Weekly Maintenance for your Home

August – Week 33

Just like preventative maintenance on your car, if you take care of a few small items around the house every week, you can avoid many emergency breakdowns and expensive repairs.

Doors

This is the time of year that doors tend to grow. With a good spell of increased humidity, wood throughout the house tends to swell, and doors expand and bind. One of the primary reasons that exterior wooden doors have so much trouble with expansion is that hardly anyone paints the top and bottom of these doors. That leaves the wood wide open to drawing in moisture. This is the time of year to plane doors down so that they close nicely but not too loose. Then seal wherever you planed or sanded the door, as well as the top and bottom of the door, and it should not give you any problems next year.

If doors continue to bind on the top or the bottom, the house is probably moving — up, down or sidewise. Doors that bind in the centre of the house indicate a problem with the centre beam or it's supports in the basement. Exterior doors that bind indicate a foundation movement problem. Either will probably require that a structural professional take a look at the house. There is more information on "doors" in the SEARCH tab above.

Filters

Have you cleaned your air conditioner "filters" this month? Also make sure that the outdoor compressor is not clogged with grass clippings or leaves.