Maintaining one’s home can be a tricky prospect. While some of the damage a house endures will be the result of an incident and manifest instantly, most of the damage to one’s home is the result of forces of nature that occur gradually. This fact makes these damages hard to see happening, and that makes them much harder to treat. It’s important that you attend to these problems as they arise, which also means knowing what to look for. Here are a few problems to anticipate and how to fix them when they rear their ugly heads. 

Weathered Concrete

Stone, concrete, and brick are common materials in the exterior home renovation scene; while it’s hard to deny their striking appearance, they are also prone to damage from weather conditions. As you might recall from high school science classes, water wears down stone over time, and the same is true of concrete and brick. While it happens slowly, it will still be an issue for home owners within just a few years. Rain will gradually carve divots and other recesses into your concrete, for example, which will also make them less sturdy and more susceptible to cracking. Luckily, there are concrete treatments available to solve both of these problems; however, you may need to replace some pieces if the damage is sufficiently severe. Bricks, on the other hand, should be replaced outright, as they are already relatively small pieces that can easily be removed and replaced one at a time.

Water Damaged Wood

The effect prolonged moisture has on wood ranges from warping to rotting, and neither are particularly good for your home. In both cases, replacing individual boards is typically your best, and only, choice, however. Therefore, preventative measures are the name of the game. For starters, floors, walls, and furniture should all be sufficiently treated for water resistance. This is a standard part of the process of manufacturing wood furniture and wood flooring, but some of the wood in your home may be too old to have received this treatment, or it may have been DIY in origin and left unfinished. In these cases, it is imperative that you apply a water resistant coat yourself to minimize moisture damage over time. However, it’s also important to avoid stress testing that coating by prompt cleaning up spills.

Excess Moisture

With moisture being a consistent cause for alarm, perhaps the most important step to maintaining a home is to ensure the house is not taking on excess moisture. The most common culprit will be a leaky roof, so you’ll need to keep your roof in tip top shape. This means inspecting and replacing shingles, as needed, assuming you have a shingled roof. A tin roof is much better at dispersing water, but it has drawbacks of its own. However, roofing is only the origin of the leak, and there must also be a point of entry into the home, possibly as the result of each barrier gradually giving way over a longer period of time. Faulty plumbing is a less common but more severe problem. 

Faulty Plumbing

Plumbing problems are potentially easier to spot, because you spend more time interfacing with plumbing. For instance, water pooling under your sink is an easily spotted issue with a clear cause. However, in some cases, it may take the observation of water damage to your walls and eliminating other possibilities in order to pinpoint the problem. Plumbing can be somewhat complex, so be ready to hire a plumber to fix your plumbing problems, but there’s also the possibility that two pipes may no longer be firmly connected, which is much simpler to fix. The locations of said pipes are also very important, since getting below your sink is much easier than getting into your walls.

Home maintenance is deceptive, as problems that seem trivial at first can make or break your home down the road. That’s why you need to remain vigilant in spotting the warning signs and acting on them as soon as possible. With these tips at your disposal, you’ve got a better idea of what to look for and how to fix these problems before they get worse.