Home Maintenance Advice

Keep your crawl space vents properly sealed. Pictured here is a crawl space vent with a hole in it. Holes in crawl space vents allow rats and other pests access to your structure. Once inside they make a home and will enter your living area. Regularly check your house perimeter…

Maintain your wrought iron gates and fences so they last longer by repairing rust spots. Visually inspect your wrought iron every six months to locate rust spots. Apply rust inhibitive primer and two fresh top coats of paint when necessary. Pay special attention to areas where sprinklers hit the iron,…

Pictured above is the proper way to keep ivy, away from the base of a tree. Keep your tree roots and bases free of invasive plants and debris that can cause rot or insect infestation.

Pictured here is the wrong way to keep ground covering around a tree. The tree here has ivy around the base of the trunk and climbing up the tree. Keep vegetation away from the base of trees and from growing up them. Plants around the base of a tree can…

Dry rot is a fungus that eats your wood. Once it gets into wood, you either have to replace the wood or repair it. It is either visible as a mushroom or invisible and seen as a puckering in of wood. Pictured here are both forms of dry rot. Regular…

Divert your air conditioning condensation line water away from the foundation. During the summer, a condensation line can put out as much as ten gallons a day at your foundation. Over a month, that adds up to 300 gallons under your house or foundation. This can allow unseen mold and…

Make sure your under house access points are secured against pest intrusion. Pictured here is a crawl space cover that is falling apart and is open to rats and possums. It needs to be replaced.

Torn window screens make your house look run down and allow bugs into your house. Check your house for torn window screens and have them repaired. Most local hardware stores repair screens. Take your torn screen to them and they will install new screen material in your existing metal frame.

Efflorescence is a white powdery deposit of salt crystals on cementitious wall surfaces. It is unsightly and happens when water behind the wall transports calcium and lime salts to the outer surface. The white powder can be cleaned off, but will return when the wall gets wet again. It can…

Pictured above is a house with overgrown vines damaging the roof and clogging rain gutters. Vines cause damage to your wood trim, structure, ruin the roof, clog rain gutters and attract insects. Having them grow on your house may seem like a nice way to add character to your dwelling,…