We all want to think of our homes as permanent, near invincible structures. It's common to expect things to last.

You know how the dentist tells you to brush your teeth? If you do, your teeth last as long as possible, and you may never experience much more than a cleaning. Or surgery, extractions etc. become really unlikely.. Where if you don't maintain your teeth, you are all but guaranteeing failure.

Homes are really no different. They need a yearly checkup at least. If no other work is done, a painter at the minimum should look at the condition of things.

If you see a little rotting or separating, what is behind it may be worse. Depending on the construction, paint or caulk may be the only protection.

Different construction methods have different maintainence needs, but not many can simply be ignored for years. Sometimes things fail due to shitty installation details, but nothing lasts forever. When something does fail, don't simply put it back how it was. Evaluate the failure to prevent it and make the longest lasting repair.

From your roof to your water heater, everything has a life span. If you note when things are installed you can anticipate failures and actually save money.

The best way to not get stuck with costly cleanup and repairs is to do it right, keep it maintained, and know when it should be replaced, whatever it is.

Homes can and have lasted centuries, but not with no one paying attention.

Excellent post, arc. An ounce of prevention...

Yep. But it's one of many things that they don't tell you when you buy a house. Before I owned a home, I didn't realize how much maintenance was required, nor understand why big box home improvement stores can be on damn near every corner and still stay in business.

Just recently, my wife was frustrated and wanted to know why our home is "falling apart" lately. Our house just hit 15 years old, which is a "major service interval", kinda like 50k/100k on a car. That's on the downslope of the roof's life, it's past the water heater's expected life, nearing the end of the AC unit's life, the garage door opener is wearing out, the paint is starting to fade, the caulking is starting to split, the mortar is starting to crumble, some of the boards on the deck are starting to rot, etc. etc.

Our house needs an oil change and tire rotation, and even a new water pump and timing belt.

Luckily, like minor maintenance on a car, much of it can be done ourselves. We tackled a decent chunk of the lower-level painting last fall. I've been recaulking seams and door/window frames. And our big project for after the rainy season will be to wire brush and repaint the lintels, which are starting to have rust spots showing through the paint.

And for bigger/tougher stuff, we've developed a "little black homeowner's book" with a good painter, garage door technician, electrician, plumber, and handyman/contractor to call on.

I wish you would have posted this two years ago. I learned my lesson the hard way. My water heater started leaking when I was on vacation. It cost me some serious $$$ to fix the problems that the leak caused. Good post Arc.

I'm working on a home right now, built in the early 2000's. I've worked on homes of every vintage, almost every type, some as old as the 1600's.

Some of the shitiest shit I've ever seen, has been development homes. Even "luxury" homes. When a builder buys land and bangs out numerous homes, it's almost a guarantee no one gives a fuck about materials used, proper flashing, and more.

It makes me sad when something was built with the "take the money and run" mentality.

So, certainly old homes, but definitely new ones, keep an eye on your exterior details and fix it when you see it, not when it finally leaks to the plaster inside.

Over the years I've had to have numerous conversations with homeowners, akin to telling them a close family member needs major surgery. Only, in the case of a medical doctor, you rarely assume they are trying to swindle you. Whereas I run into a lot with homes, the desire to fix it as cheaply as possible.

Fixing poor construction details, needs to be done right, and because you have to take it back to "healthy tissue," as well as make sure the same thing doesn't happen again, it's not going to be cheap and fast.

I build it so I won't have to come back. The guy who does it cheaper and faster, he won't be back because he won't return your call when his work fails.

On the occasions when I have "just put it back" at the behest of a homeowner, I always explain why it failed and what will happen again. I've been back to a few of those to do it right, and I was nice enough not to say "I told you so."

Lots of tips for people though, like writing the month and year right on that water heater in big permanent marker, noting how wet or dry your roof and walls stay. Observing too much algae or moss. And more.

Or, just hire someone to do a yearly assessment. It is far cheaper in the long term.

Another thing that I know contributes to this is that lots of home buyers wants the biggest/fanciest home possible, so they max out their budget with the absolute top mortgage payment they can squeeze in, leaving no room for home maintenance/repair costs.

I just had a discussion with a colleague who is looking to buy her first home, and wanted my advice. My suggestion was to figure out what they can comfortably afford for a mortgage payment, then dial it back by 10-20% or so.

So if your budget can reasonably afford a $1000 mortgage payment, buy a home with a $900/month (or less) mortgage, and stick the extra $100/month (or more) in savings to pay for tools and maintenance supplies as needed, and to eventually pay the plumber/painter/handyman/HVAC tech/etc. or replace the water heater/washer/oven/garage door/gutters/etc.

Homeowner or not, having a decent savings fund is just smart. But it's even more necessary if you own your home. We just dropped $8,000 in the last 4 months alone on home maintenance, which really put a hurt on our savings.

I was fortunate enough that I bought a new construction home 2 years ago before it was built. We stopped by every week and took pictures of the house. We have weekly pictures of the anatomy of our home and how it was built.

My old house that I sold had mold that we treated. I told the neighbor who was attached to me to have his house checked out too since he had mold in his garaged that shared a wall.

His realtor called me to ask about details and shared with me a horror story about another home she was dealign with (not the one connected to our old home) and how the contractor did not wrap the house and basically put siding on bare plywood IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST!!! Over $70,000 dollars of mold and mildew damage and they couldn't go after the contractor since it had been over 10 years since the home was built.

Tony.

Another way to think of it is that entropy is working all the time to reduce everything from an organized state to one of more disorder. That process never stops. You have to put energy into a thing to keep it ordered.

Entropy never takes even one second off.

there are about 40,000 homes that were built by
9 different home builders, in and around Phoenix,
they were put up during the giant housing boom in the early 90's.

they were done dirty cheap, dirty fast and dirty
financed.

50,000 people were said to have lost their homes ,
(if you can believe the tv news)

when the balloon payments started in

I think much of the problem is just plain ignorance of proper construction techniques, and an unwillingness to learn.

My brother and I have, repeatedly, ran into building error which were not even cost saving, or time saving. The only explanation was that the person simply didn't know how to properly do the project.

The "McMansion" idea has been a disaster. I would much rather be in a large steel building, with a properly finished interior, than one of those.

I think its also, that so few architects are involved/most of them do not have much practical experience, so they don't think about pipe repairs/AC failures, etc.

Of course, people that want "pretty" rather than repairable/functional could also be an issue.

Besides unnecessary size and waste of space/energy, my big criticism of a "mcmansion," is the attempt to add interest and the look of an older home. They try to do this with ridiculous roof intersections and dormer locations.

Back in the day, homes started as a box with a simple roof. Over time it is added to and expanded, and these homes have a look we are used to seeing.

When you try to duplicate that, but only for style and without considering how snow or water will behave, you shouldn't be an architect or builder. The builder banging out the 10 houses, is going to skip the proper ice&water protection in the chokepoint of valleys and dormers, oh and put a skylight or chimney with no frog there too.

There has been a new housing boom, so this cycle begins anew.

The oldest part of our house is over 100 years old. Maintenance was neglected by previous occupants for a while and now we’re playing catch up. Roof was done last year, some foundation work too. Now we need to get most of the wiring replaced. It’s a never ending battle.

My home was built in the early 1900s by my great grandfather (a dairy farmer). It has held up beautifully for the last hundred years with reasonable to minimal maintenance, and I am always surprised by the new homes with their issues in this region of the country - why no one accounted for it (frostlines, heaving, ice dams, etc). We have a small, simple bungalow so to speak, but it has held up far better than the newer Mcmansions in this area. I see those and I see zero character - like you say, just slapdashing something together. And I see woods and forests destroyed in the process, which is a real pity. If these homes were made of quality - constructed beautifully and with care, that would be something different, but these are not that. It’s sad to see.

Thanks, Arc. I bought a newer home last year, and had service contracts for regular issues like HVAC, plumbing and electric (with bi-annual inspections) and a decent inspector annually to ensure the roof stays good and things don't leak. We also do a walk-around monthly. It doesn't cost nearly as much as the repairs I had to make at our old house.

Ah yes. This is timely post.
We own a 1832 building. A church outside of Boston.
And we are most certainly an Historic building.

We we will be doing a bit of sill work...sooner rather than later.
We knew what was up when we moved on it to buy.
We bid against a local fancy contractor
And beat him out.

When we heard we won the bid, I said to my wife, we bought a wooden ship...then I asked her if
It was true she didn’t want to see me any more. Grin.

New house knowledge is oh so very important.
We do have a punch list, and it gets bigger every now and then.
I beat it back a bit as I have time. We own a business as well and that’s priority. Can’t fix it if you can pay for it.
As we work out strategies and push into the planning phase, we look at what we will do and what we are allowed to do within the parameters of both historic and zoning.
It’s all good, Just work.

We love the place. The kids dig it.
It’s an unusual and unique space.
But oh so true to this thread, it ebbs and flows with each season.

New issues are handled in a timely manner.
Provided one has equity, we do, HELOC is you friend most of the time when handling the big stuff.

The weekends get taken up between small tasks and tree house building.

Love your home, it will pay you back.