What Elements Affect Home Improvements?

Why do home improvements? A simple question with many answers. So lets consider a few of them.

• Everything man made has a "useful life". Just how long that life is will be determined not only by the composition of its materials but to what exposure those materials are subjected. A car stored in a garage is able to keep that new car shine a lot longer than the one which is parked on the street. My dad came from Michigan and my wife from Minnesota, they say a car without rust doesn't exist more than a single winter. A homes worst enemy is moisture whether inside or out, second on the list in my opinion is the sun and I believe temperature fluctuations is the third worst offender, which is obviously related closely to the the amount of sun or lack there of.
  We can't do much to control the weather but we are certainly capable of applying proven practices to minimize its affect upon our homes. One of the easiest home improvement projects to consider would be drainage control. Maintaining or controlling "sheet flow" of ground water after a heavy rain is critical to the longevity and comfort of your home and all you may need is a shovel to save you thousands of dollars. The optimum word here is "grade". That is the lay of the land so to speak. Consider your home to be the top of the hill or the highest point if it is built on any kind of slope. Your objective is to keep the water flowing away from or around your home at all cost to effectively reduce the chance of water infiltration. When a home is first built inspections are made by local officials who inspect for a proper perimeter grade of your home. At the time of a building final it is rare to have the landscaping completed and this is where the problems can often begin. You have a brand new beautiful home and then you hire a landscaper to install your lawn, driveway, walkways, planter boxes, sand box, patio etc. all the things that make a house a home and the very next winter or spring as the rains begin to fall you come to find puddles or pools of standing water in planting beds between the house and the walkway or water running toward the house as opposed to away from it. By this time the inspectors are long gone and the builder or landscaper are no where to be found. If left to its own the water will do one of two things either evaporate in due time and or find a way to get in or under your house. If it evaporates it's not a problem other than perhaps providing a breeding place for mosquitoes but if it goes under there are many possible problems that can arise not the least of which would be settling of the foundation and all the ramifications attached to the things that sit on top of that portion of your foundation. Despite what you may think concrete is porous and depending on the integrity of the concrete placement at the time your home was built "hairline cracks" are pathways to your homes interior. It won't take but a season or two until you discover that the water has found these points of infiltration and the "fun" begins. So what can you do as a new home owner of a new or existing home? Take a good look at the grade around the home. You should have a minimum of 6 inches of concrete showing between the grade and the finish siding materials what ever the material. The only possible exception would be a masonry clad exterior such as a brick veneer but even then the level of the soil should never be above the weep holes on the exterior veneer; to do so is inviting trouble. Avoid planting vegetation which requires high water demands or has invasive root systems close to the house. The grade should slope away from the house to some degree and that degree will be determined by the nature of the soil itself. A majority of the homes in California are built with eaves but this has nothing to do with the slope of the land so don't think that because the eaves extend beyond the foundation you have nothing to worry about. It's the lay of the land that counts. Walk your perimeter and make that first home improvement project pay for itself in sweat equity by sloping the land away from the house. If it is an older home that has had years of vegetation and additives added to the grade this may be a big job but well worth the effort.
• I have to admit I love the sun. My mother would scrub the back of my neck when I was a child thinking I was dirty until she realized that I was just a "browner" that is, I tanned quickly. The sun can wreck havoc on a home; at the very least it minimizes that "useful life" of the materials it falls upon. Roofing shingles, paint, caulking, windows, doors, siding, trim even the fasteners used to hold them all together are all affected by the sun. Look at the fine print on any of the product labels mentioned and they will tell you the length the product is expected to last all because of the aging affects of the sun and water exposure to which they are subject. The rule here is to use the best products you can afford when doing home improvements. If you are buying a home being sold by a "flipper" you can be sure he is thinking just the opposite unless of course he has factored the higher cost of the materials and has actually used those upgrades in the restoration of the home you are thinking to buy. If he offers a home warranty chances are they have not cut too many corners.
• Never having lived in the midwest but having a parent and spouse that did, I can't imagine the extremes they experienced in temperature. When my wife was in high school and the weather hit 30 degrees the kids would come to school in T-shirts and blue jeans thinking it was a heat wave after the subzero days of winter they had to endure. I guess it's all relative. But temperature extremes can be harmful to the home no matter where you live. To much heat will dry your roofing materials out long before the package label says it will last. Paints will crack and blister, wood will check and crack. The point here is you want to watch for signs of product failure. It's important to walk your roof or have it inspected regularly. A nail that pops through the shingles due to temperature extremes will provide a point of entry for the rains. A failed paint will allow water to enter and affect the materials to which it is applied be it wood, plastic or metal. Caulking that seals joints around windows and doors can permit water infiltration and subsequent water damage or dry rot conditions. Bottom line here is to make regular visual inspections of all exterior surfaces and effect the repairs that will prevent the possible damages and maintain the value of your investment.

There are many other subjective factors that influence our decision to do home improvements but the exposure of our homes to the elements is primordial. The last I heard was they have not invented an economical house garage yet!