Weekly Maintenance for your Home

August – Week 34

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.

Windows

While the weather makes it easy to work on both the inside and the outside of the house, it is time to look at your windows. Open and close the windows all the way. If they slide, slide them all the way to the extremes. If they stick, first clean the tracks, then lubricate the tracks, probably with a silicone spray or paraffin wax. Lubricate any mechanical mechanisms and make sure that all attachment screws are tight. Casement windows with cranks often require tightening of mounting screws to avoid forcing and breaking the mechanisms.

If you have old wooden windows with window putty holding the glass into a wooden frame, inspect it carefully to see if it needs replacement. If it is pulling away from the glass, water will get into the wooden frame and eventually cause rot.

On a windy day, check for air leaks through weather-stripping and caulking. Remember, weather-stripping is what is supposed to block the wind where a moving part joins the frame. Caulking seals the wind out of joints between any two parts of a window that do not move, like between the window and the wall.

If anything needs painting, do it now before it gets cold and wet in the fall. The most durable transparent finish for the inside of wooden windows is a marine spar varnish, something capable of standing up to both sun and humidity. Think about it, the inside window sill receives both condensation and sunshine throughout the winter and needs a marine protection.

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