Home Maintentance101: February

As your home ages, it requires more and more maintenance to help prolong its life and keep overall costs down. By creating a month-by-month checklist for home maintenance, you can help delay the relentless assault of erosion that constantly tears at a homes integrity from wind, rain, snow, sand, sun and countless other environmental destructive forces that Mother Nature unleashes on a daily basis upon your humble abode.

Cold Weather Protection

For most of the citizens in North America, this time of year is blistery winds, snow and ice. Our homes become packed with frozen delights that are beginning the process of destruction that works so well this time of the year. Ice melting and reforming creates a dangerous problem as the ice cracks and fills with more water, freezing and expanding. As the process is repeated over and over, continual cracking will occur in whatever surface the water has penetrated, destroying your home.

Construct101 Green Solution: Ice melting and reforming near windows, doors, chimneys, vents and other penetrations that open into the home are all potential problem areas for this destructive force. Pickle juice is high in salt content, perfect for melting away pesky ice dams. Fill a plastic pressurized sprayer with one part pickle juice and two parts water, spraying the solution on affected areas.

Checking for Air Leaks

Air leaks are one of the most common overlooked problems dealing with a homes insulative property. Air leaks often occur around exterior penetrations and can easily be fixed with insulation. Depending upon the particular area, loose batting, compressed foam or rigid foam can be used to stop the thermal leaks that may occur.

Construct101 Green Solution: Checking for air leaks in the home is as simple as lighting incense. Turn on all of the exterior ventilation fans to the home and turn off the heating system. Light an incense and waft the smoke near doors, windows and other openings into the home that may be suspected of leaking air. Follow the smoke trails to locate air leaks. Fix using a sufficient insulation, caulking or weatherproofing as needed.

Heating System Cleaning

As you shut down your heating system for the air leak test, turn off all of the electrical breakers. After the air leak test, it's a good time to replace the filters and clean any interior areas that contain dust, debris or dirt of any kind within reasonable reach. The cleaner the fans, ducts and vent shafts are, the more energy efficient the unit becomes-helping your budget and our environment.

Construct101 Green Solution: An old washcloth and a small bucket of one part white distilled vinegar and two parts water will easily remove any dust or dirt and help keep dust off of the fan for months to come.