Spring has sprung, and the days are getting warmer – finally! It’s about time to put away the snowboards and sleds, and fire up the barbeques. But, spring is also the best time to get home maintenance out of the way, and prepare for a hot summer.
Winter is fun for the kids, but our houses don’t appreciate it as much. Snow and cold weather weakens seals, opens cracks around our windows & doors, and wreaks havoc on exterior paint. In tough economic times, a great way to save money is through preventative and early maintenance. A little $ spent now can save big money in the long run. Here are some great, money-saving ideas to get out of the way now, before problems get worse.
1/ Inspect seals around all windows & doors. Purchase a quality exterior caulking (or appropriate sealant for the job) and caulk gun ($10-20 total) and fill any leaks. Leaky windows & doors allow the outside air in, and the inside air out. Tired of cranking up the A/C all summer long? Stop air conditioning the outdoors!
2/ Prevent small painting issues from becoming big painting issues. Touch up areas on the house where paint is chipping or pealing. First, sand & scrape any loose paint, prime (yes, prime!), and repaint. Most home builders (and cheap painters) use low quality primers not suitable for our high altitude or rough Colorado winters. Primer sticks to the bare surface, and paint sticks to primer. This means that your final coat of paint is only as good as the primer it’s stuck to!
If you don’t have any touch up paint and have lost the old cans, chip off a small piece from an inconspicuous part of your house and take it to Home Depot or Lowes. The painting departments at each of these stores offer computerized color matching which is better than you might suspect. If you’re only repainting a small, hard to find area, you can probably get away with spot-painting. However, if you have a large area that is damaged, consider buying enough paint to redo the entire wall (corner to corner, floor to top of wall). Otherwise the old & newly painted areas will easily be noticed. Not pretty.
3/ Move the BBQ away from the house. Yeah, really! What happens when your paint is plastered up against a hot BBQ? It heats up, breaking the seal between the top coat & primer, resulting in premature pealing & chipping.
To prevent this from happening, keep the BBQ a minimum of 4 feet away from any painted areas. If you don’t do this, we appreciate your support of Denver painting companies like ours ;).
4/ Fill cracks in the driveway, concrete, between pavers and other areas where you don’t want grass & weeds to grow. Stopping unwanted grass & weeds from growing in these areas early means their roots will not be able to grow & expand, causing further, more expensive damage down the road. A single summer is all it takes to allow a small problem to become a big, expensive problem.
Stay tuned for more home maintenance tips as spring and summer continues!
If it’s too late and you need serious help, Eurotech Painting & Home Improvements can do the heavy lifting. With more than 20 years experience in the Greater Denver area, there’s no job we can’t tackle! Call Jerry at 720-733-9874, or request a free estimate here.
