to the amount required for saturation.
High amounts of humidity are often found in the basement, which is why we need to monitor this area for relative humidity levels and ensure that it’s kept below 60%.
