Four Time Saving Tips for Exterior Home Maintenance

December 09, 2009

Curb appeal is key to your home's attractiveness and resale value, but maintaining your home's exterior can take up much of your free time. Prevention is often the best way to save time and money in home repairs. There are also some helpful tricks that can save you time without cutting corners. Below are four key tips for saving time when maintaining your home's exterior.

Gutter helmets

These ingenious devices fit over your gutters, allowing rain to come in, but not leaves, pine needles, or other debris. This saves you the annoying task of cleaning the gutters before and after every rainfall. The gutter helmet system boasts a number of other benefits such as prevention of landscape erosion due to poor drainage and protection from insect or rodent infestation through the gutters.

Install LED floodlights

These low-maintenance bulbs are perfect for outdoors, designed for long periods of usage, and use less energy than incandescent bulbs. LED lights produce less heat, which can save you money on energy bills. They last up to fifty times longer than incandescent lights and five times longer than fluorescent bulbs. LED bulbs also wear out differently when they do eventually lose power (after 50,000 hours). Instead of burning out all at once, the light gradually fades, cuing you that it's replacement time.

Seal and protect your driveway

For concrete driveways especially, sealing the driveway is the easiest way to protect it from the elements and to prevent cracking. Fall is the best time to prepare your driveway for the winter months. Apply the sealer after power washing your driveway, and be sure to shovel the driveway regularly during the snowy months. Some sealants can last for up to ten years, saving a lot of wear and tear on your driveway.

Inspect the roof

Making an annual roof inspection a part of your home maintenance routine is an important step in preventing costly roof damage. Take a look at the roof and ask the following questions: Are there trees touching or growing too close to the roof? Are there streaks or black marks on the roof? These marks can be signs of a mold or algae problem. Also inspect the roof for any outward signs of damage. Missing or loose shingles, for example, can be a weak spot for water damage and leaking. Spotting these signs early can save lots of headaches later.