Valentine’s Day is here and with all the love in the air why not share it with your home, as well as your loved ones? After all, home is where the heart is.
For most of us our home is one of the biggest investments we’ll make. We put so much time and effort into choosing the right sofa and lighting, installing the best appliances and the perfect finishing touches to create our ideal home, that we forget about the foundations of a home.
We recently spoke with property maintenance specialists, Valentine Property Services, for their top tips on how to look after your home.
VMH: So, what are the 5 most common ailments you’re asked to look at?
VPS: The main areas we are asked to investigate are:-
- Dampness (rising and penetrating dampness)
- Condensation
- Water damage
- Timber decay (dry rot and wet rot)
- Woodborer infestation
VMH: What are your top tips to ensure a property is sound, wind and water tight?
VPS: The best tip is general maintenance. Having a maintenance program, particularly if it is an older property is the key to dealing with this. Make sure rainwater goods are working soundly and that the roof is in a watertight state. Taking a common sense approach to the building, particularly from the external as quite often defects to the external are ignored thinking that these can not impact on the internal, however these are sometimes the ones which cause the most damage. So general maintenance and a common sense approach would be the answer.
VMH: How often to do you recommend a property is looked over/surveyed?
VPS: This depends on the age and construction of the property. The older the property the more maintenance this requires. For properties over 100 years old we would recommend a general overlook survey every couple of years. Newer properties generally don’t require maintenance quite so often, however this is something that the occupier should be observant about themselves and if there are any concerns call in a specialist.