Keeping your home ship-shape isn’t only important for your family’s safety and enjoyment—it’s also necessary for the protection of your investment. Allowing chores to mount up can cause problems to compound, resulting in the need to spend significant time and money on something that could have been prevented. Here are our top home maintenance tips for ensuring that your Toronto home remains in good condition year-round.
Perform Perfect Plumbing
Keep things flowing smoothly with regular inspections of your plumbing and drainage systems. To avoid these from resulting in unnecessary repairs, take steps such as:
- Use kitchen catchers in your sinks and hair strainers in your bathtub and shower.
- Don’t use your toilet as a disposal option for anything other than natural waste and bathroom tissue.
- Pour hot water down each of your outlet pipes at least once a month to dislodge any accumulated fats, grease and other debris that could cause blockages.
Ensure Electrical Efficiency
Have your electrical installation checked when you first move into the home to ensure that it is compliant with Toronto’s strict building codes. It’s too late when you have an electrical fire to discover that it was never right, to begin with—your insurance company may reject your claim and you may have to carry the cost and inconvenience yourself. In addition, a poor electrical installation can result in your home using far more hydro than necessary, which makes it worth the cost to ensure it’s up to standard.
Achieve Adequate Air Conditioning
Following these HAVC home maintenance tips is essential if you want to keep the home comfortable all year round. Air conditioners are often overlooked during seasonal maintenance, but they can be very expensive to repair. Inspecting the unit regularly enables you to check that the water caused by condensation drains away freely and that the air filter remains clean and efficient. This will help keep your home cool during the torrid summer heat and prevent your unit from using excessive energy or wearing out its parts too quickly.
Fire Up the Furnace
Few Toronto homeowners can get through a Canadian winter without efficient home heating. Whether your heat is electrical or comes from a gas-powered furnace, you need to check it regularly to ensure operational integrity. Take the time during summer and fall when you don’t need to run the furnace to get a professional inspection.
Following these home maintenance tips will help you stay on top of the demands of being a homeowner and ensure that you get the full resale value for your home.
