As we head into spring, now is the time to start taking care of all that outdoor maintenance for your home that has been piling up over the autumn and the winter.
Lets break your outdoor maintenance into 3 areas to make a simpler guide for you. The back of your home, the front of your home and the actual house itself.
The Back Of Your Home (Patio and Garden)
The garden and patio area including any side paths fall into this area. Make sure to give it a good wash down using a stiff brush. We find using a hose and letting it lie on its side allowing water to gently push over the surface helps to remove of the buildup of dirt.
Once you have washed it all down, you can go through the entire area, making sure that all the area is still secure and if not, make a snag list for a professional who can take care of it for you.
The Front Of Your Home (Driveway Area)
Cleaning this area up is fairly important. Not only for guests but since it generally receives the most traffic, you can easily spot a problem before it gets worse.
With a block paved driveway, tarmac driveway or concrete, using a hose with a stiff brush will allow you to remove most of the dirt build up.
Make sure to top up the joints with more kiln dried sand if its block paving.
For a gravel area, gently go over any uneven areas, raking the stone back into place before potholes start to form. A quick visual inspection can show you if the membrane underneath has been damaged or not.
Your Home (Roof and Gutter)
This generally involves the roofline, the roof itself and the guttering system. A quick visual inspection of your gutters will tell you if they have build up in them. If you have, get a guttering company to perform a gutter cleaning service. Make sure they blow the downpipes out as well.
If you have old guttering (especially wooden or cast iron), we recommend if they are loose, to just replace them with new uPVC gutters. Much less maintenance and large styling choices with guttering options.
For the roof itself, we recommend again using a hose and watching the water run across it. This can tell you if you have a leak or not. A visual inspection can show you if there is any loose or missing tiles.
If you have a flat roof, spotting the problem will be a bit different. Firstly, stroll along the edge of the roofline, making sure the existing felt is still tucked in / tied in correctly. Secondly, see if the felt is still firmly overlapping each other with no pooling. You can learn about flat roofing here.
The above mentioned methods, all keep you firmly on the ladder and not on the roof. We DO NOT recommend getting on a roof. For this, please, get a quality contractor such as TC Roofers who are roofing repairs contractors in Dublin.