What outdoor home improvement tasks should you do this summer?
The proverbial saying “prevention is better than cure” applies especially well to home maintenance. Maintaining your home prevents issues from arising in the future that can be more expensive to repair than to prevent. And luckily, summertime is the perfect time to break out some outdoor items for the season and protect your home from the elements it endures during the rest of the year.
Here are some preventative measures you can take to keep your home in good shape:
Maintain the area around outdoor HVAC units: it is important to keep the area surrounding your outdoor HVAC unit free of tall grass and weeds. These can affect the unit efficiency and potentially cause damage.
Clean your home siding: If you have vinyl or fiber cement siding you can clean it easily by pressure washing it. Make sure to follow safe operating procedures when using a pressure washer.
Removing weeds and moss from your patio: If you have an outdoor patio, it is likely that the tile grout has grown weeds and moss. It is important to remove the weeds not only for aesthetic reasons but also because the weeds can cause tiles to shift. There are a few ways to weed your outdoor patio:
- Use tools such as a knife, a spading fork or a crack weeder
- This process requires the use of a tool to pull the roots out of the ground while simultaneously pulling the top of the weeds up
- Make sure to get all the roots out so they don’t grow back
- Pour hot water or baking soda
- You can remove weeds by pouring boiling water onto the weeds, but you will need to repeat this method over time in order to see results
- You can also pour baking soda over your weeds and repeat monthly
Refinishing your deck: Our decks endure a lot during the winter and spring months. It’s time to enjoy it! Check for simple fixes such as tapping down any protruding nails. To refinish your deck:
- Start by removing everything from the deck.
- Next, clean the deck thoroughly. You can use either wood deck cleaner or power wash the deck.
- After cleaning the deck you will need to sand the existing planks and replace boards that are damaged.
- For sanding the deck, you can use a handheld belt sander, an upright commercial size sander, or a pole sander. The belt sander will work best, and we recommend that you use a dust bag attached to the sander for easy cleanup
- While sanding, you should wear a particle mask as well as safety goggles. You can also wear knee pads if you desire more comfort while sanding.
- Once you finish sanding, make sure to vacuum
- Now, apply the stain of your choosing based on how you want your deck to look. We recommend using water repellent stains.
