1. Examine every part of your house periodically. Go up the root to see if there are rusty GI sheets which need repainting or holes which should be patched. Clean your gutters of dried leaves and other debris which may impede the free flow of rainwater.
2. Watch out for signs of termite invasion. The outside surfaces of your wooden posts, beams, rafters, purlins, or walls may be intact but the inside parts might all be eaten up by termite. Tap these gently and the hollow sound will reveal that a colony has already formed there. Do a regular periodic treatment. A once-and-for-all application won’t suffice, for after the smell of whatever you sprayed is gone, the persistent termite will come back again. Once saved doesn’t mean always saved.
3. Do repair work immediately. Paint peeling off from your woodwork, a little leak from your roof, small drips from your faucets and sinks, some electrical wire insulations eaten up by mice – all these call for immediate action. Remember that “a stitch on time saves nine.”
4. Have a ready budget for maintenance expenses. Set aside some amount on a regular basis while the repairs are not yet urgent. Otherwise you’ll have to postpone repairing until “a more convenient season” when the damage will then be greater and the expenses will be much more.
5. Repair before the start of the rainy season. It’s hard to work in the rain, to say the least. For one thing, the roof cement and other substances which you tapal won’t stick when the galvanized sheet is wet.
6. Remember, too, that it’s extremely dangerous to work up there when the winds of typhoon signal number 3 are howling around your defenseless head. The edges of loose GI sheets also could be like newly sharpened guillotine blades which can behead your workman with one fell swoop.
7. Be on the lookout for better materials which you can use. Consultation with construction experts, word of mouth from other homeowners, advertisements from manufacturers and suppliers – all these are good sources of information for you. (We should warn you, though, to take advertisements with a grain of salt. Don’t the carried away by the jingle, the slogan, the accompanying songs, and the superb animation which you see on your TV screen.)
8. Buy only enough materials for your present needs. Dried leftover paint, rotting pieces of plywood, rusty nails, hardened cement, dried Vulcaseal unused for so long – all these are a waste of money. Estimate carefully and buy only enough for the job at hand.
9. Band-aid measures are more expensive in the long run than permanent solutions. Spend a little more at the start for superior materials as this is more economical that buying so-called cheap ones every now and then. You always get your money’s worth.
10. Get a skillful workman who knows his job well. Wreckers who know how to demolish but don’t know how to restore are extremely expensive. Also, it’s very demoralizing to look at missing parts of ceiling or dangling electrical wires. If you’re going to spend good money anyway, don’t spend on “mga karpinterong pulpol” (under skilled carpenter). Hiring experts is a good investment.

Finally, don’t hesitate to renovate some parts if these will improve your house. There were things which you or your architect didn’t think during your initial construction. After using your house for some time now, on second thought you feel it’s better to make some changes. With a wisdom acquired from hindsight, go ahead and make the changes while you’re repairing so you hit two birds with one stone.

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Tags: Construction, Home, House, House Maintenace