Tips for Extending the Life of Your Home

You eat an apple a day, swim laps, and get a full night’s sleep, all in an effort to help keep your body fit and healthy. What about your home? House restorer and real estate agent Carolyn Okay of Larchmont and contractor Don Holohan of Mount Kisco offer the following advice.

Raising the Roof

The roof is one of the biggest lines of defense to maintain the health of your home. And at $25 a square foot to replace one, you want to take care of it. A roof inspection ($150 for a smaller home) every year or two is a good idea, especially if trees are broken near and around the house from a storm. Broken tree branches can crack tile and slate. Once a puncture occurs, water can easily trace inside and become trapped causing wood rot, mold, and mildew. If ignored long enough, you may need to replace all your lampshades with umbrellas! (And we know what bad luck it is to open umbrella indoors.)
A roofing inspection needs to be conducted on the roof—and not from the ground looking up. Hire a licensed contractor do the highwire act.

Support Your Local Santa

Invest in a chimney cap (most are $100 to $250). The metal enclosure keeps rain and moisture from building up inside the chimney (reducing the chimney smell that often invades in the warmer weather), extends the life of the chimney crown (the cement cover on the top of the chimney structure), increases chimney draft functionality, and locks out critters like squirrels, bats, and raccoons.
Just remember to remove the cap December 24th, lest you want crying children wondering why the only homes on the block Santa skipped were theirs and the Goldbergs next door.

Gut It Out

Yes, cleaning out the gutters is the Rodney Dangerfield of household chores.
But remember gutters catch and reroute water runoff so it doesn't damage your home's exterior and direct water away from your home's foundation. So unless you want to watch your kids play Marco Polo in your basement, clean your gutters. Make sure maintenance includes inspection of all downspouts and not just the gutters.

Look for more home maintenance tips in an upcoming blog.

This blog was put together with the help of:
—Carolyn Okay, Tash Properties/Vintage Home Restoration, 294 Weaver St, Larchmont (914) 630-4081. Also a real estate agent for Sotheby’s International Realty in Larchmont (914) 833-5952
—Don Holohan, BDW Construction/Northern Westchester Handyman (914) 879-3564 or (914) 242-0834.