The 3 House Repairs That Can Drain Your Bank Account (And How to Avoid Them)

A house is one of the most significant investments that you’re going to make in your lifetime. But that’s not where the expenses cease. There are factors to consider, like upkeep, as well as upgrades that you might want to invest in. Whether you plan to sell your house later on or not, these upgrades are meant to help make your home more comfortable. Then there are the repairs that you need to do from time to time. The heartbreaking aspect of doing house repairs isn’t just the fact that they cost a lot of money, but also because you don’t gain anything new with these repairs. They are meant to ensure that your house remains as comfortable as it should be. Because of this, you generally want to avoid getting yourself in a situation where you need to do these repairs. So, what parts of your house do you need to take extra care of?

1 Foundation

The foundation is one of the most important parts of your home. It supports the entire weight of your home and any damage to it. It is not only expensive (costs about $4,000 on average), but it is also dangerous. A collapse could easily cost you $10,000 MINIMUM to repair, and that’s not including the other parts of your house that are bound to be affected. It’s for this reason that you need to repair any damage to your foundation ASAP to keep it from getting worse. As a general rule, if you want to prevent any damage to your foundation (this also includes foundation walls), you need to make sure to keep water away from it. You can do this by maintaining gutters, downspouts, and leader pipes. This brings us to the next item.

2 Plumbing

The thing that makes plumbing repairs complicated is the need to stop water flow to conduct repairs. Failing to do so usually means that you could affect other parts of your house, worst among them are your electricals. One effective way to stop water flow is to shut off all your valves, but you can also use inflatable pipe plugs if you want to be able to isolate a room. You can prevent any plumbing problems by ensuring that you maintain the flow of your pipes once in a while via liquid Sosa and muriatic acid. Though, this also boils down to discipline. If you don’t have a garbage disposal unit, at least make sure to throw crumbs in the trash instead of in the sink.

3 Furnace / AC System Replacement

AC systems are expensive to buy, to begin with. But then when they break down, you now also have to consider the added cost of uninstalling them from their fixtures as well as the cost to install the replacement unit. Depending on the size of your group and how complex it is, you could be looking at a $10,000 expense that could have been avoided by having your furnace serviced at the start of winter, and your air conditioning system serviced during spring.

Now, as you may have noticed, a lot of these repairs could be easily avoided with a bit of maintenance and care. You should never be too busy to check on the state of your house from time to time. After all, it’s your most significant investment. Sometimes the things that we neglect to do end up costing us the most in the end.