May Home Maintenance Checklist

By Owen Whetzel

May means warmer weather and time outdoors for gardening, but it's also a time to catch up on winter-delayed home maintenance tasks. If you haven't walked around your home in a few months, looking for areas in obvious need of repair, now is a good time. Here are some suggestions:
 
 Check the heating and air conditioning filter and replace it, if necessary. Always write the replacement date on a filter, so that you will know exactly when it was put into service. Also, do furnace or central air-conditioning maintenance recommended by the unit's manufacturer, including vacuuming cold air returns and registers.

 Clean and prepare your swimming pool, pond or fountain for summer. This may be as simple as removing leaves or more involved, such as killing algae. If swimming pool maintenance seems like too big a task for you, have the work done a pool service professional. Swimming pool specialists are usually listed in the Yellow Pages under "Swimming Pool Service & Repair."

 Clean concrete, masonry or stone walkways and driveways by pressure washing, steam cleaning or using a cleaner formulated for the particular material. Spot cleaning often doesn't work, as you may end up with a very clean spot where a stain was removed and the remainder of the surface will be dirty. Cleaned spots can be more evident than the stain that was removed. The solution is to clean the entire surface.

 Repair cracks in driveways, walkways and sidewalks. Cracks allow water to penetrate beneath the surface and eventually cause damage. This may be as simple a project, as pouring a crack repair product into an open crack or require one of a number of different steps.

 Proper ventilation beneath a house and into the attic is very important.
Check that vent screens to attic or crawlspace are not blocked or damaged. Repair or replace, as needed.

 Do exterior painting, when it's dry and not too hot.

Exterior house painting techniques and materials will vary from one house to the next. However, some general tips for exterior painting are:

1. Plan the job carefully.

 Select colors that will enhance the appearance of your home and are compatible with your neighborhood. Laying out a work schedule is critical, to making certain each step of the project is completed, before tackling the next. You will find handy paint quantity calculators on the OSH Web site. Choose "Project Calculators" and then interior or exterior paint.

2. Preparation. Preparation. Preparation.

This is the most important step and directly affects the finished job and how long paint will last.

3.  Always use the highest quality paint and supplies you can afford.

 Before placing metal patio furniture outdoors, give the metal a coat of auto polish. Follow the polish manufacturer's instructions for application to an auto finish. Repeat in the fall prior to storing away.

 Want to check the roof, but don't like walking up there? Use binoculars and if you spot what you think could be a problem, call in an established, licensed, qualified roofing contractor. Roofing pros are listed in the Yellow Pages under "Roofing Contractors."

There are probably more tasks you will find, that need to be tackled. If you don't want to do your own home inspection, consider hiring a professional home inspector. A local real estate agent should have some recommendations for you.

Owen Whetzel has earned an outstanding reputation as an expert among both professionals and do-it-yourselfers, in his writing and lecturing about building, remodeling, home improvement, woodworking and do-it-yourself projects.

Owen has collaborated on books and magazine articles, was a regular guest on The Discovery Channel's highly successful home repair show, "Fix-It Line," and from 1991- 2000 he hosted "Wednesday How-To Night" on San Jose's PBS-TV affiliate, KTEH. Throughout the year he gives informative and entertaining home repair seminars at various home and garden shows.

For the past 12 years he has written columns on home repair for the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. In 1990, he was honored to have contributed to the newspaper winning the Pulitzer Prize (General News Reporting), for its detailed coverage of the October 17, 1989 Bay Area earthquake and its aftermath.