Charlie:
Helen, in Pearland, wants to know about a home maintenance schedule. Is there such a thing?
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Tom:
I don’t know if there’s a schedule but there are certain things people should do every year. First off, if you find something broken put it on a list and fix it. Now there’s a, “What do you mean?” Well, if you find a doorknob that’s loose, if you find a hinge on a cabinet that’s kind of not working right, don’t let it go. That’s part of my first maintenance issue. The other thing is make sure you get your furnace checked once a year. Make sure you get your air conditioner checked once a year, if you do it at the same time fine, if not if you do it separate times, that’s fine too.
Make sure you change your air conditioning filters on a regular basis depending on which type you have. Some are 60 days, some are six months. It depends what kind of filter you have.
I would tell in the spring do a walk around the outside of the home, looking down, looking up, looking for signs of termites, any kind of wood rot, or damage that you might see because spring time is when people can get out after our vicious winter of two or three days. (laughing)
Charlie:
Yeah, fell on a weekend this year.
Tom:
It’s a time you start thinking about spring cleaning, and keep your house clean, don’t be afraid to clean it, as well as carpets and everything else. Just doing, maybe in the spring, a walk around. Make sure your air conditioning filters are changed. Make sure you get your mechanical systems checked, which would be your air conditioning system. If you have water filters do that when it needs to be done too. No, there’s not a specific thing. But, to me the most important thing, if a little thing is broken, fix it as soon as you can. Don’t let it build up to where you have a hundred little things that are breaking all over the house.
Charlie:
Amen to that.
Tom:
Two things on a weekend. If you’ve got five things broken, fix two every weekend.