Articles Posted in ‘ Home Maintenance ’ Category
Maintenance of Key appliances
Friday, January 11th, 2008Home Warranty Association of California Offers Guidelines
VENTURA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–California home buyers, approximately nine out of 10 of whom apply for home warranty contracts at the time of a resale home purchase, can maximize the benefits of this product by adhering to proper maintenance guidelines suggested by the Home Warranty Association of California (HWAC).
“The maintenance initiatives outlined by HWAC include action that can be performed both by home owners or maintenance firms procured by them to periodically service key items of equipment,” said Mark Lightfoot, president of HWAC. He added that since proper maintenance is a requirement of most home warranty contracts, plan holders maximize service benefits by adopting the practice.
Lightfoot noted that air conditioning, furnaces, heat pump condensers, and water heaters comprise the major equipment items on which home owners should focus. “These are the most costly items in a home and the ones likely to require proper maintenance,” he said.
To mitigate these issues, HWAC suggests the following:
* Change furnace and air conditioning filters regularly; winter for furnace, summer for AC. If you have several pets, monthly filter changes may be required.
* Regularly check the AC condenser or heat pump system. Keep trees and shrubs clear of these components to prevent air flow blockages. Also, hose down outside of units to keep the fins clean. HWAC notes that customers can secure a maintenance contract with a local AC company to help keep systems in proper operation.
* Flush water heaters regularly, particularly in areas of hard water, since it is considered the primary culprit of sediment build up, according to HWAC. Here, too, a plumbing professional can be hired to provide this service, HWAC reports.
“To minimize potential service denials, home owners with home warranty contracts are well advised to follow manufacturer recommended maintenance guidelines on respective home components. In addition, potential home warranty customers should ask about contract limitations on lack of maintenance and pre-existing conditions. All home warranty companies exclude known pre-existing conditions, however in some cases if the condition was not known by any parties, and not detectable by visible inspection and simple mechanical test, it may be considered covered by the terms of coverage,” Lightfoot said.
Home Maintenance Tips
Sunday, August 12th, 2007Home Maintenance Checklist, Tips and Repair Resources
As mentioned on this website, home warranty policies will not cover everything you care about at your home. At some point you would need to get your hands dirty. By learning more about your home appliances and maintenance needs, you can increase the life of the equipments and will avoid the pain of dealing with home warranty company for repairs and maintenance. Of course, you will save quite a bit of your money. But more than anything, it is a very satisfying experience to fix something on your own and become more knowledgeable!
Here is a collection of good resources about home maintenance.
Home maintenance checklist
Every home owner should maintain a checklist of home maintenance needs. Just like your car, all your home appliances need to maintained to avoid malfunctioning. Use the templates from here that would suite your situation. Set a reminder using your email or other scheduling systems so that you won’t miss your “inspection”
| From Blueribbon Homewarranty |
Printable checklist and quick tips |
| FromNC State Univ. |
Helps you develop your own inspection system. |
| From Bobvila.com | Bi-annual top-to-bottom checklist |
| From Family Education |
Maintenance schedule (by season). |
| From Home Smart |
Home caring guide (by month) |
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Here is a collection of good maintenance guides for your reference
| From Blueribbon Homewarranty |
Maintenance instructions for home appliances |
| From Home Smart |
Instructions with video and images. Minnesota Building Industry Foundation has created this web site to help homeowners |
| From James Dulley | Appliance maintenance tips. This site is a good resource for a homeowner |
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Repair and troubleshooting of home and appliances
Here is the list of best guides that I have found so far. Most of them have demonstrations with images and videos. Youtube.com is another resource of course.
| ACME How To | Very thorough guide that covers almost anything you ever want to fix at home. Simple and quick fixes. |
| From Repair Clinic | Repair guides with drawings and demonstration of appliances |
| From ORHP | Useful quick fix tips covers major appliances |
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Do it yourself Projects
It is always fun to take on some home improvement projects at your spare time. It takes some time and effort, but the satisfying experience and the joy you will get after you finish a project successfully is worth it.
| From Hometime | Many projects available with detailed photo assisted instructions |
| From DIY | DYI Network has easy to follow guides. Each steps explained with actual photos |
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Homeowner Resources
Here is a list of useful resources for homeowners. This list will be updated as and when we find useful websites. Please feel free to suggest your favorites!
| Homeowner Insurance Lowdown | This website contains many resources such as homeowner insurance, warranty, and financial info essential for a homeowner |
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Want to suggest a new resource? Please provide your feedback about home maintenance and remodeling links here