You’re a responsible homeowner, who never overlooks home maintenance, and once in a while even gets the pros to do it for you. The little touch-ups and maintenance routines you do in your home go a long way in keeping your home in tip-top shape.

Though you only have the best intentions for your house, maintaining your home wrongly could do more harm than good. That’s because some maintenance mistakes most homeowners unknowingly make end up devaluing their property.  If you treat your home like an investment, then you definitely don’t want to be making these mistakes with maintenance.

In this post, we’ll highlight some of the common maintenance mistakes most homeowners are guilty of making. That way, you can sidestep these maintenance pitfalls and get the best out of your home when it goes on the market.

1. Letting Dust Accumulate

Even though your home is spectacular, a little dust could ruin the outlook of your entire home. That’s why it’s important to take care of any dust you see around the house ASAP.

When dust builds up, it becomes very difficult to clean up, especially if it gets into the tight spaces in your home. There are plenty of reasons for dust inside your home, from leaving the door and windows open to not maintaining your HVAC.

Fortunately, removing dust in your home shouldn’t be a huge problem. A simple duster will do the trick. However, if things are really bad, you can get an electric blower to get the tight spots.

2. Overlooking Water Damage

You need to address any water damage as soon as you can. That’s because if you ignore water damage for too long, it could lead to serious complications down the line. Even simple things like not drying your bathroom regularly could be detrimental to the house and its occupants.

First, moisture in the house leads to the proliferation of mold, which is a huge turn off for prospective buyers. Mold is responsible for that funky odor that you may sometimes smell in the house. Some species of mold can also lead to a variety of respiratory complications.

In severe cases, leakages and extreme moisture in your home can compromise the structural integrity of your house. Sometimes leaks on the roof also leave ugly staining or peeling paint on the ceiling. You’re certainly not going to get a home buyer with these water stains and paint peeling from the ceiling.

3. Doing DIYs Wrongly

Nowadays, YouTube has everyone whipping out their toolboxes for some DIY home repairs. However, easy YouTube makes it look, in practice, it’s never that easy. Before you embark on any DIY project, at least have a reasonable DIY skill set.

You need some degree of technical knowledge to make Specific house repairs. Of course, you can get things like replacing a faucet or fixing a bulb. However, you should leave stuff like HVAC repairs, plumbing, and electrical issues to the pros.

Boarding your loft is something you can do on your own, but before you do, it’s a great idea to go through this article from Loft Leg.

If you get DIY repairs wrong, you may be further damaging the element and make repairs even more costly. You can also injure yourself in the process, which means extra medical costs for you. So next time you want to do some repairs by yourself, make sure you can handle the job.

4. Power Washing Everywhere

So you want to improve your cleaning, and you decide to get a pressure washer? It does an excellent job for your decks and patio, and everything is looking up. However, when you get to the brick and stone exterior, you notice some white streaks that you can’t get rid of.

Blasting your stone and brick exterior with too much pressure from the power washer can cause mineral deposits to seep out. This is what forms those white streaks that are very difficult to remove and are a real eyesore for your house exterior.

If you want to clean a stone or brick exterior with a power washer, make sure you put it on low pressure. Otherwise, you’ll have a clean but ugly looking exterior.

5. Not Winterizing

Winterizing basically means preparing your home adequately for winter. Most homeowners forget to winterize their homes completely, while others only do partial winterizing. Either way, both are detrimental to your home, especially the former.

The first winterizing procedure you should do is check the roof for any loose shingles and that the gutters are in good condition. Next, you should get the sprinkler and ensure you cover all the faucets before winter sets in. If you don’t, you might have to deal with very costly repairs once winter passes.

6. Postponing Home Maintenance

For most homeowners, home maintenance isn’t something they exactly look forward to; it’s just something they have to do. As such procrastinating home maintenance is very easy, and some homeowners completely forget to do it.

Remember to have a schedule for your home maintenance and always stick to it. If you need to, set a reminder on your phone so that you don’t forget when it’s time to get to work. Involve everyone in your home maintenance so that it becomes faster and even fun.

7. Taping the Walls

Kids are notorious for taping walls. Sometimes you may also tape your reminders or to-do lists on the wall so you can easily see them. Doing so may seem harmless, but it pulls paper off the drywall leaving ugly strips in their place

Mistakes With Maintenance Will See Your Home Lose Value

If you’re planning to sell your home, then you should never make these mistakes with maintenance. Otherwise, you’ll be running down the cost of your home, and you won’t even know it.

Plus, you want a lovely house to draw in as many potential buyers as you can. You can’t have a great offer if you keep maintaining your home the wrong way.

For more insightful reads, remember to check out other posts on the site.