3 maintenance checks every new homeowner should do first

Congratulations on the keys. Whether it is your first place or the one you plan to stay in, a house does not look after itself, and the jobs that cost people the most money are almost always the small ones that got left. So rather than hand you a 40 point checklist you will never open again, here are the 3 I would do in the first month, and why each one matters.

1. Gutters and downpipes

Gutters do one job and they only do it while they are clear. Once they fill up the water goes over the edge instead of down the pipe, and it lands against the wall of the house, which is where the expensive problems start.

Get a sturdy ladder, or somebody who owns one and is happier up there than you are, and clear the leaves and the grit out. While you are up there have a look at whether the gutter is sagging anywhere, whether it has pulled away from the fascia, and whether there are any splits in the joints. A leak sitting against a fascia board will rot it quietly for a couple of years before anybody notices.

Then follow the downpipes to the ground and check they are actually taking water away from the house rather than dumping it at the footings. If yours empty straight onto the soil next to the wall, that is worth sorting before winter.

If you are not comfortable on a ladder, that is completely fine and it is not the job to be brave about. Come in and we will talk you through what gutter guard suits your roof, or point you at somebody who does the cleaning.

2. Everything to do with plumbing

A dripping tap seems like nothing until you see what it does to a water bill over a quarter, and a slow leak under a sink will get into the cabinet base and the floor long before it ever gets wet enough for you to notice from above.

Have a look under every sink, around the base of the taps and behind the toilet. Anything damp, discoloured, swollen or smelling musty is telling you something. Then flush each toilet and listen afterwards, because a cistern that keeps refilling or runs quietly for a minute after the flush is leaking into the bowl, and that is one of the biggest single water wasters in a house.

Most of this is genuinely fixable yourself. A tap that drips usually needs a washer or a whole tap repair kit rather than a plumber, and swapping one takes about 20 minutes once somebody has shown you how the spindle comes out. That is the sort of thing we are happy to walk you through over the counter.

3. The outside of the house

The outside takes the weather so the inside does not have to, and it wears out faster than people expect, particularly on the western wall.

Walk around the whole place and look for cracked or peeling paint, and for bare timber where the coating has gone, because bare timber is an open invitation to rot and to termites. Repainting before the timber is exposed is a great deal cheaper than repairing timber afterwards. While you are walking, look up at the roof for tiles that have slipped or sheets that have lifted at an edge. One storm will find every one of them.

Have a look at the window and door seals too. Gaps around a door frame cost you in heating in winter and cooling in summer, and a brush seal on the bottom of a door is a 10 minute job that you notice the same night.

A few smaller ones worth doing while you are at it

• Smoke alarms. Test them and change the batteries. A chirping alarm at 2am is the reminder nobody wants.
• Air conditioner and heater filters. Clean or replace them, because a blocked filter makes the unit work harder for less.
• Around the garden. Cut back anything growing against the house. Plants touching a wall are a bridge for pests and they hold damp against the cladding.

Shop related products

• Gutter Guard Protector, 1 metre length. Sold by the metre so you can do the problem run under the tree rather than the whole house.
• Renew 20mm Hose Cock, Male Rough Brass. For replacing a garden tap that has started weeping at the body.
• Renew Recess SBA, Brass. The behind the wall fitting when a tap is being replaced rather than repaired.

Did you know we also stock a lot of this in store that is not on the website, including gutter scoops and cleaners, gutter guard in 180mm by 8 metre rolls, Colorbond gutter, downpipe and mitres, Soudal all purpose silicone in 7 colours, photoelectric smoke alarms, brush and automatic door seals and tap repair kits. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

The rest of what is online is in plumbing and hardware.

While you are sorting the new place out

Most people moving in want more keys cut than the agent handed over, and we do that on the spot. Have a look at key cutting, and if you are buying anything heavy we run local delivery on Tuesday and Thursday, $5 around Strathalbyn and $10 for the whole regional run.

More for a new place

• Skip the gutter clean? It only takes one storm to regret that shortcut
• How to build a reliable home toolkit without wasting money on the wrong tools
• How to tighten a loose door handle in minutes without replacing the whole set

I have owned a house for years and I still find out about the gutters from the sound of water hitting the path.

Cheers,
Candeece