Regular Maintenance and Home Warranty: A Combination That Really Saves You Time And Money

It’s no secret that homeownership in the United States is expensive. Even when you put aside mortgage payments, homeowner’s insurance, and property taxes, the amount that a homeowner needs to spend on annual maintenance is roughly equivalent to 1% to 4% of the home’s value. That translates to nearly $5,000 to $20,000 per year for the average American homeowner.

Fortunately, there are ways to keep a little more money in your pocket. Wise home preventative maintenance can forestall major malfunctions and snafus, keeping your repair bills in check. And when repairs are inevitable, you may be able to shield yourself from the full cost by leveraging home warranty protection. This article will speak a little more to this winning combination of routine maintenance and home warranty coverage to give you the information you need to keep your money where it belongs—in your bank account.

 

The Importance of Regular Maintenance

Why is homeowner maintenance so important? General upkeep is necessary to keep your home functional and up to your aesthetic standards, of course. But seemingly inconsequential maintenance tasks can prevent or at least delay more serious—and more expensive—issues down the line. So, while swapping out your air conditioner’s filter seems like a minor task, doing so on a regular basis will extend the lifetime of your appliance and make breakdowns and malfunctions less likely.

As a homeowner, you’ll find that the best home care tips are those that keep your appliances and systems humming and prevent pests, mold, rot, rust, and water damage from harming the most expensive structural elements of your house.

Key Areas of Home Maintenance

The easiest way to stay on top of essential home maintenance is by tailoring a maintenance checklist to your home. You’ll want to make sure that your checklist captures the key areas below, as applicable to your home and property.

1. Systems Maintenance

You can think about your home’s plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems as the heart, brain, and lungs of your home. Keeping the systems and their component appliances in excellent shape is critical. Basic maintenance tasks should include:

• Cleaning drains and plumbing fixtures
• Inspecting visible pipes and plumbing fixtures for signs of leaks
• Monitoring floors, walls, and ceilings for water damage, which could suggest a hidden leak
• Testing water for excess mineral content or bacteria
• Periodically testing outlets, switches, and other electrical controls
• Checking visible wiring in the attic, basement, crawlspace, or other unfinished areas for signs of fraying, pest damage, or other problems
• Replacing HVAC air filters
• Having certified technicians service your air conditioner, heating system, and water heater
• Cleaning vents, ducts, and registers
• Checking insulation and eliminating drafts

2. Exterior and Structural Maintenance

Your home’s bones and exterior are no less important than the systems they protect. Regular home maintenance tasks related to your home’s structure and exterior include:

• Cleaning gutters and downspouts
• Inspecting the roof and shingles for damage or leaks, patching as necessary
• Touching up and repainting siding, doors, and trim
• Staining, sealing, or painting porches and decks
• Checking wooden siding and other fixtures for signs of rot, mold, or damage from woodpeckers, termites, or other animals
• Examining and replacing as needed gaskets, seals, and weather stripping
• Inspecting the foundation and any concrete basement flooring for signs of cracks or chipping
• Monitoring interior framing, crawlspaces, basements and attics for signs of mice, rats, ants, bees, termites, squirrels, bats, and other pests

3. Appliance Maintenance

It’s important to take good care of your major home appliances. Here are some of the most straightforward maintenance tasks:

• Wiping down and checking dishwasher, refrigerator, and washing machine gaskets for signs of warping
• Replacing water and air filters as necessary
• Cleaning removable traps and filters
• Running over self-cleaning cycles
• Wiping down air conditioner and refrigerator coils so they’re free of dust

4. Safety Maintenance

All maintenance checklists should incorporate safety checks. Here’s what to consider:

• Testing and replacing batteries in all smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors
• Checking the locks on all doors and windows
• Ensuring there are functional fire extinguishers in the laundry room and kitchen
• Testing the home security system

5. Outdoor Maintenance

Attending to your home’s landscaping and surrounding property isn’t just a matter of aesthetics. Several outdoor maintenance tasks are essential for the health of your home. These include:

• Looking for and removing as necessary trees or large branches that threaten to damage your home if they fall
• Monitoring the perimeter of your home’s foundation for standing water, burrowing animals, insects, mold, or other issues
• Keeping any wood, including fallen limbs and firewood, several feet away from the house to deter termites
• Mowing the grass and trimming surrounding brush to eliminate habitats for mice, ticks, and other pests

 

Developing a Home Maintenance Plan

The list of maintenance tasks above isn’t exhaustive, of course. Your home may have additional needs, such as maintaining a pool or servicing a septic tank. It’s best to curate a list of relevant home maintenance tips and checklist items over time, adding tasks as needed.

Once you have a list of maintenance tasks that your home and property require, you can organize tasks into seasonal maintenance checklists. To stay even more organized, turn the checklist into a spreadsheet or table. In addition to a column for the tasks themselves, additional columns can capture frequency, maintenance budget information, and even contact information for relevant home professionals who can assist.

The Role of Home Warranties

Developing a maintenance plan is half the battle. You also need to consider how to execute it, and that’s where a home warranty comes into play.

A home warranty, at its most basic, is a service contract to repair and possibly replace home appliances and system components. The homeowner pays a monthly or yearly premium to keep coverage active and submits a claim whenever a covered piece of home equipment requires service. As long as the repair is covered by the policy, the warranty protects the homeowner from all or most of the associated costs.

While home warranties are traditionally used to cover repair costs for expensive home appliances, such as refrigerators and laundry machines, modern policies can also support general home maintenance. Homeowners can leverage their policies to attend to a roof leak or service the HVAC system. Some companies, Liberty Home Guard included, allow homeowners to bundle a variety of home services with their standard warranty protection. We support, for instance, gutter cleaning, pest control, carpet cleaning, window cleaning, rekeying, and more.

The advantages of home warranties extend beyond financial savings. Warranty companies typically partner with local technicians, so homeowners don’t need to hunt for qualified home professionals. By having certified and licensed professionals service your appliances and attend to much of your home maintenance, you can avoid common home maintenance errors that the layperson may be prone to.

In short, a home warranty can ensure that you get professional and thorough maintenance services at significantly lower costs. You’ll have fewer maintenance tasks to manage yourself and a lighter mental load when it comes to home care. More thorough and streamlined maintenance will keep your appliances and home systems in excellent shape. And if and when something does malfunction, you’ll have a streamlined process for inexpensive repair.

Choosing the Right Home Warranty

There is a fair amount of variety in home warranty policies available to homeowners in the United States. Premiums, service fees, coverage caps, and coverage options vary from company to company. How can you choose the right plan for you?

Don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Every home is different, and you should work with a warranty provider that can tailor a policy to your home and property. Assess your coverage needs. Are your kitchen and laundry appliances still reasonably new and covered under manufacturers’ warranties? Are your home systems still covered under a builder’s guarantee? If so, you might delay warranty coverage on these home components until your existing coverage has expired.

Also look into the breadth of coverage options. Does your potential warranty provider offer home services? Do they support plumbing and electrical fixtures and smaller appliances or just standard kitchen and laundry appliances? 

And, of course, consider the price—but be on the lookout for hidden costs. The company with the lowest premium might look attractive, but you could pay more when it comes time to repair an appliance if the coverage cap is unreasonable.

For more guidance, you can inquire with the team at Liberty Home Guard. We’ll help you assess your needs and give you the information you need to forge the perfect plan. Call (866)-983-0874.