Our personal health is always a big focus, especially at the beginning of a new year. Homes are just like our bodies – they run more efficiently and look better when we take care of them. We’ve compiled a Home Health Checklist that goes beyond routine maintenance and dives into practical hacks and valuable tips that will keep you and your family protected and improve the investment you’ve made in your home.
Conduct an annual audit of your homeowner’s insurance policy
Making sure you are adequately protected by your homeowner insurance policy is critical. The insurance industry has had massive changes and rate increases as of late. Check with your insurance agent on these critical areas:
- Do you have back up of sewer & drain coverage?
- What do they have as the replacement value of your home (is your home insured adequately?)
- Ask if your policy depreciates your roof & siding if there is a claim for wind and hail damage.
- Ask if you have wind & hail deductibles.
Record a video walk through of your entire home
Once a year do a video walk through of your entire home, capturing images of contents of each room. This is a valuable tool if you should experience a catastrophic loss and need to recollect your contents for insurance coverage.
Routine Maintenance Tips & Hacks
- Disconnect garden hoses from outside faucets in late Fall
- Change your furnace filter every month. We hear home inspectors and home builders often recommend that it’s better for your furnace to use the cheap, thin filters and change them once a month.
- Check your exterior foundation for a negative slope. Keeping water running away from your foundation is important. You want your soil to be sloped away from the home’s foundation. It’s a simple fix – just add soil to the foundation areas that need it.
- Check Mid American Energy’s website to see if you qualify for any rebates or discounts for newly installed appliances, HVAC and smart thermostats.
- Flush your hot water heater at least once a year to remove sediment and improve the life of the unit. Check out YouTube for instructions on how to flush the hot water heater.
- Garbage cans smell disgusting? You can have them professionally cleaned. Hawkeye Bin Cleaning, Can Cleaners, LLC & Trash Can Cleaners of Iowa LLC are all local companies. Your waste management company may exchange older garbage bins for new ones.
Keep Your Home Safe
- Test your home for radon levels. Radon is a colorless, odorless gas and Iowa has once of the highest concentrations of radon in the country. High levels of radon have been linked to lung cancer. You can purchase an at-home test online or at a local home store like Lowe’s, Menards, Home Depot or hire a professional radon company to conduct the test. If your radon level measures 4.0 or higher the Environmental Protection Agency recommends having a radon mitigation system installed. Sealing your sump pump is also another way to help lower radon levels.
- Have your CSST gas line bonded. If your home was built after 2010 chances are the gas line is not bonded. Bonding the gas line with copper wire helps prevent an explosion caused by a lightening strike. An electrician or a plumber can bond your gas line for you and it will cost around $200-300.
- Clean your clothes dryer vent annually. This is a home fire risk and will improve the efficiency of your dryer.
- Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors – change the batteries once a year and test them.
