by Michael Del Greco

This may sound out and right silly but the best home maintenance you can perform on your home is obvious to any home inspector. Ready for this. Keep it dry. That is right keep water out of the outside of the home and within the plumbing pipes on the inside and fix what breaks as soon as it breaks and odds are your home will be trouble free.
One can live in a home for decades only fixing what breaks and have just about no problems at all. However should water start to get into the home damages will begin to accumulate at a very rapid rate. Letting water into your home is the biggest mistake you can make. Not curing the problem that is allowing the water into the home is a sure way to create a huge problem
As a home inspector I see it all the time. The owner does not replace the roofing when he or she should. Water stains start on the underside of the roof shingles, progress down the roof rafters where latent damages within the walls start, then the carpenter ants come to nest in the wet wood. Now we have a roof leak, insects, then mold and mildew in the walls followed by …. thus a small roof leak now cost thousands or tens of thousands to cure.
Next is the person who does not paint exterior wood surfaces. First to go are windows and exterior window trim, next is the siding, fascia and soffits. Water stains start where trim sections meet, progress down the walls where latent damages within the walls start, then the carpenter ants come to nest in the wet wood. Now we have a leak, insects, then mold and mildew in the walls followed by …. thus a small roof leak now cost thousands or tens of thousands to cure.
 
Michael Del Greco is President of Accurate Inspections, Inc., a home inspection business.
He has been a home inspector since 1993 and prior to that spent seven years as a construction project manager.