What Every Homeowner Should Know About Home Maintenance

About Home Maintenance

The popularity of “Do-It-Yourself” television shows, online articles, and home maintenance workshops attests to the increasing number of people who tackle projects themselves. Homeowners are spending much more time on DIY home maintenance, renovations, and remodels.  It helps to know the terms for components of the house before you start your home maintenance project, especially when you need to do research or ask a professional for advice. Here are some common terms that every homeowner should know when doing home maintenance:

Beams: the principal wood or steel framing members of a building. Home maintenance on beams may include scraping & Painting.

Casing: the trimming around interior or exterior window & doors; the finished lumber around a beam or post. Home maintenance may include replacing of deteriorated casings or painting and sealing

Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) Bulbs: Home maintenance tip. These bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs; the purchase price is typically 3 to 10 times greater than that of an equivalent incandescent bulb, but the extended lifetime and lower energy use compensate for this with utility cost savings

Countersink: create a small hole in a piece of wood so that a nail, screw, or bolt will rest flush with or just below the surface. Before starting your home maintenance project, you may want to get a tool designed for that purpose.

Dry Wall (also Sheetrock): a manufactured material made of gypsum plaster that is sandwiched between two sheets of thin cardboard. Regular home maintenance will include patching and painting as needed.

Duct Work: sheet metal piping that carries warm or cold air throughout the house and back to the furnace or air conditioning system. Home maintenance will include visually inspecting the ductwork, sealing and insulating as needed.

Faucet Washer: device that seals a faucet – Home maintenance will require you keep a assortment of several sizes of faucet washers. This is a rubber or composition washer closes onto a metal washer seat; a dripping washer-based faucet generally indicates that the washer has become hardened or worn

Gasket: a mechanical seal that fills the space between two mating surfaces, generally this home maintenance can help to prevent leakage from or into the joined objects while under compression

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI): Testing these devises monthly is part of regular home maintenance. A GFCI is a special electrical device (usually an outlet) designed to protect people from severe or fatal electric shocks; also detects ground faults and can prevent or reduce the severity of electrical fires by interrupting the current flow; can be installed in place of the standard duplex receptacle or at the circuit breaker panel

Grout and Mortar: Often thought of interchangeably – their ingredients are similar but the two substances have different applications. Grout takes more water and has a looser consistency; used to seal joints between floor tiles, connect concrete floor sections, and entrench steel bars in walls. Mortar is stiffer and intended to take some weight; often utilized to bond large blocks of brick, cement, or stone together. Grout should be replaced as part of regular home maintenance.

Joists: framing members supporting the floor or ceiling. Sealing all Sheetrock joints yearly is part of regular home maintenance.

Load Bearing/Bearing Wall: structural members or walls that support the weight of a structure; structurally supports the floor or roof of a building.

Molding: a board that covers the joint between ceiling and wall (crown molding) or floor and wall (baseboard)

Rafters: framing members that slope from the roof ridge to the eaves, comprising the main body of the roof’s framework, often accessible from the attic

Soffit: the visible underside of structural members such as staircases beams or exterior roof overhangs – such as the dropped, boxed area of a ceiling that covers pipes and wiring

We hope this Home Maintenance article will help you with your future projects