Winter’s arrival has probably made things worse as draughty windows and doors let in icy wind, downpours find gaps in leaky roofs or blocked gutters collapse.
Add load shedding to the mix and you’ve got a disaster waiting to happen.
The irony is that while lockdown could be a brilliant time to get some much-needed home maintenance done, financial uncertainty may prevent people tackling their to-do lists.
Shawn Hogan, a carpenter and project manager with nearly 30 years’ experience says although money may be tight, ignoring small but essential home maintenance tasks can lead to much bigger expenses later.
“It’s important to distinguish between maintenance and improvements,” says Hogan.
“By regularly maintaining woodwork, roofs, gutters and paintwork you can avoid bigger, more expensive problems later, such as rotten wooden doors and windows needing replaced or ceilings collapsing because of a leaking roof. Improvements, such as adding an office or renovating a kitchen or bathroom can wait until you’re able to afford these.”
Shafeeqah Isaacs, head of consumer education at financial services provider, DirectAxis, says that it’s wise to try and keep up basic home maintenance.
“Spending a bit to deal with small issues before they become big problems is sensible.”
Below are five expert tips for staying on top of home maintenance without breaking the budget are:
Differentiate between necessary and nice to have
If money is tight, limit your to-do list to things that will cost you more if not attended to.
“Sometimes simple, relatively affordable tasks can save you a lot in the long run. For example, getting a dead tree felled before a storm blows it over onto your house,” says Hogan.
Other jobs such as re-carpeting a bedroom can wait until you’ve got the money.
Prioritise, then do a bit at a time
Some tasks are more urgent than others. While sanding down and repainting woodwork will prevent it rotting and save you from having to pay more later to repair or replace it, it’s not potentially as urgent as finding the source of a drip or reason for a damp spot on the ceiling.
Leaks, whether from a hole in the roof or a plumbing problem, don’t go away and can get worse fast. Besides having to pay for water spurting from a pipe, leaks can cause a lot of damage to paint, carpets, woodwork and even the structure of your house.
Prioritise your tasks, beginning with the most urgent and ending with those that can wait until you have more time and money to deal with them.
Find out if you’re covered before committing
You may have insurance cover for some household repairs, but not have realised it. If you have a mortgage bond the banks require that you have insurance to cover potential damage to the house. That’s why, before paying to get a leaking hot-water geyser repaired, it’s worth checking whether this is covered.
Do your homework and build a budget
If you dabble in DIY but aren’t an expert, do some research before you get started. There are plenty of how-to videos online. If you have friends or acquaintances who are better at DIY ask them how to go about things and which products to use. Speak to the experts in hardware shops and get their advice. It’s effort worth making before you buy a whole load of expensive supplies that you later find you don’t need or aren’t appropriate for the job.
Once you have a list of what you need, shop around. A simple internet search should enable you to work out how much the hardware and equipment you’ll need will cost. You can then draw up a budget to make sure you can afford to start and finish the job.
If you’re less skilled and would prefer to get a handyman in, follow the same approach. Ask friends or family who they’d recommend, check online or on social media to see if there are any references or complaints about the people they recommend. Once you’ve made a shortlist get a few quotes. Bear in mind that cheapest is not always best. The way the handymen on your shortlist go about assessing the job and compiling a detailed quote will provide an indication of who is most professional.
Stick to your skillset
Nobody can be good at everything and even competent DIYers should be cautious about venturing outside of their areas of expertise. This is doubly true for people who don’t have much experience.
We’ve all seen YouTube videos of people who thought cutting down the dead tree in the backyard would be the easiest thing in the world, only to have it fall on the house.
If you’re not sure that you have the ability, know-how, confidence or the right tools to do the job properly and safely, rather call an expert. It could save you lots of frustration, money and more importantly risk of injury or worse.