Thursday, August 25, 2016

The Faults You Absolutely Must Tackle On Moving Into A New Home

So, you’ve bought yourself a home. Before you move in, you should have as thorough a check as you can. However, that won’t stop the possibility that you don’t catch some faults before it’s too late. These can’t be left on their own. You’re going to have to tackle them. Here, we’ll identify some of the most common faults, what you need to do with them and when you need help.




The plumbing
The first thing you need to do is get familiar with the utilities in your home. For plumbing, this means getting to know the flow of all the pipes and taking a run through. Run the taps and look out for any signs of trouble. Drips and leaks are an obvious one. However, you should also be looking out for low water pressure and listening out for creaks and screeches or gurgles. You also want to make sure you don’t smell any waste or drainage, as it could mean a blockage. Find your water mains and turn it off if you’re making any minor fixes with changing a tap. For other problems, it’s best to have a professional on hand.




The electrics
Much like plumbing, your electrics are not something that any kind of novice should be trying to work with. All you want to do is to be able to identify any problems. Be able to identify your main switch and turn off the electrics in an emergency. Find your fuses and circuit breakers and carefully investigate to make sure there’s no melting or damage first. If you’re checking your electrics, get your hands on a residual current device, first.




Damp and mold
One of the problems that’s significantly easier to deal with yourself is that of damp and muld in the home. However, it depends on what level it has gotten to. If it’s surface level black spots, it’s easy to simply clean it off with a bit of effort. Others might require that you replace the affected structures. If you can get rid of it, it’s best to see how you can prevent it from happening. In a lot of cases, this can just mean making the area more ventilated.




The roof
One of the most common sources of damp and mold problems is, of course, the roof. First, you want to make sure it’s insulated from the inside. This prevents it from being the kind of closed, humid space that easily forms damp or mould. But you need to check it from the outside as well. You can save yourself the unnecessary hire of a roofing company by using an access equipment hire to look yourself. If it’s as simple as a missing tile, you might be able to fix it yourself. However, some roofing materials have an expiry age to them. If your roofing has expired, you might need to get it replaced.

We hope the above tips help you identify and sort some of the faults in your home. Just remember that it’s best to leave anything electrical to professionals. Same goes for anything you don’t feel confident in tackling yourself.