Home Maintenance tips provided by a home inspector in New Jersey who performs home inspections in Bergen, Essex, Morris and Passaic County in NJ.

This may sound out and right silly but the best home maintenance you can perform on your home is obvious to any home inspector.  Ready for this. Keep it dry.  That is right keep water out of the outside of the home and within the plumbing pipes on the inside and fix what breaks as soon as it breaks and odds are your home will be trouble free.

As a home inspector I see it all the time. The owner does not replace the roofing when he or she should.  Water stains start on the underside of the roof shingles, progress down the roof rafters where latent damages within the walls start, then the carpenter ants come to nest in the wet wood.  Now we have a roof leak, insects, then mold and mildew in the walls followed by .... thus a small roof leak now cost thousands or tens of thousands to cure.

Next is the person who does not paint exterior wood surfaces.  First to go are windows and exterior window trim, next is the siding, fascia and soffits.  Water stains start where trim sections meet, progress down the walls where latent damages within the walls start, then the carpenter ants come to nest in the wet wood.  Now we have a  leak, insects, then mold and mildew in the walls followed by .... thus a small roof leak now cost thousands or tens of thousands to cure.

File last updated May 22, 2012 * Copyright © 2012 All rights reserved by: Accurate Inspections, Inc. A New Jersey home inspection firm 56 Woodland Drive, Woodland Park (formerly West Paterson) NJ 07424 973-812-5100 providing New Jersey Certified Home Inspections in NJ, by New Jersey Licensed home inspectors. Inspector of record Michael Del Greco, New Jersey Home Inspector License GI 0121.